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Review: Tekken: Dark Resurrection [PSP] |
How come this title isn’t being ported directly to the PS2?! How come it’s a PSP exclusive?! How many licks does it take to get to the Tootsie Roll center of a Tootsie Pop?!
These three questions swirled through my mind from the moment the game was first announced through the first hour that I actually had the game in the palm of my hands. But from that second hour, up until this very moment, something magical happened. Something changed between then and now. It all began to make sense.
Tekken: Dark Resurrection is a benchmark in handheld fighting games. Not only is this the first time that an arcade fighter has come exclusively to a handheld system, but it is also the first time that a handheld fighter on a portable system has truly mattered.
Dark Resurrection, henceforth referred to as DR is a complete reworking of Tekken 5, the most recent, and easily the most engaging edition of the classic arcade fighter. The game has been modified from the ground up in order to tweak and improve every character in the game, resolve balance issues, and satisfy each individual’s desire for their favorite character to be a contender in the King of the Iron Fist Tournament. While this may sound like your run of the mill ‘#Reload’ or ‘Accent Core’-type of upgrade, Namco has served up so much more.
Not only are fan favorites upgraded, but Namco has added two all new characters, namely Dragonuv and Lili, and even resurrected an old fan favorite, in the form of Armor King. Armor King, like many characters brought back into the Tekken world during the transition from x-iteration to Tekken 5, is almost a completely new character, only retaining a few of his original attacks, and equipped with an all new arsenal of Lucha Libre and martial arts techniques. Dragonuv is a silent commando who seems to have no goals other than to make P-whipped fruits like Vulcano Rosso tuck tail and piss their pants.
My personal favorite new character, however, would have to be Lili. I mean what’s not to love here? Like Karin from Street Fighter Alpha 3? Have a sexy librarian fetish? What about knee-socks? Lili has it all. Her juggles are artistic and elegant, her fighting style is well-thought out, and she immediately fits right in with the Tekken crowd, while retaining her own unique, fresh appeal.
Stunning visuals make this game simultaneously engaging to look at and also the biggest handheld surprise of the year. In all fairness, every other game that I’ve had the honor of playing on PSP were only PS1 quality in terms of graphics. Make no mistake, it’s not as fluid or gorgeous as its PS2 counterpart, but every bit the best looking 3D fighter ever to grace a handheld system. With all-new backgrounds, a new-widescreen perspective, and a completely original presentation, including all-new art, and a new intro, it really does feel like the closest you can come to a sequel without adding a ‘6′. The fast and furious action is accompanied by an updated score, and the usual excellent sound-quality that we’ve become accustomed to with the PSP.
When you consider the addition of an all new Tekken Dojo mode, which is Namco’s spin on Virtua Fighter Arcade, a wide array of all new gear, including more extra outfits, the inclusion of mini-games out of the wazoo, including old favorites like Tekken Bowl and new addictive additions designed only to improve your game, like Command Attack and Command Training, you can literally reach fighting game nirvana whether you’re sitting on a bus, squating on the toilet, or trying to ignore your parents’ continuous bickering about why you turned out the way you did.
Perfection always comes at a price ($199, I believe) and the mainstream crowd may not be willing to pay it, but if you’re a hardcore Tekken fan, I can think of no reason why you shouldn’t own this iteration of the game. Wireless networking your PSP with your friends and neighbors creates a level of enjoyment that can only be hindered by the battery life of your PSP, and if someone is in spitting distance of you, they don’t even need to own the game in order to get slaughtered by you!
The only true flaws about this game are ergonomical issues (Tekken fingers aka, using index fingers can get painful) and that no matter how skilled you become, diagonals will never come out 100% of the time, thanks entirely to a crucial design flaw in the PSP that impacts all fighters. I’ve managed to get to about 90%, but it required quite a bit of breaking in.
Regardless of this, Tekken: Dark Resurrection is by far the prettiest package ever put-together for portable face-punching and is an absolute must for anyone who already owns a PSP. It’s definitely an essential stocking stuffer for any fighting game fan on the go, as it will easily be the most played game in any portable gamer’s library.
So, to sum it all up and answer my three initial questions; Sure, it would have moved maybe 5 or 600K units on PS2 at 19.99 if they released it during the summer, but on PSP, this is easily the first unit-seller for fighting game fans. Secondly, now I can play Tekken anywhere, and it feels OH-SO-RIGHT. And last, but certainly not least… the world may never know.
Nothing funny to say about a knee to the face.
