My (brief) impressions of DOA: Ultimate

saturnotaku · 10-28-04, 11:42 PM

After months of delays, the latest round jubbly-bouncing iteration of Dead or Alive is upon us. While I was working late tonight, I did find time to squeeze in a round or two. Here are my initial impressions.

1) I could watch the opening cinematic all day long. We finally get the background of why Ayane hates Kasumi, and we get to see where both those ladies get their good looks from

. A bonus at least for me is that you get this great sequence to the stylings of "Dream On" by Aerosmith.

2) The costumes, graphics and fighting speed are top-notch. No nonsense action is the name of the game here, and with over 100 costumes for the ladies alone...well, you all can look at the screenshots.

3) The default control setup sucks - in wanting to hit punch and kick, I was hitting block and throw. That screwed me on more than one occasion. As soon as I fire up the game again, I'm going to change this. Having punch and kick as Y and B seems really counter-intuitive.

4) Counters/reversals are far too powerful for their own good, throws are very difficult to pull off and blocking is next to useless. This is probably a matter of reconfiguring the controls to my liking and hitting the practice arena, but I felt this was worth a mention.

The unlockables and the included Saturn version of DOA 1 are reason enough to buy this game IMO. There's still a lot of bush-league type maneuvering and fighting on the part of your opponents, but it's not nearly as bad as DOA 3. This game is kind of like what the C6 Corvette is to the C5, an evolution rather than a revolution.

Initial rating - 8/10 though this will be subject to change.

LiquidX · 10-29-04, 01:25 AM

Holy crap it's all ready out. I have mine pre-orded and I cant wait for that sucker after watching IGN's video review. Have you played it online yet? If so how is it?

saturnotaku · 10-29-04, 07:18 AM

If you had it pre-ordered from an EB store, you should have received it already. If you got it online, I imagine you might not get it until Monday (depending on how you had it shipped).

I have not tried playing it online and I probably will not be doing it much because the wireless connection I have can get really flaky at times. And there's no way for me to boost the antenna of the Xbox wireless adapter.

IGN's written pre- and review both have explanations of the game's online modes. It's kind of cool how you can have up to 6(?) people spectating in a match. But online play was not my motive for purchasing this game. I don't think I need to say what it was.

**ragejg** · 10-29-04, 10:28 AM

While browsing through http://www.gamespot.com/xbox/action/...s.html?page=77 I couldnt help creating a couple avatars for you, ed... I know you're partial, and probably wont use one of em, but hey I was bored, so I felt like screwin around for a minit

...

saturnotaku · 10-29-04, 10:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ragejg

While browsing through http://www.gamespot.com/xbox/action/...s.html?page=77 I couldnt help creating a couple avatars for you, ed... I know you're partial, and probably wont use one of em, but hey I was bored, so I felt like screwin around for a minit

...

Hey man, those are gonna get socked away for when I feel like doing an avatar switch. Your effort is greatly appreciated.

**ragejg** · 10-29-04, 10:56 AM

n/p d00d.

I can't wait to play this game...

I REALLY wish there were fighting games for PC... SC for my DC is gettin a little old... still fun, but old...

saturnotaku · 10-29-04, 11:05 AM

I need to find out how many times I need beat the story or how long I need to go in survival mode to get Ayane (and Kasumi for that matter) the outfit where she's in overalls with no shirt underneath.

I think their mama would be rather pissed if she knew her daughters were dressing like that.

majortom · 10-29-04, 11:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by saturnotaku

I need to find out how many times I need beat the story or how long I need to go in survival mode to get Ayane (and Kasumi for that matter) the outfit where she's in overalls with no shirt underneath.

this one?

i love DOA... especially the option to increase the "physics" of certain body parts

schuey74 · 10-29-04, 01:17 PM

The game just arrived in my warehouse today. I think I will play all night and then try online tomorrow. I LOVE the DOA series!

saturnotaku · 10-30-04, 02:22 AM

I had a friend over tonight so we could attempt to unlock more stuff. We played around in story and time attack modes for most of the evening and I've had time to refine my impressions. There is one important issue that I feel needs to be addressed here, and that is balance.

