"Get ready for the next battle!"

If one fighting franchise defines the PlayStation brand, it's Tekken. Back in the mid nineties Namco's original 3D beat-em-up was an important pillar of the PSone's launch lineup, and when the PS2 released, Tekken Tag Tournament was once again flying the fighting flag loud and proud. As series go, none are more synonymous with Sony consoles than the Tekken titles, so it's with bated breath we've been awaiting the arrival of the King of Iron Fist Tournament on PSP.

Well, it's been some wait, but it's finally here. Dark Resurrection is a bit like Tekken Tag in the series' canon; As the PS2 launch title did with its forebear, Tekken 3, Dark Resurrection uses an adapted form of the fighting engine from the most recent outing in the series, in this case Tekken 5, and adds a few fresh faces, options and modes to the already established roster of combatants and gametypes. The result is as comprehensive a fighting title as you'll see in 2006, and one of the best overall portable packages of the year by a long, long way.

Fine fighting fiction

Visually, the transition from PS2 to PSP has come off about as successfully as could be hoped. Fighters move fluidly, show an impressive range of facial expression, and pull off complicated combos without even a hint of graphical glitching. The framerate stands at a steady 60 frames per second during gameplay, dipping to a still-respectable 30 fps for cutscenes, and even animated backgrounds fail to dent the smooth playability of the title. Indeed, the arenas are impressive visual feats themselves, proffering moving parts, uneven surfaces, and even interactive scenery such as walls and logs to hurl your opponent against for extra damage. As fighting fictions go, Dark Resurrection offers one of the finest around.

Seeing the PSP's powerful innards producing impressive 3D worlds may be nothing new to the machine's owners, but enjoying an uncomplicated, pain-free control scheme will be a much rarer experience. Thankfully Tekken: Dark Resurrection sidesteps the uncomfortable, contrived button setups of many of the system's other high profile PS2 IP's to deliver an intuitive and instantly playable configuration that blends ease of play with the fighting engine's hidden depths.

Movement is assigned to the D-pad, with attacks, in typical Tekken style, assigned limb-by-limb to the four fascia buttons. Sidestepping meanwhile is a simple case of double tapping up and down, so full 3D movement is a very instant prospect even without the need for an analogue stick. For what it's worth, the nub next to the D-pad can also be used for movement, but this is largely ineffective and ill-advised; the D-pad, much maligned as it may be for the majority of PSP titles, does a standout job of offering precise, enjoyable control that won't see your thumb lock in place.

Unfortunately there is that age-old problem with Sony's four-piece D-pad; it can make diagonals frustratingly hard to hit when you want to in the heat of battle, but dedicated fighting fans will put the practice in to learn the nuances of the control system and get the most of the game's compellingly addictive action. It may be one of the title's few minus points, then, but it's easily overlooked as a hardware idiosyncrasy, and shouldn't detract from the stellar job Namco have done in porting Tekken to PSP in all its polygonal glory.

Huge variety

On paper, Dark Resurrection's list of features is a major selling point. In reality it adds an all-important longevity factor to gameplay which already demands attention; a few minutes with PSP Tekken and you won't want to put it down - and luckily with so much to do, you won't have to. Be it playing the game in Practice, Story, Arcade, Time Attack or Survival modes, the five difficulty settings and 34 characters - all of which are unlocked from the get-go - present a huge variety of gaming options.

On top of these is the less conventional Tekken Dojo, which works by offering you the chance to fight ghosts - ostensibly an A.I with another person's, rather than a computer generated, fighting style. These ghosts can be downloaded via the machine's Wi Fi connection and players can even upload their own ghost for other people to battle, giving Dark Resurrection the series' closest thing yet to actual online players vs player fighting - plus there's more traditional online leaderboards for the game's different modes too, for the more immediately competitive gamers.

And then we have the multiplayer mode. Undoubtedly the game's raison d'etre, it works wirelessly over a local ad-hoc connection with very little discernable lag. Game Sharing is an option for those without a copy of the game themselves, and the fighting engine's fast, compelling action makes for the perfect handheld two-player offering. Moreover, the singleplayer game allows players to earn money and customise their characters, which adds an extra element of personality to multiplayer bouts. There really is nothing more shameful than getting beaten by a man with a dog on his head.

Thankfully, along with looking and playing fantastically, Tekken: Dark Resurrection also sounds surprisingly good. The soundtrack is standard beat-em-up fare, but seems to suit the frenetic nature of the game's fighting, while sound effects are lifted straight from Tekken 5 and are thus of suitably high quality. Even voice acting is less embarrassing than we've experienced in some English translations, and narration in the intro and endings of Story Mode has a strangely hypnotic quality to it. The repeated announcement of "Get ready for the next battle" can begin to grate after a while, though if that's amongst the game's major flaws, then it's really doing very little wrong indeed.

A fitting adaptation

In fact, Dark Resurrection does almost everything right. Aside from the occasional difficulty hitting diagonals, a few annoying (and mostly subjective) audio aspects, and one almightily frustrating issue with the auto-quit shortcut being too easy to activate (note: try not to go near pressing the Start and Select keys at the same time when near the end of Story Mode - we've unwittingly ended up back in the main menu too many times for our liking!) - it's a fitting adaptation of a truly classic home fighting title. Tekken on PSP is a monumental effort by a very talented development team, and would grace the collection of any system currently on the market, handheld or otherwise.

GAME's Verdict

• A fast, intense and addictive fighting engine
• Stunning to look at and smoothly animated
• Immense ad-hoc multiplayer rounded off by customisable characters and online leaderboards

• Difficult to do diagonals on the PSP D-pad
• Slightly annoying repetitive soundbites
• Being sent back into the menu from the last bout of Story Mode because you accidentally pressed Start and Select at the same time...

Review by: Mark Scott
Review Published: 14.09.06