“Zack Sure Does Know How to Get a Girl’s Attention.”
“Is this going too far?
Dead or Alive Paradise North American cover.
It should be no secret that our last article on Death Crimson was a tough one to get done. After putting in that work, I reckon I’m due a vacation of sorts! By which I mean, I’m gonna go ahead and pick out an article subject which [theoretically] shouldn’t require much in the way of “research” or “effort” in writing about. And if I can manage to find a game with some sort of idyllic paradise vacation theming, then it’ll be all the more apropos for it. With any luck at all, I might even manage to squeeze some actual rest and relaxation in.
So, Dead or Alive Paradise for the PlayStation Portable, eh? I will confess: I’m not going into this as a particular fan of the larger fighting game franchise, let alone the “Xtreme” sub-series of beach volleyball and lady-ogling simulation it hath wrought. Naturally, Paradise falls distinctly under the banner of the latter — specifically serving as a stripped-down conversion of the Xbox 360’s Dead or Alive Xtreme 2. For folk who wanted to take their voyeurism on the road back in 2010, Paradise would serve as a slice to go on Sony’s then-current handheld. But in a line of titles which have never necessarily been critical darlings, it would seem that this entry on the PSP stands out for receiving the most in the way of negative reception.
I suppose the question we’ll be left to tackle is, what made Paradise stand out as particularly egregious in the eyes of critics and consumers? Is it simply a matter of its sensual shtick wearing thin? Was the PSP incapable of powering the potent physics behind those bouncing breasts? Or perhaps once you strip the game down to its bare essentials, it simply doesn’t have much to show for itself? We’ll be getting to the bottom of it over the course of this article. And of course, as long as we’re here; I’ll also be providing my briefing on the broader Dead or Alive branding, as well as the franchise’s futures post-Paradise. It’s time to hit the beaches, babes.
EDITOR’S NOTE: While Dead or Alive Paradise never goes so far as to display explicit nudity, it’s still worth putting up a disclaimer here that the gameplay [and our accompanying footage] traffics almost entirely in softcore erotica. As such, this article will inevitably have to discuss the subjects of titillation and potential sexploitation. Readers uncomfortable with such matters / not of age to engage with it should give this article a skip.
The first installment in the Xtreme series – Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball for the Xbox – currently holds a 73 average on Metacritic. This would prove to be the series high point in terms of critical reception, and does admittedly serve as what I would consider to be decently-received release.
“This Is a Vacation, and You Know What That Means: Shopping!”
North American magazine ad.
Before the days where our buxom babes were being made to play ball, they began with bare-knuckle brawling. 1996 saw the debut of Dead or Alive in arcades, as originally developed by a team within Tecmo lead by the eccentric Tomonobu Itagaki. Quickly following its success as a coin-op, a “Team Ninja” was established with the original mission of bringing the game home to consoles — until such time as they were given the reins to develop future installments in the series themselves. Team Ninja effectively served as Itagaki’s task force, with DoA [and later Ninja Gaiden] titles as their primary focus. And considering that DoA had effectively established itself as Tecmo’s flagship franchise – what with its being credited as having saved the company from impending bankruptcy[1] – Team Ninja’s responsibilities were not to be taken lightly. On the other hand, this certainly didn’t stop them from envisioning DoA’s brand image as being a light-hearted affair.
So, as far as being a technical fighting game, Dead or Alive is all well and fine and whatnot. It takes most of its cues from the likes of Virtua Fighter; from its general use of 3D characters and playfield, down to a similar three button control scheme. The key deviations are a system for countering and reversals in place of traditional holding-to-block, and landing outside the edges of the arena now resulting in taking additional damage rather than immediate ring-out losses. But we know better than to claim that these are the sorts of differences that truly distinguish Dead or Alive from the rest of the pack. No, what it comes down to at the end of the day – what honestly got folk fired up about this new contender to the scene – is the fact that Dead or Alive’s character roster is split fairly evenly between male and female competitors, and that those females just so happen to all have pronounced bouncing breasts. Not only that, but unlockable alternate costumes for these ladies [on consoles] would play up their forward sexuality — from schoolgirl and maid outfits, to scantily-clad angels and devils. From the first, the DoA franchise would exemplify the term “ecchi”: Playful eroticism, of the strictly softcore variety.
If the decision to play up this particular angle was a deliberate one, the man to pin it on would certainly be Itagaki. Put simply, the dude is a self-confessed pervert, who goes to great lengths to try and justify the recurrent element of sexuality in his games. From his perspective as a game designer: “I think entertainment needs sexuality and violence. So if entertainment lacks sexual elements, it’s entertainment no more.”[1b] But before you go laughing him off as just a harmless cheesecake connoisseur: Also know that allegations arose in 2006 of his sexually harassing a female staffer over a course of years, including forced physical contact and seemingly near-constant sexual advances within the workplace.[2] Now, I believe I’m legally compelled to follow up with the fact that these charges would be later dismissed, as internal review by Tecmo would [conveniently] determine that “the alleged sexual harassment of the former employee never took place.”[3] On the other hand, I feel morally compelled to state that corporations and internal reviews are not to be readily trusted — especially where men in positions of power and profit-earning are concerned.
Moving past that abject subject matter: With Team Ninja’s mission statement clearly defined, the fresh studio moved bravely forward — determined to also push the boundaries of how much suggestive content they could get away with in their games. While Dead or Alive 2 in 1999 would serve to refine many of the gameplay mechanics present in its predecessor, the more heavily promoted features would be advancements made in visual fidelity and the introduction of new female characters to ogle. If that sounds like I’m being unfair to the game and its myriad of functional improvements to the core fighting, I would point you to the advertising put out for the game, and ask you what assets here were getting the highlight? Further emphasizing this point; the ‘Bouncing Breast’ feature introduced in the original Dead or Alive – which allowed for the physics of female fighters’ breasts to operate independently from the rest of their torso – was further overhauled to incorporate individual per-boob physics, so as to encourage more “natural” jiggling. If you were to press Itagaki on his team’s development priorities at this time, he might’ve answered with the following: “I’m creating entertainment, rather than just a video game. So in terms of entertainment, it’s quite natural for me to create beautiful women. It makes sense, rather than bringing ugly women into the game. Very simple, naturally.”[1c]
Dead or Alive for PlayStation (Tecmo / Team Ninja, 1998)
At this point, Tecmo were effectively all-in on Itagaki’s team and DoA, as their work represented the biggest earners for their company moving into the new millennium. At the same time, supposed stagnancy in the arcade scene and frustrations in developing for Sony’s PlayStation 2 would push involved parties towards a rather risky decision: Moving towards exclusivity on Microsoft’s first home console effort, the original Xbox. The news was announced in April of 2001, with the third installment in the franchise already a ways into development — planned as a launch title for the soon-to-debut console.[4] Of course, this move represented more than just an impressed commitment to the “incredible graphic and sound capabilities of the Xbox”: It demonstrated a decision by Tecmo to target the North American market primarily, and big money deals being made by Microsoft to secure third-party support. And so, while the Xbox would go on to unsurprisingly fail in Japan, Tecmo would still continue to strongly support the hardware for some years to come, with Team Ninja releases maintaining manufacturer exclusivity until as late as 2008.
