tecmo

All posts tagged tecmo

Dead or Alive Dimensions

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 12/23/2011
Posted in: 3DS, Nintendo Consoles. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

Publisher: Koei

Developer: Team Ninja

Release Date: 5/24/2011


Available Exclusively On

  • 3ds

I have never been a huge fan of Dead or Alive outside the characters. The fighting system is convoluted, overcomplicated, and not ever explained very well. Dimensions break this barrier with a great Chronicle story mode that introduces these complicated techniques little by little so you can absorb it 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 actually is complicated but after the story mode, you can actually use it. There are the usual combos of kick and punches, but you can juggle opponents and stun them in a critical state. You can throw and hold opponents while holding is kind of a counterattack you can actually counter a counter in this game. If someone counters your attack with 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 OHing 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 is 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 team 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 utilize 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.

Dead or Alive Xtreme 2

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 04/12/2010
Posted in: Microsoft Consoles, Xbox 360. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , . 1 Comment

Publisher: Tecmo

Developer: Team Ninja

Release Date: 11/13/2006


Available Exclusively On

  • x360

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. The consists of 6 mini-games, and 5 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 guide. After a try, you end up just playing the mini-games and 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 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 and 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 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.

Dead or Alive Paradise

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 04/12/2010
Posted in: PSP, Retro Consoles, Sony. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

Publisher: Tecmo

Developer: Team Ninja

Release Date: 3/18/2010


Available Exclusively On

  • psp

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 that 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 guide. After a try, you end up just playing the mini-games and 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 can be a blast to play. After you earn enough money from playing mini-games you can purchase a camera and 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.

Ninja Gaiden II

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 10/05/2009
Posted in: Microsoft Consoles, Xbox 360. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

Publisher: Microsoft

Developer: Tecmo, Team Ninja

Release Date: 6/3/2008


Available Exclusively On

I never beat the first Ninja Gaiden due to its insane difficulty. I wanted to very badly, but no matter how much I tried I failed in the end. Thankfully NG2 is a bit more forgiving in the easy setting, but newcomers will never make it past the first level. The game’s story is nothing special and feels like a rehash at best. You have to save the world from the Arch Fiends taking over the world and destroying so you have to hunt them down one by one. The gameplay is essentially the same as NG1. You have light and heavy attacks along with projectile weapons that you can charge. The game has many more weapons and Ninpo scrolls to use. Weapons range from scythes, tonfas, flails, and even staffs. All the weapons are great and you can upgrade them for up to three levels and after the enemies get too strong for that weapon you’ll never use it again.

The Ninpo magic is useful for enemies, but useless for bosses since it doesn’t do any damage. They can be used to cripple enemies and finish them off with a finishing move. There are a lot of new moves in the game yet they are repeated far too often. You can hack enemies apart into a bunch of pieces and continue to hack them up for overkill bonuses. While you rack up your Karma score you can also buy items from the Masamusa shops which are generously spread throughout the levels and the same goes for save points. I never found the game unfair with checkpoints or saves. Once you die at a boss you start right there in front of the boss again so this makes things less frustrating. Another cool element is being able to run on top of the water. You can fight enemies this way as well and just adds to the awesome ninja feel of the game. I also found the controls less responsive than the first game and also a bit sluggish. You’ll try to hit an enemy, but they’ll back away and hit you but you’re stuck in an animation that you can’t back out of. This isn’t a huge issue but it’s still there. Another problem is the camera which is terrible. Instead of following Ryu, it’ll always stay in one spot so enemies are coming at you blindly. While this also isn’t a huge issue it doesn’t make things better.

Throughout each level is a Test of Valor portal which has you killing as many enemies in the room as you can and rewarding you. These get extremely hard then super easy. The game also looks amazing. While it’s not Assassin’s Creed or Gears of War amazing it looks astounding with awesome lighting, high res textures, realistic physics, and what have you. Another problem is that the game is insanely linear with literally only one straight path to go on. this makes fighting a bit cramped sometimes but overall isn’t a huge issue. A lot of people will have the biggest problem with the difficulty. While it’s tolerable on easy you’ll never beat normal or, god forbid, hard.

What makes the game so hard are the limited healing items, some cheap enemies, and the sluggish controls. You never really feel powerful enough no matter what weapons you get. I really hated this and is the most disappointing part of the game. There are also times when the frame rate will chug when there are tons of enemies on-screen. This makes those sections even more annoying.

The game has lots of gore, sexy women, cool weapons, and magic, a long campaign, leaderboards, and amazing visuals, but it falls down some with sluggish controls, a bad camera, and insane difficulty. If you loved NG1 you’re going to have a blast here, but if the first game made you feel standoffish then pick NG2 up because you’ll be able to at least beat the game.

Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 10/05/2009
Posted in: DS, Nintendo, Retro Consoles. Tagged: , , , , , , . Leave a comment

Publisher: Tecmo

Developer: Team Ninja

Release Date: 3/25/2008


Available Exclusively On

  • nds

First I have to mention the game isn’t brutally difficult like previous NG games. The game is actually a perfectly set difficulty that will challenge you but won’t make you tear your hair out. You play as Ryu Hayabusa who has to stop the Fiends from taking over the world with the Dark Dragon Stones. You are the last member of the Dark Dragon Clan and you must protect your lineage. While the story isn’t anything special the game does sport beautiful cut scenes that were tailored for the dual screens. The graphics are also the best on the DS with beautiful pre-rendered backgrounds, high res textures, and character models.

You basically execute all attacks through the touch screen by slashing enemies. You can use your projectile weapons by tapping enemies. I have to report this works superbly and the controls are actually more responsive than the console games. You can use your mana power for devastating attacks but you can only use these once until you get to another save point. The save points are generously scattered throughout the short levels so things won’t get too hard for you. You can do other moves such as slashing up to jump and then slashing down to do a slam attack. You get all the moves in Ninja Gaiden (Xbox) but there aren’t any new ones. While all of this sounds excellent it does get old by the end of the game. However, the game has some fun boss fights to keep things interesting.

You can solve puzzles by blowing out flames, lighting torches, hitting orbs, etc. but nothing that will strain your brain. The game is very short and you can beat it in about 6 hours. There are 13 chapters but the levels are really really short (you can beat most of them in 20 mins or so). Overall the game is really well done and any action fan needs to own this especially if you’re getting ready for Ninja Gaiden II (X360).