Yu Yu Hakusho: Dark Tournament is based on the popular manga and anime 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 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 Studio Pierrot and English licensor Funimation had limited involvement in the game’s production.
As a fighting game, a large majority of Dark Tournament relies on its combat system. The player is able to move within a straight line on a 3D arena. The purpose of each battle is to deplete an opponent’s health while maintaining one’s own, although a participant may win by forcing an opponent out of the ring. Each of the game’s 25 player characters has a specific set of basic punches, kicks, blocks, throws, and combo moves. In addition, characters have access to powerful “spirit” attacks once a meter located below one's health fills to capacity. This meter fills as opponents exchange hits with each other. 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 chapters allow the player to use multiple characters in battle using a tag team system.
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.
Source: Wikipedia, "Yu Yu Hakusho: Dark Tournament", available under the CC-BY-SA License.