Dead or Alive: Where the bouncing in three dimensions began.
Written: Aug 07 '04
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Fun
Cons: A bit lightweight
The Bottom Line: Those who are fans of the series, or just out for a laugh, should look into it.Looking for a deep fighter?look elsewhere
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| flash-hammer's Full Review: Dead Or Alive for PlayStation 1 |
In 1996, Tecmo released a fighter that would change fighting games forever. Not due to an awesome engine like Streetfighter 2 or Virtua Fighter 2, but because of something totally aesthetic. Bouncing breasts. While even I'm getting sick of reviews that talk about nothing but the bounce of this game, it really is one of the most noticeable factors of the game.
While this wasn't the first fighter to have animations of that part of the female anatomy, Mai Shiranui in Fatal Fury 2 is the earliest I have heard of, but as far as I know, DOA was the first game to do it in 3D. And put quite an emphasis on it.
This feature overshadowed the return to gaming of the star of the legendary Ninja Gaiden series, Ryu Hayabusa, who made his first appearance in a new game since the early 90s.
The game follows the adventures of the entrants into the Dead or Alive world combat championships, a martial arts tournament sponsored by millionaire Fame Douglas. The entrants into this years competition are as follows:
Kasumi - Kasumi's brother Hayate was injured by an assassin, a move which stopped him from becoming the master of their Ninja clan. She is out for revenge at any cost
Jann Lee - An Orphan who mastered Bruce Lee's Jeet Kune Do at an early age, and now works as a bodyguard for controversial political figures.
Lei Fang - A martial arts master in the body of a beatiful Chinese girl. One day she was attacked by a group of men, and before she could fight back they were all taken down by a man with a dragon symbol on his back. Determined to prove she can handle herself, she enters the tournament to prove she is the best.
BaymanRussian born and trained ex-military commando, who was exiled after failing to protect the Kremlin's favourite daughter. He enters the tournament as a hired assassin out to kill Fame Douglas.
Tina Armstrong - Tina is a pro-wreslter who enters the tournament with her father. He believes she wants to be the champion of the world, but the truth is, she wants to be seen and become a Hollywood starlet.
Ryu Hayabusa - Ryu is a Ninja master, who has been living in peace for years, until he learns that his best friend Hayate's sister has went missing, and the only clue to her whereabouts is the DOA tournament.
Zack - And eccentric Muay Thai champion from America who enters the tournament purely to fuel his ego.
Gen-Fu - An ancient master from China, who has come out of retirement for unknown reasons. It is thought his granddaughter's poor health may have something to do with it...
Bass Armstrong - Tina's father, who wants his daughter to be a great champion in the world of wreslting
However, these are not the only fighters at the tournament, To win, the karate master Raidou will have to be taken down, and there is talk of a mysterious purple haired girl with a grudge against Kasumi skulking in the shadows...
Graphically, the game is pretty good for its time, with the fighters looking much better than their counterparts in most other PSX fighting games of the time. While for the most part the game is as good as you can expect from a PlayStation game, on occasion I did notice some polygons on the fighters disapearing at random points, but this wasnt too noticeable, for me anyway. The backgrounds are horribly boring, and make the ones in Tekken look awesome by contrast. Each female character has 14 costumes (!) which range from their proper atire to Bunny suits to bikinis and back again. The men have 5 outfits each, most of which standard Martial Arts gear. So what about the game's claim to fame, the bouncing breasts, well, they sure as hell bounce. As in bounce like they are huge water balloons. I recall hearing that Team Ninja, the game's makers, actually had specific staff to ensure the bounce was realistic. And one of two things become clear about this crack team of breast analysers. Either they have never actually seen breasts move, or they observed the mammaries of some very unusually proportioned ladies. The bounce effect is actually so over the top its hilarious. While I have heard a lot of female gamers complain about it and call players perverts, it truly is hilarious, and I doubt anyone could actually be turned on by it. The graphics aren't that good.
The sound in the game is pretty disapointing though. The characters do talk, but seeing as its in Japanese I cant tell what they say or how they say it. The music in the game isnt all that great. It is incredibly silly, which suits the mood of the game though. So while it fits, it wouldnt exactly be a candidate for best game soundtrack in my eyes.
Controls look like this:
Square:Hold
Triangle:Punch
X:Punch
Circle:Kick
If you are wondering what hold is, it means throw to you and me.The game is essentially Virtua Fighter for dummies, in that it only uses 3 buttons, (throw taking the place of VF's block, blocking in this game is achieved simply by holding back on the d-pad). They respond to a good degree of satisfaction, and I dont really have anything to complain about in terms of control.
To help keep you interested in the game, as well as the regular arcade and versus modes, the game also includes a 'Kumite' mode. While I always thought that Kumite was a fighting tournament, but here it pits you against 100 opponents, one at a time, and your goal is to win as high a percentage as you can. While this may sound innovative. It is pretty boring, and needless to say it hasnt been in either Dead or Alive sequel.
Something that did appear in both sequels so far that is distinctly lacking here, is the story. In DOA2 and 3, inbetween selected fights, the player was treated to excellent quality FMV videos, as well as a longer one upon completing the game. While not exctly great in terms of story, they at least included them. Here you complete the game and ...unlock another costume. While unlocking all of these does add some replay value, endings would have been nicer. DOA2 had costumes to unlock, but also the dreamy FMV's.
While the series is well known for its Virtua Fighter lite gameplay and tendency for button mashers to do fairly well against all but experts, but DOA 1 is just too button mashery for my liking. It wasnt until the sequel that the game added the counter button, and the infamous 'rock,paper,scissors' system was born, so here we just have your bog standard 3D fighter for a 32-Bit console. What the game does do to try and spice things up a bit is the danger zone. In Dead or Alive, the stages go on forever, just the camera moves back, like in Tekken, however, to add a bit of VF style spice to it, there is a ring designated, but leaving this ring doesnt hand your opponent the round like in Sega's title, it takes you into the Danger Zone. While here, if you are knocked down, you will suffer a land-mine style explosion that knocks you high in the air,not only depleting a bit of energy, but opening you up for being juggled by your opponent.
While this is hardly a genre changing feature, it is pulled off well enough to make it fun.
And that is all Dead or Alive tries to be. Fun. And to be honest, to a certain degree it succeeds. With a few friend, skill at fighters not required, with a few drinks in, due to the female fighters overactive assets and the stereotypical but in a good way male fighters, the game will bring in quite a bit of fun.
It isn't quite up there with legendary fighting games like Super Streetfighter 2,Mortal Kombat 2,Virtua Fighter 2 ,Tekken 2 or either of the DOA sequels, but it is better than most of your PSX fighting game muck like Dynasty Warriors and Vs.
At the end of the day, if the above paragraph sounds like your sort of thing, then chances are you will enjoy DOA. And while its nowhere near as good either playability, graphically or aurally than its successors, fighting fans and series fans might want to look into it to see where the series started.
But be warned, it isnt that great a game. It isnt that bad either though, and is better than a lot of the crappy 3D fighters released on the PSX, yet it has to be said it isnt one of the best either.
I feel average is a fair score for the game. Despite not being great, it is good enough to warrant staying out of a negative score, but isnt quite up to a positive one.
Related Reviews
Ninja Gaiden for XBox
Recommended:
Yes
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flash-hammer
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