What is the deal lately? The PSP has been quietly racking up an impressive library of fighting games. First, it was Fate/unlimited codes, then came Dissidia: Final Fantasy. Now the king of the mountain has stepped down to grace the pint-sized portable with a pugilist of its own. Soul Calibur: Broken Destiny is the latest and greatest from Namco's classic franchise and its aiming to be the only contender in your PSP.

Since this is the first Soul Calibur game on the PSP, Broken Destiny wanted to make a strong first impression. Not simply settling for a dirty port of last year's excellent Soul Calibur IV on the PS3, Soul Calibur: Broken Destiny is rebuilt from the ground up with the PSP in mind and the graphics blur the line between handheld and console games.

I was often confused while I was playing, subconsciously thinking I was still playing Soul Calibur IV because of the excellent character models. You often hear qualifiers for games like "it looks good... for a PSP game," but in this case it is just simply wrong, Soul Calibur: Broken Destiny is great looking game. Period. Armor breaks away as you take damage and each character looks just as good as their major console counterpart.

I think it is safe to assume that most of the voice and music are just reused from last year's entry which isn't a drawback. The music is still just as excellent and the voiceovers are pretty good, so anyone who plays with headphones will get a little aural treat. The only thing to really say about the sound design is that it works well. Games like Soul Calibur: Broken Destiny don't rely much on background music as a selling point, but it is nice that people who pre-ordered get a bonus disc with a "best of" music CD of the series.

Taking a massive and intricate fighter like Soul Calibur IV and cramming it onto the PSP may seem like tall order, but the design team at Namco achieved it flawlessly. Not only did they deliver on all 25 characters from last year's game (with Critical Finishes intact,) they still managed to add in two new characters special to Soul Calibur: Broken Destiny: newcomer Dampierre and revered Sony mascot, Kratos.

I'm sure that most people reading this just want to know how the new guys play, and both are a ton of fun. Although the angry god-killer Kratos is going to be doing his own thing soon, he fits right into the Soul Calibur universe and would make a great permanent addition to the roster. He has a clever mix of ranged and close attacks with his Blades of Chaos and Zeus's sword makes an appearance for special attacks. I applaud the team for choosing such an excellent fit with Kratos. He just makes more sense as a guest fighter than Darth Vader or Yoda.

Dampierre also makes his debut this time around. A mustachioed French thief, Dampierre takes some adjustment at first to understand his sillier fighting style, but after that you will be slaying fools with his patented spanking attack.

Yes. He spanks his enemies into submission... like a real man.

On top of two great new fighters, everything else is mostly the same as before. A custom character creator is available to the aesthetically inclined. But the real improvements come with the approach to a more bite-sized gameplay experience. Dropping a lengthy, story-driven Arcade Mode, Soul Calibur: Broken Destiny focuses on shorter bursts of action in very clever ways.

The Gauntlet is a new mode where you work your way through a side story of the Soul Calibur universe while completing very short exercises. Usually no longer than five seconds, these quick exercises essentially teach you how to play Soul Calibur: Broken Destiny. The matches cover everything from 8-way-running to guard impacts and guaranteed hits. As you successfully complete the mission, it keeps up the pace by swiftly moving on to the next. After every failed attempt, it offers useful tips to refine the timing and strategies to make you a pro in no time. For any newcomer to the series, this is by far the easiest version to pick up and play.

For a seasoned veteran, though, there is an ad-hoc Versus Mode, Training, and a new Quick Match mode that lets you choose the skill level of your opponent as if you were waiting in an online lobby.

The Tower of Trials returns with some refinement. No longer relegated to a lonely tower, the Trials Mode lets you pick from three different disciplines: attack, defense, and endurance. Like the old Tower of Trials mode, you play until you die. But each option focuses on different types of skills to improve your game.

As I mentioned earlier, Soul Calibur: Broken Destiny is by far the easiest of the Soul Calibur to start with. All of the refinements to the gameplay and modes make it simple and fun to start a match and beat the crap out of someone in no time at all. Since there isn't a Story Mode or Arcade mode, there isn't a need for ridiculously broken boss fights (I'm looking at you, Algol) or unfair computer tactics. For the first time ever, you get to decide how you want your Soul Calibur and that is awesome!

Soul Calibur has been around long enough, that I don't feel like I need to explain all the details of how it works, but just in case you live under a rock, here are the basics. Soul Calibur: Broken Destiny is a one-on-one weapon-based fighting game. There are three attacks: horizontal, vertical, and kick and there is also a guard, which is quite useful once trained properly.

Everything that has made the series great continues here on the PSP. Matches are exciting and tense and the battle system strikes a perfect mix of casual approach and hardcore depth. It's a shame then that Soul Calibur: Broken Destiny has to suffer from the platform of choice rather than the game design.

The PSP simply doesn't have enough buttons to accommodate most 3-D fighters. The lack of an extra pair of shoulder buttons (more importantly the cramped space of the face buttons) really hurts anyone looking for high level combos or tournament style gameplay. The analog nub also does no favors to a series notorious for its precise timing. If you plan on playing Soul Calibur: Broken Destiny, get used to the D-pad and map the shoulder buttons right away, so you can learn more moves quicker.

Soul Calibur: Broken Destiny is a fantastic addition to anyone's PSP library. With some of the best graphics the system has to offer and an easy, bite-size design philosophy, Soul Calibur: Broken Destiny has become the best version of Soul Calibur anywhere. As a fan myself, I wholeheartedly recommend picking this up as soon as possible. Any naysayers should at least check it out, because it would be a shame if you missed out on one of the best fighting games of the year.