[8/11/06] Tekken: Dark Resurrection

[L.S.D]

Game: Tekken: Dark Resurrection

System: PSP

 

Ladies and gentlemen, it is finally here. The greatest 3D fighting game of all time have arrived on

the tiny handheld, PSP. Tekken has its humble beginning in 1994 when it was released to the arcade.

THe game immediately gained fighting fans's love with its 3D graphics and extremly easy to understand

gameplay. And starting from its initial release on PSX in 1995, Tekken series has been a staple release

on PSX and also PS2. The series suffered a little setback on the 4th installment but Namco (now Namco

Bandai) manages to pull all stops to give us Tekken 5 which bring Tekken series back to its former

glory. Not contending with it, Namco improves on Tekken 5 and give us version 5.1 and finally....

Dark Resurrection in the arcade.

 

When pictures of Dark Resurrection (to be known as DR from now on) surfaces, everyone is thinking that

Namco is bringing DR to the PS2 again. Imagine everyone's surprise when it was announced that the game

will be released on PSP, Sony's handheld (much to the chagrin of PS2 owners, sparking a lot of

lamentation posts across gaming forums). Now that the game is out, does it justifies Namco's decision to

bring this game to PSP?

 

Graphics:

Gorgeous. The best looking graphics on the PSP of all. There is no denying it. You will swear that you are

holding a PS2 version on your hand, and on widescreen. The characters have never look so gorgeous.

Every facial expressions, every movements; everything is so smooth, colourful, vibrant and animated.

The character models are the smoothest in PSP games currently, beating Syphon Filter's character model.

Every details on the character models are not left out, down to the emblems on their clothes. And all

these details are run on 60fps framerate, causing no slowdown at all, which is ery critical in fighting

games. The backgrounds were also nicely done. You will see leaves falling down, people in the background

raising their fists egging you on, helicopters hovering, boobs jiggling in the poolside etc. Some of the

stages have been downgraded a bit compare to the arcade version. Example is the fight club stage where

a car is hanging in the background. In the arcade, the car will be swinging from side to side, but in the PSP

version, the car just hanging there. Not much of an issue really. Cutscenes and the pre/post fight scenes

was running at a slower framerate but it hardly detract from the overall experience at all. Namco also

manage to cram all the ending movies for each characters, and all the intro movies including the PS2 intros!

A graphical glitch was found in some copies of Japanese version where the fireworks during hits become

ugly white boxes, but thankfully, this was not in the Enlish version (rectified by Namco maybe)

 

Graphics: 10/10 (the best ever on PSP)

 

Controls:

Tekken games is always about control precision, and Namco manage to port that to the PSP. Granted that

the PSP D-Pad is a pain in the ass when you try to press diagonals (Ceramic White PSP have better D-Pad),

so Namco is giving a D-Pad attachment to be used for this game. Analog stick is also usable, and i found

that I keep switching from analog to D-pad and to analog again during fights. I am not used to playing using

D-Pad since I have been playing my Tekken in the arcade and still trying to find the comfortable controls

for this game. However, the buttons are all responsive and you won't experience any lag after pressing the

buttons. You can also change the buttons setting whichever you like and map buttons to the L and R buttons

too.

 

Controls: 8.5/10 (Namco has utilised the best out of what they can get from PSP, D-Pad attachment help

to a certain extent)

 

Sound:

I would say that DR has one of the greatest soundtrack in Tekken series. I find myself humming to the tunes

of Garden of the Tiger, Snow Castle and Ground Zero Funk (which is from Tekken 5). All the music are loud

and clear, and best enjoyed using a pair of good headphones. The PSP speaker does not do the music

justice. The sound effects are also crystal clear all the sounds are not left out. All the speeches are there

and all the characters talked in their native tongue. Hwoarang in Korean, Jin in Japanese, Wang in Mandarin,

King growls (and subtitles did come out explaining what he said )

 

Sound: 10/10

 

Gameplay:

Ah, we have come to the meat of the game. It would not be Tekken if we can't perform every moves

available in Tekken. It would not be Tekken if we have to look at slideshow of moves executed. YES, I am

talking about you, Tekken Advance. Granted, it was considered an achievement to port such an amazing

game to a limited hardware, but it was still a nightmare to see slideshow of King throwing his opponents

for his multithrow. Thankfully, DR did not suffer any of that. Every moves of the characters are intact,

all juggles are intact, all moves look and play the same as in the arcade. In fact, this PSP version has more

modes to play with than any other Tekken console brethens. We have the usual Story mode where you

can use one character and play it until you beat the final boss to see the character's ending. The Time

attack and Survival mode are also in this game, giving a different kind of fun. There is also the Arcade mode

where you battle ghost players in order to rise up the ranking. Some new modes were added in which is

Tekken Dojo mode and Gold Rush mode. Gold Rush mode is a mode where you battle a CPU in various

difficulty in a limited time setting. Each hit that you caused to the opponent will give you money, and higher

difficulty give you more money. however if you are hit by the CPU, the money is deducted from you. A great

way to earn money. Tekken Dojo mode is basically Career mode for Tekken. Initially, you will have access

to a dojo on Mishima-owned island where you have to battle ghost players from around the world and rise

up in rank in the dojo. There are league matches, survival tournament and ranking battle to help you rise

up to be no.1. Once you conquered the dojo, you will be allowed to proceed to the next Dojo to battle on.

So, what is this ghost players that you have been hearing? Basically, the ghost system is the Namco way

to help people around the world sharing their characters among PSP players. You can customise the

characters that you are using to your own personal taste with the money you earned and train them up.

The game will record how you use your characters, how you perform juggles, moves and so on in order

to emulate it. Somehow, the system is still not perfect as no AI in the world can mimick a human

opponent that accurate, but it is the best to have for now.At least it is one of the way to get data of great

players around the world and see how they perform their combos and juggles (Rumours are out that

some great players's ghosts like Hole Man and Na Ra Hof are in, but I have not seen it yet)

 

Namco has also decided to add in some minigames into this game. We have a command attack mini-game

where you have to perform the moves of the character you are using and set a record for it. And another

mini game will be nostalgic to Tekken veteran; TEKKEN BOWL. Yes, the Bowling game is making a comeback

and buy, it was fun. Nothing like a good bowl after a hard fight

 

Gameplay: 10/10 (countless hours of fun)

 

Graphics : 10/10

Controls : 8.5/10

Sound : 10/10

Gameplay: 10/10

 

Overall: 9.6/10

It is so amazing that Namco manages to cram so much into one UMD and still manages to gives us amazing

console-like experience with minimal loading. The best game there is on PSP now, and a must for all PSP

owners. Now pls excuse me while I get back to the game, trying to level up my jack-5

[Agozer]

Yes, I assume that the game is ass-spankingly awesome since Tekken 5 is too. The soundtrack is great.

 

Nice review, it really is quite amazing how much content the game has.

[Sybarite Paladin AxL]

What PSP firmware minimum does Tekken DR require?

[L.S.D]

What PSP firmware minimum does Tekken DR require?

If i remember correctly, FW 2.6 is needed. I can't remember as my FW is at 2.80.

You can use Devhook to bypass and keep your FW1.5 intact.

[Darken]

Nice Review for a nice game