After seven long years without a main console release, Team Ninja has brought back its famed Dead or Alive series for another go, bringing forth Dead or Alive 5, set for release on September 25. The version given was the near finished build (version 0.95), and outside of tweaks with frame data and move damage, the game was fairly complete. The finished version will contain 24 characters, as nearly every favorite character from past games return, and there’s even three Virtual Fighter characters, as Team Ninja pays tribute to the series that got Dead or Alive started.
The first thing noted was a distinct change in graphical style, as the developers at Team Ninja have upgraded to a new graphics engine, the same that powered its recent Ninja Gaiden 3 release. This engine upgrade has given the characters a much more lifelike appearance, and the old “satin doll” look for the characters is now gone. The new engine also allows characters to get dirty, as over the course of a fight, the characters will be pancaked with dirt and sweat.
Beneath the sheen of the new graphics engine, some of the nuts and bolts that make up the DOA series have been changed as well with a quartet of new mechanics: sidesteps, unholdable stuns, Critical Bursts, and Power Blows. The old triangle system (Attacks, Holds and Throws, with attacks beating throws, holds beating attacks, and throws beating holds) is still there, but the new mechanics make for very nice additions.
One of the main things that has kept the DOA series from gaining a large tournament following was the ability to hold, or reverse your opponents attack at any time if facing your opponent. Dead or Alive 5 introduces unholdable stuns, which disallow your opponent to hold, and brings forth guaranteed damage. This then ties into the also new Critical Burst mechanic, which then finally ties to Power Blows. I’ll explain.
When your attack puts a player into stun, a certain amount of the health bar will turn transparent; what is known in the game as the “stun threshold.” Every attack afterwards takes away from that threshold. When it’s completely gone, the character will fall over. If the last hit that takes up the stun threshold is a Critical Burst, the opposing character is placed in an unholdable stun, which lasts long enough to execute a Power Blow. This can only be done if your character has less than 50% percent health. It sounds slightly confusing, but is relatively easy to pull off in regular gameplay. There are also other unholdable stuns aside from the Critical Burst stun, each with their own different ways of following up for guaranteed damage.
The developers like to call the game “Fighting Entertainment,” and that extends from the new Power Blows to the stages, which are brimming with tons of life, and danger. Nearly all of the stages can have dynamic changes over the course of a fight. For example, on the “Scramble” stage, throwing or knocking your opponent into a wall made of overloaded electrical transformers leads to an explosion that sets the wheels of chaos in motion. A crane takes out large concrete pillars, and exposes an opening to knock your opponent down to the street below. The entire stage falls to an angle. It all makes for a very maddening and crazy, fun experience.
Control wise, DOA 5 retains its familiar three button control scheme (punch, kick & hold/guard), and introduces sidesteps for the first time. Sidesteps, used by pressing up, up or down, down on the control pad or stick, help with avoiding a number of attacks, though it can’t avoid every attack (as some track to the sidestepping character). The controls feel very smooth, and is quite possibly the best moving fighting game, though that can change before it releases.
One of the two modes we didn’t get to play was the Tag Battle mode, where two characters team up against another team of two. We’ve been told that the new Power Blow mechanic will be used here as well, with Tag Power Blows available for certain teams. We also didn’t get to play the online mode, which has apparently dropped the old colorful lobby and avatar system for something similar to what is used in other fighting game series. That said, the overall hype for the series is at an all-time high, with fighting game fans anxiously awaiting September 25, when the game drops in North America for the Xbox360 and PlayStation 3.
these reviews are a joke and they don't even know the in & outs of DOA5. SMH Well Im sad now because Edge gave it a 6/10 might as well skip DOA5 and look for a another game....LOL pffff.. yeah right. 