This period saw the releases of Dead or Alive 3 and Dead or Alive Ultimate on the hardware (the latter title serving as a collection of enhanced versions of the first two games in the series), as well as the rebooting of Ninja Gaiden as a hardcore hack-and-slash series (capitalizing on protagonist Ryu Hayabusa having played a contender in the DoA series since inception). Rounding out Team Ninja’s exclusive entries to the Xbox’s catalogue – and perhaps most pertinently for our purposes – was the release of Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball in 2003. As one might divine from the title here; the conceit of Xtreme sees the [female] roster of the larger DoA series taking time out of their martial competition, in order to indulge in all manner of casual beachside activities — namely, the titular beach volleyball. Of course – as you also may well be able to guess at this point – the actual mechanics of volleyball are an afterthought, and the sport simply serves a means to another end entirely: An excuse to see the girls clad in various revealing swimsuits for the entirety of the game.
From the very first trailer debuting at 2002’s Tokyo Game Show, the primary selling point was clearly established. By Jeff Gerstmann’s account on behalf of GameSpot, “The trailer doesn’t seem to show off a ton of actual gameplay,” with more emphasis placed on “showing the girls of Dead or Alive bouncing around on and off the volleyball court in a variety of bikinis.”[5] And to close the trailer out: “One girl feeds another one of the girls a strawberry, sticking her finger into the girl’s mouth in the process. To be honest, the whole thing feels a little creepy.” As a contrast, IGN’s Aaron Boulding demonstrated far more enthusiasm during the game’s pre-release phase, while penning perhaps one of the most uncomfortable articles I’ve ever read by a major games publication. After an incredibly awkward paragraph where he pretends to search for the word “AROUSAL” (describing it as “that tingling sensation you get while watching a sweaty Britney Spears gyrating in concert”), he goes on to disparage the “average feminist [who] may not see eye-to-eye with us,” before taking a journalistic stand to proclaim that IGN were “not going to ,ah, [sic] gush all over this game just because it’s got half naked women in it,either.”[6] I had to read all that, so now you have to too.
With its combination of bare-bones volleyball gameplay and gazing at scantily-clad gals, Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball managed to move through a decent chunk of units at retail — including a remarkably impressive (for the console at hand) 73 thousand day one sales in Japan![7] All said and done, VGChartz estimates global sales of the game as settling around 600 thousand: Well below the sales of any of the individual mainline titles thus far, but proving a respectable number nonetheless. It would serve to demonstrate that despite the title receiving a largely mixed critical consensus, there was a market that could likely be reliably catered to here — who might continue to forgo “waiting for reviews to come in,” and blindly buy on the promise of titillation. Because if one thing could be determined as certain at the end of this farrago, it was that folk weren’t actually buying this game for the middling volleyball.
Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball for Xbox (Tecmo / Team Ninja, 2003)
The next several years saw the transition to a new generation of consoles, and Team Ninja continuing to back Microsoft’s horse. 2005 brought Dead or Alive 4 — which actually became the first fighting entry in the series to sport an M rating from the ESRB (where Beach Volleyball had been the first M-rated entry across the broader franchise), on account of just how gratuitous the presentation of the female fighters had become. It also only released after suffering multiple delays, and missing the Xbox 360’s Japanese launch window by a month. As such, it suffered blame for the 360’s “slow start” in the country,[8] beginning to strain the relationship between Tecmo and Microsoft. This didn’t stop Dead or Alive 4 from featuring a new character by the name ‘SPARTAN-458’; who served as a female clad in full Mjolnir power armor (Master Chief’s attire from the Halo franchise), and who would consequently never appear in the series again. For what it’s worth, Dead or Alive 4 did continue the series tradition of iterating on the mechanics of its fighting gameplay, and is considered by some to be the series high mark? It’s honestly hard to get a concrete read on the fanbase, as to which entries are more largely loved or reviled.
Of course, Team Ninja already had their next project for the new hardware lined up by the time Dead or Alive 4 finally hit shelves: The second installment in DoA’s volleyball sub-series, Dead or Alive Xtreme 2. By Itagaki’s claims in May of 2006, he was personally involved in some capacity on at least “a half dozen products”;[9] but Xtreme 2 clearly seemed to be the priority project going at the time, and received the bulk of attention in interviews. Fielding questions on the subject of the volleyball mechanics, Itagaki would promise further iteration and tighter control — though excluding anything he believed “people won’t be able to figure out,” such as adding spin to the ball (which even interviewers would argue was a major component of volleyball). When provided suggestions to include minigames along the lines of bouncing on trampolines or wet t-shirt contests, Itagaki would respond with some defensiveness about being “really careful not to make it seem vulgar,” or not wanting to “show the women in a negative light.” At the same time, when asked if the infamous ‘Venus’ swimwear from the previous entry would make a return, the cheeky reply was that “if you think the Venus bathing suit was good, there is no comparison to what we’re about to show you.” Sure enough, Xtreme 2 would feature a selection of swimwear which can only be described as “barely there” — or downright invisible from certain distances and angles.
