Dead or Alive wasn’t exactly cutting edge for its time back on the original PlayStation, but the game made enough of an impact due to its sex appeal with its female fighters. Dead or Alive is so basic, in fact, that I can’t really recommend this game as something to really get into and master, but more of something to have in a Dead or Alive collection. The combat system is all about holds, counters, and throws rather than fast-paced, crazy action like Mortal Kombat or Street Fighter. It was a slower-paced 3D fighter that was competing with the likes of Tobal, Virtua Fighter, Tekken, and various other 3D fighters of the time.
The story is pretty ridiculous and non-existent at this point outside of what’s in the manual and character profiles, so I’ll spare you the torture. The game actually plays quite well even today, with the baseline of the Dead or Alive fighting system we know today. There are several punch and kick moves along with the counter hold button and throw button. The game feels a bit floaty due to the old engine and physics, but it works. There’s a bit of charm to an old fighter like this. The game also features some of the first interactive stages with “danger zones” around the arena that do extra damage if knocked into.
The game received a kind of HD remaster for the Xbox. The visuals are cleaned up with new textures and less blocky character models. What we get is an overly smooth, almost wooden block look to everything, but it still looks miles better than the original game on PlayStation. This version also adds breasts physics, as if that’s needed for something this ancient, as well as a flew of new modes and online play. Even with all these modes, I can’t see myself playing for more than 30 minutes at a time because the newer DoA games just make this one feel so stiff and archaic.
With that said, DoA 1Ultimate feels like a nice bonus compared to DoA 2 Ultimate, which is the far superior game. If you’ve never played the original game, you’re not missing much, but it’s nice to dabble if you’re a hardcore fan.
What makes a great fighter are memorable characters, but most importantly is a solid fight system. Something that isn’t complicated, but hardcore players can memorize the combos. Great graphics usually help, but there must be fun multiplayer and a lot of different modes to keep you coming back. This year had some okay fighters, but none of them were outstanding.
Skullgirls
Skullgirls wins because it is new and has a great roster as well as a fun fighting system. The game also has a great tutorial that helps and teaches you properly unlike most fighting games. The online play is super fun, and the is helps that the characters you fight with have great personalities and are memorable. Fun new fighters are very rare, so that is mainly why this one wins.
Dead or Alive is one of the longest-running fighting games, dating back to the PS1 era. It is also one of the fighting games that probably adds the least amount of features or changes through each sequel. DoA 5 doesn’t really add much, so fans of DoA 4 will be a little disappointed here. The fighting system is nearly unchanged, and all you will notice from the beginning is a new story and a graphical upgrade. The game looks pretty good, and there’s a long 65-mission story, but is it worth the $60 purchase if you are just happy with DoA Dimensions or DoA 4?
The only new additions to the fighting system are the Cliffhangers and the Critical System. Both are underwhelming and just add to the already complicated fight system. However, it is more enjoyable to button mash than other fight games that rely on things like jump canceling, jump this, cancel that, etc. DoA is based around a triangle fight system that is based on holds and counter-attacks. This means you have to be quick and read your opponent’s moves; most fighting games aren’t like that. This is also a problem because predicting moves is very hard in this game, and having counters and holds for high, low, and mid strikes is just ridiculous and creates a very high learning curve that will turn most new players away.
The critical system allows you to do extra damage when the word pops up on the screen; when it turns red, you can do even more damage, but the timing for this is a serious pain. You spend more time trying to read and predict all this stuff than just button mashing, which is a lot more fun. Some fighting games are more fun when learning the moves and the fighting system (Mortal Kombat, Marvel vs. Capcom), but Dead or Alive isn’t. You have to focus less on the fight and more on the animations and things that pop up on the screen. I spent hours trying to learn all this, but in the end, I just resorted back to button mashing, which I felt more confident in.
Cliffhangers are cinematic events in which you power blow (a super-powerful charged attack) into a certain danger zone and a quick-time event comes up. This was fun, but it is hard to figure out the special Danger Zone in most stages and leads right back to that issue where you are distracted from the actual fight. DoA 5 just adds too many distractions, but for people who don’t mind (probably hardcore fans), then you may like these new ideas. Despite all of this, the fighting system is very fun and fluid and is all martial arts, with no fancy fireballs or magic attacks.
The story mode is back and is pretty well developed, but it is confusing for newcomers. You had to have played past story modes because they pick up after each other. Kasumi is just trying to stop Alpha 152 again, and the Mugen Tenshin clan (Ayane, Ryu Hayabusa, and Hayate) are after her. In the meantime, Zack is trying to recruit people for Dead or Alive 5, and most people will find the story mostly uninteresting. It is better than most fighting game stories, though. The graphics look great and pretty much push the consoles to their limits. There is a new dirt and sweat feature added to characters, but you can only guess why. Dead or Alive is 70% female fighters with large breasts that jiggle with every move in very little clothing. This isn’t a bad thing because most of the characters are well known and very well developed, with unique personalities. One of the features in every Dead or Alive release, for me, are the new costumes I can unlock in the game because they are so well done and make the women look even more beautiful.
