If there's one thing Namco has been a champ at proving over the years it's that when its developers set their minds to doing something with one of their key franchises, players can expect hot stuff. We saw it happen with Ridge Racers on the PlayStation Portable and are about to see it again with Tekken: Dark Resurrection on the PSP. The upcoming 3D fighter is a portable conversion of Namco's recent arcade expansion of Tekken 5, which includes new characters, new stages, and new features. As longtime fans of the series, we've been curious to find out more about Namco's plans for the portable fighter, so we cornered Haruki Suzaki and Kazushige Watanabe to find out just what's cooking for the upcoming PSP title.

　　The Tekken series is finally on its way to the PSP.

　　GameSpot: Why did you choose to bring Tekken Dark Resurrection to the PSP instead of a new Tekken?

　　Kazushige Watanabe: Bringing the latest version of the arcade to home consoles has always been the way we handle the series.

　　Haruki Suzaki: The nature of the PSP hardware allowed us to transfer Tekken the way it was meant to be in a way not possible on any other handheld consoles. For this reason, the decision to bring Tekken Dark Resurrection to the PSP instead of creating a new Tekken posed a challenge in testing the possibilities of the PSP hardware.

　　GS: What can you tell us about the dev team for the project? Which Tekken games have they worked on previously? How long has the game been in development?

　　KW: Most of the staff on our team has been with the Tekken Dark Resurrection PSP project from the start. There are veterans to the Tekken series as well as those working on Tekken for the very first time. Although, I must admit the number of staff with little prior experience to the series outnumbers the veterans. I can assure you that these are all developers who have worked on various titles before coming together on the current project. In a sense, we have a team full of experienced developers.

　　GS: How did you approach development of the title? Was there content or functionality you wanted to put into it once you settled on the PSP platform?

　　HS: We started out with the kind of users in mind who would enjoy Tekken PSP. Then, we moved on to reexamine all of the different modes in the series up until now, and added new modes as well as made improvements to existing modes.

　　There were a number of contents or functionalities we wanted to incorporate this time. We wanted to make use of the portability and functionality of the PSP in gameplay as well as allow users to focus on the capabilities of their PSP and focus on the single-player mode. This was all achieved in Tekken Dark Resurrection this time.

　　Silky-smooth fighting at 60 frames per second. Sounds good to us.

　　GS: Were there any challenges in translating the controls to the PSP?

　　HS: We worked hard to ensure that the controls remained the same since this is a transfer of the arcade version. Since the input device of the PSP is different, we had the game run in 60fps to ensure a smooth and high-quality transfer onto the PSP.

　　GS: How has it been working with the PSP hardware? Will you be able to match the stunning visuals from the arcade and PS2 Tekken games on the PSP?

　　KW: Bringing a PS2 or arcade title onto the PSP requires a great deal of work. Everything from the optimization and reexamination of the program, as well as the creation of the visuals, were all very elaborate projects in themselves. I believe adapting a PS2 or an arcade title is an extremely complicated task.

　　GS: How are you taking advantage of the PSP hardware? What Wi-Fi modes will it support? Ad hoc? Infrastructure?

　　HS: Wireless battle via ad hoc is certainly a feature we have included this time. In addition, with infrastructure mode, players can download ghost data as well as see how they rank against other players across the world with high-score ranking.

　　GS: What's been the biggest challenge of development?

　　KW: Working with the memory and the CPU graphics load was a battle. It took us until the very end to overcome it. We were only able to do so with the help from the programmers and the visual designers.

　　GS: What will be new/exclusive to the PSP? Will we see any of the non-fighting modes such as volleyball, bowling, or force modes?

　　KW: Yes, I believe you will find a variety of minigames that you can casually take with you on the go.

　　GS: What have you learned from working on the PSP hardware?

　　Dark Resurrection will support wireless battles in ad hoc mode, as well as downloadable ghost data in infrastructure mode.

　　HS: I believe we all learned something different from working with the PSP hardware. The game designers would be able to tell you the elements necessary for a handheld console and the graphic designers would probably have picked up techniques on how to create superb graphics for the PSP. As for the programmers, they are probably more familiar with using new features, such as the wireless functionality, now.

　　GS: How do you think developers have been taking advantage of the PSP? What are you doing for Tekken PSP that they could learn from?

　　HS: We have taken the Tekken series to a higher dimension with the new Tekken Dark Resurrection while taking advantage of the various specs only available on the PSP. The high-graphics performance of the PSP allowed us to display the superb graphics the way they were meant to be seen onscreen. In addition, the wireless functionality has allowed us to implement a variety of gameplay. It is not just limited to wireless battles, and it also allows the player to download ghost data in a way that wasn't possible with other titles in the series before.

　　GS: Thanks for your time.