While this game is generally fair, there is one particular character who is grossly out of balance compared to the others. And that is Jann Lee - he's far too powerful, too fast and recovers from being hit too quickly. My friend is a very experienced fighting game player - he has all the Mortal Kombats, Soul Caliber 1 & 2 as well as DOA 2 and 3. In time attack mode, it took him 25 solid minutes to win his match against Jann Lee. A lot of his moves cannot be blocked and he's too fast to counter in a lot of cases. To further complicate matters, there doesn't seem to be any ability for the player to combo break so if you're unlucky enough, you'll get nailed with up to an 8 hit combo with no recourse. Or if there is combo break, it's damn near impossible to pull off with any consistency.

I've personally become more adept at counter-throwing because the timing for counter holds is incredibly screwed up, but of course, the AI has perfect timing.

And my rant on the DOA 1 Saturn version that comes packaged with this is a rant that I don't feel like going on for tonight. We'll save it for another time.

Now this certainly isn't to say I'm not enjoying the game overall. But I just know that all the gaming mags are going to simply stare at the titties, slap a 9/10 and Editor's Choice award on it and call it a day. It's a must-own for fans of the series, no doubt. But if you want something that's a bit more fair and won't have you feeling like a masochist, get a Dreamcast along with copies of DOA 2 and Soul Caliber.

**jAkUp** · 10-30-04, 05:04 AM

Just played both DOA 2 and DOA 1 on the XBOX at a friends

It was alot of fun, the graphics are nice. The stages are VERY nice, varied, and very intersting. Fighting in the middle of a Safari??!! You bet ya

But best of all... bouncing breasts. And plenty of it

Edge · 10-30-04, 05:21 AM

I donno...I thought Jan Lee (or can we just call him Bruce Lee, since he's obviously risen from the grave to make an appearance in this game) was pretty broken in every version of the game I've played. From the look of it, this is just an improved version of DOA, which I don't mind much since the online play should keep it pretty interesting (even if 90% of the people online use Jan Lee

). I'd actually like to try the old DOA1, I missed it on the Saturn and would like to see where the series started (not to mention I hear the "physics" are even MORE crazy in DOA1, if that's even possible).

10-28-04, 11:42 PM	#1
saturnotaku Registered User Join Date: Jul 2001 Posts: 17,952	My (brief) impressions of DOA: Ultimate After months of delays, the latest round jubbly-bouncing iteration of Dead or Alive is upon us. While I was working late tonight, I did find time to squeeze in a round or two. Here are my initial impressions. 1) I could watch the opening cinematic all day long. We finally get the background of why Ayane hates Kasumi, and we get to see where both those ladies get their good looks from . A bonus at least for me is that you get this great sequence to the stylings of "Dream On" by Aerosmith. 2) The costumes, graphics and fighting speed are top-notch. No nonsense action is the name of the game here, and with over 100 costumes for the ladies alone...well, you all can look at the screenshots. 3) The default control setup sucks - in wanting to hit punch and kick, I was hitting block and throw. That screwed me on more than one occasion. As soon as I fire up the game again, I'm going to change this. Having punch and kick as Y and B seems really counter-intuitive. 4) Counters/reversals are far too powerful for their own good, throws are very difficult to pull off and blocking is next to useless. This is probably a matter of reconfiguring the controls to my liking and hitting the practice arena, but I felt this was worth a mention. The unlockables and the included Saturn version of DOA 1 are reason enough to buy this game IMO. There's still a lot of bush-league type maneuvering and fighting on the part of your opponents, but it's not nearly as bad as DOA 3. This game is kind of like what the C6 Corvette is to the C5, an evolution rather than a revolution. Initial rating - 8/10 though this will be subject to change.

