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Dead or Alive Ultimate Review - Xbox

The entire classic fighting action of the DOA series comes home to X-Box in this amazing compilation from Team Ninja. What could have been a mere rehash has become the greatest fighter on X-Box thanks to some unbelievable online capabilities and graphics that will no likely be surpassed this generation.

The premise for a fighting game is usually pretty thin and serves only to give you a very vague reason to beat the snot out of some punks. That doesn't change much here, especially since the game leaves so many questions unanswered and hardly deals with the story at all.

Gameplay

DOAU is actually two games in one. DOA3 was released as a launch title for the X-Box and really showed what the system could do. Team Ninja has seen fit to release the first two games in the series on X-Box, but it hasn't just done a quick port (of the second one at least).

To cover the first game though, you have to understand it remains untouched from it's conception a decade ago. The character models are blocky, the environment's sparse, though the game does run at a crisp sixty frames per second (as it bloody well should!). The controls are still responsive, though not as responsive as the DOA2 remake. The gameplay is a lot simpler and, on the whole, a lot less enjoyable. It was mainly included for kicks, and to bring the entire series available for the one console, so not a whole lot of work went into. It would be best to think of it as little more than a bonus disc for the remake of DOA2, because that's really all it is.

DOA1 remains largely unchanged. The resolution is slightly higher than it used to be, thanks to the power of the X-Box, but nothing else has been changed. Online play has been included for the retro fans who want to take the old school online, but the majority of your time will be spent on DOA2, and that's what the review will be concerning itself with.

DOA2 has been rebuilt from the ground up and it sits on par with its older sibling DOA3 in terms of greatness. The story remains unchanged and most of the story information comes from the notes in the instruction booklet. Aside from that, you get a short, in game cutscene at the end of story mode which does little to sate the thirst of those wanting a true finale. The CGI cutscenes at the end of DOA3 were works of art and it's sad to see them go. The opening movie is completely rendered and sets up the story as a short action clip, introducing the main characters, Kasumi, Ayane and Kayate, and detailing their origins. It shows the beginning of the rift with Kasumi and Ayane and the defeat of Hayate at the hands of Raidou, which left him paralysed and thus the perfect fodder for DOATEC's Project Epsilon. (continued next page)