Nikku's review of Tekken Dark Resurrection!

Deck Hand Posts : 70 Joined : 2008-09-02 Age : 33

"Tekken it to the next level! This is the game that Tekken 5 should have been."

And so Namco bring one of their most well known franchises to the Playstation Portable system, but is it any good or is it just a port of Tekken 5?

The answer is – it's better than Tekken 5. Well, in my humble opinion that is.

This game fixes a lot of the things I disliked in Tekken 5 and even gives you a whole lot more to do overall.

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Graphics –
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This is one of the best looking PSP games you'll see. The graphics are slightly less well done than Tekken 5's were but that's understandable seeing as how it's a smaller system. Of course Dark Resurrection's older brother's graphics are going to look much better, but this game still does remarkably well in this field.

All characters have had a color or two changed on their outfits. Take Ling Xiaoyu for example, the pink parts of her costume in Tekken 5 have been changed to orange for Dark Resurrection. And Kazuya's normally white pants are now dark maroon. Everyone also has a completely new character render sporting these new colors. If you don't like the new colors then you can always go to the customisation mode and change them back to the (in my humble opinion) superior original colors.

All the stages except Final Stage 2 are now very different looking. The Moonlit Wilderness stage is now set during the daytime and the Polar Paradise is now set at night time for example. Jinpachi Mishima's stage, Final Stage 1 is now a raging inferno. Speaking of Jinpachi, he has received a dramatically altered appearance. He's now this sort of lava like being. Whats weird is, he retains his old Tekken 5 look in FMV's...

One thing I did love was the Meteor Shower stage which is basically the Waterfall stage set at night time and during a meteor shower. Great atmosphere.

Oh yeah, I can't explain it, but the FMV endings look even better than in Tekken 5. I think it may be because the game is on a smaller screen. In any case, the FMV's look absolutely stunning.

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Sound –
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All the vocal sounds from Tekken 5 are present and accounted for! The voices really suit the characters they come from. The soundtrack from Tekken 5 is gone and is entirely replaced by a new one. The only song that made it from Tekken 5 is Ground Zero Funk. The new songs are great, but I kinda preferred 5's soundtrack. I really missed Formless Like Water, The Finaliser, Frozen Paradise and Martial Symphony Opus 5. Some songs from the new soundtrack I like a lot, such as Snow Castle and Estra... Esda... Estodiddly minty munty... What was the song called that replaced Formless Like Water again? Oh yeah, Estrada da Estrela. Estor... that song is a calmer, slower version of Formless.

The bone crunching sound effects sound as sharp as ever too. Some of them might make those who are not de-sensitized to violence cringe.

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Gameplay –
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Okay, first things first. Namco have fixed the atrocious difficulty level of Tekken 5. In Tekken 5, your opponent would knock you into the air and you wouldn't touch the floor until all your life was gone. If you managed to hit your opponent, the attack would be dodged or blocked. And that was the friggin' Easy mode! It made me so frustrated that I would start yelling at the TV screen and that's not a good thing. Tekken 5's insane difficulty was one of the reasons why it's my least played Tekken game. Sure I got a few characters up to the Tekken Lord rank (6 and coming up to 7), but only through intense concentration and I think a whole lotta luck.

However, this time round Namco have finally fixed the damn difficulty. Easy mode IS easy in Dark Resurrection and Hard mode is the hard mode! I was so happy at discovering the difficulty was fixed. It still gets quite hard when fighting the really high level fighters. Divine Fist characters are relentless bastards and won't stop attacking you until you're KO'ed.

The gameplay itself is fluid, responsive and just as good as it was in Tekken 5. You'll also notice that some characters have had a few changes to a select few of their moves. For example, Marshall Law's Dragon Storm move no longer launches the opponent into the air, but now knocks the opponent away from him. I actually grew accustomed to these changes quite quickly, so there were no worries there.

Overall, there are no qualms about the gameplay. Just the PSP's really weird D-Pad. The D-Pad makes pulling off certain moves almost impossible, so I'm thinking of trading in my old one for a Slim one which apparently has a much better D-Pad. It better...

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Lifespan –
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Jesus, Mary and Joseph Namco! How much stuff did you cram into this game?? Seriously there are so many things to do in this game that you'll be plowing away at it for ages if you are a dedicated Tekken fan. All the characters are already unlocked for you so you can just pick who you want right off the bat. Each character still has a wonderful FMV ending sequence that you obtain after clearing the game with them. You can also just buy an ending if you don't feel up to clearing the game with a particular character! Not me though, I got them all the proper way.

Hey, do you remember the ranking system of Tekken 5? That's still here only this time Namco have added a handful of extra rankings such as Lone Wolf, Dark Lord, Dragon Lord and Divine Fist. It'll take a good long while before you can get a character up to the highest rank (Divine Fist).

Also, the rather shallow customisation feature of Tekken 5 has been expanded upon and is now better than ever. Each character has had loads of new items added so you now have much more creative freedom with their appearance. I was personally over the moon when I found that you could customise Marshall Law to look just like his son Forrest. Forrest is my favorite Tekken character, but he has not seen a Tekken game since Tekken Tag way back in the year 2000. There are some really cool new items such as Bryan Fury's perpetual power generator visible through a wound in his chest and Ling Xiaoyu's cat perched upon her shoulder.

All the modes from Tekken 5 are here. There's even a Dojo mode in which you can take part in Ranking Tournaments. The fabulous Tekken Bowling mini game from Tekken Tag makes its triumphant return also! There's a lot to do, buy and obtain and it'll take you more than a good while to do everything the game has to offer.

Oh yeah, you can also battle against a friend wirelessly! There is some slowdown (on the European version anyway), but it's still great to be able to challenge your friends when your on the move.

One moooooooore thing! There are even 3 new characters here! The stunning Lili, the silent but deadly (snicker) Dragunov and the returning Armor King.

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Overall –
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Namco have more than made up for Tekken 5's shortcomings with Dark Resurrection. Tekken Tag is still my favorite Tekken followed closely by Tekken 3, but I think that this one comes in at 3rd place. Almost all of Tekken 5's disappointments have been fixed and really the only thing I'm disappointed about in Dark Resurrection is the lack of Arcade History and Devil Within, but that's it.

If you have any love for Tekken then you need to at least try this out.

Excellent work Namco, keep up the good work with Tekken 6 please!

Live Free or Don't Posts : 22124 Joined : 2008-08-01

Pretty much. Very Happy

It's a great game. One of the games you pick if you want to show off what the PSP can do.

I never experienced any slowdown with wireless battles though. And I hear the PSP lite does have a better D-pad. It's raised higher from the face plate, so the diagonals are easier to hit. I didn't find the regualr d-pad a problem for the most part, but occasionally a move input wouldn't go in right. And the frame advantage moves were very difficult to pull off.