Yu Yu Hakusho: Dark Tournament

"Oh man... What a letdown..."

Awww man! I'm a big fan of Yu-Yu Hakusho: Ghost Files. It's a great anime, so I was wanting a great game, since that last GBA installment bombed big time...

So anyways a few days back I went to Movie Gallery to pick up some games to rent, and low and behold, by some cruel twist of fate I stumbled across this. I was excited, to say the least, so I picked it up, took it to the clerk and paid $7.00, it was mine for the week! Hurrah! (atleast, that's what I was thinking at the time...)

And then, after enduring through three hours of having to wait for my mom to get off work, I finally got home and popped this into my PS2. I almost could have sworn I heard my PS2 groan (seriously). So I begin to play... And I notice the long load times... So I say to myself "Well, not all games are perfect..." And then it was a downward spiral from there...

On with the review:

Graphics: 7/10

They aren't bad, think Dragon Ball Z: Budokai graphics, just a little smaller and more cartoonish. The backgrounds look okay, all and all these were probably the high point of the game.

Sound: 5/10

Damn, they seemed alright at first, but after a while they just... got old. The various bloops and bleeps while scrolling through menus are tolerable enough, but the voice acting, somehow or another, just seems off. Genkai is annoying as hell in the first couple of training missions, and nothing else particularlly impressed me.

Gameplay: 3/10

This is where it falls on it's face. The gameplay is alot like Budokai, but not as good... There is no flying, which wasn't a big part of budokai, and isn't really seen in the anime, but without this element and using the same engine, it doesn't seem to work. The controls are really...and I mean REALLY clunky, I was being beaten on easy mode of the dark tournament on level 4, and that's not common, I consider myself a somewhat above-average gamer. At one point, I wanted to scream and throw my beat up PS2 controller at the TV, but I didn't, since I just got grounded for that a month ago. Ha-ha.

Story: 6/10

Story gets a lower score than what it could have gotten, since it's not original, they simply ripped from a chapter of the anime, and botched it somewhat at that. Nothing more to say.

Overall: 5.25 (5) / 10

Dammit all!! What the hell happened?! I really wanted to kick the crap out of stuff as Kurama and have a good time, but alas, I am denied yet again a tolerable Yu-Yu Hakusho experience!

Final Comments:
Khaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan!!!!

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 11/22/04