Yu Yu Hakusho: Dark Tournament

Based on the anime that premiered in 1992, Yu Yu Hakusho: Dark Tournament by Digital Fiction is a tournament style 3D fighter game. Follow in the story of Yusuke Urameshi, the rebellious teenager who fights his way through a series of battles with actual demons who are legitimately trying to kill him.

Story

Although a fighting game, Yu Yu Hakusho definitely has a plot and a clear one too, thanks to being based on a specific arc of the anime series. Yusuke is a teenage boy who dies in a car accident, after being resurrected following his completion of a series of tasks; he takes on the position of “Spirit Detective” and protects the world from nefarious apparitions and demons.

The Dark Tournament Arc follows Yusuke’s entrance into a demonic martial arts tournament put on by an evil group with the prize of claiming anything they desire.

Gameplay

So the gameplay in this title is brutal, got to lay that out for you now. The controls are not fantastic and there isn’t a tremendous amount of mobility and flexibility in regards to the fighting, but I prefer to look at this as more of a challenge than a hindrance and I found it made the game a lot more enjoyable. There are 25 playable characters in this title, comprised of those who fought in the Dark Tournament. Each of these characters has their own set of punches, blocks, kicks, throws and combo moves that they use to fight. The obvious objective is to deplete the enemy’s health while maintaining their own.

There are 31 chapters that the player must fight through but there is a nice mixture of game modes throughout, even in the story. When in a certain fight during the tournament, the players must trade blows with a character without the ability to move or dodge. Other chapters use a multiple character tag team system where other selected characters jump into combat.

Outside of the story, there are a few other gameplay modes. Arcade mode, multiplayer skirmish mode and a minigame where you play a version of the card game WAR. The further you are in the story mode, the more of the other characters you can use in these alternate game modes.

Art Style

The quality of the art style in this title is nothing short of brilliant. Excellently rendered characters and stages that look exactly the way that they did in the show, bring this game to a level similar to Dragon Ball Z: Budokai in looks. I was blown away by how well this ties in with sections of animation from the show to the newly recorded voice acting provided by Funimation. Visually, the game is stunning.

Including the 25 characters that showed up in the actual tournament, the player also has access to alternate costumes that showed up in the show. All in all, there’s a pretty good amount of content within this title.

Pros

• Great Visuals
• Stays faithful to the anime
• Diverse game modes

Cons

• Poor combat
• Mismatched and confused difficulty