GameXplain reviews single player and multiplayer separately

A premium fighting experience that defies low handheld fighting game expectations.

More than five years have already passed since the last Dead or Alive was released seemingly a lifetime ago at the dawn of the Xbox 360. Maybe no console sequel had been released since because DOA4 was good enough that there was no need to. However, a new platform and new audience gives a great reason to come back to Dead or Alive again at the 15th anniversary of the series.

An important note regarding the 3D effect in the game is that I didn’t and couldn’t use it all the time. There is a big difference in framerate when running the game in 2D instead of 3D and a fast framerate is key in a fighting game. Also, I found text, mostly subtitles, hard on the eyes in 3D - remember to take a 15 minute break every hour! I did use 3D mode about half the time and enjoyed the added depth it delivered. Fortunately, it’s so quick and easy to move the 3D slider depending on my preference at the time that it didn’t detriment the game.

Graphically, the game appears to end up somewhere between DOA2 on Dreamcast and DOA4 on the Xbox 360. I’d say DOA3 but I remember that game looking murky while DOA Dimensions’ textures are crisp. You won’t find 5000 blossom petals floating in the wind, but DOAD looks good where it counts with detailed characters and fluid animations.

For those of you that know DOA, you'll find the same, great fighting system in DOAD after you shake off that rust. The game features every playable character ever from the series meaning none of your favorites will be missing. Many of the memorable levels are back too.

For those new to DOA, timing is everything in this elaborate fighting game of rock, paper, scissors. Dead or Alive is a four button game based on holds, throws, punches and kicks, but technically throws can be done with the hold and punch button at the same time. At the core of the game are the following concepts: strikes beat throws, throws beat holds, and holds beat strikes.

Sometimes there’s nothing more amusing than trying to counter an opponent also trying to counter with nothing happening until someone realizes it’s time to stop the deadlock and try throwing instead. Other times, there’s nothing more intimidating than going in to strike an opponent but knowing he has your moves read and will counter with a hold to destroy you. At that point, DOA shows off its strength and becomes a chess match instead of a button masher.

Also in DOA, the environments can factor in greatly with danger zones such as icy cliffs or falling through windows that shave off a huge chunk of health. DOA is the truest 3D fighting game in that sense - back when 3D didn’t mean eye-popping.

Taking advantage of the system’s capabilities, the touchscreen is put to good use as a dynamic and interactive move list. Depending on what button you press, the list will shift to show moves and combos related to it. You can also scroll-lock the list if you’re trying to focus on one set of moves. Tapping a move in the list will make your character perform it in-game but the moves are too tiny on the screen to do this easily. Instead of the move list, experts can change the screen to show a detailed animation breakdown, demonstrating the exact frames where you’re both most powerful and most vulnerable. Both of these screens make learning the game possible at all times and not just in a de facto training mode.

There are a ton of modes in DOA Dimensions, with my most played single player modes being arcade and chronicle. DOAD’s Arcade mode isn’t the standard fare from practically every other fighting game ever, instead featuring different courses of varying difficulty with eight characters each with the goal of achieving the fastest time. As you progress past each character, it will show how you’re doing against your best time, which helps amp up the importance of the next fight.

Chronicle mode does an excellent job of summarizing the story from previous Dead or Alive games each into one playable chapter about thirty minutes long. Sure, the story is the standard tournament affair, but it ends up focusing a lot on how the main characters relate to each other.

The more impressive part of chronicle mode was the effort put into teaching how to play the game. Most fighting games just throw you into the action with a move list, but DOAD explains the fundamentals of how to play the game gradually during this story mode. DOA is a fast paced game but while teaching, it will pause and show the controls you should be pressing on the main screen. Even after a lesson is done, it will enter slow motion at times with the controls displayed to give you a chance to get used to that technique. When I played through, I became aware of “delays,” which I guess is something my friends and I missed out on in previous incarnations.

Mercifully, DOA Dimensions has Japanese voices as well as English so you don't have to suffer cheesy one liners forever. Even the entire chronicle story mode's Japanese audio was crammed into the game card. It was something I was quickly reminded about when I encountered, “You’re going to lose,” followed by “I ain’t going to lose!” At this point, I consider one liners like those part of the fighting game experience.

In conclusion, DOA Dimensions delivers a competent fighter on Nintendo’s latest handheld. There are no noticeable sacrifices on this handheld iteration of Dead or Alive, and it even includes more content than its console cousins. With the amount of content and level of polish, you really can’t go wrong with DOA Dimensions.

Online fighting as it should be!

As with most fighting games, multiplayer plays practically identical to the single-player, so the only room for error comes down to the implementation. Luckily, finding an online match generally took less than twenty seconds...until tried while writing this - I guess people sleep during the middle of the night or something!

You are able to filter searches for online foes by friends, region, or worldwide with a two or three round preference. The game shows your win/loss record and matches you with similarly ranked players. Lag can end up slowing down the game to the equivalent of playing in 3D mode, which is acceptable and an excellent reason to try 3D since the framerate won’t take much of a hit.

In DOAD, there’s nothing much that online players can do to taunt or insult you, or really communicate with you in any meaningful way. About the worst thing that can happen is someone won’t accept your fight request, probably because he’s scared.

Normally, I cringe when it comes to playing a game online due to waiting around, timing out, and then discovering that most of the competition is a million times better than me, or a jerk, or both when I finally do get to play. However, DOA Dimensions proved the opposite and that online can actually be done right on a Nintendo system.