Enjoy Smashing your Friends Through Walls with the Bonus of Controlling Beautiful Women.
It can only be Dead or Alive 3!
3D fighting games are few and far between. Making up a fledgling genre, three major series have prevailed, namely Tekken form Namco, Virtua Fighter from Sega, and Dead or Alive by Tecmo.
Each series has its own game engine and play mechanic followed by legions of supporters who will tell you that their particular favourite is the best 3D fighter in existence.
Dead or Alive has always been the outsider. The original was released into the arcades of Japan back in 1996 to a mixed response. Comparisons with Virtua Fighter 2 were unavoidable. The game used Sega’s hardware and operated using a pretty similar fighting style, the only real difference in game mechanic being the replacement of the block button with an evade function.
DOA 2 was by far and away the most popular in the series and featured some outrageously disproportionate female characters, that hit the headlines as well as they held one's gaze.
Dead or Alive 3 had to deliver. Made exclusively for Xbox, the game’s sole purpose is to impress the Japanese gaming public enough to put their faith in a large, American console. It was unveiled at the Tokyo Game Show last year and was Microsoft’s saving grace. What emerged was a fighter of such beauty, grace and competence, it saved the show for Microsoft.
One of the more interesting things about the game is the gung-ho attitude of Tomonobu Itagaki, the game’s Lead Producer. He has made some shocking comments to the press about all kinds of things, especially the competition. Here’s what he had to say back in September.
“Well, Virtua Fighter 4 is the better game to me - I would pay money to actually buy Virtua Fighter 4. Tekken 4, even if someone paid me, I wouldn't play it! Let me explain my reasons why. Sega, of course, their infrastructure allows them to support hardware and software exceptionally. Virtua Fighter 4, as a fighting game, is a good game and my overall respect for it, in its detail and the overall gameplay, is high, though I feel Virtua Fighter 4 plays a bit too identically to its previous versions. The hardcore gamers will realise that the card system idea originally came from Dead Or Alive 2: Hardcore's User Profile System. I really don't care about Sega using my idea, especially with a company that has a good infrastructure that allows them to provide this for the gamer. I think it's a good thing - it's a game that the players out there need. Of course, I'm referring to the arcade version and I'm not sure if the US version or console version have the same things. I respect the overall content of the game from the outside, though from the inside, the game isn't really up to par. The game was made very conservatively and it's kinda old. But again, I can excuse that, because the game carries tradition. In terms of the actual gameplay, they failed with VF3 so they went back to VF2 and used that as guide for VF4. From that perspective, I'm a little bit disappointed in VF4.”
He also said that Tekken 4 was "...a piece of sh*t. One of the worst things about Tekken 4 is the concept planning. It's really half-*ssed. Tekken 4 attempts 3D environments, like I did in DOA 2, but they failed miserably. They should've stayed in a 2D world. To be quite honest, I don't think they have the technique to go to 3D from 2D. The graphics look very cheap. The people who made the platform will be angry as to the end result of Tekken 4. And the gameplay? The gameplay is very slow, very incomplete-feeling while playing. The game balance is also way off. I really hope when they start to work on the home console version of Tekken 4, they will fix these problems and make a better game. With the game in its present state, right now I don't see them as my competition.”
That’s what we like to hear!
As far as play goes, DOA 3 will please fans of the series. It functions as you would expect, with the evade feature meaning players are locked in a battle over who makes the first move. The name of the game is counter-attack, and a false move will leave you severely punished, especially by human opposition.
DOA 3 looks stunning and seems to have been designed for more discerning gamers than its predecessors. Gone are the enormous wobbly, albeit well-animated breasts of the female cast. The new DOA 3 girls are sleek, and obviously mean business. The backgrounds are stunning to look at with a wealth of little graphical touches that make it a pleasure to play. The interactivity of the environments is unsurpassed with new possibilities springing up all the time.
As far as fighters go on the Xbox, DOA 3 is the best one. Admittedly there are no others, but this minor point aside, it will take a seriously good beat-em-up to dethrone Tecmo.
Each series has its own game engine and play mechanic followed by legions of supporters who will tell you that their particular favourite is the best 3D fighter in existence.
Dead or Alive has always been the outsider. The original was released into the arcades of Japan back in 1996 to a mixed response. Comparisons with Virtua Fighter 2 were unavoidable. The game used Sega’s hardware and operated using a pretty similar fighting style, the only real difference in game mechanic being the replacement of the block button with an evade function.
DOA 2 was by far and away the most popular in the series and featured some outrageously disproportionate female characters, that hit the headlines as well as they held one's gaze.
Dead or Alive 3 had to deliver. Made exclusively for Xbox, the game’s sole purpose is to impress the Japanese gaming public enough to put their faith in a large, American console. It was unveiled at the Tokyo Game Show last year and was Microsoft’s saving grace. What emerged was a fighter of such beauty, grace and competence, it saved the show for Microsoft.
One of the more interesting things about the game is the gung-ho attitude of Tomonobu Itagaki, the game’s Lead Producer. He has made some shocking comments to the press about all kinds of things, especially the competition. Here’s what he had to say back in September.
“Well, Virtua Fighter 4 is the better game to me - I would pay money to actually buy Virtua Fighter 4. Tekken 4, even if someone paid me, I wouldn't play it! Let me explain my reasons why. Sega, of course, their infrastructure allows them to support hardware and software exceptionally. Virtua Fighter 4, as a fighting game, is a good game and my overall respect for it, in its detail and the overall gameplay, is high, though I feel Virtua Fighter 4 plays a bit too identically to its previous versions. The hardcore gamers will realise that the card system idea originally came from Dead Or Alive 2: Hardcore's User Profile System. I really don't care about Sega using my idea, especially with a company that has a good infrastructure that allows them to provide this for the gamer. I think it's a good thing - it's a game that the players out there need. Of course, I'm referring to the arcade version and I'm not sure if the US version or console version have the same things. I respect the overall content of the game from the outside, though from the inside, the game isn't really up to par. The game was made very conservatively and it's kinda old. But again, I can excuse that, because the game carries tradition. In terms of the actual gameplay, they failed with VF3 so they went back to VF2 and used that as guide for VF4. From that perspective, I'm a little bit disappointed in VF4.”
He also said that Tekken 4 was "...a piece of sh*t. One of the worst things about Tekken 4 is the concept planning. It's really half-*ssed. Tekken 4 attempts 3D environments, like I did in DOA 2, but they failed miserably. They should've stayed in a 2D world. To be quite honest, I don't think they have the technique to go to 3D from 2D. The graphics look very cheap. The people who made the platform will be angry as to the end result of Tekken 4. And the gameplay? The gameplay is very slow, very incomplete-feeling while playing. The game balance is also way off. I really hope when they start to work on the home console version of Tekken 4, they will fix these problems and make a better game. With the game in its present state, right now I don't see them as my competition.”
That’s what we like to hear!
As far as play goes, DOA 3 will please fans of the series. It functions as you would expect, with the evade feature meaning players are locked in a battle over who makes the first move. The name of the game is counter-attack, and a false move will leave you severely punished, especially by human opposition.
DOA 3 looks stunning and seems to have been designed for more discerning gamers than its predecessors. Gone are the enormous wobbly, albeit well-animated breasts of the female cast. The new DOA 3 girls are sleek, and obviously mean business. The backgrounds are stunning to look at with a wealth of little graphical touches that make it a pleasure to play. The interactivity of the environments is unsurpassed with new possibilities springing up all the time.
As far as fighters go on the Xbox, DOA 3 is the best one. Admittedly there are no others, but this minor point aside, it will take a seriously good beat-em-up to dethrone Tecmo.
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