The story mode also has bonus missions, but after halfway through, they start becoming impossibly difficult. Dead or Alive isn’t really a combo type of game, but pulling off 7 and 10-hit combos can be a serious chore. Online modes are fun as always, but most players will get discouraged by the good long-time fighters. This just proves that you must master the triangle system because once you get locked into a combo, you’re stuck. Health bars deplete quickly in this game, so fights can last only a minute or two.
Overall, DoA 5 doesn’t bring much to the table to call this a true sequel—graphical upgrades, a new story, and just a couple of new additions to the fighting system—but they hamper it down. There are also no new characters, just a few cameos from Virtua Fighter. Plus, the stages are actually pretty boring. Construction site, a street, and a Japanese house. Yawn. DoA 5 is solid and fun, but wait for a price drop.
I have never been a huge fan of Dead or Alive outside of the characters. The fighting system is convoluted, overcomplicated, and not always explained very well. Dimensions breaks this barrier with a great Chronicle story mode that introduces these complicated techniques little by little so you can absorb them, and it works great. The story mode is entertaining, but nothing to write home about. You play as various characters trying to stop Alpha-152, which is Kasumi’s evil clone. DOATEC is trying to use this to destroy the ninja clan, Mugen Tenshin.
The fighting system is actually complicated, but after the story mode, you can actually use it. There are the usual combos of kicks and punches, but you can juggle opponents and stun them in a critical state. You can throw and hold opponents, and holding is kind of a counterattack. You can actually counter a counter in this game. If someone counters your attack with a hold, you can counter back or get out of the hold. Understanding how to do this takes some getting used to, but it adds some strategy to online fights. You can also do a super stun, which is called OKing an opponent, and this means they can’t counter. There are also special stances that the characters go into, which can be used to strategically add extra combos without the opponent knowing. You can also delay attacks in combos to kind of trick the other player into thinking you’re done, so they stop blocking.
The fighting system is fluid and smooth, with great animations and controls, but my favorite part is that the combos are listed on the bottom screen, so you can tap them or just use them as a quick combo list. This is really handy and actually makes playing the game more enjoyable, so you aren’t constantly pausing the game to remember a combo. On top of this, you can now tag teams, which is fun and adds some great combos to the fray. I liked the extra modes, such as tag team and infinite mode, and of course the showcase mode, where you unlock figurines to take pictures in 3D.
There are a lot of costumes to unlock to make the females look sexier or the males look cooler, and StreetPass and SpotPass are wonderfully integrated into the system. I’ll have my 3DS in my pocket all day when going out, then come home and have a few challengers ready to fight online that I passed when going out. I might even drive by a few SpotPass areas and come back with some downloaded costumes. Dimensions really utilizes these features, and I have a blast using them.
With all that said, the 3D effects are amazing and really show off the features of the system in this way, but overall, the graphics are smooth and crisp and look very detailed. I highly recommend Dimensions because it’s the best fighting game on the system right now.
This was a strong year in fighters with lots of great comebacks. What makes the top fighter stand apart is a great cast of characters, smooth and responsive controls, but most of all a great fighting system. Stories tend to take the back seat in fighting games, but online multiplayer is also important.
Before you go off saying this won because I’m a die-hard MK fan stop right there. There have been past MK games that didn’t deserve the best fighting game. It wins this year because it is true fan service and brings the series back to its roots. This year saw a lot of remakes, but Mortal Kombat gives us great visuals, all the characters we loved from past games and brings it back its 2D roots which are when the game was strongest. Smooth and responsive controls as well as the great fighting system we grew to love, and a bevy of fun modes are what makes Mortal Kombat come out on top.
I don’t mind sexually driven games, but I like them to be good and done right. Xtreme 2 is the sequel to Xtreme Beach Volleyball for the original Xbox. Everything is intact, with a few additions. It consists of six mini-games and five casino games, but that’s not enough to save this simple-minded game.
The whole point of the game is to play mini-games with other DoA ladies and earn their trust and friendship, and this is harder than it seems. The game plays similar to a Japanese dating sim game, and it can take forever to buy a lot of the items and learn how to become friends with these lovely ladies. You have to figure out what each lady likes, loves, and hates and send them gifts accordingly. All you get is a visual guide for each lady with pictures of what they like, but this doesn’t help much. After you spend a whole two weeks at New Zack Island, you pretty much give up trying to gain trust and friendship since it’s so hard to figure out without some in-depth guidance. After a try, you end up just playing the mini-games, ogling the scantily clad women lying around, and even dancing.
