Retro Review: Dead Or Alive

I used to LOVE fighting games. I’d play them all the time. From time to time, I’ll play now, but not as much as when I was growing up. Like many fighting game enthusiasts growing up in the 90s, my first loves were Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat. Around the time I was getting into video games, the Mortal Kombat films came out… and I was obsessed. Sonya Blade was my favorite in Mortal Kombat, and Cammy was my favorite in Street Fighter. (As you read on, you’ll learn my favorite in a fighting game will typically be the blonde bombshell) I don’t remember my introduction to the Tekken series, but I recall fond memories of playing Tekken 2, and I’ve owned every game, at least every game available on Playstation consoles, since then. In the second game, Michelle Chang was my favorite, but between the second and third games she died or disappeared, and her daughter, Julia, replaced her. I didn’t like Julia as much, so I switched to Nina Williams… another blonde bombshell, in fact, that is the. name of one of her moves. In hindsight, I enjoyed fighting games up until Tekken, but I LOVED the Tekken series. I believe my introduction to the Dead Or Alive series was through GameInformer. I want to say that I had a subscription from my preteen years up through my mid to late twenties. Back then, there wasn’t social media or YouTube showing me new games, I either saw them in stores, read about them in magazines, or heard about them through friends. At the time, I was also very much into reading strategy guides. I don’t know if people buy strategy guides anymore, but I’ll still buy a collector’s edition here and there. I like to collect them more than anything else, you can use an online guide or YouTube these days. Anyway, I remember going to the mall on weekends and spending my time at arcades (another story) and/or reading strategy guides. The look of Dead Or Alive is what pulled me in. It looked so different from the other fighting games I had played. At the time, I had a PS2, and the fighting game I was playing all the time was Tekken Tag Tournament. I was OBSESSED with that game, partly because it was my first PS2 game and partly because it brought back characters from previous games, such as Michelle Chang, and introduced characters like Unknown. There were so many theories that Unknown was actually Jun, who also disappeared/died between the second and third games. It wouldn’t be until years later that said theory was confirmed with Tekken Tag Tournament 2. I believe that game was on PS5. Anyway, the first DOA game to come to PS2 was Dead Or Alive 2: Hardcore, and I purchased it around Christmas time. The first thing I noticed was how fast the game was, not that the other fighting games were slow, but they weren’t as fast as this. This also started my love of costumes in games. Mind you, on this PS2 game, each character had 20 costumes… free, no DLC, already in the game costumes (that’s important for later). You had to do different tasks to unlock different costumes, like play story mode on different difficulties, defeat a certain number of enemies in Survivor mode. It was a lot of fun. Now, DOA has a reputation of being a series catered towards young men. To be fair, most video games, then and now, were catered towards teen boys. With this game, the higher you set the age of the player, the more the boobs bounced. The costumes were a bit risqué at times, and it was not uncommon to get a panty shot when the characters were wearing skirts or other skimpy outfits. I didn’t care about any of that, I loved seeing the different costume designs. There was also an art gallery. It played this song called “Deadly Silence Beach” and there were different 3D renderings of the girls of DOA. A lot of them were in bikinis and other skimpy outfits, very much how I imagine a men’s magazine to be. No nudity though, which was fine by me. I’d spend hours listening to that song and drawing while looking at the renderings. It really helped me create an artistic style… I would later have to edit that style because DOA was about big boobs, so my drawings all had big boobs too. When DOA3 was announced as an Xbox exclusive, I, the Playstation fanboy, was devastated… but I went ahead and bought an Xbox (more accurately, I had my mom buy one for me) and I got DOA3 and DOA: Extreme Beach Volleyball. The volleyball series is going to need its own post, as will my days as an Xbox fanboy while I owned my Xbox and Xbox 360. I don’t believe DOA3 or DOA4 had as many costumes as DOA2 did, but they were faster, and the graphics looked better. In between the third and fourth games was my first experience of a remastered/remade game, which was Dead or Alive: Ultimate. It was the first two games, but now on Xbox. I think each character may have still had 20 outfits. I do remember all the girls had a black and green Xbox outfit, which I thought was cool. Dead or Alive: Ultimate came out the same day as Halo 2. I remember my friends thinking I was crazy to buy it instead of Halo. While I enjoyed Halo, and would eventually get the second game, I LOVED DOA. DOA4 was on Xbox 360. By then, I was 18 and in Phoenix. Eventually, probably around 19 or 20, I bought an Xbox 360. I still loved Playstation 3, but Xbox 360 had achievements and I was obsessed with them, so I played it more than my PS3 at the time. Playstation eventually developed their equivalent of achievements, called trophies, and DOA5 was the triumphant return of the series of the Playstation console, which was perfect, because in the age of the PS4, I had yet to purchase the Xbox One. DOA6 was also available on both Playstation and Xbox, but was not well received, and we haven’t heard of a new DOA since, and there may never be one. DOA 2: Hardcore and DOA: Ultimate are my favorite games in the series, and honestly, they are both the same game, one is just a remastered version of the other. They were fun and I could literally spend hours in Practice mode. I enjoyed DOA5, but it had its problems. For starters, the series introduced DLC. The DLC came in the form of characters, but mostly costumes, and each pack, for lack of a better term, was called a season, and each season was $92. I bought almost all the seasons. As I said before, this game developed my love of in-game costumes, and I wanted them all. I also had a lot of disposable income at the time, so I was fine with it. Not to mention, this came out to maybe $2 – $3 per outfit, whereas I play games today where a single outfit is $10… looking at you Dead By Daylight and Marvel’s Avengers. I believe there were 3 releases of DOA5. DOA5, DOA5: Ultimate, both on PS3/Xbox 360, and finally DOA 5: Last Round, which released on PS3/Xbox 360, as well as PS4 and Xbox One. With the different versions, I bought them all, and the DLC, I’m sure I spent at least $1k on the game during its lifetime, but as with the other games in the series, I played it pretty regularly. DOA6 I barely spent time playing, and I only bought the deluxe edition when it was recently on sale for $20 something. It still has DLC, but it took a shift towards more in-game purchases, and fans were immediately turned off by it. Also, you couldn’t unlock costumes like normal. I don’t remember exactly how it works, because I didn’t play it, but completely tasks would unlock pieces of costumes, but the pieces may not even be for the character you were playing as. It was a big mess, and that’s probably why we haven’t seen a new DOA since, which makes me sad. I’d love for them to go the remaster/remake route and remake DOA2 again. The series meant so much to me and I’d had to never see it revived.

