'Tekken: Dark Resurrection' for PSP

Is Latest Version Of Series For Sony's PlayStation Portable A Hit?

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The vivid colors, 3D animations, sound and graphics hit you all at once when you see the intro full motion video (FMV) running at approximately 30 fps on the PSP. By the way, it seems like while you're fighting the frame rate bumps up to something like 60fps. It's like watching it on your TV from your PS2. The PSP is truly a hand held version of the PS2 when it comes to playing this game. Aside from the buttons, which I feel would be a bit better if they were raised a bit more for better move execution, this game plays just like any previous PS2 predecessor.

The triggers aren't available for use, which really sucks, especially for those double button combos that you could assign to the triggers. The analogue works very nicely with this game but wears out your thumb to quick so I prefer to just stick with the D-pad.

The real caveat of this game is multiplayer battles. We all know "Tekken" is not a game best fought alone, so Namco Bandai has made use of the PSP's Ad-HOC feature. Using Wi-Fi connectivity, I was able to battle against my buddy in the office who claims to be "Tekken" elite.

We played far too long on this, neglecting our other work responsibilities. We were hooked! Completely distracted by the unbelievable smoothness of the movement execution, the intrepid environments, and the great array of soundtracks, we just couldn't get any work done.

Now if you really wanna have some fun, approach anyone with a PSP and host a challenge using game sharing through the battle lobby in the network mode. With only one copy of the game you can play anyone with a PSP that's within range.

There's a bit of load time which is expected since you have load the level, characters, etc. but once that's done its like fighting in AD-HOC mode. We experienced a tad bit of lag only after the finishing blow was dealt in each round and then a little loading when one chooses to change characters but this time around the load time is a bit faster.

This game was meant to be played in multiplayer mode. There's now greater thrill than getting your butt handed to you by a custom character. As you play against competitors in this mode you download their ghost data, which contains their character, ranking, etc. This data comes up randomly during Arcade Mode or Dojo mode.

You've got a few cool mini-games, as is tradition in recent "Tekken" games. "Tekken: Dark Resurrection" provides you with Tekken Bowl and Command Attack. The latter is pretty obvious — pick a character and bowl your little heart out.

Command Attack mode is a really good training mode, too. Inside of a Tron-like 3D environment, you're presented with a list of moves that must be executed in order to advance to the next. The objective is to get each move in as little time as possible. You're not really penalized if you take forever to get a move down but it does make you feel a bit useless if you can't do it quickly.

I said it before and I'll say it again: This game is a must have for all "Tekken" enthusiasts.

If you don't already have a PSP it's well worth the hefty price to play this direct arcade port. It's really something to see such a great port of game as massive as "Tekken: Dark Resurrection" on a PSP, complete with all the bells and whistles and even a few new things to drag you further into debt.

If not for the great graphics, the smooth game play (similar to the PS2 versions of Tekken), 30-plus playable characters, extensive move lists for each character, but this game for the AD-HOC feature. Trust me it's worth it.

"Tekken: Dark Resurrection" is rated T for teen and is developed and published by Namco Bandai Games.