E3 2013: Throwing Down With ‘Dead or Alive 5 Ultimate’ and its Three New Fighters!
After Dead or Alive 5 Ultimate was announced a few months back, fans of the series such as myself were curious about what exactly would make this new version worth picking up. After all, two versions have already been released since October of last year, why would we want to invest again? After walking through Tecmo’s E3 booth, it was apparent that three new fighters would be a great start. In addition to the return of Leon and Ein who debuted in DOA 2, Momiji and Rachel from Ninja Gaiden make their debut alongside Jacky Bryant from the Virtua Fighter series. While they may be able to hold their own in the worlds of demon slaying and tournament fighting, how will they fare in DOATEC’s newest fighting competition? I tried each one to find out.
Momiji
As the first newcomer announced, Momiji looks like she would fit right in with Kasumi and Ayane in the kunoichi department. This apprentice of Hayabusa has never had a chance to show off her hand to hand skills before now, and after finishing my matches with her, I’m happy to say that she’s a blast to play. Momiji has many fast hitting attacks like you’d expect from one of the ninja characters, but seemed to be much more hard hitting. Borrowing some floaty looking techniques that are usually seen from characters like Hayate, she tends to give up a small amount of speed in exchange for some powerful and surprising combo ending attacks.That was the beauty of playing with Momiji. When it looked like her strings were done, the most painful part would follow up to blast unsuspecting opponents. So far, it looks like she’s living up to the expectations of the other kunoichi characters as a formidable, yet easy to play as fighter.
Rachel
Like Momiji, Rachel is usually seen with a weapon in hand. With her trademark hammer out of the picture, this fiend hunter has a lot to prove when it comes to hand to hand fighting. While using Rachel, I definitely got a Tina vibe from her. A powerful, yet slower character, she relied on short, hard hitting combos to inflict damage on anyone unlucky enough to go against her. While I wasn’t able to test out her grapples, her ability to grab opponents out of the air mid combo is a trait usually reserved for the wrestler type fighters. It’s good to see her strength is being put to good use! Easily the most straightforward of the three characters I tried, the Ninja Gaiden mainstay feels right at home with the heavies of the game.
Jacky
While twin sister Sarah was already throwing down in the original DOA5, it’s no surprise that Jacky wouldn’t be too far behind. A Virtua Fighter mainstay, the Bryant brother specializes in Jeet Kun Do, mostly relying on his speed to catch opponents off guard. It’s obvious that Jacky’s style wouldn’t carry over from Virtua Fighter exactly, especially since the mechanics and button layout are different, but like the other guest characters, his style is replicated pretty well. Mixing fast high and low combos are the name of Jacky’s game, and opponents are going to have to telegraph his moves in order to stand a chance. While he’s the most complex of the three new fighters, he also came off so far as the most rewarding. Jacky was always my favorite in Virtua Fighter, so figuring out how to pull off some of my favorite combos in a DOA game with him was a reward all in itself.
Would I say that these three fighters are enough to justify buying the game all over again? That depends on how much you want to stay up to date with the community. If I had already bought DOA 5, I’d likely wait for a price drop, but considering I never got around to it, these new players might be enough to get me to jump back into the ring when Ultimate is released later this year. Until then, I’ll be counting the days until I can really dig in to what these three have to offer.
Dead or Alive Ultimate is coming to the PS3 and Xbox 360 on September 3rd, with the free to play Core Fighters version coming to the PSN at the same time.
