Tekken: Dark Resurrection game modes revealed

You may have already have seen our news story on Dark Resurrection, the forthcoming fighting fest in the popular Tekken series, and so you'll know all about it. Okay, you'll know everything that Sony has disclosed to date which, true, isn't much.

But that said, new details have just brawled their way out of Sony's headquarters, intent on making themselves known to the gaming community and we're certainly not about to stand in their way.

We've mentioned the 30 characters before, but we can now be a little more specific and confirm that newcomers Dragunov and Lili have made the cut, alongside old favourite Armor King, who returns to combat after a lengthy absence.

And on the subject of characters, the game continues Tekken 5's fighter customisation feature, with which you can create a profile and spend fight money on an extensive selection of items to personalise your combatant.

Assuming we can drag you away from your materialistic tendencies for a minute, we'll get on to the arguably more important subject of the game modes, details of which you'll find below:

Tekken Dojo sees you fighting your way to the top in a variety of dojos located on a private island owned by Mishima Zaibatsu, the Japanese conglomerate who sponsors the Iron Fist Tournaments central to the Tekken games.

In Arcade Battle you earn fight money by defeating ghosts that match your current combat level, with each successfully passed test elevating you to the next rank.

Quick Battle does what it says on the tin, enabling you to select either one-on-one or team battles against computer-controlled opponents for swift fisticuffs. If you'd rather crush human opposition, there's also the option of setting up a squad of up to eight players for knockout tournament fun.

Story Battle, as its name cunningly suggests, will reveal your character's background, personality, motivation and possibly even phobias and insecurities in-between trading blows with the opposition.

There are also three Attack modes: Time, Survival and Gold Rush. Nothing too surprising here, either, but worthy additions nonetheless. Time Attack finds you facing challengers against the clock, Survival sees how many you can defeat before running out of health, while Gold Rush earns you prize money for the damage you inflict within a time limit.

The Practice mode is all-new and includes tutorials, freestyle training and, crucially, command training for both attack and self defence.

Finally, but by no means less significant, is the Network option, which enables two-player duels via the PSP's wi-fi ad hoc mode.

Rather a lot to cram into a UMD, isn't it? Thankfully, developer Namco tends to know what it's doing, which obviously fills us with confidence. But while Dark Resurrection is undeniably promising stuff, our Shaolin monk-like patience means we're more than happy to wait until later this year before finding out firsthand how well the Tekken experience translates to PSP.