'Tekken: Dark Resurrection' for PSP

(CBS)  GameCore is CBSNews.com's video game column. This article was written by Chad Chamberlain

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1995 was a good year. The San Francisco 49ers became the first team to win five Super Bowls after defeating the Chargers in Super Bowl XXIX. Microsoft releases Windows 95. President Bill Clinton ends the federal 55 mph speed limit after signing a highway bill. But nothing takes the cake more than when Namco (now Namco Bandai Games America Inc.) released "Tekken" for Sony's PlayStation One system.

Unless you've been living under a rock for the past decade, everyone knows about this game. It was one of the earliest 3D fighter (soon to be a franchise) games, next to "Virtua Fighter," that took the one-on-one battle system in a different direction from the standard 2D fighters.

For me, it was this game that really made me appreciate 3D fighting and, of course, my funky new PSOne. One of the things that set "Tekken" apart from its competitors was the button to execution relationship. While standard fighters used buttons to correspond to the strength of attack, "Tekken" targeted a body part to each button allowing the player to intuitively execute combos and special attacks.
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The graphics and technical advancements are always apparent with each of the seven iterations of the franchise. Being able to move more freely in a true 3D environment and linking special attacks during certain moves that uses the 3D environment, like side stepping, was truly phenomenal.

With the exception of "Tekken Advance" for GameBoy Advanced, you would have to play "Tekken" on your PSOne or PS II.

Until now!

The latest release of "Tekken: Dark Resurrection" by Namco Bandai Games is a fantastic port from its arcade predecessor for your PlayStation Portable (PSP) and by no means is inferior to its older brothers. In fact it's my opinion that this is certainly one of the best "Tekken" titles to date and it's on your PSP.

I believe this will be the game that really drives PSP sales this quarter because this is a must have title. Aside from the fact that "Tekken: Dark Resurrection" ("TDR") is a direct port from its arcade predecessor, "TDR" has some new features, only available on the PSP to further wet your palette.
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First, there are more than 30 characters to choose from including two new characters that kick much ass. Lili, a spoiled little rich girl who, surprisingly, can be quite annoying to fight, and Dragunov, a powerful Russian army leader that has a Bryan-like aura about him. As seen in "Tekken 5," "TDR" comes complete with a customizable character mode that contains almost double the amount of items as "Tekken 5."

While this feature is cool, I would've liked to have seen a character creation mode not unlike the one seen in "Tekken's" cousin, "Soul Calibur." Imagine creating a Ryu character with Paul's outfit with moves taken from both Heihachi and Steve Fox. OK, perhaps that's a bit out there but I still think this would've been a great addition.

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