Retro Rogue – Midnight Club

Since I can remember, I’ve always loved cars. As a child, I had a huge Hot Wheels collection. Anytime I would go to a toy store, I would leave with at least one new car. I was also obsessed with car wash sets, especially the ones that allowed you to actually wash the cars with soap and water (I also had an obsession with watching clothes in the washer… though never the dryer, but I digress…)

I also felt safest in a car. When I was a kid, my mom would take my sisters and me on mini-road trips on the weekends. We’d usually stop at a toy store on the way out of town (on these trips, I’d get an action figure, rather than a new car), get some snacks for the road, and be on our way. I LOVED being in a car, driving somewhere, and listening to music.

My love of cars naturally made its way to my love of video games. For the most part, these games were more traditional racing, like Gran Turismo 3. Somehow I got a code or something that unlocked all the cars and gave me a bunch of money. It was SO much fun (I was a kid and didn’t want to invest the time to unlock everything.) Sometimes I would race around, but sometimes, it was just a place of pretend of me. I’d pick a place on the track and pretend it was a house, and just pretend there were places for me to drive.

After watching The Fast and the Furious, my love of cars shifted to street racing cars… and my video game preference shifted as well… Enter Midnight Club. I don’t remember how I discovered the game, but I remember loving that it was an open world. It made it easier to play pretend. Now I could actually pick a building to be my “home” and I could drive around “running errands” and whatnot. I had an entire imaginary life. Don’t get me wrong, I played the game as intended too… but once I unlocked everything, I needed something to do. I remember unlocking this car that was like a spaceship. It went SO fast. I loved it.

When the 2nd entry in the series came out, it was a no-brainer that I would buy it. I don’t remember much about the second game though. The first one I remember vividly. It’s weird, but there are some songs I associate with games, despite having nothing to do with the game. Example being Hottie by Ashley Ballard. It is from the Spyder Games soundtrack (a story for another time…), and I remember listening to it while playing the game. I can’t think of one without thinking of the other.

Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition came out sometime when I was in high school. The game is BY FAR my favorite racing game. Not only did I get to race around in an even BIGGER environment, but I got to customize the cars like never before. If you wanted your car to look like something out of The Fast and the Furious, you could absolutely do that. I spent so many hours customizing cars and even more hours just driving around. The soundtrack was INCREDIBLE too! My introduction to M.I.A was via this game. I wish there was a remaster of this for the current gen consoles.

Midnight Club 4: Los Angeles was, unfortunately, the last game in the series. I haven’t played it in a while, but I do remember playing it shortly after moving to Los Angeles. It was interesting to see how the city was translated into the game. I love it for its depiction of Los Angeles, and because I was loyal to the series… but 3 was better.

I’m not sure why there hasn’t been another Midnight Club. Rockstar, also the company behind Grand Theft Auto, has made references to Midnight Club via Grand Theft Auto Online. I hope that means it will someday make a return… but I’m not holding my breath. It is interesting to me though that Grand Theft Auto Online now has more street racing elements. There is even an event, or maybe a trophy called Midnight Club.

There have been a few mumbles of a revival of the series. My fingers are crossed.

Retro Rogue – Bust A Groove 2

This idea came to me the other day when I was working out. See, I make a playlist each day I work out. I feel it helps motivate me to actually work out and I like having a theme. The other day, I was inspired by my Bust A Groove 2 playlist, and my workout was all songs from that game. I figured, why not make a series where I talk about retro games? So, here it is.

I don’t know if anyone will know this series, I only know it by chance. See, I had a cousin who was a big gamer (when I say cousin, don’t think someone my age, he was an adult… not that it really matters to the story). It was Christmas time, I was maybe 9 or 10? I was at my Nana’s house and my dad came over with this big trash bag full of games… a literally big, black trash bag. Why in a trash bag, I don’t know. Anyway, my cousin just got a Dreamcast and rather than keep his Playstation and Playstation games, he was getting rid of them… which may explain why they were in a trash bag… I guess my dad happened to be there, so rather than let them get thrown out, he took them and gave them to me.

This bag of games would be my introduction to the Darkstalkers series. There was also a Star Wars fighting game that I loved… but everyone else hates… and Bust A Groove 2. I’ll do my best to describe the premise of the game. It is unlike anything I had played before… or since. There are a series of characters, all with their own stories… and unique dance styles. If I remember correctly, they are in a dance battle for a prize of some sort… Anyway, each round, two characters battle and you can actually use attacks on each other. During each battle, there is a part where each dancer gets a solo, so if you time your attack the right way, you get your solo and you get to take your opponent’s solo.

Much like with PaRappa the Rapper, you gain points by entering the command you see on the screen. With Bust A Groove 2, everything is on a 4 count. There is a rectangle where a series of commands will be, and you can enter those at any time during the first 1 – 3 counts. Next to it is a square, and that one button must be pressed on the 4 count. If you enter the command correctly, and on the count, you get points. This was VERY confusing to me when I first started playing, and I hope I explained it correctly here… I’m sure there are YouTube videos of gameplay if you are curious to see how it works, but I got better as time went on. As the battle progresses, the commands become longer and more intricate. I remember thinking the game was cheating when I was first playing… but now I could play it and win every time because I learned how to play (I felt the same way with another Rhythm & Music game, UNiSON… but that’s a story for another time.)

The music still makes me want to dance and I love the characters. My favorite character is called Kitty-N. From what I remember, she is an actress. Her stage is a film stage (oh yeah, each character has their own stage that has its own song.) She has more ballet dance moves and is dressed in a… well, catsuit. Despite her being my favorite character, my favorite stage is that of Shorty’s. If I remember correctly, Shorty is the daughter of dancers or choreographers. She’s called Shorty because she’s just a kid, and she has a pet animal in her backpack while she dances. With her stage, you are on a raft of sorts going down a river… but it is more like a water ride at an amusement park, and it is taking you through a “jungle” and the song is called Happy Hearts in Sunshine.

I forgot to mention a part of the “battle”. Each combo successfully done adds to a meter. There are three, Cool (green), Chillin (pink), and Freeze (blue). The meters start on different levels at the beginning of the battle. As the battle goes on, and you do successful combos, it allows you to do more moves and get Cool to end the combo, doing those well lets you get Chillin when you successfully end the combo and then Freeze. If you line up all three meters, the stage will do something special. For instance, with Shorty’s stage, the tour will stop at and inside a tunnel and you’ll see animals dancing around you. Also, if your score is high enough Shorty’s pet, Columbo, who is also an unlockable character, will jump out of her backpack and dance alongside her.