The major addition to Xtreme 2 would be written as its new jet-skiing minigame, complete with online play mode incorporated. Though if you were to ask Itagaki whether it was the primary focus of the game / taking the place of volleyball, the only response you would get would simply be “The main focus is for the player to have fun with the girls.”[10] Still, its inclusion along with that of a handful of other new minigames did demonstrate efforts to fill out the actual content end of this new installment, where the original Xtreme Beach Volleyball had proven a rather bare-bones affair. At the same time, several of these new minigames – including the aptly named ‘Butt Battle’ – serve the dual purpose of providing some titillation in and of themselves, effectively killing two birds with one stone. Perhaps most seedy among the new inclusions though would be the debut of ‘Pole Dancing’ cutscenes — unlocked within the in-game casino by playing on the Christie-themed slot machine, as a riff on her sleazy ending cinematic from Dead or Alive 4. Unlocking the ability to view every character’s variation on this animation serves as some of the “endgame” content; requiring some of the most significant time and monetary investment within the game, and the luck / patience to hit the jackpot on the slot machine nine times.
For these efforts, Xtreme 2 would go on sell rather disappointingly, as it would turn out. With VGChartz estimating somewhere in the realm of 250 thousand sales – less than half of its immediate predecessor, if their data is to be believed – it had turned out that the success of the original experiment may have well been an anomaly. While a quarter of a million copies doesn’t represent an abject failure to sell, it still marked a clear decline in the franchise’s brand value — where name recognition and erotic novelty would no longer be sufficient in allowing the series to self-market. Internally within Tecmo, plans were likely already being formulated on how to further stretch the work that had been put into Xtreme 2 to where they could profit further from it. By the time these plans were eventually put into action, however, Itagaki and Team Ninja would no longer be available to oversee it.
Dead or Alive Xtreme 2 for Xbox 360 (Tecmo / Team Ninja, 2006)
Itagaki’s time at Tecmo had been proven tumultuous in his last several years. Between a constant breakneck development schedule, his aforementioned workplace relations troubles, and a healthy dose of resentment for his employers that had been brewing ever since he was apparently “tricked” into releasing Dead or Alive 2;[11] it was clear from the start that his ego was set for a collision course with his employers, and that the inevitable crash would be an ugly one. The straw that broke the camel’s back came in 2008, with Itagaki filing suit against Tecmo to the tune of 148 million yen in damages, on account of a promised bonus that had gone unpaid since the completion of Dead or Alive 4’s development.[12] The issuing of this lawsuit would coincide with Itagaki’s resignation from Tecmo, leaving Ninja Gaiden II to be his final directorial credit for the company, and taking several members of Team Ninja with him to help establish his new studio ‘Valhalla Game.’ Ultimately, all this left the DoA franchise to limp on without its long-time creative lead, and in the awkward position of Itagaki’s run with it ending on something of a flat note. All Tecmo could do was pick up the scraps, and sew them back together in the hopes of continued cash flow.
Rather than jumping directly into developing a Dead or Alive 5, the newly-mergered Tecmo Koei would continue with their plan to maximize and repurpose Xtreme 2’s assets. The first fruit of this would actually have been a Japan-exclusive mobile phone title released in 2006, which apparently consists exclusively of the casino minigames and gift-giving mechanics from the source material, while eschewing all the other minigame components. As such, it’s less a conversion / remake of Xtreme 2 than it is a further promotional vehicle for the larger entry. Interestingly, though, is the fact that this mobile game was apparently titled “Dead or Alive Paradise ♪” — establishing a sort of handheld-designated branding that would be used again for the future PlayStation Portable conversion. Yes, Dead or Alive Paradise (sans musical note) on PSP would demonstrate a more fully-featured attempt at bringing Xtreme 2 to a portable device, as well as serving as the franchise’s first return to Sony hardware after nearly a decade.
The announcement of Paradise for PSP would immediately make for some rough reception, as there was a belief that this new game would also be forgoing any of the minigame content — just as its phone-based predecessor had done before it. Reporting on behalf of Engadget, Andrew Yoon would report that Paradise on Sony’s handheld would “barely [be] a game at all,” and serve an audience who “wished Tecmo would just get rid of all that pesky fighting and volleyball gameplay.”[13] Obviously, the misconception here was that Paradise was meant to serve as a conversion of its identically-named phone counterpart, rather than being based on the larger Xtreme 2. Though this misunderstanding would be quickly cleared up, there was actually something of a half-truth to the idea that major components of the base game wouldn’t survive the process of miniaturization. More on that later.
It must also be noted that Team Ninja would not serve as the credited developers behind this portable entry, with a one-time team ‘Project Venus’ instead receiving that honor. Perhaps there was some concern or legal stipulation which required that a new studio name be attached to the project, so as to distance it from the no-longer-involved Itagaki? In either case, it shouldn’t shock you to hear that Project Venus staff largely consisted of the remaining Team Ninja members, simply operating under alias. Furthermore: A newly-appointed producer Yoshinori Ueda would claim that the purpose behind this entry to the franchise was to “reset” the history behind DoA, and to “get new fans, people who aren’t familiar with the series, and cast the net wide for people who might be looking for something different.”[14] A curious claim to make about a remake of a four year-old game, but marketing spin will be spin I suppose? With the game landing on North American shelves on March 30th of 2010, and in Japanese game stores on April 2nd, consumers were free to make their own determination on that statement. And hey, if you so happened to be a Japanese consumer, you could even opt to purchase a ¥15,729 collector’s edition featuring a limited edition Kasumi figurine! For some out there, this bauble may well have proven the most “amusing” component of the whole package.
By my metric, a ratio of five guys to three gals [in the stock character selection] is pretty damn close to parity. If we’re comparing Dead or Alive against some of its big-name contemporaries: Virtua Fighter stacks six men against two women, while 1996’s Street Fighter Alpha 2 saw fifteen male combatants to a paltry three females. To be clear: DoA aiming for a more even-gendered roster is a positive thing. It’s how and why they chose to do so that can be brought into question some.
For detailed analysis of Microsoft’s bumbling debacles in the Japanese games market: Wesley Yin-Poole’s article for Eurogamer on “Why Xbox failed in Japan” makes for highly recommended reading.
The same result could be said for the franchise’s first (and last) theatrical release that same year – DOA: Dead or Alive – which failed to recoup $22.5 million of its $30 million budget. Not even “Big Sexy” Kevin Nash as Bass Armstrong could save the film from flopping.
“You’re Going to Have Fun Tonight!”
Back of North American box.
