Yesterday, I finally got around to putting down a pre-order for Dead or Alive 5: Final Round at work. It's been on my radar for a while, but since I work at Game, I don't tend to preorder - I don't need to as I can usually put aside a copy at the start of the day - but, as usual, costume DLC hooked me, and there was a pre-order exclusive Costume Pack. I tell you, my gaming habits these days are shameful.
That's exactly the point that got me thinking. Why do I consider my love for the Dead or Alive series a shameful secret? More importantly, why the heck should I??
Yes, okay, the first thing most people think of when Dead or Alive is mentioned, is 'boobs'. The series (and, in fact, Team Ninja) is infamous for their so-called gravity engine, which gives the girls, uh, wobbly bits that little bit of extra, well... wobble. If their engine wasn't the first to apply jiggle, it's certainly the best known.
Team Ninja are also very well known for their buxom female characters and strikingly revealing attire. Not even the recent Hyrule Warriors game got past them without one of the characters strutting forth in an outfit with more plunge than a cliff-diving weekender, and showing more skin than a dermatology convention. Dead or Alive is no exception to this and, in fact, may be the paragon of it with seemingly endless DLC costume packs with titles like 'Hotties Swimwear Pack', 'Kitty Pack', 'Angels and Devils Pack' or the wonderfully titled 'Intimate Costumes Pack'. I won't lie, I am a fan of the sheer variety of costumes - it adds a certain charm to the games - and, I won't lie, sex appeal is naturally enticing. Is the series sexist for this? Whilst some might argue that it's not because "they have skimpy outfits for the guys too", I'm just going to go out and say no, it's not innately sexist, it's a joyful expression of the female form in a fighting simulator. You don't have to play with the skimpy outfits, they're just an option, and I am always a fan of more options.
All in all, so far I'm listing all the reasons I perhaps should be ashamed for being a huge fan of the series. After all, clearly I'm some hyper-raging-hormones digital pervert, right? Well, no...
Sure, I enjoy the outfits, and the physics, but those aren't at all what draws me to the games. If that's all they were offering, as Avenue Q reliably informs me, that's what the internet is for. Those factors are the cherry atop a bountiful sundae of fighting-game goodness, for beneath that sexy veneer is a fighting game with teeth and full of fury.
I've been a fan of fighting games since I was a young boy. Some of my earliest gaming memories include playing one of the uncountable flavours of Street Fighter II (possibly Street Fighter II Turbo, but equally as likely to be Super Mega Street Fighter II Ultimate Turbo Extreme Edition) at my local arcade, and my PlayStation came with a copy of Tekken 2, which my father and I poured hours of father-son competitive "social time" into. These games have always been enjoyable and, in honesty, until Dead or Alive 5 hit, I would still have classed Street Fighter as the King of Fighters; though Dead or Alive would still always be my favourite.
Whereas other fighting games took place in a single static arena that occasionally had a different skin draped over it and some new music, Dead or Alive decided that this wasn't nearly enough for their fighters and added both destructible environments and changing arenas. No longer was the arena a simple circle in which two fighters beat each other senseless, now you could throw each other through walls, or off the edges of buildings and leap down after them to continue the fight in the streets, and that has always been awesome.
Even beyond the cinematic arena design, though, lies the rock-paper-scissors mechanic that's central to the game. Moves are divided into three broad categories: Strikes are your typical punch/kick moves and combos, Holds are standard blocks and more exciting counter moves (imagine grabbing your opponent's fist mid-punch then flinging him over the shoulder with a punch to his kidneys and you're on the right line), and Throws are exactly what they say - moves where you grab the opponent and toss them away or slam them into something. Now, the mechanic works in a triangle. Strikes are great, but they're blocked by Holds, and in fact can be countered by Holds as in the above example. Opponent blocking all of your attacks? Well, a Throw can't be blocked or countered by a Hold, so that's a great way forward. However, if you're going to come at someone with a Throw, you had better hope they don't interrupt with a Strike, or that's going to stop you right in your tracks. That's the cycle.
This has always been a fantastic mechanic, but with the subtle tweaks to the main game engine and controls that came in Dead or Alive 5, it's really brought the series into it's own. You might be able to button-bash your way through weaker opponents and low-difficulty AI, but against real fighters, the fights become a mind-game. You have to think about what your opponent is going to do, and how best to counter that, whilst also preparing your own offence. Getting inside my opponents head and messing with him/her is one of the greatest aspects of Dead or Alive. It's not about memorising combos (although that naturally helps) or smashing buttons, it's about out-thinking and out-manoeuvring your opponent. Of course, twitchy fingers help too.
My PSVita and the Dualshock 3 controller I use for my PlayStation TV have both taken an absolute battering at the hands of Dead or Alive 5+. The game is ridiculously tough. I consider myself a fighter veteran, but even Normal Difficulty Versus Matches against the computer are a very close affair, and online I feel constantly on edge. It's perfectly balanced to knife-edge precision, I'm constantly challenged, but never unfairly. I never feel like my opponent scored a cheap victory, but instead finish almost every match with a lesson learned and a plan going forward to improve, and any game series that can constantly do that is an absolute winner in my books, and nobody should be ashamed of playing it.
All images taken on PSVita or PSTV by the author.