Review: Dead or Alive Dimensions

It’s hard to imagine that Team Ninja’s Dead or Alive series turned fifteen this year since there are only four true installments of the series, with the last one releasing over six years ago during the Xbox 360 launch window. Now Team Ninja is celebrating the milestone with the fighter’s debut on both handhelds and Nintendo hardware with Dead or Alive Dimensions; an installment not destined to push the franchise further, but to reflect on what the series is about while showing off the capabilities of Nintendo’s new handheld.

New System, New Audience, Same Old Dead or Alive

DOA Dimensions is not a new installment, but more of a director’s cut since most of the content are ripped from older games. For the first time, all the fightable characters from the series are playable in one game with the exception of Nicole, a guest character from Halo. In addition to having the largest roster in DOA history, all the stages and music are also from older DOA’s along with one new stage inspired from Team Ninja’s last game, Metroid: Other M.

For ones who never played a Dead or Alive, it is a 3D fighter that uses a rock-paper-scissors style gameplay with strikes (punches/kicks), counter holds and grapple throws. These unique counter holds distance DOA from other fighters by fluidly stopping a strike while swapping control of the match. One of the intimidations that the series never overcame was that those that put forth immense practice only mastered countering. DOA Dimensions makes this hardship easier with three simple moves performing all the counters: high, medium and low. But do not fret DOA vets, while the game may have easier countering, DOA Dimensions contains the same complexity in every other aspect with the same movesets taken from DOA4.

Usually when a console series gets a portable installment, it feels watered down to accommodate the handheld, but Dead or Alive achieves the opposite. Not only does DOA Dimensions control better than any DOA before it, but it has also become the most accessible installment for newcomers. Like with Blazblue Continuum Shift 2 and Super Street Fighter 4, the touch screen is used to auto-perform a combo, but unlike Street Fighter’s four button macros, the character’s entire movelist is listed. Because of that, it is incredibly tricky to accurately scroll, find and choose a move during a fight.

Team Ninja delivers the same shock with the 3DS like with what they did with the Xbox and Xbox 360: they released a Dead or Alive around a system’s launch window and shows off the graphical capabilities of the system. All of the characters and stages are very detailed with some crisp texturing and it all runs with a silky sixty frames per second. Put the 3D on and the game looks even better with a realistic feel of depth but with a lower framerate, an element fighting fans cannot afford to lose. It is surprising that in only two months after the system’s launch, Team Ninja have already set a new graphical standard for the 3DS that even Nintendo has yet to achieve.

Culminating 15 Years of Story in One Cartridge

DOA Dimensions has many modes that deliver a nice variety for a fighting game, though these modes end pretty quickly with little reason to come back, including its new Chronicle mode. Dead or Alive has never accumulated a great story and it is only harder to keep up with it when the games launch so few and far between. Chronicle mode solves that by telling the entire story of DOA 1-4 through the point of view of the four ninjas Kasumi, Hayate, Ayane, and Ryu Hayabusa and their involvement with a corporation named DOATEC (apparently pronounced doh-uh-tek). Aside from Helena later on, the ninjas take up most of the entire story with the other characters are simply there as fighting fodder.

Chronicle mode is meant to be the first thing you play in the game since it is practically a long tutorial, holding your hand with mid-fight pausing to teach countering, grappling or other techniques. Because you are never given true freedom in a match, the Chronicle only serves the beginner and is not meant to play again once beaten.

One unforgettable part of the Chronicle that needs mentioning is that the story is delivered via multiple types of cutscenes. Some cutscenes are highly detailed, pre-rendered scenes from DOA4 while some are rendered in-game. However there is a third type of cutscene, one that is so odd that the only way to describe it is to call them mannequin scenes. Like an Old Navy commercial, the characters stand frozen in unfrozen environments. So while a character’s body stands still, you can see water flowing, electricity pulsing and even their hair blowing from the wind. It is hard to think why they chose to do such an odd design choice since it breaks immersion and is very disturbing (or funny) to watch, especially if you hate mannequins.

Game Design 101: Fighters Need Replayability

Returning to DOA is the Arcade mode – a staple in fighters. In normal Arcade modes, you select a character and then fight a few different CPU opponents until you face a boss in the end. While Dead or Alive usually designs their arcade like most fighters, Dimensions decides to do things differently, where every character fights the same exact opponents on a fixed difficulty, mostly easy. The exclusion of customizing the difficulty is a horrible design choice because anyone with a bit of practice can slaughter it in no time and never look back.