This game was such a part of my childhood. Listening to the songs takes me back. I’d love to own it again… but I don’t want to pay $90 for a Playstation One game… at least not right now. This game makes me think of when I’d go to Babbage’s with my allowance in hand, and purchase whatever used game I could afford that looked interesting. I know there are still indie games out there, but I feel games don’t take as many risks as they used to. I’d love to see a concept like this revived today.

Mighty Thor

Let’s just cut to the chase, I’m not a Jane Foster fan. To be fair, I don’t read the comics, so my knowledge of the character comes from the MCU. I LOVE Natalie Portman, but I don’t like Jane Foster. Maybe I should mention the Thor films are my least favorite of the MCU as well? It just feels like in the year 2022 (and whatever years the Thor films were made) we shouldn’t have a female character who seems to only exist for her love interest.

In the original Thor, I was indifferent when it came to Jane. In the sequel, I DESPISED her. You mean to tell me this brilliant scientist dropped her research, her career, EVERYTHING… for a man she knew for a week… Girl, bye. Be sad he is gone, I mean, it is Chris Hemsworth, but her just moping about didn’t sit right with my spirit. Anytime I see her, she seems to be there to play the damsel in distress. I’m a Buffy, Elektra, Black Widow kinda guy, so she does nothing for me.

I say all that to say, I’m excited about Mighty Thor coming to Marvel’s Avengers, and her release next week may even get me to see the new Thor film in theaters… maybe. When it was first confirmed that it was Jane Foster coming to the game… and not my beloved Yelena, or even Shuri, I wasn’t pleased, for the previously mentioned reasons. Also, I wasn’t a fan of playing as Thor in the game, so I didn’t expect to enjoy playing as his female counterpart. But, seeing the trailer and seeing the concept art for her character has me excited to play as her. That being said, if they are going to continue to make echo characters (and I don’t have a problem with that at all, the more characters I can play, the better) I’m going to need my girl Yelena brought to the game.

And with She Hulk rumored to be coming in August, I feel these two women are about to bring a much-needed breath of fresh air to the game.

What are your thoughts on Jane Foster? Do you still play Marvel’s Avengers (if you ever did)? I’m curious to know.

Marvel’s Avengers

Where shall I start in regards to this game?

Well, I was a HUGE fan of the Marvel Ultimate Alliance series. Beat ’em up brawlers have always been my jam. You give me a Dynasty Warriors game and I can be entertained for hours. Add X-Men to the mix… and I’m sold.

I was one of the unfortunate souls who really only discovered X-Men Heroes as it was coming to consoles… and anyone who played that knows how it went. It spoke to my love of Marvel Ultimate Alliance. Being able to run around (as Elektra, in her Netflix outfits, of course) and level her up while beating up baddies was so much fun.

When Marvel’s Avengers was announced, it too spoke to my love of Marvel Ultimate Alliance, and I’m sure others felt the same. It’s one of the few games, if not the only one, that I love not necessarily for the game itself, but for the potential I see. I am rooting for Marvel’s Avengers like Tyra Banks was rooting for Tiffany on ANTM. I see what it can be and I want it to get there. And I really REALLY want to see some X-Men (and my girl Elektra) make it to the game.

Though it has been a bumpy road (ie 10 months without new content, no new roadmap), I still haven’t given up on this game. I do my daily challenges, I buy skins (when they are on sale). And even though I thought the echo character would be Yelena (who I was so excited for), I’m intrigued to play as Mighty Thor aka Jane Foster, when she comes out. Yesterday, there was also leaked audio of characters talking to She-Hulk, Winter Solider, and Captain Marvel. Of those three Captain Marvel is the one I’m most excited about.

Despite not giving us a traditional roadmap, I do believe content will continue to come to this game and I’m going to keep playing.

I think my current dream list for the game is: Scarlet Witch, Yelena, Jean Grey, Storm and Elektra. (I figure, once they figure out how to put a Scarlet Witch and Doctor Strange in the game, it would be easy to translate those moves to Jean Grey and Storm… hell, even Sue Storm.)