Welcome to scenic ‘New Zack Island’: A tropical paradise exclusively accessible to a select group of female martial artists, as privately owned by a Muay Thai boxer turned fluke trillionaire. As you might have surmised, the island is named after its enigmatic owner – Dennis “Zack” Rodman – and is dubbed as “New” due to the fact that it had previously sunk into the ocean as the result of a volcanic eruption — bankrupting said proprietor in the process. However, after amassing another fortune as a result of looting an Egyptian tomb, Zack returns to the ruins in order to raise them from the sea, and re-establish his beach resort. Naturally, there’s no better way for Zack to celebrate the reopening of his island than by reinviting its previous guests for another two week stay — all under false pretenses, of course. This includes convincing Kasumi that her long-missing brother would be present on the isle; only for her to quickly discover that he plainly isn’t, and to resign to her fate of fourteen days of rest and relaxation. For a cast of cold-blooded femme fatales, they all seem easily quick to forgive and forget when it comes to this con-man?
Look, all that plot I laid out is obviously as pointless as it is ridiculous. Everyone is here for one thing, and one thing only: Serious competitive volleyball tournament. Oh, and also bodacious boobage, I guess. As the player, you’re given your pick between the roster of nine vacationing pugilists [and one blackjack dealer], whose two week holiday you’ll get to experience first-hand. Will you opt first for pro wrestling superstar Tina, clad by default in her American flag bikini? Or perhaps Helena, the opera star turned CEO of the DOATEC corporation, whose mission is to avenge the murders of her parents? Maybe you’ll want to play as the cold-hearted assassin Christie, who — come to think of it, was actually responsible for killing Helena’s mother. Boy, you’d sure assume that would lead to an awkward air between the two of them, wouldn’t it? But apparently, that tension is nothing a couple of trinket gifts won’t alleviate, according to the game’s internal logic. With part of your goal being to help all these girls get along, you’ll find that friendship is only a couple of thoughtfully wrapped presents away.
Gift-giving is part of the core of Paradise, as it allows you to form partnerships between the girls for the purposes of volleyballing and photoshoot opportunities. If you’re aiming for a full game completion rate, you’ll eventually have to experiment with every permutation and pairing of girls, as you fill out a log of ‘Venus Clips.’ But more on that later: Primarily, you’ll be spending your time playing the much-ballyhooed volleyball, or the reflex-demanding ‘Pool Hopping’ minigame. Aaand that’s your whole lot of extracurricular activities, as you first embark on your island festivities! Excluding a handful of simple games at the casino, these are the only games available to a first-time player — probably even until your fourth or fifth playthrough, even! And of the games you’ll eventually unlock, the once heavily-promoted jet ski minigame (‘Marine Race’) from Xtreme 2 ain’t one of them. For an island surrounded by the sea, Paradise suffers from an issue of severe drought: Content drought, that is.
Now, we could start right off the bat with more comparisons between the console source material and this watered-down handheld conversion. But I believe it’s worth evaluating the game based on its standalone merits first, and cataloguing what got lost later. So, let’s back up a bit then, and approach this game from a first-time player’s experience. As a newcomer to the island, you’ll likely elect to pick your favorite female combatant from DoA’s history — if not simply the lady you find most attractive. The two factors aren’t mutually exclusive. As someone who has no attachment to the larger franchise, I personally ended up picking Helena, on account of her being “fully-developed” (which is to say, I was fairly confident that she wasn’t under the age of eighteen). And as a condition of your first playthrough; regardless of which lady you pick, you’ll immediately be partnered up with the luchadora Lisa, who will introduce the basics of the game’s mechanics to you in a forced tutorial segment.
The first thing you’ll be made to learn about is giving gifts, which is fitting as it governs so much of the rest of the game. Now, in picking gifts for the other girls on the island, you’ll have to figure out their individual tastes and preferences largely on your own — as the game itself provides only bare minimum suggestions for preferred food and drink items, as accessible from the in-game ‘Girls Guide.’ In actual fact, each girl has a set of at least ten gifts they’ll “love,” and another set that they’ll merely “like,” while all other items will be rejected outright. With probably close to a hundred giftable items to account for in the game – and only a small, rotating selection of stock available in the in-game gift stop – this can lead to a ton of trial and error (assuming you don’t just consult an online guide). As an additional quirk, you’ll also have to be mindful of each girl’s favorite color when wrapping their presents, as they’ll also turn down your gesture on the sole count of not being appropriately color-coordinated. And to top all that off, there are a handful of girls who refuse to accept gifts during the daytime, just to add one last additional wrinkle to your attempts at good deeds.
To be clear: The first-timer tutorial covers almost none of those specifics, with the rest of the game also declining to provide hints as to which girls may prefer what gifts [and when]. Rather, the tutorial only elects to show you what might happen if you gift a set of swimwear to a friendly fellow female, where they may decide to change into it and wear it during in-game activities. Seeing as each character can only purchase from a selection of swimsuits and accessories (hats, shoes, wristbands and the like) tailored specifically to them, mixing and matching outfits between characters requires exchanging them as gifts — y’know, if that’s even all that big a deal to you, that is. Admittedly, I did eventually determine it was necessary to gift Tina one of Rio’s spare cowgirl-inspired swimsuits, because how the hell did the developers think they were gonna get away with not making an outfit called ‘Texas Hold’em’ immediately available to Texas’ favorite daughter? Of course, I’m neglecting what most players will likely use this functionality for: To trade the million-dollar “microkinis” available exclusively to Christie and Lisa (including the likes of the aforementioned ‘Venus’ outfit, and a new flesh-colored sling swimsuit entitled ‘Aquamarine’) to any other girls of their choosing, in order to ensure that the skimpiest attire is made available to all.
