The best fighter on any handheld platform yet.
Apparently, my initial insticts were a bit ahead of their time, as it took nearly a year and a half for the game finally come out. And just like every other Tekken game, the asthetics are great, the game play is solid, there's a wealth of game play through out it all, and it all comes together spectactularlly.
Everything you like about Tekken is here; with over thirty players, and each one customizable, the game is well on it's way to being one of this year's best. There are, however, two problems with the gameplay. Because of diagonals being an intricate part of the attack system, it can be a bit difficult to execute a string of attacks or a ten hit combo without some false starts. This is, however, no inherent fault of the game itself, and is simply just a characteristic of the game play. Really, though, it's only a problem a small portion of the time,and eventually won't even be one once you get the hang of the psp's feel. The second, and more annoying of the problems, lies within the Tekken formula itself, in that the computer can flawlessly execute even the most difficult commands every time, and has inhumane reflexes, even on the easy difficulty. While this same problem is present with the console versions, it does not play nearly as signifigant a role as it does on the PSP, where it is more difficult to respond quickly, thanks to the screen size and slightly unresponsive controls. Again, though, this is a minor problem, and doesn't retract from the game play for then on a small scale.
Hands down, the character models, particles, and backgrounds are the best of any game on the PSP so far. The graphics are somewhere between dreamcast quality and PS2, leaning towards the latter. There is only one very small flaw- which is not even apparent during regular gameplay- which is that during the replay of a K.O., you can sometimes see part of a character's body dissappear a little bit into their opponent. Other than that, there is litterally nothing to complain about. And just like always, the pre rendered endings are fantastic, which of course can be viewed in the theater mode.
The sound, while not quite on par with the spectacular graphics, is still of the utmost quality. The music is extremely varied, incorperating a variety of playing style and instruments, insuring that you never here a single piece too often of you get bored with the soundtrack. The character sounds are solid as well; despite the PSP's rather average speakers, the sounds from a hit still remain quite satisfying. As well, each player has a number of grunts and yelps, so you never have to hear the same sounds over and over to the point of insanity.
There is a character mode for every single character. There is a dojo mode with multiple tiers that adds 5-10 more hours to the total game play. There is multiplayer in ad hoc mode, which allows you to play against your friends; let's not forget about the old standby, the arcade mode. The game also incorporates the ghost function, which is an artificial A.I. based off of your playing quality and style. As if the above wasn't enough, there are a number of mini games such as bowling to keep you entertained when you don't quite feel like fighting.
Overall, Tekken: Dark Resurrection is a fantastic package. The single player game play is solid and the multiplayer game play is near flawless. Both the sound and graphics are among the best of any PSP game. There's plenty of meet here for you to get at least twenty hours out of this game without it getting boring. This game really does have it all. While this is certainly the best fighting game I've ever played on a Portable, it is also one of the best on any console in every regard.