Players can fight through the most famous battles in Dragon Ball Z, with colored and animated Manga images connecting the story. The story mode of the game is called Dragon Legends. Goku charges a Kamehameha against Raditz. The Pursuit Minigame can switch back and forth between fighters several times before concluding. If the player misses or mispresses a button, the defender is able to knock the attacker back and start his own Pursuit Minigame.
Once the Pursuit Begins, the attacker must press a series of random buttons quickly, to finish the Pursuit and give a high amount of damage. If a player hits his opponent hard enough, he activates a Pursuit Minigame. Only transformations that have been shown to be undone in the manga/anime can be undone in the game.
Because of the new Transformation system, getting a Transformation Capsule allows you to use that transformation, but does not transform you from the start. The game is better at telling when what sort of Capsule should be dropped. The "waves" of Capsules "falling" are much fairer and happen at shorter intervals. The Capsule System returns but is slightly tweaked. Different special and Ultimate attacks are linked to the other buttons (except for the joysticks, which govern movement and aiming). Punches and Kicks can be used by pressing the back shoulder buttons, while just holding the front shoulder buttons charges Ki. Transformations can be used by holding the two front shoulder buttons and pressing a direction on the D-Pad. If a character is "knocked down" in midair with less than 1 ki bar left, they fall to the ground, where a small amount of damage is taken. Players can also enter the air, where they can battle. Basic punches, kicks, and Ki blasts are available, as well as Special and Ultimate Moves (such as Goku's Kamehameha, Vegeta's Final Flash, ext.). Players are in a 3D environment, where they can move their character backwards, forwards, and side to side in either direction, while still keeping a sidescrolling view.
Gameplay is similar to the previous game.