August 22, 2006 - Once regarded as the premiere fighting franchise, Tekken made no qualms about being a fighter’s fighter. But after a few poor showings on the PS2 and other franchises stepping up the flash, the fan service, the over-the-top brutality, the additional modes of play and the speed of fighting games, many fans of the 10-hit combo were left wondering if Tekken and Namco could mount a suitable comeback. The answer (which was yes by the way) was Tekken 5. No longer worried about tag modes, adventure modes and shallow character additions (cough Christie cough), Tekken 5 brought the series back into the spotlight with renewed vigor and creativity. An unqualified success, Tekken 5 was the return to greatness that the series needed and was the best entry since Tekken 3 on the PSOne. Now, Tekken 5 gets ported to the PSP with new modes and a handful of new features. Luckily for handheld owners, Namco Bandai proves that it once again understands consoles as much as it does games and makes Tekken Dark Resurrection not only the best game the series has ever seen, but hands down the best title on the PSP.

Taking place moments after the conclusion of the King of Iron Fist Tournament 4, Tekken 5 again follows the soap-opera saga of the Mishima/Kazama conflict as yet another King of Iron Fist Tournament is about to take place to settle things. Practically all the characters the series has ever seen are back and are unlocked from the beginning. Each has his or her own Prologue (usually written text over static images) and Conclusion (Tekken’s typically gorgeous CG movies). Since characters no longer have to be unlocked, the focus has moved to opening up new modes of play, beefing up your ghost data and raking up as much gold as possible to buy all the costumes and accessories available for each character.

Upon loading the game you will be asked to create a profile which will keep track of absolutely everything you do in Tekken Dark Resurrection and then you will be treated to a small tutorial of sorts for those mostly new to the series or those who’ve been away for too long. What is immediately recognizable about TDR is that this is a much deeper fighter than it lets on initially (more concerned with technical, strategic fighting than most are willing to admit to) and that TDR really doesn’t feel like a handheld game. The screens, levels and matches load quickly and the saving happens in the background so you are never annoyed with pesky “where would you like to save this” screens. Other PSP games as of late, namely Daxter, have also tried to do away with long loading phases, but where some games mask them with animated screens or text, Tekken just loads fast. And while it is quick, it doesn’t skip out on the expected; you still get intro movies for all the characters (which can be skipped and run at thirty FPS) and you get the match right away afterwards (which runs at a steady sixty FPS even with all the background animations). Oddly, TDR doesn’t seem to make a big deal out of its technical prowess at all, as if saying, yeah, of course it loads fast and looks pretty, isn’t that what every game is suppose to do? We wish.

With five difficulty levels (easy to ultra hard), TDR does everything to gently ease players of any caliber into the fray of things. With a good introductory tutorial, a deep practice mode and even a Command Attack bonus game (which makes you input a series of commands as quickly as possible), TDR has all its bases covered. And this is really what TDR is all about; loads of options, choices and modes for anyone and any taste.

The modes of play are as follows. Quick Battle mode which lets you simply jump into the action against a CPU opponent or form teams (with up to 8 total participants) and fight in a quasi-elimination battle royal of sorts. Story Battle lets you play through the story of each of the 30 characters the game has. Each character will begin with a Prologue and finish with a Conclusion, both of which can simply be purchased to save time.