Further encouraging this dress-up mechanic are the opportunities to discover and participate in ‘Venus Clips’; serving as cutscenes where the girls strut their stuff, squeeze in some stretching, and otherwise show off their swimwear for the benefit of horny players. Activities include gratuitous sun-bathing, crawling on hands and knees towards the camera, taking low-particle outdoor showers, and so much more in the name of softcore eroticism. Look, you can make excuses all you want for beach volleyball being a legitimate, non-sleazy pick for Xtreme and Paradise’s sport du jour — whether citing its history as legitimately-recognized competition, or otherwise extolling the physical prowess that is most certainly required to play it well. But when the game starts treating you to two minute animations of buxom babes shifting their weight and bouncing about on standing swings, they’re presenting it to you with a very specific purpose in mind. And to be clear on this point: That purpose is masturbation. For further confirmation of this fact, look no further than the developers admitting during interview that an outcome where players jack off to the game “could [be considered] a success” by their design intent.[14b] Of course, none of this is to say that players shouldn’t be allowed to “enjoy” the game in whatever way they see fit, or that eroticism in games is inherently problematic: I’m simply looking to cut off any tedious, bad faith arguments here that the game has any other sort of driving motive in mind. Capeesh?
So, more about those Venus Clips: While you’re ogling the girls on their off-time, you have control over the camera to rotate and zoom in on the best angles. If left to its own devices, the default scripted camera work honestly does a fine job covering all the bases the typical voyeur would want it to, but I suppose having manual control comes in handy for those looking to focus on a particular facet of the female form over another (for the foot fetishists out there, or who else have you). And in the event a player might land on a particularly alluring shot – one which they might want to hold on to for future “reference” – they’re additionally equipped with the ability to take photos, which can then be saved to the PSP’s memory stick and reviewed in the in-game ‘Precious Memories’ photo album. You’ll need to stay stocked on film for your in-game camera to do so, and you may even elect to upgrade to a more efficient camera down the line. Or, if you’re just trying to fill out the full collection of Venus Clips as quickly as possible: You can also just skip these cutscenes by quickly pressing the Start button, and get on with the rest of your grind.
See, each girl has individual clips tied to choosing to ‘Relax’ at six of the visitable locales, with three permutations depending on which time of day you choose to visit (‘Morning,’ ‘Daytime,’ or ‘Evening’). In total, that should be eighteen clips tied to each of the ten girls. However, that’s only where the collecting begins; as partnering with another girl allows you to ‘Imitate’ each other’s unique clips at each of those spots / time slots — further opening up an additional 162 clips for you to go through the process of unlocking [per girl]… At least, that’s what I had erroneously figured from my maths. Apparently, there’s actually slightly less than that projected number of Venus Clips available to each of the girls — with the rough average being a still-substantial 152 (where some girls have up to four extra). When multiplying that across the ten available girls, that’s somewhere in the neighborhood of 1,500 clips you’ll need to view in order to “fully” complete the game! And lest you be ready to write that accomplishment off as only being for the most hardcore of completionists: There is a reward for achieving this tedious feat, and it may well prove motivating enough to push some hornier players over the edge. It’s a feature we’ve alluded to earlier in the article, but which I’m gonna hold off on properly “spoiling” here until later.
Of course, in order to establish the friendships necessary to unlock all those clips, you’re gonna need to involve yourself in the gift-giving mechanics, and spend away on trying to impress the rest of the gals. But how will you reliably amass those necessary fortunes, you may ask? Well, other than attempting [and likely failing] to multiply your capital at the casino, you’ll soon find that volleyball can provide you fortune and wealth. And so it follows that Lisa will quickly take you to the court over the course of the tutorial, where you’ll be immediately dropped into a match with just one splash screen’s worth of instruction on how to play. As a matter of fact, it’s likely you’ll lose your first match in spectacular fashion, as you struggle to come to grips with the timing and tactics required to succeed at volleyball. Luckily, this struggle should be rather short-lived for most: Landing on one of the ideal strategies is as simple as the controls provided to you — of which there are very few of both.
In effect, you’ll want to delegate all matters of attacking to your AI partner, who is far more likely to score than you are. All that is required in facilitating this is to tap the R button to place your partner in ‘Blocking’ position closer to the net, have your own character play backcourt to protect against deep shots and to pass, and set your partner up for spike shots that your opponents will likely fail to scramble and defend against. It’s frankly shocking just how reliable this strategy can be round after round, match after match — but it goes to show how truly half-baked the underlying mechanics behind the volleyball experience are. Sure, you could try and play more organically – alternating between front and back, and taking on different roles as called for – but there’s hardly a point in doing so when the core gameplay is so shallow. There’s also the fact that the camera – despite promises to improve it after the original Beach Volleyball – sways wildly from left to right so constantly so as to never sufficiently convey where all the players are on the court, including your own controllable hitter. None of this is to mention how many hundreds of times you’ll have to play volleyball in order to shore up gift-buying funds, to where the minigame will surely become more of a grindy chore than a fun diversion.
After your inaugural volleyball match, that’s where the tutorial will abruptly leave you to your own devices. You’ll select from one of three hotels on the island for your character to reside at (bearing no impact on gameplay other than a slight aesthetic difference), and be granted access to the small range of night time activities — including a trip to the casino, late-night gift sending and inventory management, and the options to either sleep or oversleep into the next morning. Before you ask: Oversleeping is a way to rid yourself of an unwanted partner, so that you can attempt to invite another. Though actually, you can already attempt to recruit new partners while still having one in tow, so this whole mechanic is ultimately pointless? Oh, and I’d be remiss not to mention that Zack will deliver random gifts to you on a nightly basis, each time your arrive back at your room. You can promptly re-gift these items to the other girls based on what color packaging they come in, or open them up in order to determine if another preferred girl might like them as well. In either case, you’ll not want to let any gift sit in your inventory for overlong, as there’s the chance that perishable food items might be inside / deteriorate over the course of the night.
Hitting up the casino provides you a few ways to kill time and burn your ‘Zack Dollars’; including blackjack, poker, and a range of slot machines themed after each of the girls. You’ll notice that among the reels, Christie’s slot machine is mysteriously out of order at first — playing into that endgame surprise alluded to earlier. As for right now, between the functioning machines, you’ll find a standard assortment of multipliers and jackpots as your aim, as you cross your fingers for a return on investment. Among a few of the machines however, there actually exists the possibility of negative multipliers — which is to say, the chance to lose more than the cost of your spin, taken directly from your balance. Thanks to these, it’s possible to lose hundreds of thousands of bucks on what starts as a simple 3,000 Z gamble. Needless to say, this is unlike how any casino in the history of the world has conducted their business — perhaps even in the history of other video games?
