Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection Hands-On

Though it isn't available on the US version of Sony's PlayStation Store just yet, Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection is now available for purchase in Hong Kong and Japan. No, we're not talking about another PSP download. This is the same fighting game that Namco put out on the PSP, but it's running on the PlayStation 3, with full support for widescreen and 1080p resolution. It appears to take after the arcade release, meaning there aren't many extra modes, but it's most certainly the same exciting game of Tekken that you've come to expect from Namco.

The download clocks in at over 800MB and is selling for around $16 in the Hong Kong store. What you get for that money appears to be an arcade-perfect conversion of Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection, which is the upgrade to Tekken 5 that adds new characters and moves. The game offers single-player play, a versus mode, and a ghost battle mode. Like in the PSP version, you can take on computer-controlled fighters that are governed by ghosts, which are profiles based on how another human player plays the game. Dark Resurrection on the PSP had you manually uploading your own ghosts and downloading others. This PS3 release appears to grab new ghosts automatically. While you probably won't mistake the ghosts you'll fight for real human players, they tend to fight a lot better than the average fighting-game artificial intelligence, since you can "teach" these ghosts more elaborate combos and tricks.

All of the Tekken 5 fighters are here and immediately selectable. The new fighters--which aren't all that new anymore, since Tekken 5: DR has been out for a while now--are the returning Armor King, the Russian special forces operative Dragunov, and the rich girl who fights for laughs, Lili. New to this PS3 release is a playable version of Jinpachi, the game's final boss. Jinpachi unlocks after you beat the arcade mode and plays reasonably well, though you can't customize his look at all. The rest of the characters can be customized using money you earn by winning fights. You can purchase new colors for each of a character's costumes, as well as body items (like a guitar to sit on Hwoarang's back), new hairstyles, sunglasses, and more. The game also has a gallery mode, where you can spend some of that in-game cash on ending videos and character art. To keep the game's overall file size lower, the ending videos that you can purchase aren't part of the package. So when you purchase them, you'll have to download them individually.

With support for 1080p, you'd be right to expect Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection to look sharp. Namco hasn't done anything noticeable to enhance the graphics on the PS3, but it's a nice-looking arcade game to begin with, and the higher resolution seems to help the game look as good as it ever has. The frame rate is typically solid and smooth, though there were a few rare spots where it dropped a handful of frames.

While it doesn't offer the same bowling modes or online world rankings that the PSP game offered, this budget-priced version of Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection has it where it counts: in the gameplay. Plans for a US release of this game haven't been announced at this time, but since it's already sitting in foreign stores (and since more crafty North American PS3 owners are figuring out how to purchase from those stores by the day), it probably isn't too far off.