Yu Yu Hakusho: Dark Tournament goes through the second third of Yusuke Urameshi’s adventures as a Spirit Detective.

Dark Tournament’s cel-shaded graphics make you feel like you are participating in the show itself. Each of the characters resembled their anime-counterparts almost exactly, though at times the cel-shaded style seems almost too cartoony, especially when compared to the cut-scenes taken straight out of the series for the Story Mode. Yes that’s right, instead of spending copious amounts of time, energy and money to remake the exact same scenes in 3D graphics, the developers went ahead and took the needed snippets right out of the show.

I wasn’t sure exactly how to take this. My first impression was that it was a cheap way to continue the story -- but then I thought back to other FUNimation based fighting games like the Dragon Ball Z: Budokai series and remembered how they handled the same situations. I remember thinking that a lot of the story and style was lost when the show was translated into 3D. In the case of Dark Tournament, even though most of the story isn’t present, you get a good feel for what was going on in the show that lead up to the fight (unlike losing key events as in the Budokai series).

The voices sound just like the characters from the show -- as it should seeing as they are done by the same people, though at times, the random sayings that are shouted in a match can get repetitive. The sound effects are fair, but also tend to be the same whooshes, powering up, and hitting sounds over and over again.

Dark Tournament is broken up into seven modes of play. These modes are Dark Tournament (the story mode), Arcade, Skirmish, Training, DT Token Game, Survival, and Dark Tournament Plus.

Dark Tournament Mode puts you in control of Team Urameshi from Yusuke’s battle against Toguro in the construction site to the champion ship match against... well, Toguro. As you progress through the story, you will train under Genkai, fight using Kuwabara, Kurama, Hiei, The Masked Fighter, and of course Yusuke, and watch the main events of the series’ Dark Tournament saga unfold. After each match, you will unlock new tiles for the Tile Game, as well as different ways to play in other modes. At the tournament itself, Yusuke’s team will face off against Team Rokuyukai, Team Ichigaki, Team Mashoutsikai, Team Uraotogi, and finally, Team Toguro. But before that can happen, his team needs to prove itself in several pre-tournament matches.

Dark Tournament Plus Mode plays out the same way as the regular mode, but you will be treated to more scenes from the show, better tokens as prizes, and other bonus items. This mode is unlocked in the regular Dark Tournament Mode. Arcade mode is another area where you can unlock a lot of prizes. Here you will go up against 10 fighters, and you get to choose the final opponent. You will unlock a new item every time you beat a different final opponent. Skirmish is where you can pit your skills against the CPU or your friend, while Training lets you hone those skills and gives you the opportunity to practice the various attacks and spirit moves that each character has at his or her disposal. Survival Mode will have you going up against nine fighters. If you win, you will get a new token. So what are all of these tokens about?

Dark Tournament also has a Token Game where you try and dominate a small field by placing hexagonal tiles with various spirit points and abilities. The board is comprised of 19 spaces, one hex in the center surrounded by six hexes, with an outer ring of 12 hexes. On this outermost ring are the fans. Each fan tile has an orientation (blue or red). The fighter tiles (from your deck) can only be placed on a hex that has the correct number of fans (of the right color) touching it. When a fighter is placed on the field, it will attack a particular opponent tile and the spirit points of those tiles are recalculated. Which tile it attacks depends on if it has a special ability or not. When there are no more places to put a fighter, the number of spirit points for each team is tallied and the one with the most points wins.

The DT Token Game adds a lot of strategy to Dark Tournament, and can be a nice diversion from the constant fighting in the other modes.

Yu Yu Hakusho: Dark Tournament’s Story Mode has a nice gradual increase in difficulty. This is great and something I haven’t seen very often in fighting games. Typically, I find that either all of the enemies are too easy except for a few bosses, or the difficulty ramps up suddenly without warning halfway through the game. In Dark Tournament, you will find each opponent or team slightly harder than the previous (as to be expected in a tournament), making your knowledge of the moves (both spirit and melee) that much more necessary.

DT’s Token Game needs to be mentioned in this section as well. There is a lot of strategy that you need to put into this game. At times it is easy -- but unless you’re well balanced, you will find yourself cornered by the A.I. almost constantly. So you will need to keep playing the other modes to get better tiles.

Yu Yu Hakusho: Dark Tournament’s control scheme seems to be a bit more complex than your typical fighter. It has the basic kick and punch moves, but you can perform more powerful attacks by hitting combinations of buttons that at times don’t feel quite natural. For example, there are several moves that can be executed from a crouch (uppercuts, quick jabs, etc.), but in order to crouch, you need to press Down and the X-button, then you will be crouched as long as you are holding the X button. This allows you to move around the field while ducking and enables you to pull off some moves. Unfortunately, there were many times when I released the X instead of the Stick -- because it made more sense to me to stay crouched if I was holding the Down button.

There were several instances of these combinations that cost me valuable life several times throughout the game. I could never seem to get used to it -- not even in the final matches of the tournament. Though these control problems weren’t attached to every move I needed to make, they were in some of the key attacks that I tried to use frequently.

Yu Yu Hakusho: Dark Tournament is a fighter for the fans of Ghostfiles. You can play through Yusuke’s second adventure from beginning to end and catch the highlights of the show as you go. If you aren’t a fan of the series, but like fighters, then you might want to pick it up as a rental to see if it is something you would want to get more involved with.