Tekken: Dark Resurrection
It's honest-to-goodness fighting on a portable, and it's awesome.
Published: August 7, 2006
Maybe it was just the idea of doing a 3D fighter on the PSP that instantly made me thing Tekken: Dark Resurrection was going to be at least a little compromised as it morphed from arcade to handheld formats. Dark Resurrection had already made the leap, transitioning from the fantastic Tekken 5 into a full-fledged quarter muncher, but I still didn't think Namco had it in them to replicate the game so perfectly on Sony's portable not-quite-PS2.
But they did. Oh, how they did. Dark Resurrection is, in no uncertain terms, one of the best home fighting games ever made. It's entirely possible that it's the best fighting game on handhelds, and it's certainly in the running for prettiest PSP game yet (sadly, WipEout Pure's art direction still holds sway over us almost two years later), but it is a bona fide example of what Sony has been championing since they first presented the PSP.
In every sense, this is a console game gone portable. It's not without faults, though these are almost exclusively the result of the hardware more than the software, but any PSP library is incomplete without this game. Seriously, if you like Tekken, stop reading this and go buy it.
Now that you have the game, we can get into what you'll get with that purchase. In addition to having every character open in the game from the start, thus allowing you to experience their Story Mode beginnings and ends (and the gorgeous CG bits that come with each), you're given the ability to download ghost data of other characters fighting. It's not exactly one-on-one live matches, but it's surprisingly compensative. It's also the perfect gateway for all the offline customization you can do.
See, the home versions of Tekken have always been about replay value. While some fighters are simply ported over, Namco goes the extra mile; they throw in extra modes, build side games built off the fighting engine, and, with the introduction of Tekken 5, allowed for Virtua Fighter 4-style character customization option. Littered with Namco cameos and offering twice the number of face, hair, body and color changes as the PS2 cousin, Dark Resurrection effectively learns how you play and is constantly amassing an AI-driven version of that character that you can upload online.
It starts with Tekken Dojo, which again recalls VF4's Kumite Mode, where you'll fight randomly generated (or downloaded packs) of characters in an effort to build your characters to Tekken Master status. This unlocks more goodies and gives you gold, which you can then use to buy cosmetic upgrades for your character. Because you have your pick of 34 characters right from the start (including two new ones, platinum-haired Lili and Gestapo-esque Dragonov), it's both a good way to learn how to fight with that character and train them to play not-so-nice with others online.
But it's not the only way to train. Gold Rush mode lets you duke it out with an endless chain of chumps with infinite life bars, and every hit garners you cash. If you can survive until time runs out, you keep whatever cash you earned and it's added to your bank roll. You can also participate in Command Attack Mode, which challenges you to pull of increasingly complex strings of moves. It's an invaluable way of learning some of a particular character's more advanced strings, but it exposes one crucial issue with the PSP: the d-pad sucks.
I'm not one of those people that typically hates on the split d-pad design of the PlayStation controller, even though it has raped the tender flesh off many left thumbs, but Tekken is perhaps the first game I've played on the PSP (no, Alpha 3 Max doesn't count because Capcom has refused to send it to us, so we haven't played it) that actively requires that you nail simultaneous direction and button press combinations, and there's little room for error. More clever gamers have taken to opening up their PSP to insert a quick and easy mod into the system itself, or glued a quarter to the d-pad, both of which work quite well, but require that you mod your system in some way.
The third option was developed for the aforementioned Street Fighter Alpha 3 Max, which is a d-pad cover that you can only get by ordering the game directly from The Big C's web site. Since I had access to none of these methods, or wasn't willing to destroy the office PSP, I was left to wrangle with the system's finicky response to diagonal presses. It sucked, to be sure, but didn't quite ruin the fun.
But they did. Oh, how they did. Dark Resurrection is, in no uncertain terms, one of the best home fighting games ever made. It's entirely possible that it's the best fighting game on handhelds, and it's certainly in the running for prettiest PSP game yet (sadly, WipEout Pure's art direction still holds sway over us almost two years later), but it is a bona fide example of what Sony has been championing since they first presented the PSP.
In every sense, this is a console game gone portable. It's not without faults, though these are almost exclusively the result of the hardware more than the software, but any PSP library is incomplete without this game. Seriously, if you like Tekken, stop reading this and go buy it.
Now that you have the game, we can get into what you'll get with that purchase. In addition to having every character open in the game from the start, thus allowing you to experience their Story Mode beginnings and ends (and the gorgeous CG bits that come with each), you're given the ability to download ghost data of other characters fighting. It's not exactly one-on-one live matches, but it's surprisingly compensative. It's also the perfect gateway for all the offline customization you can do.
See, the home versions of Tekken have always been about replay value. While some fighters are simply ported over, Namco goes the extra mile; they throw in extra modes, build side games built off the fighting engine, and, with the introduction of Tekken 5, allowed for Virtua Fighter 4-style character customization option. Littered with Namco cameos and offering twice the number of face, hair, body and color changes as the PS2 cousin, Dark Resurrection effectively learns how you play and is constantly amassing an AI-driven version of that character that you can upload online.
It starts with Tekken Dojo, which again recalls VF4's Kumite Mode, where you'll fight randomly generated (or downloaded packs) of characters in an effort to build your characters to Tekken Master status. This unlocks more goodies and gives you gold, which you can then use to buy cosmetic upgrades for your character. Because you have your pick of 34 characters right from the start (including two new ones, platinum-haired Lili and Gestapo-esque Dragonov), it's both a good way to learn how to fight with that character and train them to play not-so-nice with others online.
But it's not the only way to train. Gold Rush mode lets you duke it out with an endless chain of chumps with infinite life bars, and every hit garners you cash. If you can survive until time runs out, you keep whatever cash you earned and it's added to your bank roll. You can also participate in Command Attack Mode, which challenges you to pull of increasingly complex strings of moves. It's an invaluable way of learning some of a particular character's more advanced strings, but it exposes one crucial issue with the PSP: the d-pad sucks.
I'm not one of those people that typically hates on the split d-pad design of the PlayStation controller, even though it has raped the tender flesh off many left thumbs, but Tekken is perhaps the first game I've played on the PSP (no, Alpha 3 Max doesn't count because Capcom has refused to send it to us, so we haven't played it) that actively requires that you nail simultaneous direction and button press combinations, and there's little room for error. More clever gamers have taken to opening up their PSP to insert a quick and easy mod into the system itself, or glued a quarter to the d-pad, both of which work quite well, but require that you mod your system in some way.
The third option was developed for the aforementioned Street Fighter Alpha 3 Max, which is a d-pad cover that you can only get by ordering the game directly from The Big C's web site. Since I had access to none of these methods, or wasn't willing to destroy the office PSP, I was left to wrangle with the system's finicky response to diagonal presses. It sucked, to be sure, but didn't quite ruin the fun.
