POSTED 21/5/11


DEAD OR ALIVE: DIMENSIONS

Tecmo
3DS

Ah, the classic brawlers. Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, Streets of Rage, Fatal Fury, Double Dragon, Art of Fighting, Virtua Fighter, Tekken, Shaq Fu (erm?) and the list goes on, naturally including Pete Burns’ all-time fave, Dead or Alive.

Dimensions takes all the good bits of the series’ many incarnations (well, other than volleyball), nabs 25 of its players and puts... wait, we must address the elephant in the room. Get out, you fat fuck! You’re squishing our – oh, the other one, the cover ‘art’. What the hell happened here? Worst. Cover. Ever. Seriously, an outbreak of Comic Sans would improve it.
 
OK, pachyderm dealt with – honestly, the cover really is THAT shitty - Dimensions is awesome with the fightingness. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the series’ traditional 3D environs lend themselves brilliantly to the 3DS’ big thing, and there’s really eye-popping use of it at times. But there’s a downside, frame rate. So, turn the 3D off and everything launches into smooth-as-Barry-White 60 frames per second glorioustasticness – ultimately preferable to the multidimensional trickery.

Teenage boys will be pleased to know that the series’ pervy mangaesque boobiness remains, with several buxom characters to choose from – and that’s just the blokes (BAM! We’re told the veal’s agreeable...)

Oodles of modes include the staple (and our fave) ‘Arcade’, the story-laden ‘Chronicle’, ‘Survival’, local wireless or internet multiplayer and more. The 3DS’ much-touted ‘StreetPass’ feature is implemented if you feel like letting your system throw down likeminded fighters you might bump uglies with when PT slumming.

DOA:D is dripping with playability, and the 3DS is really making a name as a kickarse fighting machine. Hopefully people will look past the chunder-inducing cover to find the ripper game inside – unless they’re Scandinavian of course, where this is apparently considered kiddie porn. Bork?!

CLICK THIS!



CLICK THIS!