| Dead or Alive 3 |
| Graphics: 10 Sound: 5 Gameplay: 8 Replay Value: 10 Reviewer's Tilt: 8 Overall: 8.0 |
| I recently rented DOA3, and I'm quite impressed with it. The game took me five minutes to beat, and I was done. Five minutes. If I'm not mistaken five minutes is the amount of time it takes to make a Swanson's TV dinner. Five minutes includes the brief load times and the little CG introductions to each fight, which are still in Japanese because the developers were too cheap to hire English voice actors this time, so they just left them in Japanese. It's quite disappointing that there's not that many costumes to unlock this time. In fact, I don't recall unlocking anything. But you'll have fun playing as the next character you have. So, five minutes isn't exactly a bad thing. Sure it's not a very long time, but you'll have fun beating the game as every other fighter over and over again. If the game takes five minutes to beat, why has this game sold over 1 million copies? Because of sex appeal, of course. People like seeing high polygon, jiggly, large, bouncy breasts and they'll pay $50 to get it. People just enjoy seeing two jiggly females fighting, one of them pulling the others leg, laying on top of each other, etc., any semi-erotic position that could sell money is executed in this game. I, too, am one of these people. I like DOA3's combat a lot more than I liked DOA2's. That's not saying much, since I hated DOA2's fighting moves. DOA3 has many more moves and tricks than that game, plus they are a lot easier to execute. You simply press a combination of buttons to execute a move, and it's a lot easier than DOA2. What I don't like however, is that final boss fight in DOA3. It's some big demon, just like any other fighting game, except the camera angle is focused behind the player, making it virtually impossible to move forward to beat it up. It has so many moves that it really never lets you up once you're knocked down, so be careful. Remember Tekken's fun minigames? Tekken 3 had Tekken Ball Mode, an addictive volleyball-like feature. Tekken Tag Tournament had Tekken Bowling, which was also damn fun. Well in DOA3 you get...nothing! It's basically just story mode, and survival mode, and versus mode. You know, the usual fighting game stuff. Thankfully, you get something special: The ability to watch matches. Pick some fighters, pick some skimpy outfits if you're into that sort of thing, (Hey I am!) pick a fighting arena and let 'em have it. Fun for hours, quite literally. This game feels rushed. It's quite obvious that the folks at Tecmo were in a hurry to get DOA3 developed just in time for the Xbox launch. DOA3 belongs to the three "must have" Xbox launch games, the others being Halo and Project Gotham Racing. All three of these games were rushed, yet Halo remains one of my favorites. Unlike DOA2 on the PS2, DOA3 does not have English voices. You do get subtitles though, so even if you don't know a drop of Japanese you still understand what's going on. What I don't understand is the plot. Sure, fighting games aren't supposed to have plots, right? That's what I say too. Then why the hell did they even bother anyway? Your characters have to fight their way through a bunch of tough, high-polygon models just to find a person, for what reason? Kasumi is off to search for Hayate, but for what reason?! We don't ever know, we just are forced to go there in search for "answers". Oh, of course. Virtua Fighter 4 had no plot, and I wasn't expecting one. NOTE TO DEVELOPERS: Fighting games don't deserve to have plots. Best. Looking. Game. Well, one of the best. The water is photorealistic, the sand on the beach gets damp with the rolling tide, and the trees have bark. Everything from the lush vegetation to the nice weather effects has been completely detailed to perfection. The character models in DOA3 are definately the best I've ever seen, and clothing ripples in the wind. There are many details in DOA3, and I can honestly say that it is one of the best looking games of all time. Everything from the textures to the fluid animation shines in DOA3, and I think that this is part of the reason why I like this game. I should mention the arenas, because they're quite expansive and lush. DOA2 broke some new fighting game ground when it let you throw people off buildings, but that's even more expanded on this time around. This time you can throw people off cliffs, out of windows, and more. The backgrounds look very realistic and the shattering glass effects are revolutionary. Everything in the arenas shine like silver, and the Xbox was clearly the best console to house this title. The music is great. Aerosmith works surprisingly well with the fighting genre, but I still can't get over the voices. Call me obsessive, but what were they thinking?! Sound effects are crisp, and the characters actually grunt more than one grunt, if that makes any sense to you. (It's not repetitive.) DOA3 may have some flaws, but I'll give it some credit since it was an Xbox launch title. Quite an impressive launch title at that. It feels rushed, I still can't understand why the voices are Japanese, but DOA3 made me say, "Who the hell really cares?" I just can't see it in my heart to bash this title. Tecmo has given us one hell of a game, and yes, it's even better than DOA2. --Chris Currey |