Case Cover
Tekken: Dark Resurrection
Case Cover
Game File
Publisher: Bandai Namco
North America Release Date: July 25, 2006
Number of Players: 1 - 2
Wi-fi Mode: Ad-Hoc
Before I picked this up, I was never a Tekken fan. I knew about the series & did try one of the Tekken games on PSX, but it was hard for me since there was very little 3D fighting games & the mechanics was hard to understand back then. After hearing a lot of good reviews & hype about it, I decided to get it.
About the game
Tekken: Dark Resurrection is actually an updated version port of Tekken 5 on the PS2 & a direct port of the arcade game Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection. It contains two new characters from the arcade port & a different type of mini-game. It has several extras as well for the PSP. The firmware version required to play this game is 2.60.
Graphics
It's pretty good on the PSP. It has graphics that's really close to a PS2. The 3D graphics & cut scenes are really terrific & the difference between the movies to the actual gameplay is very small.
The movements are very good as well. It's smooth with minimal choppy frames. But there are some strange things that happen. When you smash your opponents to the ground or walls, he/she will leave dents or holes on the ground. But they would disappear later or get replaced with new markings. Also, the people in the background tend to get choppy at the end of their animation sequence. The most noticeable ones are the girls dancing in the background. Other than those, the backgrounds & environment are quite good.
Music & Sounds
The game sounds are loud, crisp, & clean. It really gives off that arcade sound quality. All the hitting sounds are on cue & quite realistic. The only ones that didn't sound too real are the hitting sounds. I guess that's all standard for all games.
The voices are quite mixed up. It's great to see some of the character speak their own language, but it's weird to see two people speaking two different languages & manage to understand one another. It's like the human language is universal or something. There are some voices that I didn't like much, it's mostly the English female ones really. I probably developed a system to reject all English voice actors or something. Luckily, there are some subtitles you can read if you feel like muting the voices. Nevertheless, the voices are clean & clear as you can have every word without problems.
The music is has a mixture of rock, techno, & dance. It's quite good & probably I may consider getting a soundtrack of it. I heard that these are remixed tracks from previous games in its lineup, but I'm not sure really.
Gameplay
A lot of modes here. You got your story mode, arcade mode, VS modes, mini-games, Dojo mode, theatre mode, customization, & download section. It's got a lot of things to keep you busy really. You can use the game sharing option to allow two PSPs to play off of one UMD disc. But that's only for the VS mode The great thing about the game is the arcade mode. It uses data from other players' fighting patterns, which as called ghosts. They are basically copies of actual human players & don't really on the game's only AI. So, you will get different challenges on different characters. Raven will fight differently from another Raven that you have fought before. Another great thing about this mode is that you can download ghost packs from the official Tekken website. However, these packs don't appear very often for download. You can however get ghost packs from friends by sending & receiving ghosts from one PSP to another.
Speaking of downloads, you can also download wallpapers from the official site as well. Plus, you can send your ranking to the website & see how well you stack up against other players in the world.
The Dojo mode is basically challenges where you need to meet certain requirements in order to pass the stage. At times, you will unlock some items & stages in the game that would be available in other modes. Most of the time, it's character customization items. There are other movie clips you can unlock as well.
The customization mode is where you can customize your character's appearance, giving him/her an unique appearance. Although some characters have 3 or more outfits, you can't customize them all. There are certain outfits that aren't customizable. This can be somewhat a shame or for the best since some of the items are really weird. For example, Asuka's kimono is outstanding as it is. It would be awful to see it messed up since it's designed by Oh! Great. Anyways, you can either win the items from other modes or buy them using the gold points you have obtain from the other modes. I heard some items can only be unlocked from other modes & can't be brought. One problem about the customization is how the characters are always moving. It's not a bad thing for some characters, but the ones that move a lot & fast are an eyesore. It's quite hard to see how the items look on them when it's small or hard to catch from all that movement.
The mini-games are quite fun such as Tekken Bowling. It's pretty addicting & challenging as each character has their own style. Aside from bowling, the other games are basically fighting.
As for the actual gameplay, the game can be learning curve for people playing this game for the first time. The buttons represent joints such as one button being right punch & the other button being left punch. Think of it as a boxing game. Because a lot of VS games uses a button to represent the strength amount of the attack, players may fail to perform some combos to defeat their opponents. They could be throwing right punches most of the time. Also, you don't use the directional pad or analog nub to perform fireballs or chain commands. However, you may get lucky doing some button mashing at times. I was actually able to do it for the first few rounds on my first try before developing some simple & basic combinations. The learning curve is quite short when you get use to it as it was easy to pick up.
The loading times are a beauty! They are quite fast with the longest being around 7 seconds. The action doesn't stop when you enter into the next battle as it gives you enough time to take a rest on your thumbs. Plus, continuing the game after losing doesn't require any additional loading.
Story
I'm pretty impressed on how Bandai Namco managed to make the story flow pretty well from Tekken 4 to here. It's well done. Although they are some adjustments to the story due to certain characters, it's still pretty good. Although I don't know what the story in Tekken 4 is, the instruction manual does a great job summarizing it there & the game as well. The character backgrounds are revealed a bit at the start of the story mode. However, the endings don't really do much to end it. It's all open ended really, which isn't bad since Tekken 6 is coming.
Extras, Bonuses, & Secrets
All the characters are unlocked already. The only things to unlock are the customization items, some stages, and movies in the theatre mode. They can be done from using the gold points you obtain in the game or meeting certain requirements in the arcade & Dojo modes. Tekken Bowling is a welcome addition & the chance to customize your characters to your liking is fun, although some of the items are weird & probably not going to be used by you unless you like to make your people silly. Plus, the option to download stuff from the official site such as wallpapers for your PSP is great. However, it's not something you should look forward to a lot since the site barely has new stuff.
Replay Value
There is a lot of replay here. In fact, I think this is one of few PSP games that will last you for a long time unless another Tekken game appears. Aside from the mini game & 2 player VS modes, the arcade mode can last you a lifetime with all the ghost packs & data you can obtain from the web or other people. Improving your techniques for your personal ghost is also something that would keep you busy.
Overall Conclusion
If you like Tekken or 3D fighting games, Tekken: Dark Resurrection is an excellent choice. In fact, if you don't like fighting games, this is still a good choice to have to your gaming library. The game is indeed design for portable play & can last you a long time. You really get your money's worth from this game. However, the button control layout is something you may need to adjust to if you are too familiar with the attack strength control layouts. But be aware that you can't take your game save to a different PSP system. Along this prevents people from uploading false fighting records that doesn't contain the actual player's fighting performance, but it can be a problem if your PSP breaks & you need to get a new one. Makes you do your save from scratch.
Tekken: Dark Resurrection hits a 9.5/10 from me. The game may be an improved port of the PS2 version, it offers a lot of choices & goodies for the PSP. Aside from the fun you get from the game, the replay value is very high with the ghost data you can get & make. If you are new to the series, you may take some time to adjust to the game's controls. Plus, it's not something you can button mash all the time. Combos is very important in this game.
Last updated on June 28, 2007
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