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PSP | Fighting | Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection

Boxart for Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection
Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection 53 screen shots
  • GRAPHICS: 4.50
  • SOUND: 3.25
  • CONTROL: 4.75
  • FUN FACTOR 4.50
  • AVG USER SCORE 2.9
  • AVG CRITIC SCORE 4.6
Winner of the GamePro Editor's Choice Award

Review: Tekken: Dark Resurrection

Review by Sid Shuman | 08/09/2006 | 17:48:32 PM PST

PSP owners finally have reason to celebrate -- Tekken: Dark Resurrection looks, plays, and feels just like the PS2 version of Tekken 5. It's a must-have PSP title for fighting fans.

Oh Tekken, how you've grown. Your gawky adolescent early-PlayStation years belied your later conquests: Tekken 3 was, after all, the pinnacle of 32-bit fighting. Your PlayStation 2 years were fruitful, too, with the riotous multiplayer romp Tekken Tag Tournament. Then there was last year's masterstroke: Tekken 5, easily the best Tekken of them all (and as for Tekken 4, well, everybody makes mistakes).

So it was with burning curiosity that we fired up Tekken: Dark Resurrection, the very first PSP Tekken game and one of the only 3D fighters on the system. But for fighting fans, a reality check is in order: Dark Resurrection isn't really an all-new, standalone sequel but a remixed version of last year's PlayStation 2 brawler Tekken 5. But as we'll soon see, that's actually good news.

Portable Pugilist

There's a good reason why PlayStation 2-to-PSP ports have a bad reputation. The PSP's compromised control scheme (only one analog stick?) makes for devilishly difficult cross-platform adaptations. Luckily, Tekken games are played almost exclusively with the directional pad and four face buttons, making them immune to these issues. And because of that, the Tekken experience translates almost perfectly to the PSP's tiny form factor. Most of Dark Resurrection's control flaws are no fault of the game, and can be traced back to the PSP's cramped design itself -- the tight directional pad struggles to consistently pull off those precise diagonal movements, for example. But overall, the controls respond better than you'd expect. Tekken purists won't miss a beat.

Make no mistake -- Dark Resurrection's bone-breaking brawls are classic Tekken. Matches are fast and furious, with massive pop-up juggle combos and devastating multi-throw chains. Novices will enjoy mashing on attack buttons to pull off rudimentary combo attacks, but experts know better: at heart, Tekken is a game of strategy. Character selection and attack rhythm are, as always, outrageously important. Critics who slam the Tekken series as being shallow or simplistic are missing the point altogether. Tekken isn't the problem; they are.


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