10-29-04, 01:25 AM	#2
LiquidX xxxxxxx Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: New York Posts: 2,792	Re: My (brief) impressions of DOA: Ultimate Holy crap it's all ready out. I have mine pre-orded and I cant wait for that sucker after watching IGN's video review. Have you played it online yet? If so how is it?

10-29-04, 07:18 AM	#3
saturnotaku Registered User Join Date: Jul 2001 Posts: 17,952	Re: My (brief) impressions of DOA: Ultimate If you had it pre-ordered from an EB store, you should have received it already. If you got it online, I imagine you might not get it until Monday (depending on how you had it shipped). I have not tried playing it online and I probably will not be doing it much because the wireless connection I have can get really flaky at times. And there's no way for me to boost the antenna of the Xbox wireless adapter. IGN's written pre- and review both have explanations of the game's online modes. It's kind of cool how you can have up to 6(?) people spectating in a match. But online play was not my motive for purchasing this game. I don't think I need to say what it was.

10-29-04, 10:28 AM	#4
ragejg Moderator Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: Finger Lakes of Hell, NY Posts: 5,583	Re: My (brief) impressions of DOA: Ultimate While browsing through http://www.gamespot.com/xbox/action/...s.html?page=77 I couldnt help creating a couple avatars for you, ed... I know you're partial, and probably wont use one of em, but hey I was bored, so I felt like screwin around for a minit ... Attached Images __________________ *-ragejg-* Phenom II x3 720 @ 2.8-3.4ghz \| Cooled by Arctic Freezer Pro 64 \| Asus M3A (AMD770/SB600), 1104 BIOS & MOSFET Heatsinks \| 2x2gb G.Skill DDR2 \| PowerColor Radeon HD 4870 512mb \| SB Audigy 2 ZS \| WD 2500 AAKS Caviar Blue HD \| Antec EarthWatts 650 PSU \| DVD/RW \| Sunbeam Tuniq case \| MS Wireless Laser Desktop 6000 \| 360 pad \| Two PS2 pads \| 26" Sanyo 720p LCD \| Denon HT Receiver with NHT SuperOnes \| Altec Lansing sub \| Vista 64 \| Couch X2 4800+ 939 @ 2.4ghz \| Cooled by Arctic Alpine AC \| Asus A8V Deluxe \| 3gb OCZ Gold \| PowerColor AGP HD3850 512mb \| PATA RAID 0 Config \| MyBook 500 \| X-Clio Goodpower 500W \| DVD/RW \| 19" Acer 4:3 LCD + 15" ViewSonic 4:3 LCD \| Case by Cybertron \| Creative Inspire T3100 2.1 Speakers/Sub \| Vista 32 *In Memoriam*

10-29-04, 10:56 AM	#6
ragejg Moderator Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: Finger Lakes of Hell, NY Posts: 5,583	Re: My (brief) impressions of DOA: Ultimate n/p d00d. I can't wait to play this game... I REALLY wish there were fighting games for PC... SC for my DC is gettin a little old... still fun, but old... __________________ *-ragejg-* Phenom II x3 720 @ 2.8-3.4ghz \| Cooled by Arctic Freezer Pro 64 \| Asus M3A (AMD770/SB600), 1104 BIOS & MOSFET Heatsinks \| 2x2gb G.Skill DDR2 \| PowerColor Radeon HD 4870 512mb \| SB Audigy 2 ZS \| WD 2500 AAKS Caviar Blue HD \| Antec EarthWatts 650 PSU \| DVD/RW \| Sunbeam Tuniq case \| MS Wireless Laser Desktop 6000 \| 360 pad \| Two PS2 pads \| 26" Sanyo 720p LCD \| Denon HT Receiver with NHT SuperOnes \| Altec Lansing sub \| Vista 64 \| Couch X2 4800+ 939 @ 2.4ghz \| Cooled by Arctic Alpine AC \| Asus A8V Deluxe \| 3gb OCZ Gold \| PowerColor AGP HD3850 512mb \| PATA RAID 0 Config \| MyBook 500 \| X-Clio Goodpower 500W \| DVD/RW \| 19" Acer 4:3 LCD + 15" ViewSonic 4:3 LCD \| Case by Cybertron \| Creative Inspire T3100 2.1 Speakers/Sub \| Vista 32 *In Memoriam*

