Games Beaten:
First 50:
51. Gauntlet IV
Mega Drive52. Alex Kidd in Shinobi World
Master System53. Psycho Fox
Master System54. The Ninja
Master System55. R-Type
Master System56. Momotarō Katsugeki
PC Engine57. Overcooked: Special Edition
Switch eShop58. Parasol Stars
PC Engine59. Star Parodier
PC Engine60. Cadash
PC Engine61. Dead or Alive Ultimate Xbox *NEW*
62. Dead or Alive Ultimate 2 Xbox *NEW*Replays!:
1. Bare Knuckle III
Mega Drive2. Die Hard Arcade
Saturn3. The World of Illusion starring Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck
Mega Drive4. Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble
3DS VC 5. Trip World
3DS VCHere's reviews 14-15 of 29!
Dead or Alive
Dead or Alive is the first in the bouncy, trouncy, flouncy, pouncy, fun fun fun fun fun fighting game series renowned for it’s distinctive …assets. Now, obviously, the Dead or Alive series is mostly know for its physics and the volume of its ladies’ chests, but I’ve always thought it was a little unfair to reduce it to just that. Not only is half the cast male, but underneath it’s sex appeal there’s a solid, fast paced fighting engine that’s a lot of fun to get to grips with.
This Xbox port of the game, included as one of 2 discs in Dead or Alive Ultimate, is a port of the Saturn version of the game (to the point ‘Sega Saturn’ even shows in the credits), which I have heard is the superior version, but I can’t back that claim up as I’ve not played either 32 bit version. Although this version has had some visual polish applied, the aging console hardware it was ported from means that this entry doesn’t quite hold up to the later games standards on either the fighting engine or sex appeal front, but it’s still a solid game for it’s era.
Compared to later games, the fighting feels a bit less free-flowing. Characters move slower, moves don’t flow as well together, and jump physics are a little bit floaty, probably due to it’s Virtua Fighter engine routes. However, it holds up fantastically when compared alongside its peers, and gives the best 3D fighters of the era - such as Tekken 3 – a run for their money.
Combat in the series works on a rock-paper-scissors system of sorts, with attacks (punches and kicks) taking priority over throws, throws beating out counters, and counters able to react to punches and kicks to turn them against the attacker. Countering in this game is a little finicky, but I pulled it off OK, but throws were awkward to pull off. Dead or Alive also has an out-of-bounds gimmick where knocking an opponent out of the ring results in extra damage. In later entries, this is flashy, with enemies falling to a new fighting arena – from a roof to the ground below or some such – whilst taking damage from the impact. Here though, the arena is just surrounded by landmines or something – they appear as glowing squares, but if an enemy is knocked to the ground on top of them, they explode for extra damage.
Visually DOA is a good looking game for the Saturn, although it doesn’t hold up to the best the PS1 had to offer. The character models aren’t too blocky, but the famous ‘jiggle physics’ are hilariously bad here, as womens whole torsos bobble up and down as if they’re made of jelly. It’s certainly not titillating, just oscillating. To be honest, as I’ve tended to thing with every game in the series, they generally just detract from what is otherwise a solid fighting game. The Xbox port seems to scale up the original Saturn version to a higher resolution, and I’m guessing it might upgrade some of the textures too.
Dead or Alive on Xbox is a solid experience, and a very affordable way to play the game compared to the imported Saturn version. It’s a fun little experience to play through, and back in the day when it could be played online, I’m sure that was quite a draw - but to be honest it’s just a bonus for the real star of the Dead or Alive Ultimate package…
Dead or Alive 2 Ultimate
Dead or Alive 2 Ultimate is a remake of the second game in the jiggly, wiggly, giggly, big…gly(?) franchise of fighting games, remastered for Xbox using the engine from Dead or Alive 3. And wow, what a step up this is from the original. The original was a good game for it’s era, but DOA2U is somewhat of a revelation when played afterwards.
The speed of the game has been boosted tremendously, and characters bounce about at crazy speed, and I don’t just mean their chests. The speed and ease with which attacks can be strung together makes every fight feel high octane and it goes a long way to making the action feel much more exciting. Combined with the ring-out mechanics having extra visual spectacle, and the counter attack mechanics allowing you to turn a match around in seconds, DOA2 feels like you’re playing a martial arts movie, much more so than other fighters I’ve played.
Visually, the game looks stunning too. DOA3 was an amazing spectacle on the Xbox, and DOA2Ultimate is a game that looks pretty good even today. The character models are very impressive for the era, and the smoothness of the character animations is great too. The backgrounds are also quite nice to look at, although I feel they’re perhaps a bit weaker than in DOA 3.
There’s a variety of modes to play here, such as survival mode, and a ‘story’ mode which is really just arcade mode pretending to be something more. Beating certain requirements will unlock more costumes for your characters, of which each character seems to have several. I beat the game with 3 characters in my playthrough – Ayane, Helena and Lei Fang, and each controlled fantastically.
My introduction to Dead or Alive came from Dead or Alive Dimensions on 3DS, and when I first played Dead or Alive 3 it felt like somewhat of a step back in terms of controls and pacing. DOA2U on the other hand I could pick up and play as if I’d put hundreds of hours in before, so I’m assuming that that is the mechanics the 3DS game was built on.
It has it’s faults – the final boss is annoying for a start, but DOA2U is a game I highly recommend. The game is fantastic, dirt cheap and comes with the nice bonus of DOA1 to boot, so definitely give it a play. It’s more than just boobs.