Finally, a new and interesting mode that has been introduced in Dimensions is the Tag Challenge mode, where you and a partner, either a friend or CPU, go after twenty different challenges. Some missions require going against one or two supped up challengers with a select amount of extra lives just in case. While the earlier missions are a cakewalk, the later missions become a fun challenge to beat with a friend. I say friend because playing with the idiotic CPU gives you as much of a headache as it does a handicap. Like the Arcade before it, the lack of customizing challengers diminishes its replay value.

On the multiplayer front, DOA Dimensions supports both local and online options, and both perform very well for one-on-one fights. While I never experienced any lag or other network issues from most of these matches, it can get tough starting a match since players are given the option to opt out of the match before it starts. Sadly, with the exception of playing the Tag Challenges locally, there are no other multiplayer option, so replayability is only determined by how much you like to fight your friends (and vice-versa). In addition, DOA fans might be happy or extremely upset knowing that the auto-perform option with the touchscreen cannot be turned off, so it’s less of a game of who did the most practice and more of a who can outperform the other.

One part of Dimensions that Team Ninja hasn’t skimped out on was utilizing some of the 3DS’s unique features, such as StreetPass, SpotPass and Play Coins. If you are in the vicinity of another Dimensions owner, your profiles carry over via StreetPass with the ability to fight a CPU version of your favorite character. The SpotPass feature automatically downloads a new costume each day for your characters, though it is only planned for thirty days after the game’s release. Lastly, you can spend ten Play Coins to either unlock costumes that you haven’t unlocked yet in Arcade mode, or unlock some of the roughly 1000 figurines that you can collect throughout the game.

Reflecting on the Reflection

It is heartbreaking that know there is a magnificent fighter in this cartridge, but some odd design choices hinder its potential. However, even with the lack of its traditional options, it is definitely a worthy purchase if you enjoy the one-on-one play of Dead or Alive or are curious to see what the series is all about. It still plays better than any DOA or handheld fighter before it, and is fun to pop in for a few rounds of Free Play. Just don’t expect any other form of long-term use out of it. 

Never Unplaying: Game of the Year 2010

Finally back after a large hiatus, I am back to give credit where credit is due and announce Never Unplaying’s Game of the Year for 2010. This was a spectacular year in gaming with hits launching year round, but what stood out was that no matter what platform it was, they saw their fair share of quality releases. Though with everything I played, there were a few games that stood out in my eyes and it was not until the end of the year where I realized where I wanted this honor to go to. Like any year, there are always games that I expected more from and like last year’s GOTY post, I’ll start off sharing two of my disappointments.

Final Fantasy XIII



Square-Enix is hitting two years in the row with this award, and it is only that much more hair pulling when it is the bigger, more anticipated release. Announced back in 2006, the first grand entry of the Final Fantasy series on the HD systems stumbled on its face. Though I was not a fan of Final Fantasy XII, I was damn proud of the fact that Square-Enix slapped the mindset of JRPG’s in the face and said that change can exist when it comes to the genre they helped forge. So why did they retreat to many of the stereotypes we got sick of? Linearity, a lousy story, a good but very flawed battle system and the annoying characters Snow and Hope held back a giant that could have expanded its audience like how Final Fantasy VI and VII did before it.

BUT! I do have to admit that one aspect I loved in the game was Lightning, the very strong willed heroine of the game. From beginning to end, she truly stood out as a terrific lead character that shared her strength with her comrades. Great leads are an element that many Final Fantasies lack, with Vaan, Tidus, Squall, and yes, Cloud as great examples. Ironically, Lightning's the strongest lead I've seen from a Final Fantasy since the last female lead, which is Terra from Final Fantasy VI.

Donkey Kong Country Returns



When I think of the 16-bit days, Rare’s Donkey Kong Country 1 & 2 where absolute masterpieces in my eyes. The first one caught me off guard with some amazing pre-rendered visuals and slower, yet steadier platforming, and the second installment outdid the first in every way. Longer, brutal and containing my favorite game soundtrack ever, DKC2 was 16-bit platforming at its finest and it holds up today. So when Nintendo announced that Retro Studios, the guys behind resurrecting the Metroid series with the superb Prime trilogy, took the reigns of DKC, I was thrilled to say the least. Sadly all Retro did was take the idea of Rare’s design of the first DKC and watered it down. No Kremlings, no underwater stages, no significant focus of barrel throwing, boring mine cart stages and a continuing reminder of its overall inferiority of what made DKC great (a similar feeling of what I felt with DKC3), Donkey Kong Country did not return, it rusted.



