E3: Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection Impressions

Being an avid Tekken fan myself, hearing that the latest iteration was going to be on the PSP only was near sacrilege. “Bah,” I thought, “A mere handheld pales in comparison to any console when it comes to fighting games.” However, after spending some time with Dark Resurrection on the PSP, I have decided that it still isn’t the best platform for a fighter, but that its still a very solid showing. First things first, the PSP version is not an arcade conversion – it’s more.

The graphics, controls and characters are spot on from the arcade, but the PSP allows for even more bells and whistles to be packed into this version of Tekken 5. For one, there are more items than in the PS2 and arcade version, so you’ll have to spend your in-game money wisely if you want to pimp out your characters to the fullest extent. Next, while the game currently lacks online play, players will be able to upload ‘ghosts’ of their characters for other players to fight. Of course, you and a friend can play locally with two copies of the game and experience no latency.

Having played the arcade version quite a bit, I was skeptical as to how it would run. Through playing a few rounds against an attendant, my skepticism disappeared. I picked Lili and we fought in the updated Halloween Garden stage and the game ran beautifully. The character models looked great and moved fluidly while the stage was highly detailed. The music was a bit low on the PSP speakers, but that problem was definitely not helped by the thousands on games running simultaneously around me. Controls were responsive, and commands were not as hard as expected. However, they did take a bit of getting used to. Although I still hope for a PS2 version of DR would be announced, the PSP version would prove a worthy substitute nonetheless.

Being an avid Tekken fan myself, hearing that the latest iteration was going to be on the PSP only was near sacrilege. “Bah,” I thought, “A mere handheld pales in comparison to any console when it comes to fighting games.” However, after spending some time with Dark Resurrection on the PSP, I have decided that it still isn’t the best platform for a fighter, but that its still a very solid showing. First things first, the PSP version is not an arcade conversion – it’s more.

The graphics, controls and characters are spot on from the arcade, but the PSP allows for even more bells and whistles to be packed into this version of Tekken 5. For one, there are more items than in the PS2 and arcade version, so you’ll have to spend your in-game money wisely if you want to pimp out your characters to the fullest extent. Next, while the game currently lacks online play, players will be able to upload ‘ghosts’ of their characters for other players to fight. Of course, you and a friend can play locally with two copies of the game and experience no latency.

Having played the arcade version quite a bit, I was skeptical as to how it would run. Through playing a few rounds against an attendant, my skepticism disappeared. I picked Lili and we fought in the updated Halloween Garden stage and the game ran beautifully. The character models looked great and moved fluidly while the stage was highly detailed. The music was a bit low on the PSP speakers, but that problem was definitely not helped by the thousands on games running simultaneously around me. Controls were responsive, and commands were not as hard as expected. However, they did take a bit of getting used to. Although I still hope for a PS2 version of DR would be announced, the PSP version would prove a worthy substitute nonetheless.