Game #841: Dead or Alive

 The origin of breast physics with minds of their own.

 Y'know, I played Dead or Alive, this one, way after I played Dead or Alive 2. It was really good, it is really good.

 The game has a 10-character roster made up of the series' classics, characters that never left the series, except for Bayman who disappeared on vanilla DoA 2. I like how the characters' designs hadn't been finalized by then, so we have things like brown-haired Tina and red-haired Zack. Heck, one of Ayane's costumes has her with pink hair. This game also started the trend of having their females have dozens of costumes while the males get scraps. Every lass has 14 costumes while every lad gets a measly 5.

 I really liked the bonus costumes, a lot of them are lazy repaints, but there are a ton of very cool looking costumes that never returned to the series.

 The game looks really good for a PS1 game, having 3-D models that are almost as soft as what you'd expect out of the Nintendo 64. I'd say they are a happy medium between Tekken 3's detailed, blocky models and Tobal's more simple but softer models. The breast physics are as dumb as you'd expect, with every breast having a mind of their own.

 Characters have a ton of familiar moves, I love how I felt right at home with this game. It goes to show just how great the gameplay was, because it has barely changed. Based off of Virtua Fighter, one punch button, one kick button and one guard button is all you need. It also has the very abusable counter move, back+guard, which adds a lot of almost cinematic flair to the fights.

 The PS1 has a ton of fighting games, a lot of great ones, a lot of bad ones, but Dead or Alive easily falls into the former. Gameplay is simple, fast and responsive, everything I look for in a fighter, but you also get a nice amount of content.

8.5