With the bad behind us like 2010, we’ll continue by starting the honors as always with the runner-up:

GotY Runner Up: Super Mario Galaxy 2



When Mario Galaxy 2 was announced, I was quite shocked and for good reason. It’s a very un-Nintendo move with having such a relatable sequel to a Mario game and having it on the same console, to the point that I had to wonder why it exists. Then I played it. While I liked Mario Galaxy a lot, the sequel blows it out of the water in every way, shape and form. I hear of sequels that goes leaps and bounds over its predecessor like with this year’s Red Dead Redemption, but Galaxy 2 takes what is known as the best game on its console and iron out any faults to create a wonderful and near-flawless game. This is one of those rare games that are so well crafted that when something wrong happens, you know (whether you admit it or not) it was your fault. Super Mario Galaxy 2 is placed as one of my favorite games of all time and a testament of how pixel-perfect the gameplay of 3D Mario games are since my favorite game of all time: Super Mario 64.



Game of the Year - Halo: Reach



I wouldn’t have guessed this when I saw its announcement. Or when I played the beta. Or when I bought it. Or when I beat the campaign. I knew when the year ended and I was still playing all fronts of the game: campaign, firefight and matchmaking consistently.

This is Goodbye…

Halo Reach is the swan song of Bungie’s involvement of one of the most influential gaming franchises of all time. Reach takes the decade of experience that Bungie has learned since the original Halo and masters the pick up and play formula the series is known for. Leading the way after 2009’s awesome Halo 3: ODST, Reach again does not star Master Chief, but as another Spartan, Noble 6, right before the events of Halo 1. He or she (since they are customizable) joined the NOBLE Team to investigate an incident that first thought to be an anti-military action by civilians, but then realized it’s the dreaded Covenant invaded the planet Reach. The planet was always mentioned in previous Halo games, but it was always about how mutilated it became after the Covenant invaded it. Because we play these events, we see how the planet falls against impossible odds against an enemy that was too swift with their strike. Reach is as sad as ODST was lonely with the story containing unexpected twists, desperation and concluded by a very depressing finale. Reach and ODST really show the maturity the franchise developed since abandoning the superhero Master Chief story arc, and it’s better because of it.

…A Long Lasting Goodbye

Halo has always been famous for its multiplayer with its superb splitscreen/LAN matches from Halo 1, rewriting the rules for online multiplayer with Halo 2 and the introduction to Firefight in ODST, but Reach fine tunes all of those fronts. This is one of the biggest reasons that I have such a high regard for this game because it brought me back to something I thought was lost to me forever: online multiplayer. Since the somewhat-disappointing Halo 3 and the rise of popularity of Call of Duty, I have completely lost interest in playing against strangers on Xbox Live. Perhaps it’s because the gameplay in Reach performs so well, because that the community is much more grown up than it was before or perhaps it’s because the loud kids play Call of Duty now.

Reach’s multiplayer beta back in the spring really hooked me, which was unexpected, but the final product has me truly addicted. The thanks goes to daily and weekly challenges for matchmaking, campaign or firefight that score you bonus experience points (XP) for completing them. You always have to come back to those challenges because once you gain a lot of XP and earn a high enough rank, regular matches doesn’t net you enough XP to level up in a fast enough rate.

Matchmaking hasn’t changed much in Halo, but that’s a good thing. The series has a special flavor that really makes you feel at home from the same consistent text that tells you to “Hold X to pick up weapon” to the omnipotent voice that declares the start of a multiplayer round. The game has an easy menu system to show all the playlists to choose from: Team Slayer, Team Objective, Rumble Pit, Multi-team, etc. Thanks to user input, Reach added more playlists to divide people’s tastes to a dedicated direction like Community Slayer, DLC-only matchmaking, Campaign co-op matchmaking, Infection (formally Zombies) and my all-time favorite, SWAT.

Though I faded from matchmaking fights online in the last few years, my return was like riding a bike all over again. Thanks to the perfect balance that Reach’s weapons have like with the new Needle Rifle, a fixed Needler, the upgraded DMR Battle Rifle, ODST’s Magnum and good old Assault Rifle and Sniper (plus more) as well as grenades and melee damage. What’s better is what’s not in the game anymore, mainly Halo 2/3’s SMG and dual wielding because they seemed to be the reason why Halo felt so unbalanced. For once in a Halo game, you can have the ability, talent withstanding, to perform a strategic kill with any weapon.

