The third game in this series
and things haven't changed a great deal apart from the quality of its appearance.
What gains this game most admirable notireity is again the "bouncing bosoms"
effect, which means it'll sell plenty to testosterone-filled blokes and the
beefcakes in the game may attract their girlfriends. Yes, June is most
definitely busting out all over!
Babes out to bash your bonce begin with Kasumi, Hitomi, Tina, Helena, Christie,
Ayane and Leifang. The men include a moustached Patrick Stewart-a-like and one
who must be a copy of Wesley Snipes in Demolition Man but more are unlockable
as you progress.
Whereas game venues include ice caverns, the beach and mountain tops, what
sets Dead or Alive 3 apart from the crowd is the way you can jump about
pieces of the scenery, for those locations which allow this, as another way
of causing serious damage to your opponent.
The Story mode is a standard arcade game and for each character you fight with,
you'll get a bonus movie to watch after dispatching of all your opponents for
that game. "Time Attack" takes you through a series of bad guys and gals and
once the entire run is completed the time taken will be added to the scoreboard
so it pays to be quick.
"Survival" is the third game as you face a procession of enemies - one at a time,
there's a dedicated "Tag Battle" mode, the "Team Battle" mode lets you select
a team of up to five characters to face the Xbox's elite force to see who'll
have the last man standing. "Versus" is a standard two-player game; "Sparring"
is DOA3's practice mode - which will also keep a record of your button presses
so you can note down your fancy moves while jumping about your choice of several arenas;
"Watch" mode is purely for a demo and "Theater" plays back all the end-movies
unlocked so far. However, where's the "Battle Rec." mode gone which recorded the
complete melee for you to play back at your leisure?
Tag-team battles are also available for some of the game modes, which allows
up to four individual players to take part.
Visually, it is stunning and is a treat to watch, bar the odd minor annoyance
the way superfluous edge-background items appear and disappear so as to let
you see what's going on and stop them getting in the way. The characters get
more lifelike with each successive game in a series like this and here the
hair sweeps around naturally, as does Leifang's split skirt. There's also a
very clever visual effect when fighting in the fiery depths occupied by Omega.
The game contains a few Aerosmith tracks, but most of the in-game music is
typical arcade hi-energy synth music, accompanied by grunts and taunts from
the onscreen foes.
Overall, Soul Blade and Soul Calibur still have the edge over
the Dead or Alive series, partly because it feels like a better fighting
game and also because of the extra "Edge Master" mode, which added depth once
you'd got past all the standard fighting sections.
Also, the smallish buttons on the joypad don't really lend themselves to
constant button-bashing that is required for such a game as this. You can buy
a separate arcade stick, but I got on okay with the joypad for the Dreamcast
and PS2 for their respective battle games.
GRAPHICS SOUND EFFECTS AND MUSIC PLAYABILITY ENJOYMENT
As of April 2009, Blu-rays and DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TH-37PX80B
37" Plasma TV with a Sony BDP-1500 Blu-ray player and played through a Yamaha DSP-AX820 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Jan 2011: Intel Quad Core Dell XPS 8100, i7 CPU 860 @ 2.80Ghz, 8Gb RAM, nVidia GeForce GTS 240, Windows 7
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP