20-Dec-2001 14 large, fleshy spheres (and some men) go nipple a' nipple in the nork-frenzy which is 'Team Ninja's' Dead or Alive 3. 14 large, fleshy spheres (and some men) go nipple a' nipple in the nork-frenzy which is 'Team Ninja's' Dead or Alive 3.
Taking a leaf from the "lazy man's guide to making beat 'em ups", the developers have returned all the original cast, changed some of their clothes and given them some new playgrounds and friends to slap about. Of these new 'friends' are the drunken fighter Brad Wong, who technically resembles Shun Di from Virtua Fighter and visually resembles David Beckham from Man United. Also present are Christie and Hitomi, here to increase the nork count and in style ...mainly 'She Quan' (Snake and Crane hybrid) and Karate style, respectively. Stories shmories. It's a fighting game. Let's ruck!
As for amendments to the old cast, Ein players may be disappointed to find him replaced by Ninja, 'Hayate', who looks just like Ein, but in a 'ninja' costume. Fear not! This IS Ein, although with severe changes to his moves and appearance. You see, he lost his memory in DOA2 and they've given it back to him for this one. Presumably because they wanted an excuse to put more ninjas in the game, but as 'Frankie Goes to Hollywood', once said, 'relax', as Ein is playable in his original form as a secret character.
Being that Ninjas are in abundance (4 of the 16 characters are Ninjas. Clearly 'the way forward'), you'd expect quite head-spinning scuffs. Thankfully, the game is surprisingly accessible. The moves are few and easy to learn, although the Xbox controller's button layout and shape, makes it infuriatingly difficult to react on instinct, what with thumb-slipping from buttons being too small and close together. Let's hope us 'Euro' gamers get a redesigned pad.
Stages generally come in several parts. Some go on forever and some are just huge, meaning much scope for beatings of an epic proportion. Obviously, because of the fast pace of the game, you may tend to ignore the vast beauty around you, however spectators will gawp as if viewing the latest Jet Li spectacle. With prettier backgrounds. And Ninjas.
Technically, DOA3 is disappointing. Your moves seem to go 'through' the opponent when they are staggering post-hit and throw combos are simply too powerful, considering the minimum effort needed to perform them. Your reversals also take off FAR too much energy, meaning that matches can end up revolving around trying to reverse each other's moves.
Of course a fighting game wouldn't be jack without the 'additional modes' and here you are granted with the 'as standard', 'Vs', 'Survival', 'Practice' and newly improved 'Tag Mode's, amongst others. And how's this for clever: you know in fighting games when you reach your 'rival'? Yeah? You know that bit of ropey dialogue you get before meeting them? Well, on TOP of that, you get to start the fight from a really cool camera angle, adding to the love-hate atmosphere. Very suitable.
Unsuitable however, is the camera angle used to fight bossman 'Ganryu'. It looks great to watch, but to control your character from the back is immensely frustrating, especially when the boss character is cheaper than a tupenny whore. Completing the game soaks your eyes with some fantastic CG movies. As you probably expected, the 'nork brigade' is in full force with some very 'best of playboy'-esque scenes involving showers and dolphins!
If you are skilled enough to finish the game with all the characters however, you get...nothing. That's right, you get sod all, bar an unreadable credit roll with unsuitably dodgy Aerosmith tune 'home tonight', which is probably referring to the fact that 'you' are clearly 'home tonight' sans female, possibly salivating over the digital ladies that Tecmo has provided. How fitting. Aerosmith provide 3 tunes for the game, showing that old farts are 'down' with gaming. Respect.
If you have an Xbox and like fighting games, then you'd be retarded to pass this up. Yeah, it's no VF4, but you won't be getting VF4, so suck it up and take what you get. If you want to buy a machine on the strength of its fighting games, get a PS2 and wait for VF4. If you have all the machines and played DOA2 to death, you're probably rich enough to afford this, but don't get too excited as it's to DOA2 what 'Champion Edition' was to Street Fighter 2.
Danny Boutros
// Overview
Verdict
Overall, this is a pretty sweet game, only let down by a few minor technical squibs.
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