More “traditional” in their rulesets are the pair of available card games, as dealt by the lovely Rio Rollins Tachibana. Though a non-Japanese player might assume her to just be a generic sort of spot-filling NPC, she actually comes with something of a rich history of appearances in a line of real-life pachi-slot machines: The ‘Super Black Jack’ line, as produced by Tecmo themselves as part of their gambling parlor business ventures. These appearances within physical slot machines would eventually translate to appearances within digital slot machines, as brought to consoles through the Rakushō! Pachi-Slot Sengen series (beginning on PS2 in 2003). In this sense, she’s become something of a mascot for Tecmo’s pachi-slot interests, as well as going on to star in no less than her own syndicated anime series titled Rio: Rainbow Gate! What I’m trying to say is, Rio’s cameo role here is actually something of a notable crossover between Tecmo properties, and that she further features as the game’s unlockable tenth selectable girl [after winning a hand of blackjack with a titular blackjack] really does make for a cutesy little bonus feature. Of course, none of this is to say that either of the in-game card games are actually worth playing, as they serve a particularly slow and low-chance way of attempting to fortify your fortunes. Past unlocking Rio and her personal suit of swimsuits as playable, the casino is honestly best avoided — unless you simply have no other means of playing poker on the go.
And so, the game’s stage is set: After getting a good night’s rest, you’ll find yourself back on the island location selection screen; where you can pick from your share of six tropical spots, three in-game stores, and a ‘Radio Station’ where you can customize which background music is available to play (including any music you may have stored on your PSP’s memory stick). That music selection will bring us to another issue in due time, but let’s continue to focus on the range of gameplay options for now. Aside from discovering that the additional Pool Hopping minigame is available – demanding players jump across platforms bearing images of the PSP’s face buttons, in a race against an AI character – you’ll find there’s currently little else to do outside of the mechanics already introduced to you. From here on out, you’re on your own in terms of deciding how to invest your time and money, and to make your own fun from what’s made available. And during a first-time playthrough, it bears mentioning that you’re committed to your choice of character for the entirety of the two in-game weeks — with the option to ‘Go Home Tomorrow’ (abandon a playthrough early in order to switch to a new girl) locked behind seeing this first vacation through. And let me just tell you, it is possible to really muck things up over the course of fourteen days — to where New Zack Island can quickly become your own personal hell.
During my initial playthrough, I chose not to consult any available guides for recommended courses of action / hints towards the other girls’ interests. This led to much experimenting in trying to determine for myself which girls might like what gifts, figuring out the ideal volleyball strategy for myself, flunking the pool hopping game until the lights went out, and generally wasting precious time that should have been spent trying to collect the Venus Clips — something which I initially had no intention or interest in pursuing, not knowing that they held the secret to unlocking the game’s additional content. I did manage a couple impressive feats during this time, though: I bankrupted myself at the casino, alienated every potential partner to the point where I could no longer play the volleyball (as a doubles team is required), and actually found ways to scare several of the girls off of the island entirely — by being so aggressive in my attempts to court them, that they ultimately decided to end their vacations early rather than deal with me anymore. This results in a surreal state of gameplay where you might only ever see the same three or four faces appearing as active across the selectable locations, and where you can no longer engage with them in any capacity outside of futilely trying to re-gift Zack’s presents to them. At this point, all you can really do is try and fill out as many of your character’s personal Zack Clips as possible, and count the days until this socially awkward vacation finally ends.
On your vacation’s last day wrapping up, your girl of choice will bemoan having to leave paradise behind, before cutting to the game’s single FMV ending — wherein New Zack Island is destroyed again by erupting volcano, and Zack is presumably left for dead (as Paradise chooses to omit a brief follow-up cutscene from Xtreme 2 where Zack is shown being beamed up / escaping from the exploding isle). This brings you to the game’s credits, and finally back to the main menu, where you can choose to embark on another vacation and start the whole ordeal over again. Never mind the fact that, honestly, you’ve already experienced 95% of what the game has to offer: It’s time to dive back in, and get back to work! After personally electing to have the ‘Goddess of Victory’ Rio as my new avatar, I renewed my own efforts and sought to nab as many Venus Clips as possible in a single playthrough, in the hopes of unlocking some of that desperately-needed additional content. As it turns out, the answer to the question of “how many clips can you unlock in one playthrough” is somewhere around 30 — between some of the relaxation spots not being available when you want them to be [due to other characters occupying the space], having to invest some time in keeping your partner happy enough to stick with you, and the compulsion to occasionally break up the incredible monotony that comes with cycling between the same set of six locations and trying to chart where and when you’ve relaxed at them.
Past a certain point, there is absolutely no other way to describe Paradise’s gameplay loop as anything other than a grind — a complete and utter chore being made of staring at bouncing girls. Even the most easily-excited of players will eventually have to concede that staring at the ladies partaking in an ever-dwindling set of similar-looking animations for consecutive hours loses its luster. The discovery that the eventual rewards for pursuing the Venus Clips are spread so thin and far apart is the icing on the cake here: 50 clips will unlock the ‘Beach Flag’ minigame, wherein you mash a single button repeatedly over the course of roughly 10 seconds while watching your character’s run animation from behind. At 100 clips, you’ll earn the ‘Butt Battle’ minigame, where you and another competitor joust with your derrières to push each other off a small inflatable pool island. And that’s all you get until you unlock a whopping total of 1,519 Venus Clips — at which point, you’ll have a “99%” unlock rate across all ten girls. It is at this moment, FINALLY, where Christie’s slot machine unlocks, and where you have the potential to strike a jackpot worth one pole dance animation. Actually, technically, you’ll win a ‘Secret Ticket’ as a present from Zack the following day, which can be further used in order to view said animation for each individual girl. This, dear readers, is the fruit of dozens of hours of labor and tedium, and the final surprise piece of endgame content.
With all that trial and tribulation finally accounted for, we can take inventory of what content is missing from Xtreme 2. Having already mentioned the Marine Race / jet-skiing not coming back for a second lap; there’s also the ‘Tug-of-War’ minigame which failed to make the cut as it serves as a slight variation on Butt Battle, as well as a ‘Water Slide’ wherein you’re made to steer your lady down an elaborately winding waterslide without falling over the edges and presumably breaking their necks. The jet-skiing most certainly serves as the diversion with the most depth out of this lot, containing multiple tracks and generally bearing the most available variation in play. You might even manage to convince yourself that the PSP somehow wasn’t capable of handling the Wave Race-esque minigame (it most certainly was). But as far as the water sliding and tug-of-warring? I struggle to develop an excuse as to why they didn’t make the cut — hell, why not all three of these minigames aren’t included in Paradise. Their inclusions in Xtreme 2 helped bolster the scope of content from “lacking” to “acceptable,” and so their failure to appear on PSP brings us right back to the bottom. Paradise may manage to boast a grand total of two additional minigames over the original content-lite entry in Beach Volleyball, but we’re talking about a sequel seven years later on a piece of hardware that was most certainly up to the task.
