By Kurt Kalata and Derboo
And then there's Dead or Alive. Introduced in 1996, Tecmo's new fighter looked to be little more than a Virtua Fighter clone - which made sense, given that it ran out the same hardware. Fearing that it'd get lost in the crowd, the Dead or Alive crew (later named Team Ninja) decided that they weren't just gonna add a little bit of sexiness, they were going to make sure people would take notice. All of the female characters were extremely well endowed - not new, by any video game practice, but these things jiggled. They bounded up and down, as if the game took place in some male fantasy universe where gravity simply did not exist. And the characters wore an assortment of flesh and panty baring outfits, which got increasingly fetishy as the series went on.
One could assume that this was just a ploy from Tecmo, yet another attempt to use beautiful women to sell utter garbage, the gaming equivalent of a Girls Gone Wild video (the actual attempt at that kind of skullduggery, The Guy Game,
actually is one of the worst games of all time.) But somehow, against all kinds of logic, the game somehow turned out to be good. Not just vaguely good, but the kind of good that eventually led it to become one of the best 3D fighting game franchises out there.
The fighting is actually pretty similar to Virtua Fighter, if it were given a swift kick in the ass and given at least a fair amount of caffeinated sugar. Using only a punch, a kick button and various combinations of the directional pad, you could execute tons of moves that all flowed smoothly into each other. Everything moves with such incredible speed while still maintaining most of the depth of other 3D fighters. Still, the speed and ease of which you can execute
most moves means that Dead or Alive is a particularly button masher friendly game, much to annoyance of hardcore fighting freaks worldwide.
The biggest - and probably most controversial - change to the formula was the additional of a counter button. If you time it right, you can grab your opponent's attack and either toss him aside or cause extra damage. It's great for those with lightning quick reflexes, as they're tough enough to execute so you're not entirely invincible. But it cheapens play against the CPU characters, who can counter your attacks precisely to your utter annoyance.
The series started off using Sega's Model 2 arcade hardware, and this was eventually ported to the Saturn. Dead or Alive 2
has been ported to the Dreamcast, Playstation 2 and Xbox, in several iterations. However, from Dead or Alive 3 and beyond,
all titles have been on the Xbox. Most Japanese developers have stayed away from Microsoft's behemoth,
mostly since it's sold terribly in Japan. However, Tecmo's games, both the Dead or Alive games and Ninja Gaiden, are
the best selling games for the system over there.
And so, here are all of the characters in the series:
Dead or Alive (Arcade)
Dead or Alive (Saturn)
Dead or Alive (Saturn)
Dead or Alive (Playstation)
Dead or Alive 2 (PS2)
Dead or Alive 2 (PS2)
Dead or Alive 2 (PS2)
Dead or Alive 3
Dead or Alive 3
Dead or Alive 3
Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball
Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball
Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball
Dead or Alive Ultimate
Tomonobu Itagaki
Dead or Alive (Saturn)
Dead or Alive (Saturn)
The arcade version uses fully 3D backgrounds and really looks quite excellent. The Saturn version sacrifices that for using a flat image, and the character models aren't quite as detailed. The Saturn version also features a redbook audio soundtrack with higher quality music, as well as a crappy animated FMV intro. The enormous jiggliness totally crosses the line of absurdity, but the "Bouncing Breast" option can be turned off if it annoys you. Unfortunately, the game is pretty light on modes - there's the usual arcade, training and time attack, but there's no real endings, another feature that didn't make the transition to the home console. But even in the arcade, the endings were mere text on a pitch black background. Beating the game on the Saturn will unlock a few costumes, but otherwise there's not much incentive to play the single player modes over and over. Still, it's a great start to a great series.
Dead or Alive (Saturn)
Dead or Alive (Saturn)
Comparison Screenshots
There is one absolute truth in the universe that cannot be contradicted, no matter how hard you try: men love tits. As it turns out, men also love fighting. Not necessarily getting pummeled in the face day after day, mind you, but at very least watching other people fight. Since the advent of the fighting game, designers discovered they could add a little pizzaz to the beating by adding a bit of sex appeal. Hence, Chun Li and her long legs, Mai Shiranui and her bouncing breasts, E. Honda and his...well, no, never mind that.
Kasumi
The doe-eyed (arguably) star of the series introduced in the first game, Kasumi is a runaway ninja who practices the Mugen Tenshi martial arts style, and also has an incredible dislike of pants. She's 17, although the American games list her age as "unknown".
Tina
A female wrestler from Texas who desires to be a movie star and fashion model. Starts off a brunette in the original Dead or Alive, but turns bottle blond in the later games.
Lei Fang
The Chinese girl with some cool hairstyles, lots of crazy dresses and hypnotic stances. She's been around since
the first game, and an amusing amount of black leather costumes.
Ryu Hayabusa
The creators wanted to put a ninja in the game, so they looked in Tecmo's catalog of games. They dug up Ryu from Ninja Gaiden, and here he is.
Jann Lee
Fighting game cliche #1: the Bruce Lee ripoff (Liu Kang from Mortal Kombat, Fei Long from Super Street Fighter 2). That being said, his dragon tatoos are kinda groovy, and his battle
cries are classic.
Gen Fu
Fighting game cliche #2: the old man character no one ever uses (Jubei from Fatal Fury 2, Shun Di from Virtua Fighter 2, Gen from Street Fighter).
Zack
Clearly ripped off of Dennis Rodman (who provides his voice in Xtreme Beach Volleyball), Zack is a Muy Thai kickboxer who looks for fame and plays the role of a would-be pimp. Enjoys groundhogs, male sports bras (or should I saw mansierres?) and weird alien shiny costumes.
