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Tekken 6 PSP Hands-On

TGS 2009: Namco Bandai gives us a taste of the upcoming portable fighter that looks gorgeous.

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Namco Bandai announced Tekken 6 PSP at its press day in April of this year but didn't show us anything on the game at the time. Given the high bar set by the last Tekken on the PSP, Tekken: Dark Resurrection, we've been eager to see what the Tekken team is going to pull off with its second outing on the portable system. We finally got a chance to not only see the game in motion but try it out as well here at the Tokyo Game Show.

Who's Making This Game: Namco Bandai's Tekken team.

What The Game Looks Like: The Tekken team has managed to wring even more performance out of the five-year-old hardware and has wound up with a stunning game. Once you get past the jaw-dropping visuals, there are actually a surprising number of subtle surprises on display as well. The game is based on the most recent version of Tekken 6 in the arcades, the Bloodline Rebellion update, and will feature breakable objects ranging from background elements to the floors and walls on certain stages. The new graphics engine created to support the various features is the most impressive we've seen on the PSP yet and is rivaled only by Namco's other PSP fighter, SoulCalibur: Broken Destiny.

What There Is To Do: The work-in-progress demo we played let us pick from the roster of more than 40 fighters--yes they crammed a train station's worth of brawlers onto the PSP--and take on opponents in one-round fights. In talking with the members of the team demoing the game, we got a sense of what we weren't seeing, although they were still pretty cagey about giving up too many details. Basically the game will feature a comparable number of modes to the last game, although the team is finalizing how much it can cram onto a UMD. Sadly, the game only supports ad hoc versus play, which will include some all-new stages. One of the big questions right now is the number of alternate costumes for the fighters. Given how dense the game is, it sounds like the UMD is going to be packed.

How The Game Is Played: If you've played Tekken: Dark Resurrection, then you should be right at home with Tekken 6. The game uses the same control scheme, which is a good fit for the PSP.

What They Say: The team members demoing the game said Tekken 6 is the most ambitious game they've done on the system yet and that even they were surprised by what they were able to pull off in terms of supporting all the different systems and visuals from Bloodline Rebellion.

What We Say: Given what we played, we have to say that Tekken 6 is shaping up to be another landmark game from the Tekken team for the PSP. The game is doing a lot of impressive things with its visuals, from graphic quality to interactivity, and the sheer number of playable characters, stages, and extras being lined up is a pretty fantastic offering. Proper online infrastructure multiplayer would be nice, but it wouldn't be that big of a loss if Sony could get its act together and release ad hoc party play. Tekken fans and anyone looking for a shiny fighter for their PSP will want to keep an eye out for Tekken 6 when it ships this fall. Look for more on the game soon. Until then, check out our video interview with the team:

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