Now, if there’s one omission in Paradise that might actually be viewed as a welcome removal, it’s the exclusion of the ‘Crystal Boutique’ marketplace: A feature available from the hotel room in Xtreme 2 which allowed players to spend Microsoft Points (translated from real world dollars) on purchasing in-game trinkets. These included immediate access to whole collections of swimsuits and accessories, as well as paid tickets to unlock the Butt Battle and Water Slide minigames — all of which can be earned through the game itself by accumulating the necessary Zack Dollars, but which the options for here may well have tempted some impatient players. While some may be of the opinion that offering these sorts of shortcuts for sale gives players “additional choice” in how they choose to play and enjoy their games, I’m of the personal opinion that these features are often predatory / lead to deliberate imbalance of in-game economies by developers. Needless to say, the feature isn’t missed within the stripped-down realm of Paradise; though the remaining grinding for the pittance of further unlockable in-game content still isn’t entirely favorable, either.
Obviously, my perspective on what constitutes “depth of gameplay” doesn’t align with what Project Venus considered as providing the game’s primary source of variety: The range of Venus Clip animations, which were clearly meant to serve as the bulk / main feature of Paradise’s content. Clearly, I’m the idiot here for not recognizing how having 1,529 animations to check off a list (of which less than 190 are individually crafted) should serve as sufficient entertainment in and of itself. I’m sorry to say it, but I just can’t be compelled to care about ogling the women of Dead or Alive as they shadowbox on the beach or sit vacantly staring forward at an empty table — or even as they pop wheelies on a bicycle while appearing practically buck-naked. As I’ve addressed in the past on this website: While I’m certainly a fan of the female form, I’m not particularly excited to simply sit down and stare at them for hours on end as they bounce about in bikinis. I’m also fairly confident in contending that for those lusting after the designs of the DoA girls, there are most certainly other / more easily-attainable collections of content catering to them. I’m not saying that the Xtreme series and Paradise shouldn’t indulge in this somewhat-saucy sort of content: I’m saying that these games still need to provide actual gameplay as a foundation beneath it.
I suppose while we’re already here though evaluating the worth of those animations, it’s fair to point out that none of them are particularly impressive. I mean that in the technical sense; where most of the Venus Clips last no more than 30 seconds in length, don’t feature particularly elaborate keyframing, and are lit entirely flatly with nothing in the way of shadows to give any sense of depth to the scenes. It’s in these scenes where the limitations of the PSP’s graphical processing become hard to ignore, as you’re made to sit and watch idly while the game treats you to these downgraded showcases originally seen on the Xbox 360. Add to this a rendering resolution capping out at 480 by 272 pixels across a 4.3 inch screen (plenty suitable for the actual act of gameplay across most titles), and you’ll soon have to consider how ridiculous the concept of trying to enjoy 3D-rendered smut on a portable piece of hardware is? I can’t even start on my personal gripe on how the cast of fighting gals here would be so much hotter if any of them had defined muscle, considering the fact that it would be impossible to even make out any of that detail in Paradise’s rendered environments on such a tiny-ass screen.
To briefly return to the volleyball minigame, and how the diminished animation quality influences that front: The ways in which the game transitions between animations and slides characters across the ground into place can have an effect on your ability to keep track of the action. Often times, I’d believe a ball was about to fall out of play, due to the ladies seeming nowhere near close enough to volley it, only to suddenly jump 3-4 feet across the sand over the course of two frames so that they’re in position for it. Another factor is delayed animation initiation; where a character will be standing right next to where the ball is about to land, wait for it to be just above their knees, and suddenly be crouched down with absolutely no illusion of smoothness so that they’re able to play the rebound or what have you. Of course, all this only impacts when you’re able to see the characters on the court, which isn’t always an option while the camera swings as wildly as aforementioned or when foreground elements obscure the opponent’s side of the net. Again, with no means of stabilizing or otherwise controlling that camera, you’re entirely at the mercy of this unreliable operator. Oh well: At least you’ll have some sweet island jams to kick it to while you attempt to play. Right?
So, in another major downgrade from the console source material, all the licensed music is now missing in action. These would include the relaxing tones of Bob Marley’s “Is this Love,” George Duke’s jazzy “Brazilian Sugar”… uh, Reel Big Fish’s ska punk jam “The Kids Don’t Like It,” Hilary Duff’s sickly-sugary pop hit “Sweet Sixteen,” a pair of whack-ass tracks by the Baha Men? Look, I’m not saying the original soundtrack was packed top-to-bottom with bangers, but their absence here is palpable when all we’re left with by default is a selection of seven thoroughly bland background tracks. Granted, if you want to go through the trouble, you could always go ahead and compile all those original tunes onto your memory stick and play them back through the in-game radio station. Alternatively: If Tecmo had given half a care about this handheld cash-in, they could have re-licensed at least a portion of those songs to feature on the soundtrack again, and help retain some of the feel of the console entry. But as I like to think Rio might say: “That wasn’t in the cards.”
“Cheap and dirty” is the motto here, as Tecmo and Project Venus saw fit to whittle this conversion down to a bare minimum of available content. Again, I’ll contend that it’s not as if the PSP was incapable of handling it, or that the UMD storage was running thin by development’s end: It’s as simple a matter of Tecmo not willing to allocate any more budget than was strictly necessary to prioritize carrying over the cheesecake elements of Xtreme 2, as they believed that’s where the game’s core value lied. Not only that, but the turnaround time for the game was likely slated for a bare minimum as well; as Xtreme 2’s release in late ‘06 had proven the last [console] installment in the franchise for three years, and Tecmo were eager to hotshot development for this quick and dirty demake as soon as the opportunity to publish again on Sony’s hardware presented itself. Of course, this cheapness of production and shallowness of content shines brightly through, for as little as Tecmo ultimately cared about the critical reception.
