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Rock beats scissor. Scissor beats paper. Paper beats rock.
This is how simple the Dead or Alive concept is. And yet, it's seriously one of the deepest fighters I've ever played. Sure you can mash, like many other games. And there's no doubt you can have a good time mashing. But if you want to really get good you must understand the game. And to understand the game, you must understand "the triangle system," or roshambo. In Dead or Alive it works like this: strike beats throw. Throw beats grab. And grab beats strike. But the deepness comes from how you utilize all these. You see, "strike" is another word for punch or kick. And all of these punches, kicks, throws and blocks can be executed high, low or medium. It gets tricky. No wait, actually a better word is frantic. Because frantic is the word to use when you're talking about a fighting game where matches rarely make it to a minute in length. I mean to be honest in DOA5 even after you've saved a bulk of the data to the HDD to minimize load-times, the loading is still likely to be longer than your fights. But if you're a fan of the series, this is a thing of beauty. You know that each fight should be an amazing rush of blood to the head erupting in a violent ballet of well executed moves that are less chance than the roshambo of Alex Kidd's world.
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Long has the DOA series been dismissed as just visual fluff. And to a certain degree that's understandable. I mean to be fair the developers spent more time on the physics of breasts than most others spend on their fighting engine. But throughout the progression of the series we've seen an arcade fighter come into its own. A definite high point was Dead or Alive 2 released on Dreamcast and PlayStation 2. And although subsequent releases - namely DOA 4 - would blow it away visually and roster-wise, it's hard to cast any stones against the second installment.
And I suppose before I go on I should just admit my bias. I am a big fan of the DOA series. I mean, I'm not a big 3D fighting fan. But I enjoy some Tekken. I think the SoulCalibur series is fun and worth your dollars. But DOA is what really grabs me. It's visceral, yet strangely brainy. But not overly brainy - nope, I'm a guy who enjoys the dumbness of the movie adaptation.
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And I've spent a half-dozen hours this past week devoted to Dead or Alive 5. Specifically, the Story Mode. And this is exactly why I'm raving about this game. The Story Mode is actually one of the most impressive doses of fan-service I've ever seen injected into the single player mode of a fighting game. Normally, you get an Arcade Mode. So what's that? Fight a bunch of dudes, win the game. Easy right? Twenty minutes? This was basically an entire movie full of ridiculous plot twists, stupid dialogue and insane scenes. To note: for a moment I was upset that I thought a major character was dead only to find out it was a clone I saw slain; at one point Tina declares she is running for governor; and at one point Kasumi visits Antarctica wearing... well, very little.
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Dead or Alive 5 is a game so good that it actually renders its predecessors unnecessary. You've got an overwhelmingly awesome single player mode - one that will unlock countless extras including characters from Virtua Fighter. You've got a solid 2-player mode via local or online. You've got a roster that is impressive as hell. You've got stunning visuals that put the preceding games to shame (which is saying something when graphics have been so important to the series). Really, this is a game I strongly urge all fighting fans this generation to run out and add to their collections. Now.
I've been watching this on Vita, I may have to bit lol
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You spin me right 'round, baby Right 'round like a record, baby Right 'round-'round'-round
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@Zagnorch: this took me a minute. At first I was like "oh man, zag thinks I'm a broken recor--" and then I was like "oh... nicely played, Zag."
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@noiseredux:
It's pretty much what pops into my head whenever I read or hear the words "Dead or Alive."
That and RoboCop.
But, I've wasted enough space in the comments section, so I'm just gonna let myself out now.
'Late!
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I borrowed the 360 version from the library and loved it. I completely agree that it is the best DOA game since 2.
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@Zagnorch: Just watched RoboCop last night. @Addicted: You think it's better than DoA4? Hmm...I may need to dust off my Ayane skills.
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The only installment I own for this series is DOA 2:Hardcore for PS2 and I still pop it in here and there. I always wanted to try other games in the series, it has an excellent fighting engine imo. Thanks Noise, you reminded me of another series I need to look for to add to my collection!
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@Shadow Kisuragi:
Hey, maybe they could make RoboCop an unlockable character in the next installment...
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My beloved kicks tail at two fighting game series;Soul Calibur and Dead or Alive. She was somewhat frustrated by the mechanic changes of both series, but really enjoyed DoA 5 so far (Had to relearn a bit after spending so much time with Dimensions on 3DS). She did really enjoy the story mode, and I can't touch her Hitomi or Kasumi.
Side note; Lemme tell you how difficult it is to get my wife cool DoA stuff and convincing folks its really for her.
Much like Soul Calibur, we started the DoA series on Dreamcast and picked up almost every iteration upon release, and I think 5 is the best. My beloved probably won't decide until she's unlocked everything...
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@Shadow Kisuragi: In my opinion yes.
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@slackur: SoulCalibur II... I remember my college days, and my wife and I competing against everyone else in the arcade for the top records and killing the Conquest mode.
We ended up in a Tournament together, and the organizers thought it would be funny to purposefully match us up in the semi-finals because the previous guy pissed her off. She told him he was being "cheap" by spamming the same moves as Kilik, and they somehow extrapolated that to saying he was "cheating". They put her on a GameCube console since it was available as punishment, and she wasn't familiar with the controls, even asking what the buttons did just before the match. She ended up abusing the crap out of the guy and ringing him out three times in a row, because she'd just parry his move and kick him out. I ended up winning out against her in a tough match, however, because we both knew what moves we'd pull in the situations after playing 100s of matches against each other.
As punishment for matching us up, I destroyed the other contestant in the finals by utterly humiliating him. I stood purposefully at the edge of the ring, and told him if he could land a hit on me, it'd be an auto-ring out. First attempt, I grabbed him and threw him out. Second attempt, I parried and kicked him out. Third attempt, I jumped over him and he threw himself out. I told the organizers that they should respect women more, their club was doomed to failure because of the poor choice of membership and leadership, and that their boys club had no one skilled to even host a tournament. With that, I walked out and told them their reward wasn't worth claiming.
...a month later, the college shut the club down after numerous complaints. I miss the local tournament scenes and LAN parties, but it's not the same anymore, and my wife has to deal with the same BS from "gamers" all the time. I'll often toss her on a fighting game she's never played just to humiliate the idiots.
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@Shadow Kisuragi:
Damn, kid... I never thought you had it in you to be so vindictive.
Note to self: make sure to never get on Mr. & Mrs. Shadz' bad sides.
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