Yu Yu Hakusho: Dark Tournament

"Boo Boo Hakusho: Bad Game"

Okay, so being the self-proclaimed no. 1 Yuu Yuu Hakusho fan here in the states, I made it my personal mission to purchase this game, regardless of my financial situation, solely because it's Hakusho memorabilia. However, I wasted hard earned, and needed money, as I was soon to find out that I would be dissapointed, despite the game being based on Togashi's masterpeice. Also, be forwarned that my Point of View is that of someone who loves the original version, and dislikes the dub of the Dark Tournament Arc.

Story: 7/10

I bet you're wondering how I couldn't give it at least a 9/10, huh? After all, this game is based on the Ankoku Bujutsukai(Dark Tournament) arc of the anime/manga, which was well written and pretty much plothole free, dub or sub. Well, the execution of the story is decent, yet subpar at times. The cutscenes(which are from the dub), which come directly from the anime, are a nice touch, however some of them are missplaced, out of order, or just plain not needed and a waste of the DVD's space. Add the fact that other than stipulation matches, you can execute any technique(such as the Youko transformation) prior to when it was first usable in the anime/manga, and the fact that some minigames that prove to be useless 3D filler, or done badly, and you have a story that is slightly tarnished in this game.

Graphics: 7/10

They're not the worst, and they're the best(at times) toonshading that I have seens since the early Viewtiful Joe 2 Screens. However, it doesn't neccessarily work for Togashi's style of art, especially Manga wise. Yuusuke looks nothing like he should, where as Chuu is perfectly rendered in toonshading. The environments are beautiful, however, when damage is done to them, the work was obviously half done on this development, because it's horribly executed, and just not needed because of how badly done it is. Pretty much, in summary for graphics, sometimes characters look like crap, and at others, certain characters look amazingly like Togashi's work, anime-wise. Environment interaction sucks all the time however.

Controls: 5/10

The controls are horribly easy(most are anyway), however, this is negated by the fact that they're inresponsive and clunky. The game relies to much on the "X" button for multiple purposes(jump, crouch, block). The control's inresponsiveness almost forced me to return the game before I even got into a real fight against the CPU. The buttons contradict themselves, as the closer you get to the opponent, the softer you have to tap a "hard tap" button in a technique or combo. Oh yeah... did I mention that the conreols are inresponsive? Because it's worth mentioning twice!!! It takes forever to respond to the pressing of the buttons, screwing you over in timing events, such as the K.E.D.M.

Sound: 9/10

The sound isn't to bad. When you first get to the main menu, you're greated by clips of the anime, with a nice remixed BGM of Hohoemi no Bakudam(or Smile Bomb in the states). The music will usually get tuned out due to your frusteration, however, it still fits, and is very well done. Random commentary from Koto in the arena during the story mode, is kind of annoying, however, it's better than the dub's lines about gore. At least the ones not about gore are. In terms of the characters speaking, I dislike the dub cast, but luckily, other than the main people, the other characters generally don't sound like their American voice actors, which can be a good or bad thing depending on how you look at it. The grunts are timed and well placed, and every sound is pretty much perfect. The only reason it didn't merit a 10, was because there is too much of Justin Cook speaking, and Linda Young seems to do a subpar job for the first time as Genkai(in the game, not the clips).

Gameplay: 3/10

This game has to have some of the worst gameplay for a fighter I have every seen. That's right, it's worse than Budokai in terms of fighting, even if you can jump. Aside from inresponsive controls, the fighters match up horribly(which figures somewhat realistic in terms of the show, because in the original version, fighting styles determine the winner, more so than power), however, some of the fighters are cheap. I cannot count how many times I won just by using Kurama's "Rose Whip", or how many times Bui just threw his axe at me. The worst part of this is while everyone got amazing tools that allow them to come from behind(even Kuwabara's Rei Ken{Spirit Sword} is great for this), the main character, Urameshi Yuusuke, seems to have been screwed over in the end, as one of the worst characters. Oh yeah, throw in the fact 99% of "Spirit" attacks can be blocked, and the horrible damage gauge, and you have 20 second fights, unless the CPU blocks all day. Oh yes, and the fact that the disc lags when you try to switch in tag mode, also takes away from an otherwise brilliant idea.

Replay Value: 10/10 and 1/10

Why do I give two scores you ask? Because there are two options. The perfect is for the fact that the creators obviously ran out of ideas to make enough intangibles to unlock something really needed after every fight(as opposed to a dumb token), so they decided to shove replay value down your throat by making you go through the stupidest of things, such as breaking 75% of the ring, or playing their horrible coin mini game with a certain coin to unlock a character. The other value is for the fact that if you dont want to waste time on something that isn't worth it in the end, you can just input a code, and instantly gain all 25 fighters. You probably wont be playing much after that, since the game is beatable in 3 days tops. So you'll only pick this game up sparingly(very sparingly) after you beat it and get all the fighters, regardless of the method.

Extras: 3/10

Nothing too good here. The best thing that I could consider an "extra" are the cutscenes, because it's like purchasing mini FUNi DVDs without paying FUNi too much. However, the token game proves completely useless and a waste of DVD space. With the space taken up by this dumb game, they could've improved upon gameplay. But they didn't. They threw in something only the simplest of gamers would truly love and enjoy.

Overall: 5/10

This game is not a good game. At all. Even if the controls didn't lag, it'd still be bad. Because the engine should never be used for a fighter. The only reason to purchase this game is if you're looking for a Yuu Yuu game in 3D, want something to occupy your time for a couple of weeks at max, are a Yuu Yuu fan whom loves to collect memorobilia, or are just plain bored, and want to try a fighter that has never been done before, and hopefully will never be done again, but unfortunately, probably will for a sequal to this game.

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 09/28/04