Multiplayer for Everyone

One of the best things to happen in multiplayer was adding a mode that instead of fighting one another, players need to work together to tackle waves of enemies. Halo’s introduction to such a mode with Halo 3: ODST’s Firefight, and it rose to a new level with a wide level of customization with make-your-own skulls, stipulations, custom enemy waves and more. Elites make their debut in this mode too, so all available Covenant troops (besides Prophets) are now available to kill. In addition, Bungie added Firefight for matchmaking too, so you’re not stuck with only those that are on your friends list. The mode is a blast to play, especially if you choose the Rocketfight and Sniperfight matches since they have unlimited ammo and the latter is pretty good sniper practice. Not as popular in Firefight however is the poorly implemented versus mode. Similar to Left 4 Dead’s, players can be Elites in Firefight as long as there are human-controlled Spartans, but with the lack of matchmaking and no option for CPU Spartans, it’s a wasted mode with a lot of unused potential.



Reflection of a Legend

Seeing Bungie step away from Halo is upsetting because I’m afraid that we won’t see the series in this high of regard for some time. These guys built a community that they love with toys, books, graphic novels, collectors/legendary editions and even an online sitcom, and took the industry by storm. In the end though, it’s the games that make those other experiences worthwhile and Reach is the best Halo game yet. Bungie shows us with the development, final product, and post-launch updating that Reach is a true example of lessons taught, listening to their fanbase and never thinking that anything is good enough in an industry full of Ubisoft/Activation-like franchise milking, Nintendo/Sony-ish bullheadedness and Midway/Eidos-style wrong turns (time and time again). Reach has an effect on me that I haven’t felt since 2001’s Super Smash Bros. Melee where I am so determined to practice it while constantly having so much fun with it every day. It brought back the meaning of online multiplayer to not only me, but also friends who thought to never renew for Xbox Live again. Finally, it also has the power to keep drawing me in even though I have a pile of games that are still unopened and craving to be played, not to mention ending a Pokémon HeartGold/Picross 3D/Dragon Quest IX streak that glued me to my Nintendo DS for months.

It’s cute that at the end of most of Bungie’s announcements and events such as the Reach beta, they end it off with “Love Bungie,” well it’s time for me to tell those guys that I love them right back. And thanks.


Quick Honorable Mentions:

No More Heroes 2- A well done sequel to a game that had one too many flaws.

Mass Effect 2- Winner of the most GotY awards that I’ve seen, Shepard’s sequel smoothed out all the edges of the first to make one heck of a third person shooter/RPG. Its steady flow of DLC had me coming back to it a few times throughout the year.

Sonic & Sega All-Star Racing- An excellent kart racer that I must say beats the tar out of Mario Kart Wii.

Pokemon HeartGold/SoulSilver- Remakes to the best Pokemon games ever with the updated gameplay of Pokemon Platinum. Not only are they just as addicting as the games before it, HeartGold and SoulSilver contains the longest campaign of all four Pokemon generations. I was exclusively playing this all spring. The Pokewalker was a neat little device that saw it’s milage with conventions like PAX East.

Picross 3D- They took my personal GotY of 2007 and transformed it to cubic sculptures instead of 2D pictures. Still proving itself as the best puzzle series ever in my eyes.

Red Dead Redemption- Westerns were something I always wanted a good game out of and Rockstar finally did it. To me, the sandbox genre for a western feels more complete than the urban setting of GTA, though it was Rockstar’s top tier amount of depth is why I can say that.

Dragon Quest IX- A really good evolution to the long running Dragon Quest franchise adding a Borderlands-style co-op to a turn based RPG. Me and my girlfriend played this all summer while friends of mine easily when into triple digits worth of playtime hours.

Professor Layton and the Unwound Future- I still say this series is a must play for everyone. The gameplay hasn’t changed one bit, but the story is as cunning as ever.

Goldeneye 007- A classy, modern retelling of the Goldeneye movie. Eurocom really gave Wii owners one heck of a FPS.

Sonic Colors- Hell must have frozen over with two Sonic games here. Colors is absolutely worth playing since they finally made a good Sonic game. Here’s the catcher: it’s not just good, it’s a surprisingly superb platformer.