Fighting games on handheld platforms are strange beasts. Namco Bandai's Soulcalibur: Broken Destiny -- something of a side-story to the phenomenal Soulcalibur IV -- comes exclusively to the PSP later this year, and I'm honestly kind of scratching my head about it. Not that I think a SC4 update is a bad idea; I love the base game, and I think incremental balance updates are probably good for its long-term health (see: Street Fighter II). The addition of new characters (including God of War superstar Kratos) doesn't hurt either, although really, Soulcalibur's already got more than enough for players to choose from.

I just don't see how developer Project Soul settled on the PSP as the platform of choice. Fighting games -- especially complex 3D ones like Soulcalibur -- weren't made for the relatively cramped control schemes endemic to handheld devices. And, when I went toe-to-toe with CPU opponents in Broken Destiny's Quick Match mode (a single-player "ranked" mode that pits you against randomized opponents of dynamically defined skill levels), it really showed. Playing as my main man Yoshimitsu, I struggled to consistently perform basic crucial functions like, for example, knocking opponents into the air. The PSP's tiny d-pad and analog nub don't offer nearly the same degree of precision as a joystick or even an Xbox 360 controller; given the kind of rapid-fire movements, parry attempts, and combo strings that this game demands, the controls seem like a pretty ill fit. It's a shame, too, as Namco Bandai is actively pitching Broken Destiny as a "highly tuned version" of SC4.

New contender Dampierre, looking like quite the dashing Dudley Do-Right villain.

It's got all the standard stuff you expect in a Soulcalibur game -- basic story and survival modes, ad hoc multiplayer matches, and a robust character creation system that Namco Bandai claims outclasses SC4's. New characters Dampierre (a feisty French dude who looks like a wrist-blade-wielding Snidely Whiplash and fights like a meth-addicted loon) and Kratos (the aforementioned God of War himself) join the sizeable cast, who sport the same costumes they did in their most recent console iterations. And it definitely looks nice for a PSP game.

So, yeah: Soulcalibur's coming out on the PSP. I just wish I knew who it was for. The people who care about this series are already playing SC4 on their consoles, and a re-tured handheld version will only make the hardcore players wonder why the console game got left out of the balance pass for what's sure to be interpreted as a watered-down port. Maybe Project Soul knows something we don't... but the last time I checked, fighting games on handhelds don't exactly retain audiences like their big brothers do.