Review: Tekken 6 PSP

Namco’s reputation for working miracles with limited hardware is well deserved, especially when you look at what it’s pulled off in the past. Since the days of the original PlayStation, Namco has consistently created excellent home versions of their top fighting games, complete with amazing visuals and all kinds of cool extras.

With this in mind, would you believe that Namco could possibly recreate Tekken 6 on the humble little PSP? If you’ve ever played the PS3 or Xbox 360 versions of the game, it might seem like a tall order, but (as usual) Namco has managed to impress us. Tekken 6 on the PSP is almost as impressive as the company’s excellent conversion of Soul Calibur. I say “almost” because there are two minor areas in which Tekken 6 falls a wee bit short of Soul Calibur: Broken Destiny. The first is the graphics. While Tekken 6 is certainly no slouch when it comes to visuals, there are some issues with the lighting, particularly in the brighter arenas, where the characters appear to be illuminated by a light source other than that in the stage, making them appear brighter than they should be. The second is that the load times are at least twice as long as those of Soul Calibur, even with the game data installed on the PSP. Oh, there are also no exclusive characters in the PSP version of Tekken 6 like there are in SC:BD – if that has any bearing on your decision.

Apart from that, the game is superb on every level. All of the characters are present with all of their moves intact. The controls are perfect and the game runs fluidly, enabling expert players to perform all of their technical combos with ease. The only conspicuous omission is the home console version’s Scenario Campaign mode, where players could pick a character and fight through waves of enemies. I don’t mind this personally, as I thought it was a pain in the bum to go through on the PS3 version, but some players may miss it. Instead we have the Arcade Battle, Story Battle, Ghost Battle, and Challenge Battle modes. They’re pretty self-explanatory. The Challenge Battle mode contains the Time Attack and Survival modes, and an interesting new mode called Gold Rush. Gold Rush is simply an unending series of single-round bouts in which players are rewarded with cash for dealing huge chunks of damage and pulling off impressive combos on their opponents. It’s fun to watch the coins fly out the opponent with every strike, and it’s also the quickest way of earning cash to buy outfit pieces and accessories to customise your favourite characters.

While Tekken 6 has a couple of minor issues that prevent it from being as jaw-droppingly impressive as Soul Calibur: Broken Destiny, it’s still a solid and impressive fighter in its own right. The only slight downer for some players might be the lack of PSP-exclusive characters and the omitted Scenario Campaign mode.

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