Tekken: Dark Resurrection

"Who's worried for the PSP's future? Not me."

Wow.

My very first fighting game was Soul Caliber 2-- before then I was kind of a newbie at the whole fighting world. I, being somewhat (more) naive at the time saw a picture of Nightmare and Astaroth, and went "OOOOh, that looks cool! I think I might get THAT one!"

When I finally fired the game up; I was shocked to see all that there was to the game- fighting. I forget now what I was expecting; maybe some kind of action adventure or something. Dissapointed and disheartened, I left it alone and went outside.

Until that night.

That's when I became addicted to it. You could master every cool looking move each character had; learn the timing of the attacks; figure when to strike and what technique is suitible whilst calculating speed and power. I was in love- the game had superb replay time and value. I think I've played something like 200 hours with Astoroth alone (guess who I'm best with.)

I had always heard of Tekken; it was in the same universe as Soul Caliber. The main difference between the two series (aside from the different cast) was that in Soul Caliber, you fight with weapons. In Tekken- you use your hands. Different fighting styles; judo, karate, wrestling, sambo, CQC--- its SO cool.

I've only been playing it for a short while, but I'm in love. The game is beautiful; plays beautifuly and looks gorgeous. On par with Soul Caliber 2; and it doesn't skimp on the little things either. The intros that each character have are there. So are the battle cries, music, animated backgrounds- the works. Sometimes you forget what makes a game good, by factoring the graphics engine and popularity- what makes a game fun is the GAMEplay, and Tekken has SUPERB gameplay. 30 odd characters to master, each with their own moves and stories- I can see myself playing this fer a looong time, long after I've bet some of the other crap on any other console.

Aside from the eye-popping graphics, the cool full motion video intro movie, and the EXCELLENT gameplay, there's also a wealth of modes to choose from, like Dojo, or Ghost (which can record your fighting stlye and then be uploaded onto the internet, where other Tekken fans can fight a copy of you) story and quick battle. You earn Gold by fighting (the same currency as Soul Caliber!) and can now buy things to customize your character with. Make the big and strong seem silly- probably just to throw the other guy off. Plus this is all on the PSP!!! I was a bit worried there for a while for it's future, but a few more games like this and the PSP will be more than saved- it'll be truly rivalling the DS in terms of popularity.

One thing that PSP games do alot of is zings of the player with their long loading times. Prince of Persia. WWE SmackDown! Vs. RAW 2006. Tiger Woods PGA Tour. Even the 5-second loading time in between races in Wipeout Pure can be tedious. But not the case wif Tekken, oh nosiree. Nosiree BOB. While the load times are still there, they're almost always under 10 seconds; which is amazing seeing how great the graphics are- you can be very forgiving with this game. In fact, the short loading times are probably one of the only low points of the game. Huzzah!

Anybody can play this. Its rewarding, deep gameplay, promoting both fast thinking and good reflexes, which both the hardcore and casual player will enjoy. Get this, then look for my ghost on the internet. My handle will be "Jacob!," but I haven't actually gone online with it yet, and they might not let me use exclamation points. Yeah, if I can't use the "!" then I'll be using a name like "chiaroscuro" or "barghest." Or maybe just "Jacob" or "Jacobism" or something. See you online and prepare to be pwnd lik a n00b. Oh- and get this instead of Daxter. In fact, buy a PSP for this game if you don't have one!

Anway, time to go and actually MASTER a character. King and is looking pretty cool so far. Wish me luck! ;)

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 07/26/06