Tekken: Dark Resurrection

Tekken: Dark Resurrection is a good game and some sort of an standalone expansion for the PlayStation 2 version of Tekken 5. As far as I know, it is only available on PlayStation Portable, which results in some limitations in graphics, responsiveness and overall play-ability, in my humble opinion.

In Tekken: Dark Resurrection the story is the same as the original PlayStation 2 installment. The G Corporation attacks Heihachi in his building by deploying multiple Jack-4 robots and he, and Kazuya fight them off. One of the Jack’s explodes in front of Heihachi. Kazuya leaves him for dead and the only witness of the event is Raven, a ninja dude that confirms to his superiors that Heihachi is dead (or so everyone thinks). Everyone hears the news and assume the end of the Mishima Zaibatsu family. However, business has resumed again shortly after by someone unknown.

Not that much later, the King of Iron Fist Tournament 5 is announced. Finally, the sponsor and owner of the Mishima Zaibatsu is revealed to be Jinpachi Mishima, the father of Heihachi. He should be resting in peace, but is instead revived and possessed by a vengeful spirit, granting him unspeakable power and rage. In the Tournament, he faces off against Jin, who ultimately defeats him. Grateful for his eternal rest, Jinpachi dissolves into dust and ash. Afterwards, Jin becomes the new head of the Mishima Zaibatsu.

In addition, there are three new characters introduced, each with their own little backstory and motivation to enter the King of Iron Fist Tournament 5. You now got Lilli, also known as Emillie de Rochefort, a French girl that seeks to destroy the Mishima Zaibatsu family to put an end to the financial problems of her father (good luck with that). Then there is Armor King II, who seeks Craig Marduk and avenge his brother’s death by Craig’s hand. And lastly, my favorite character, Sergei Dragunov is introduced, who’s sole orders are to capture Jin Kazama for the Russian authorities.

The game mostly plays the same as the original Tekken 5, with some balancing upgrades like the removal of certain overpowered moves, new rankings, the removal of some old rankings, and the addition of much more customization items and mechanics. It also includes some new stages, which are all modified versions of the original ones.

A little irony in this version of Tekken 5 is that, despite the balancing updates, the end boss is still the abomination called Jinpachi. He still shoots his massive, one or two hit, purple fireballs that he barfs out from his dinosaur mouth in his belly, and he is still the definition of “get rekt”.

In terms of graphics, Tekken: Dark resurrection takes a hit. This is, of course, because the game was (before the PlayStation 3 port) only available on PSP. While it still looks all right and plays fluently in 60 FPS, certain detail in the characters and environments is missing. For what the PSP can do, it is just fine, and the limitations were to be expected.

The sound and music is still the same as the original game, with some added or modified tracks blended in. It sounds just as great as Tekken 5 on PlayStation 2 and earns my respect.

I was really worried that the controls would suck ass because of the limited thumb stick and the “OK” D-pad on the PlayStation Portable. To my relief, the developers took special care to make the controls as responsive as possible and mapped them as accurately as they could. Luckily, they did a fine job.

In the end, I enjoyed Tekken: Dark Resurrection. It played fine, felt like a true Tekken game instead of some half-baked port and the new characters, extra story and re-balancing (besides Jinpachi) was great. The only problem for me was, that this game exists on the PlayStation Portable, instead of a Home Console release. This was later fixed by porting the game to the PlayStation 3, but when I played it, PSP was the only way to go.

Still recommend this game.