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Dom Robinson reviews
Microsoft 
DOA Ultimate: 
DOA 3:
- Price: £39.99
- Players: 1-online
- Widescreen: Yes (DOA2 only)
- 60Hz: No
- Dolby Digital 5.1 sound: Yes
- Xbox Live-enabled: Yes
It’s been three years since the release of Dead or Alive 3,a game which looked fantastic but still had some faults.
Dead or Alive Ultimates takes the two earlier editions in the series and attempts to updatethem for today’s audience on the Xbox. Does it work?
There’s one disc for each game, and for Dead or Alive 1 Ultimate we have the following game modes:
- Arcade mode: Two players duel and the one who wins gets to come back for another shot.
- Time Attack: Bash up the baddies again but now you’re timed, so the aim is to complete them faster as you progress.
- Survival: Here, you only have one life. See how long you can last.
- Kumite: fight up to 100 opponents in turn. This one’ll take a while!
- Training: Get some practice in
And then, for the first time ever, there’s a DOA Online mode. All the usual quick match, optimatch,create match, etc, options are here.
All the usual game options are available. You can configure the size of the playing field, the number ofelements to your life gauge so you can stay on for longer if you’re a bit crap, and the ‘Bouncing Breast’which I thought was the effect that knocks seven bells out of whoever falls out of the ring and lands onthe surrounds, but it isn’t and now I don’t know what it is.
As for the look, DOA1 is rather bland and features mostly-static backgrounds that scroll round toaccommodate your position, certainly looking very dated. Ok, so they may be perfect renderings ofthe original 1997 Sega Saturn release but this will only wow you if you’re a die-hard DOA fan.
There’s nice background music, but you can’t sidestep around the enemy and overall it’s not as muchfun as the Soul Calibur series. I couldn’t seem to be able to quit out of the Kumite modewithout resetting the Xbox and the online version doesn’t appear to be available in this game.There’s just no-one about. Anyone know why?
Things improve greatly with Dead or Alive 2, beginning with a re-rendered opening FMV sequence.
In addition to the Time Attack and Survival modes, there’s a 4-man Tag Battle where you can play with up tothat number of humans, and a Team Battle where your five selections go against an opponent’s five. Whoevergoes through them all and is defeated at the end is the loser. You can also watch matches taking place,and the sparring mode lists the button presses made at the bottom of the screen.
However, the two most notable are the Story and Online Modes, the first in which you’ll battle each enemyin turn, with only one ‘life’ per round, but if you lose then you’ll just replay that round so reallyyou’ve nothing to lose. The manual says you’ll learn the truth behind each character with this mode, butit’s just damn good fun so forget the whys and wherefores and just get stuck in! One problem is that these areover quite quickly as they’re not particularly difficult, especially once you learn how to defeat theend-stage baddie.
Playing online, this time it works a treat and all the usual options are in there. Examples include beingable to create your own game for you and whoever else, or join another one where ‘Winner stays on’, sothere won’t just be two of you in the ‘room’. Even if you’re not taking part, you can watch and move thejoypad, or press the buttons, to dramatically alter the view.
As an aside, I had to open up a couple of ports in my firewall order to utilise the online mode, so thoughtthat was the problem with DOA1, but no. However, after putting that disc in I was still able to access theDOA2 online mode which was a nice and handy touch.
One plus is that here you can side-step, and blocking an opponent up against a wall isn’t as bad as inDead or Alive 3, with which I had some issues.
There are far more engaging backgrounds and environments on which to wreak havoc. I love being able to smashsomeone through a wall or plate-glass window and falling to our, otherwise certain fate but here, next levelof ground down, be it a mountainous area – facing a female opponent with a mountainous chest! – or a lush,snowy and icy landscape, with stalagmites that smash when someone hits against them with force.
Overall, I’d forget DOA1 unless you’ve a penchant for not-very-good-retro, and make this a rental if you’renot 100% sure about whether another fighting game is for you. Sure, DOA2 is an improvement all round but,despite the online mode, it just doesn’t have the longevity of Soul Calibur II and feels like we’vebeen here way too many times before.
DOA2 GRAPHICS
SOUND EFFECTS AND MUSIC
PLAYABILITY
ENJOYMENT
OVERALL
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.