The mini-games are the most fun of the game, with pool hopping, flag running, beach volleyball, jet skiing, and water sliding. Pool hopping consists of pressing the buttons according to what is shown on the floaties. This game tends to be very hard since it requires precise timing. Flag-running is pretty simple, but the best game is probably volleyball. It has tight mechanics and controls, and it can be a blast to play. Jet skiing is very mundane since it’s the same track over and over again; however, the water effects are nice, and doing tricks on the ski can be fun. Water sliding is the hardest game of them all since it’s so hard to stay on the slide, and after you fall off, you don’t get another try. After you earn enough money from playing mini-games, you can purchase a camera, take sexy photos of the ladies, and view them later in your album.
The casino is the second major part of the game that lets you really earn some bucks. All the games are pretty self-explanatory; roulette tends to be the most intense, but you can lose all your money in one go if you’re not careful, so watch how you spend your money. The casino is all in 3D, so it’s nice to view, but I wish you could walk around in it and see all your DOA lady friends playing in there as well. When you earn enough money, you can go buy stuff at the store to give to your lady friends or yourself.
The game really has no purpose except to ogle your favorite DoA girls and try to buy the skimpiest bikini for them. The graphics are great, and everything jiggles in all the right places. The audio is pretty mundane, with Japanese audio tracks to cover the horrible English voice actresses. The game isn’t serious, but it could be so much more, and I just hope DoA Xtreme 3 becomes more deep and involved. I just wish there would have been more interaction, and all the load times don’t help either. The game is just too hard to figure out with the whole dating sim thing going on, so just sit back and enjoy the women and mini-games. The game will make you choke your chicken for sure, so DoA fanboys (girls?) should pick this game up and enjoy its simplicity.
I don’t mind sexually driven games, but I like them to be good and done right. Dead or Alive Paradise is a direct port of Dead or Alive Xtreme 2, which was an Xbox 360 exclusive. Everything is intact, with a few additions. One new character is added, Rio, and, as you would guess, the graphics are dumbed down as well as the gambling for some odd reason. No longer are you in a 3D casino, but you get to choose from a list of a few games such as BlackJack, slot machines, and poker, but roulette is now missing.
The whole point of the game is to play mini-games with other DoA ladies and earn their trust and friendship, and this is harder than it seems. The game plays similar to a Japanese dating sim game, and it can take forever to buy a lot of the items and learn how to become friends with these lovely ladies. You have to figure out what each lady likes, loves, and hates and send them gifts accordingly. All you get is a visual guide for each lady with pictures of what they like, but this doesn’t help much. After you spend a whole two weeks at New Zack Island, you pretty much give up trying to gain trust and friendship since it’s so hard to figure out without some in-depth guidance. After a try, you end up just playing the mini-games, ogling the scantily clad women lying around, and even dancing.
The mini-games are the most fun of the game, with pool hopping, flag running, and beach volleyball, except jet skiing and the water slide were scrapped from the game, and that’s not a good thing. Pool hopping consists of pressing the buttons according to what is shown on the floaties. This game tends to be very hard since it requires precise timing. Flag-running is pretty simple, but the best game is probably volleyball. It has tight mechanics and controls, and it can be a blast to play. After you earn enough money from playing mini-games, you can purchase a camera, take sexy photos of the ladies, and view them later in your album.
The casino is the second major part of the game that lets you really earn some bucks. All the games are pretty self-explanatory, but BlackJack is interesting since Rio is dressed in a sexy dealer outfit and spews cute sayings at you with some cute animations. Like I mentioned earlier, roulette is missing, and this was the most intense casino game in the original game, so I have no idea why it was scrapped.
The game really has no purpose except to ogle your favorite DoA girls and try to buy the skimpiest bikini for them. The graphics are pretty good for the PSP and resemble the first DoA Xtreme game for the Xbox. If you are lucky enough to have a hacked PSP with custom firmware, you can use a program called CWCheat and use the “nude” code for the game. Don’t get too excited since the girls have Barbie doll-esque bodies and the really naughty bits aren’t shown, but it does make the game that much more interesting for those lucky enough to figure this out. The audio is pretty mundane, with Japanese audio tracks to cover the horrible English voice actresses. The game isn’t serious, but it could be so much more, and I just hope DoA Xtreme 3 becomes more deep and involved. The game will make you choke your chicken, so DoA fanboys (girls?) should pick this game up and enjoy its simplicity.
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Yep! The fact that I forgot about this game until you made a comment proves that.