Yu Yu Hakusho: Dark Tournament is a video game for the PS2 home game console. Based on the manga series YuYu Hakusho created by Yoshihiro Togashi, Dark Tournament follows the protagonist Yusuke Urameshi, a rebellious teenager who dies and is brought back to life in order to serve as a "Spirit Detective", solving cases involving apparitions and demons within the living world. The game covers the Dark Tournament story arc in which Yusuke and his allies are invited by a powerful demon named Toguro to participate in a deadly martial arts tournament.
Dark Tournament is a 3D versus fighting game where the player progresses by completing specific objectives tied to a combat system. These objectives range from following simple commands to full-out battles with opponent characters. Each unique character can utilize a number of basic moves as well as stronger "spirit" attacks. Dark Tournament was developed by Digital Fiction and published by Atari in North America and Europe as part of a distribution deal for the latter. Both the animation company Pierrot and English licensor Funimation (currently Crunchyroll) had limited involvement in the game's production. Dark Tournament is the second Yu Yu Hakusho game that never saw release in Japan.
Critical reception for Dark Tournament has been average or mixed. While most reviewers appreciated the game as visually and audibly appealing to fans of the anime series, they judged it as falling short within the fighting genre due to flaws with its controls and certain gameplay mechanics.
Plot and gameplay
Yu Yu Hakusho: Dark Tournament is based on the successful manga and anime series YuYu Hakusho created by Yoshihiro Togashi. The plot follows protagonist Yusuke Urameshi, a teenage delinquent who is struck by a car and killed while trying to save a young child. After completing many afterlife tasks presented to him, Yusuke is revived and appointed as a "Spirit Detective", a protector of the human world from various apparitions and demons. Dark Tournament features a story mode which is divided into 31 chapters, progressing linearly through the plot of the manga and anime. The mode features different objectives relating to the narrative. For instance, one chapter requires the player to trade blows with the drunken master Chu in a match that restricts either character from moving or dodging.
Other, optional gameplay modes include a training mode for learning each character's moves; an arcade mode, where the player fights through a series of chosen opponents; a multiplayer Skirmish mode; and a token minigame, which plays like a modified version of the card game War. Initially, only five characters (Yusuke, Kuwabara, Kurama, Hiei, and The Masked Fighter) are playable in these modes. However, as the player advances through the story mode, other characters are added to playable roster, alternate costumes are made available, more tokens can be used in the token game, and two extra modes (Survival and Dark Tournament Plus) are unlocked.
Development
Yu Yu Hakusho: Dark Tournament was developed by Digital Fiction and published by Atari. The YuYu Hakusho anime adaptation by Studio Pierrot had begun airing in North America on Cartoon Network in 2002, where it proved popular on the afternoon Toonami block. In July 2003, Atari established a publishing agreement with Funimation Entertainment, the English licensor of the anime adaptation series. Atari had previously published games based another successful Funimation property, Dragon Ball Z. Atari released its first game Yu Yu Hakusho: Spirit Detective for the Game Boy Advance in December 2003 and announced Dark Tournament just before the Electronic Entertainment Expo in May 2004.
According to Atari senior producer Mark Flitman, Dark Tournament was in development for about a year and a half.
Reception
Atari reported "reasonable" sales of Yu Yu Hakusho: Dark Tournament, despite an overall net loss for the company during the game's release quarter. Dark Tournament received "mixed" reviews according to the review aggregation website Metacritic.