10-29-04, 11:05 AM	#7
saturnotaku Registered User Join Date: Jul 2001 Posts: 17,952	Re: My (brief) impressions of DOA: Ultimate I need to find out how many times I need beat the story or how long I need to go in survival mode to get Ayane (and Kasumi for that matter) the outfit where she's in overalls with no shirt underneath. I think their mama would be rather pissed if she knew her daughters were dressing like that.

10-29-04, 01:17 PM	#9
schuey74 GTX 280 (675/1458/2500) Join Date: Feb 2003 Location: South Florida Posts: 1,345	Re: My (brief) impressions of DOA: Ultimate The game just arrived in my warehouse today. I think I will play all night and then try online tomorrow. I LOVE the DOA series!

10-30-04, 02:22 AM	#10
saturnotaku Registered User Join Date: Jul 2001 Posts: 17,952	Re: My (brief) impressions of DOA: Ultimate I had a friend over tonight so we could attempt to unlock more stuff. We played around in story and time attack modes for most of the evening and I've had time to refine my impressions. There is one important issue that I feel needs to be addressed here, and that is balance. While this game is generally fair, there is one particular character who is grossly out of balance compared to the others. And that is Jann Lee - he's far too powerful, too fast and recovers from being hit too quickly. My friend is a very experienced fighting game player - he has all the Mortal Kombats, Soul Caliber 1 & 2 as well as DOA 2 and 3. In time attack mode, it took him 25 solid minutes to win his match against Jann Lee. A lot of his moves cannot be blocked and he's too fast to counter in a lot of cases. To further complicate matters, there doesn't seem to be any ability for the player to combo break so if you're unlucky enough, you'll get nailed with up to an 8 hit combo with no recourse. Or if there is combo break, it's damn near impossible to pull off with any consistency. I've personally become more adept at counter-throwing because the timing for counter holds is incredibly screwed up, but of course, the AI has perfect timing. And my rant on the DOA 1 Saturn version that comes packaged with this is a rant that I don't feel like going on for tonight. We'll save it for another time. Now this certainly isn't to say I'm not enjoying the game overall. But I just know that all the gaming mags are going to simply stare at the titties, slap a 9/10 and Editor's Choice award on it and call it a day. It's a must-own for fans of the series, no doubt. But if you want something that's a bit more fair and won't have you feeling like a masochist, get a Dreamcast along with copies of DOA 2 and Soul Caliber.

10-30-04, 05:04 AM	#11
jAkUp eat. sleep. overclock. Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Chino, California Posts: 21,766	Re: My (brief) impressions of DOA: Ultimate Just played both DOA 2 and DOA 1 on the XBOX at a friends It was alot of fun, the graphics are nice. The stages are VERY nice, varied, and very intersting. Fighting in the middle of a Safari??!! You bet ya But best of all... bouncing breasts. And plenty of it __________________ 965xe \|\| evga x58 classified \|\| 2x evga gtx 295 \|\| 6gb g.skill \|\| win7 x64

10-30-04, 05:21 AM	#12
Edge 3d animator for hire! Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Minnesota, USA Posts: 4,166	Re: My (brief) impressions of DOA: Ultimate I donno...I thought Jan Lee (or can we just call him Bruce Lee, since he's obviously risen from the grave to make an appearance in this game) was pretty broken in every version of the game I've played. From the look of it, this is just an improved version of DOA, which I don't mind much since the online play should keep it pretty interesting (even if 90% of the people online use Jan Lee ). I'd actually like to try the old DOA1, I missed it on the Saturn and would like to see where the series started (not to mention I hear the "physics" are even MORE crazy in DOA1, if that's even possible).

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