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Dom Robinson reviews
Microsoft
- Price: £44.99
- Players: 1-4
The third game in this seriesand things haven’t changed a great deal apart from the quality of its appearance.
What gains this game most admirable notireity is again the “bouncing bosoms”effect, which means it’ll sell plenty to testosterone-filled blokes and thebeefcakes in the game may attract their girlfriends. Yes, June is mostdefinitely busting out all over!
Babes out to bash your bonce begin with Kasumi, Hitomi, Tina, Helena, Christie,Ayane and Leifang. The men include a moustached Patrick Stewart-a-like and onewho must be a copy of Wesley Snipes in Demolition Man but more are unlockableas you progress.
Whereas game venues include ice caverns, the beach and mountain tops, whatsets Dead or Alive 3 apart from the crowd is the way you can jump aboutpieces of the scenery, for those locations which allow this, as another wayof causing serious damage to your opponent.
The Story mode is a standard arcade game and for each character you fight with,you’ll get a bonus movie to watch after dispatching of all your opponents forthat game. “Time Attack” takes you through a series of bad guys and gals andonce the entire run is completed the time taken will be added to the scoreboardso it pays to be quick.
“Survival” is the third game as you face a procession of enemies – one at a time,there’s a dedicated “Tag Battle” mode, the “Team Battle” mode lets you selecta team of up to five characters to face the Xbox’s elite force to see who’llhave the last man standing. “Versus” is a standard two-player game; “Sparring”is DOA3’s practice mode – which will also keep a record of your button pressesso you can note down your fancy moves while jumping about your choice of several arenas;”Watch” mode is purely for a demo and “Theater” plays back all the end-moviesunlocked so far. However, where’s the “Battle Rec.” mode gone which recorded thecomplete melee for you to play back at your leisure?
Tag-team battles are also available for some of the game modes, which allowsup to four individual players to take part.
Visually, it is stunning and is a treat to watch, bar the odd minor annoyancethe way superfluous edge-background items appear and disappear so as to letyou see what’s going on and stop them getting in the way. The characters getmore lifelike with each successive game in a series like this and here thehair sweeps around naturally, as does Leifang’s split skirt. There’s also avery clever visual effect when fighting in the fiery depths occupied by Omega.
The game contains a few Aerosmith tracks, but most of the in-game music istypical arcade hi-energy synth music, accompanied by grunts and taunts fromthe onscreen foes.
Overall, Soul Blade and Soul Calibur still have the edge overthe Dead or Alive series, partly because it feels like a better fightinggame and also because of the extra “Edge Master” mode, which added depth onceyou’d got past all the standard fighting sections.
Also, the smallish buttons on the joypad don’t really lend themselves toconstant button-bashing that is required for such a game as this. You can buya separate arcade stick, but I got on okay with the joypad for the Dreamcastand PS2 for their respective battle games.
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Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.