Many of you might remember about a decade ago, when the
fighting genre first gained prominence. I can remember walking
into my local arcade one day and seeing Street Fighter 2 for
the very first time. I was in awe. Over the next few months,
I played Street Fighter 2 constantly. I grew to adore the game,
and subsequently, the fighting genre in general. I played the
various upgrades to Street Fighter 2 that were released, and
all the while played all the new fighting game offerings from
the likes of SNK, Data East, Capcom, and others.
2-D, hand drawn fighters were about all there was until
the early 90's, when the 3-D, polygonal fighting game was born
in the form of Virtua Fighter from Sega. I loved Virtua Fighter.
My attentions diverted away from the 2-D fighters, and I started
playing Virtua Fighter pretty much exclusively, until Namco
entered the picture with their revolutionary fighting game
Tekken. Ever since then, I've been a Tekken fanatic. The three
Tekken games are, in my opinion, the benchmark by which all other
polygonal fighters are measured.
Now comes Dead or Alive from Tecmo, another 3-D fighter in
an already crowded assemblage, or so I thought. Having logged
hours and hours on the various Tekken games, and other 3-D
fighters as well, I can tell you that Dead or Alive measures
up quite nicely. The graphics actually exceed the Tekken and
Virtua Fighter series, with the exception of Virtua Fighter 3,
and the music is fantastic. There are a total of nine initially
selectable characters, with an extra two characters that are
hidden. Each character has a multitude of throws, punches,
kicks, and combos, many of which I have yet to master.
We then get to the many modes and options in Dead or
Alive. Among the modes of play, you've got the Tournament,
Time Attack, Versus, Training, Team Battle, and Survival modes
which have all been found in the Tekken series. However, you
also get the new and exclusive Kumite mode, which allows you
fight a fixed number of opponents; either thirty, fifty, or
one hundred.
As for the options, they are both plentiful and unique.
You can configure the usual options like CPU difficulty,
Player 1 and 2 life bars, round time, match points, select
at continue, and quick select. Unique to Dead or Alive, and
in my opinion, uneccesary is the Breast Bounce option. This
allows you to have the female fighters breasts bounce or not
while they're fighting. Unfortunately, Tecmo chose to make
this one of the games premier selling points, and let me
tell you, they shouldn't have. Dead or Alive can MORE than
stand on it's own without any over emphasised T&A.
Nevertheless, the option is there. There is also an option
called Hit Effect, which I have yet to figure out, and which
the instruction book fails to mention.
Then of course you've got your Audio Config menu, your
Key Config menu, your Records menu, and two extra options
menus that further distinguish Dead or Alive. Those two
options menus are the Extra Config menu, and the Wallpaper
menu. The Extra Config menu is a menu that at first, has
no options at all. As you play the game, a game clock keeps
track of how long you've been playing. Every three hours of
play, an option is unlocked. A very nice bonus to an already
great game. The Wallpaper mode simply lets you set the
background wallpaper for the main option select menu. A very
worthy addition to any gamer's fighting game library.
Bottom Line: If you're a 3-D fighting game fan, and
you want something a little different, but still solid all
the way around, do yourself a favor, and give Dead or Alive a try.
