Dead or Alive Ultimate - Review

Added November 9th, 2004 by Sallizar

Introduction:

Dead or Alive 3 had a huge marketing blitz when the Xbox debut. Who can forget the “She kicks high” commercial? So, if you’re an Xbox gamer you’ve probably at least played DOA3 even if you don’t own it. To me, it’s a good fighter that got old pretty quick. After a brief tangent into the sports genre, Team Ninja finally gets around to giving us a pseudo-sequal to DOA3. It’s not DOA4 it’s a remix of Dead or Alive 2 with a bonus disc that contains an emulated version of the original Dead or Alive. DOA2 Ultimate might as well be considered a sequel to DOA3 though. Better graphics, tons of new costumes and Xbox Live play make this package much more than just a simple re-release.

Gameplay:

Just about all the same modes from DOA3 carry over to DOA:U. First and foremost is Story mode. This is the primary way you’ll unlock character costumes. Each character has various character specific cut scenes interspersed between the rounds of fighting. The cut-scenes are well done and the story sort of makes a little bit of sense. The best part about story mode is the boss fight against Tengu at the end of each run through. When you start the fight the arena is full of dark trees and rocks and looks like another dimension. As you fight Tengu he occasionally unleashes a whirlwind attack that sweeps debris across the stage and changes the seasons. It’s a neat graphical graphic touch that keeps the boss fight interesting even after the hundredth time you’ll have to play it to get all the costumes.

You also get time attack, survival and versus modes. In time attack you have to get through eight, best two of three, rounds as quickly as possible. This is the mode you’ll need to use to unlock the extra costumes for the three unlockable characters. Survival mode throws you in an arena surrounded by bombs and sends an endless string of enemies at you until you finally fall. After each round you do get some life back so it’s not as hard as it sounds. Versus mode lets you take on a friend in offline mode. Loser gets to pick the next stage after each fight. All of these modes are also available in tag team mode.

Some new features are collection mode and replay mode. After playing Survival the first time you unlock the new Collection screen. During survival mode, each opponent you beat will drop an item. Pick these up to fill in your collection. When you play as different characters, different items will drop so you’ll have to play through with everyone to get it all. Replay mode lets you record fights. After recording you can them play with the camera settings and cut together your very own MTV style replay.

Graphics:

Wow. Every time I think Team Ninja has squeezed out every ounce of graphics power the Xbox has, they give it another twist and get even more juice out of it. Dead or Alive Ultimate is by far the prettiest fighting game I’ve ever had the good fortune to play. Almost every single arena makes use of tons of particle effects and bloom lighting. The multilevel arenas, like the Great Wall and Safari, are huge and every time I play I find a new area to throw my opponent into. Do I even need to tell you how great the character models and animations look? Every character is the best you’ve ever seen, so good in fact that they didn’t even use FMVs in story mode. All the cinematic cut-scenes in story mode are done in-engine and look great. Each character, especially the girls, have tons of unlockable costumes and not a single one of them is phoned in. Every single one is painstakingly detailed and worth the time spent to unlock them. Bar none, best looking fighter ever.

Audio:

Why? Why Aerosmith? Why? Ok, getting past my distaste for the band Aerosmith and the ridiculous title track they did, DOAU has pretty good audio. The soundtrack isn’t anything special and sounds quite similar to DOA3. Kicks, punches, and throws all sound nice and crunchy. The voice acting, same actors as DOA3, is all very Japanesey sounding and fits the characters well. Of course, all this audio goodness is presented in Dolby Digital 5.1. Overall the audio fits the game, and while it’s not memorable it does help suck you into yet another Dead or Alive tournament.

Controls:

The controls are very similar to DOA3. You have a Free button, a Punch button, and a Kick button. You can also assign buttons to perform various combinations of the two to make moves easier. For example I have A set to be P+K which makes grabs easier to perform. All of these buttons are completely configurable in the options menu. DOA’s claim to fame is the counter system and it’s just a bit different in DOA:U. Pressing Free and and back, back and up, or back and down would perform a counter move in DOA3. DOA2 had a four point counter system and it transferred in tact to DOA:U. Basically it’s the same as three except you must press forward and free to counter certain moves. Other than that change and the slightly smaller move sets the game plays pretty much like DOA3. Pretty solid controls overall but not nearly as complicated as some fighters. That can be a good or bad thing depending on your taste in fighting games.

Replay:

I typically play fighting games for about a week. That’s about how long it takes for my friends and I to unlock whatever is unlockable and learn each fighters super cheap moves. DOAU has had us up until two in the morning trying to unlock costumes. Each of the girls has at least eighteen different outfits and some have twenty! The guys have a bit less to unlock (around eight each) but no one really cares about those guys anyway. Besides unlocking costumes you also get Xbox Live support. A whole bunch of game modes, plus rankings, keeps the game fresh by consistently giving you fresh opponents to face. The best mode by far is “Winner Stays”. Up to six people join a room and two people square off while the others watch. Whoever wins stays, and one of the folks watching gets to step up to try to take them out just like in the arcade. When you get tired of DOA:U you also have an entire other disc that features the original DOA in all it’s old school glory to play. Tecmo really gives gamers a lot of bang for the buck with this release.

Summary:

For DOA fans this is the dream package. Online play and the copious amount of outfits to unlock make DOAU the best DOA title to date. It’s not the deepest fighting game on the planet but the pickup and play gameplay is one of the things I like about the series. I can plug in two arcade sticks and in minutes even a DOA neophyte can be pulling off counter moves and various combos. If your looking for a good online fighter or just a really pretty game to show off your Xbox you can’t go wrong with Dead or Alive Ultimate.