Published by Tecmo Koei for Nintendo 3ds
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| Kasumi and Ayane take up 90% of the storyline as one would expect |
For a series mostly known for it's protagonists proportions rather than for it's fighting engine or characters, Dead or Alive (DOA) has a very unfair reputation. Fox News, in it's own wonderful way, epitomised the reaction to any DOA game with their article about the Japanese complaints (I assume it was the Japanese to be fair) about the size of the female characters' chest size. Personally I couldn't care less about their chest size or lack thereof. DOA has always been about the combat engine and the daft, melodramatic storyline for me...also Ryu Hayabusa (first name on google for Ryu btw). As we all know Ryu Hayabusa (of the Ninja Gaiden game series) is a god of death and cool..even Ninja Gaiden 3 can't destroy his awesomeness.
So this is the first *proper* DOA portable game, with it arriving on the 3ds. As a portable game it needs to do 4 major things to be a success:
1) It needs to capture the spirit of the original game it is based upon
2) It needs to be portable (ie playable in small doses)
3) It needs to run smoothly
4) It needs to offer more than just the basic package, something unique.
DOA:Dimensions offers all of the above in spades.
Stop trying to hit me, and just hit me:
For the uninitiated the combat DOA works upon a triangle system.
Strikes (punch/kick) takes priority over throws which take priority over holds which take priority over strikes. Holds are a counter system whereby you press the guard button along with diagonal up away, away, or down away from the attacker. If you perform the correct hold (high,medium, low attacks) you will counter with an attack of your own. These can be done even in the middle of a combo, unless you are stunned. While it may seem complicated at first, the flow of the game is easy to master. Speaking of flow, I'm not a great fan of 3d fighters..Tekken never did anything for me and Soul Edge/Calibur are generally just okay. I think that may have to do with the speed of the matches. I'm a massive fan of Guilty Gear/Blazblue and King of Fighters..essentially I love sprite based fighters rather than the...whatever the hell has happened to Street Fighter..DOA moves and combos fast enough for me to enjoy it. The controls work perfectly well, especially considering the difficulty that I had with SFIV on the 3ds, and the touch screen shows the combo list, which you can scroll if you desire, while also giving a button for guard, hold and throw. I have no complaints regarding the combat engine or how it is controlled using the 3ds buttons.
Lemme tell you a story
One thing that has generally been ignored until recently has been the storyline aspect of the fighting genre. Street Fighter 2 brought in the talking heads and endings. Fatal Fury added overarching storylines, Samurai Showdow went further to add cutscenes at the end. My favourite of the SF games, Alpha 3, went whole hog for a full storyline (though they were pretty much identical for whoever you played as) Soul Calibur went full story mode with Voice Overs, edging towards fan fiction in many cases..however it wasn't until Blazblue hit the scene with it's visual novel, multiple endings, different characters get different storylines, did the gaming world truly understand how popular a good story can be to a bunch of fisticuffs.
Keeping in mind that DOA:Dimensions is essentially a retelling of the first 4 dead of alive games...the story is a load of nonsense and all over the place. Known as DOA:Chronicles you have Kasumi, Ayane, Ryu and...Kasumi's brother who is head of the Mugen Tenshin ninja clan and...oh god. Look, Kasumi leaves village which is a no-no, Fame Douglas starts the DOA fighting championship to gain data for his arms manufacturing business and...NINJAS okay. It's all highly melodramatic nonsense with Ayane acting like a spoilt japanese female character in all those animes. NIIIIISAAAAAN..type thing. It's fun and completely throw away. Most of the story is there just to teach you the controls, with tutorials popping up here there and everywhere. It can be a bit jarring at times, but as i said, it's fun. I should note that you can choose between english dub and japanese dub....which is a nice thing to add.
The story took me about 5 hours or so, though I would urge taking it slowly. There are the 4 major storylines to play through from varying viewpoints (though you cannot choose who to play as..mostly Kasumi) and a mini storyline involving everyone's favourite soprano..no not Tony. The story is mostly told in stills from the ingame engine with VOs, as well as the odd CGI cutscene. There are alot of CGI cutscenes in this game. From what I can tell everything looks great in 3d, but as I don't ever really use the 3d and I would be interested to meet someone who does and does not suffer from chronic headaches.
You want modes, you got em:
Apart from story mode you have:
Arcade
Survival
Tag Challenge (where the other player is the CPU)
Free Play (just fight the CPU but no arcade settings)
Training
Local multiplayer between two carts
Internet play
throwdown (street pass battles)
showcase (figurines, dioramas, dodgy photos..all here)
3d photo album (see above)
I have played a couple of online fights. It's difficult to get to fight anyone in the UK and there is some lag when fighting people in say..Canada, but that is to be expected. Also having you arse handed to you is to be expected. It's a good netcode otherwise. No real noticeable framedrops outside of lag.
I thought you said this wasn't about looks
DOA:Dimensions is a really, really good looking game. While there is a large amount of jaggies (lack of AA is assume) and some of the textures can be a bit muddy, the fighters all look incredible. They all fight in a wonderfully fluid motion and the backgrounds explode here, there and everywhere. As with all DOA games, the stages are multi-tiered meaning you can knock your opponent from one area into the next dealing minor damage. Kicking Eliot through a skylight never gets old. Frame rate is stable, as mentioned before, and the 3d works well and does not cause any serious problems to the framerate. Oh and it's 60 frames per second without 3d on. All the characters have multiple costumes of varying daftness or amount of fabric if thats your thing.
Summary
So does DOA:Dimensions manage to pull of an effective fighter on a handheld? Yup. With all the additions, online play, daft storyline and fun mechanics, I cannot recommend the game highly enough. You can probably find the game for under £20 these days, so if you get the chance..pick it up.
Score: 4.5 jaggies out of 5
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