Are you still playing Marvel’s Avengers? Why or why not? Who are the characters you’re looking to see come to the game?

Dead By Daylight’s David King Comes Out

I have been wanting to get back into blogging. I have A LOT of thoughts on A LOT of things… and an IG story and/or tweet doesn’t give me the room to properly express myself. So, here we go…

This morning Behaviour Interactive announced David King, one of the characters of their game Dead By Daylight, is the game’s first gay character. And chaos is ensuing…

Something about me, I’m a lurker. Always have been, probably always will be. It is fascinating for me to go through comments and see how people react to certain topics. If you don’t know, a lurker is someone who rarely interacts in comments/posts/blogs but reads them. Now, I’m going to share my thoughts.

From my years of lurking, there tends to be a typical response when diversity representation comes into play (read that as an originally white character being a different race and/or an originally straight character coming out). It is usually met with “this is diversity for the sake of diversity, why not just make a new character that is (insert race and/or gender and/or sexual orientation)”… The same people would still argue “this is diversity for the sake of diversity” if it were an original character.

Then you have the “I’m part of X group, and I agree that it isn’t necessary,” I call those the Tokens. In this instance, “I’m gay, and I agree that David shouldn’t be gay, or they should have made a new character that is gay.”

A few people in the comments made some sense. The gaming world, like all realms of entertainment, and, well… life, was initially developed for and catered to the straight white male. Times are changing, and people are evolving. No longer is straight and/or white the default. While some find it arbitrary to make David gay (to be completely honest, I don’t play as any of the men, other than Chris Redfield, so I didn’t even know who David was, I think Dwight would have made a better choice, but that’s my opinion), I find it arbitrary that people assumed he was straight.

I saw a comment from a Token asking, what does being gay have to do with the game anyway? Does it help him finish generations faster? Does it help him escape? I’ll take a moment to briefly explain the game, if you don’t know it, though I assume you do, since you’re reading this, Dead By Daylight is a game where 4 players must restart 5 generators that will allow them to open an escape door to … well, escape, all while avoiding a killer coming after them.

This Token saddened me. I assume they aren’t aware that a common criticism of the LGBTQIA2+ community is that we “make it our identity”. No, being gay doesn’t relate to the mechanics of the game itself… but neither does being straight, and everyone was A-OK with believing all the characters were straight. People claiming they would prefer Behaviour Interactive create an original gay character would have been just as upset. They still would wonder what sexuality has to do with the game. The answer is nothing, it has nothing to do with the game, but it is good to have one’s assumptions shaken every once and a while. For the most part, we are going to go into an experience assuming people are straight unless told otherwise (there are obvious exceptions to this, such as going to LGBTQIA2+ designated spaces, but you know what I mean.)

And that’s the funny part, we are so indoctrinated, that we don’t even have to think about it, which is sad. I’m a black gay male, when I read a book unless the book specifies, I assume I am reading about straight white people. When I play a video game or watch a TV show or movie, I assume I am playing/watching straight people. Even with the amount of representation as far as gender, race, and sexual orientation, there are STILL times when I’m shocked because it will be so subtly thrown in sometimes. I’m like, wait, that man just said he has a HUSBAND?!? And sometimes, it is never brought up again. Some may ask, what is the point if it isn’t important to the story? To that, I say, because that is life. Sometimes you meet a man who has a husband, and you may never see that man again. It is art imitating life. I’m so used to straight being the default that I actually tried to explain away what I heard or saw. Take, for instance, Tommy from The Last of Us. It took my second playthrough to “accept” that he was gay, and not just talking about his “best friend.” Instances where a brief moment or piece of dialogue lets the player/viewer know a character isn’t straight is so beautiful because sometimes, that’s how it happens in real life.

This is why representation matters. I think it is more powerful to make an existing character gay (again, Dwight would have been a better choice, but, hey,) because it forces you to reexamine your thoughts of the character. I never thought much of the character, one way or the other, but now I see a new depth to David. He is the macho-looking straight dude, and honestly, I feel that is why people are so upset, because he was likely the character the straight white dudes gravitated towards, and they are shook.

I’ll sum this up by paraphrasing a comment I saw and loved, but there will be more to come regarding representation in media, the commenter simply (and beautifully said), “dude, chill, people come out.”