Bass
The enormous Hulk Hogan-esque wrestler. He's Tina's dad and much like any father with a daughter, would prefer if she didn't skank up the fighting arena in those absurdly slutty outfits.
Ayane
The purple haired bitch girl introduced as secret character in the Playstation Dead or Alive. She likes to adorn her hair with silly looking bows, but gets an awesome ninja outfit in DOA3. She's Kasumi's nemesis, which they like to play up in the laughable cutscenes.
Bayman
An army fellow with a retarded name and a goofy red hat. He was in Dead or Alive 1, and mostly ditched in Dead or Alive 2,
where he was only a hidden character in later editions.
Leon
Pretty much the same as Bayman. He appears first in Dead or Alive 2 with a silly turban, but puts on a Hollywood executive
style ponytail and glasses to kick some ass in DOA3.
Helena
Proving the "fat opera chick" stereotype to be wildly inaccurate, Helena also has the most ridiculous set of triangular bangs known to mankind.
Ein/Hayate
Appearing as Ein in Dead or Alive 2 (it's German for "one"), he's actually Kasumi's brother with amnesia, and has something
to do with the ludicrous cloning storyline in the games. He later regains his memory and name in Dead or Alive 3, along with an
awesome ninja outfit. He exists because the series needed a bishounen to balance out all of the girls.
Christie
Icy haired assassin whose bare ass in prominent in not only the Dead or Alive 3 ending, but the DOA Volleyball intro.
Hitomi
A German/Japanese kung-fu mistress with a baby face and adorable pink headband.
Brad Wong
Relive your memories of the Drunken Master movies with this guy who likes to hit the sauce.
Lisa / La Mariposa
A sophisticated city girl who was initially introduced in Xtreme Beach Volleyball. Shows up as a masked wrestler in Dead or Alive 4.
Kokoro
A geisha-in-training, with long, gorgeous flowing hair and traditional outfits.
Eliot
A young pretty boy who's been trained by Gen Fu, and takes his place in DoA 4.
Dead or Alive - Saturn / Xbox / Arcade (1997)
The whole Dead or Alive series is the brainchild of Tecmo's Tomonobu Itagaki, known to be very outspoken on his
opinions of other games on the market (he was quoted in one Gamespy interview as saying "Tekken 4 is shit".) After
the success of the DOA games, he became the head of Team Ninja, one of Tecmo's most prominent divisions that
also created the Xbox Ninja Gaiden. He's said
that he thinks of the girls as "his daughters", which sounds pretty off-kilter on so very many levels.
Japanese Cover
The original version of Dead or Alive was released in the arcades on Sega's Model 2, and shortly ported to the Sega Saturn (along with a limited edition that included an artbook and a rather scandalous picture of Kasumi on the CD.) Dead or Alive offers eight playable characters and a boss character, none of which display any spectacular innovation. The throwaround in the formula comes with the the Danger Zone - a large portion of the perimeter of the ring is laced with explosives, so if you knock your opponent to the ground, you'll inflict extra damage, and usually causing them to skyrocket straight into the air - as well as a simplistic counter system. Dubbed 'holds', you had an easy-to-execute command with which to intercept the opponent's attack and use the momentum to send him to the ground. This was used to implement the rock-paper-scissors system that should become a concept for the entire series, namely counters beating normal attacks, throws beating counters, and normal attacks beating throws. The achievement that bought Dead or Alive the attention back then, though, was the graphics - this is, quite simply, the finest looking 3D title on the Saturn, especially being that the system is not known for producing decent looking polygons.
Arcade
Saturn
Dead or Alive - Playstation (1998)
When Tecmo brought Dead or Alive to the Playstation, they didn't just port it, they practically made it into a semi-sequel. The graphics this time are even better - as with its predecessor, Dead or Alive is one of the most smoothest, most gorgeous game on the PSOne, having benefitted from even better character models and some shading to round the edges. All of the backgrounds have been changed, and while the Saturn version retained the basic image of the original, this port replaces them with completely new - sometimes uninspired looking - wallpapers.
All of the backgrounds have been changed, and two new characters have been added - Bass, the gigantic wrestler, and Ayane, the secret purple haired ninja girl. Also included are several new pieces of music, including the most porn-esque piece of music you'll hear come out of a Playstation, complete with orgasmic moaning. Alas, there's still no real endings for the characters, but on the flipside, there's a LOT of costumes to unlock. Most of the male characters don't have very many, but the females have up to 13 each. This version was also brought to the arcades as Dead or Alive++.
Two new characters have been added as well - Bass, the gigantic wrestler, and Ayane, the secret purple haired ninja girl. Also included are several new music tracks, including the most porn-esque piece of music you'll hear come out of a Playstation, complete with orgasmic moaning. Alas, there's still no real endings for the characters, but on the flipside, there's a LOT of costumes to unlock. Most of the male characters don't have very many, but the females have up to 14 each.
This version was also brought to the arcades as Dead or Alive++, again sporting a few major changes. The gameplay now began a shift towards what is to expected with Dead or Alive 2, giving it a very fluent feel and revising the counter system. For the first time, there is a tag mode available, though it still is little more than playing the next round after you've lost with a second character, similar to King of Fighters, only that it's 2-on-2. The arcade release lost all the unlockable costumes, stepping down to a total of four costumes per character that are freely selectable from the start, but reinstates the endings that were in the Model 2 version.
MP3s
Track 19 - Kasumi's Theme
Dead or Alive (PSOne)
Dead or Alive (PSOne)
Dead or Alive (PSOne)
Dead or Alive (PSOne)
American Cover
Dead or Alive PSOne
Dead or Alive PSOne
Track 23
Track 26 - Bass' Theme
