Review: Tekken: Dark Resurrection (PSP)

Tekken on the PSP is pretty much a no-brainer for Namco-Bandai. A port of an arcade game, itself a tweaked version of Tekken 5, seems ideal for a platform on which expensive-to-develop titles aren't viable moneymakers. More to the point, where would a Sony console be without a Tekken game to call its own? This is a surefire hit.

Tekken: Dark Resurrection continues to show us that Namco are the kings of PSP trickery; not only does it load blissfully fast, the game is absolutely rock solid in terms of its slick framerate and graphical fidelity. The inherent sharpness of the PSP's graphics give the game such a crisp look that is quite different from the PS2 incarnation, yet it maintains the same style. Not only do the fighters have various realistically-flowing garments, but the arenas are bursting with incidental details and background goings on: people cheer, wolves stalk and scutter, a helicopter hovers, and volcanoes burst with lava. The lighting and effects are incredible and the arenas are believably solid with destructible elements (should you be thrown into them). It's only natural that small faults would show the graphics up, and in this case, the cracks in the illusion are literal ones: when a fighter falls to the floor, any previous cracks in the ground are erased and reappear in the new impact location - particularly jarring on the final stage and in replay views.

What you'll first notice in Tekken DR (after the impressive cinematic intro) is just how overwhelmingly vast the options are. The main menu is crammed with modes - arcade, attack, story, network, dojo, to name just a few - and the list of available characters is mind-boggling. No longer do you have to unlock new combatants; everyone is here from the start, including old and new faces alike (Tekken DR encourages choice and customisation, so restricting options would go against that philosophy). It's tough to know where to start, especially for newcomers, but there is a range of CPU difficulty settings and the practice mode is the most comprehensive it has ever been, letting you fight a stationary target or tell them to fight back. Pick one character and learn the ropes, and other characters' similar attacks will come more naturally.

Tekken has never been the deepest of brawlers, but it strikes a fine balance between depth and accessibility, and that comes across here too. With each face button representing a limb, punches and kicks are obvious and combos intuitive and easy to string together. When you start to learn other characters' attack patterns, you'll be predicting the next strike and ducking, blocking and parrying in preparation. That's when it gets extremely satisfying.

But if there's one major problem here, it's that fighting against the computer is somewhat unengaging. They don't behave human-like; even on the highest settings, they're exploitable by repetitive moves, and if you don't exploit them, they'll juggle you up in the air with an unnatural computational precision. Victory can feel very hollow and defeat infuriatingly helpless. Why this is a problem for the PSP version more than others is in the inconvenience of getting other humans to play against. It's no longer a case of plugging in a second controller; it now requires a second user with their own PSP. Mercifully, they don't have to own the game as well.

Gamestyle has played against similarly-skilled opponents, and it's as glorious as ever. Facing off against an actual thinking opponent who is trying to suss your next move is ten times as engaging. Intense close-quarters scrapping is followed by calm moments where you both look for any visual clue of the next attack, teasingly leaving yourself open as bait, or testing your enemy for the same. Mismatched against beginners, button-bashing isn't entirely ineffective, but efficient counter-attacks usually win out. The biggest issue with wireless play is the very slight lag between pressing a button and it responding. It makes the game feel a little bit sluggish, and sheds some light on why there is no proper online mode.

In light of the inherent difficulty of being a successful two-player game, Dark Resurrection tries to position its one-player portion at the forefront. Your profile records any 'money' (gold) you've earned from fights, accessories and clothing you've given to your characters, and your win/lose ratio. Battling through the extensive dojo mode, you'll increase your rank and fight against tougher and tougher ghost opponents, also with their own customised outfits and names. Additional ghosts can even be downloaded through the only online portion of the game and will then show up randomly when you fight. Your own ghost can be saved and sent to other people as well. The story mode of the game is as daft as ever, and now sees a four generation Mishima reunion, which makes Gamestyle question just what is going on with the timeline now. At any rate, it mainly serves as an excuse to introduce the characters to the King of Iron Fist Tournament 5, and it's also the only area where the characters default to their normal names and appearances, untarnished by your custom designs. The bowling mode from Tekken Tag Tournament makes a welcome return here, and this too can be played over WLAN.

Dark Resurrection is a celebration of new and old. Tekken 4's dire attempt to incorporate 3D arenas hasn't been entirely pushed aside (you can still smash opponents into the walls), but there's more room to breathe and it has the more open feel of the earlier games. The characters are well-balanced and the new ones are actually quite unique and not wasted. The separate inclusion of Eddie and Christie is peculiar, and Gamestyle wishes Jin could have kept more of his Mishima-esque moves, but there's not a lot to complain about otherwise.

If you can regularly set up multiplayer sessions and you aren't put off by a minuscule amount of lag, this is every bit as good as you could hope for, and you can safely add another point to the score. Even the PSP's infamous d-pad seems to hold up well for diagonal attacks, so long as you press it firmly enough. However it is unfortunate that the solo experience feels uncompelling; despite every effort to do otherwise, it's not likely to maintain interest except to hone your skills for the next time you face a worthy opponent, or earning a few more gold points to buy yourself a silly hair-do.

Rating: 7 / 10

Words by Daniel James