The end result, as I cannot keep from reiterating, is a game boasting an absolute bare minimum of content, which manages to stretch a singular grind across the course of hours with the promise of one last piece of half-baked handheld titillation at the end. Where the goal for a portable game should be quick access to accessible gameplay – living up to the old mantra of “pick up and play” – Paradise instead provides players with busywork coated in some layers by an obtuse partnering mechanic that you’d have to start up a spreadsheet to personally keep track of. And to what end, might I ask? So that you can pan a camera around digital girls in your choice of thong swimwear, while sitting on the bus or stuck in a chair between other peering people? Call me crazy, but I just can’t figure out who this game is for or where it’s meant to be played — other than by very patient horndogs in the comfort of their own home. And at that point, why not just play Xtreme 2 on your TV screen and get a better bang for your buck?
Clearly, an entry in the Xtreme series was an odd choice for DoA’s return to Sony hardware, and only odder when you consider its coming out on handheld. What Tecmo should have done was suck it up and spend some proper money on the occasion, in order to bring a proper fighting entry to the PSP. Whether they might’ve decided to convert Dead or Alive 3 or 4 for the portable – making however many concessions needed to do so – it would’ve resulted in a game far more fitting for the format. And if Tecmo felt particularly compelled to make a splash, or perhaps still insistent on recycling these Xtreme 2 assets: What if they had decided to add a fighting minigame / gameplay mode to the Xtreme formula, wherein the gals can battle it out on the beaches? With a stripped down roster skipping out on the male characters, and any designs on alternate costumes already handled by the swimsuit collection, the work that would need to be done would simply be on the fighting mechanics themselves — where the template is already well-established within the franchise. Implement some online play mode if the mood strikes (seeing as it’s not present in the base Paradise experience), and you’ve got yourself a feature which might’ve actually moved some units.
Of course, that’s just my armchair take on matters: Tecmo already made their decision some ten odd years ago, and I’m sure they had their internal justifications for having done so. That it resulted in the go ahead being given to a watered down conversion of a four year old console game, and further resulted in a largely reviled release, has been their burden to bear. Of course Dead or Alive would move past this blemish on its record and return to its roots soon enough thereafter; but when the whole situation just seems like it was so avoidable, it makes it harder to let go of the fact that this misstep was allowed to happen to begin with. Still, I do want to believe that someone somewhere got something out of playing Dead or Alive Paradise. But at the same time, I kind of hate to think about the theoretical “what, when, and where.”
You can call me up when Tecmo releases a straight up lesbian dating sim with the DoA girls. God knows they already tease at it enough.
Yes, the issue of girls under the age of American consent law is one which has long-affected Dead or Alive. For canonical reference: Series poster girl Kasumi is reportedly seventeen during the events of the first four games, while another co-star in Ayane is a sweet sixteen. The series has since started introducing more blatantly childlike characters (with builds under 5 feet tall and noticeably lacking busts) under the age-old excuse of them being “thousand year-old beings” — as if to flagrantly dance on that fine line.
Naturally, the exception to this rule is if you elect to play as Lisa; which will result in you partnering with Tina, and the tutorial dialogue shifting to an “inner monologue”-type perspective where Lisa reminds herself of all the game mechanics.
“Of course number one [on how we plan to improve the volleyball] is the camera […] When I worked on the original, I didn’t think there was any need to differentiate the camera between single and versus play, but that’s what you get when you’ve been working on fighting games for eight years.” ~ Tomonobu Itagaki
“I Just Might Surprise You with Something in Return!”
Before we get to talking on the subject of sales numbers and critical reception, there’s actually one more pre-release note in need of addressing. See, when Dead or Alive Paradise was submitted for rating to the ESRB – as all major games publishers are wont to do for their upcoming releases – there ended up being something of an unexpected kerfuffle around it. Where the ESRB are usually content to declare their ratings, provide a brief summary and justification as to why, and move on to the next game in the queue; the staffer assigned with rating Paradise evidently took particular umbrage with the title, and tore into it with a fire and fury rarely seen from the organization. Which is to say: They levied some very reasonable frustrations with the game’s depiction of women, albeit in a forum and format which is meant to present as more formal and detached:
“This is a video game in which users watch grown women dressed in G-string bikinis jiggle their breasts while on a two-week vacation. Women’s breasts and butts will sway while playing volleyball, while hopping across cushions, while pole dancing, while posing on the ground, by the pool, on the beach, in front of the camera. […] Parents and consumers should know that the game contains a fair amount of ‘cheesy,’ and at times, creepy voyeurism—especially when users have complete rotate-pan-zoom control; but the game also contains bizarre, misguided notions of what women really want (if given two weeks, paid vacation, island resort)—Paradise cannot mean straddling felled tree trunks in dental-floss thongs.”
Needless to say, this condemnation under the banner of an organization which gamers already perceived as “shadowy” and “moralistic” – akin to the movie industry’s infamous and mysterious MPAA – would spark some degree of backlash amongst the “anti-censorship” crowd. Never mind the fact that the game still got its intended M rating as opposed to the prohibitive AO: This was apparently set to be the next regularly-scheduled rallying outrage for the month of February, 2010… That is, until the ESRB immediately retracted their written summary the next day, apologized for the use of “subjective language,” and quickly replaced it all with a more typical neutral-tone description block on their website.[16] However, these immediate changes and apologies would not stop Tecmo Koei’s North American marketing division from starting on a tear, wherein they would lean into and attempt to play up everything the writer for the ESRB had initially claimed.
It began with a press release for the game sent to news outlets a week or so later, which began by thanking the ESRB “for labeling the game ‘cheesy,’ ‘creepy’ and ‘bizarre'” — before further teasing players to “Get your heart on.”[17] If there was any ambiguity about that last line being a punny double entendre; this was quickly followed up by the aforementioned interview where fans were effectively encouraged to attempt masturbating to the game,[14c] and further by a commercial campaign referred to as “Spanking the Monkey.” And just in case the inevitable gag in this isn’t obvious from the euphemistic title alone: The ad spot consists solely of 30 uninterrupted seconds of a tired-looking man physically spanking a monkey doll on his lap, before cutting to Paradise’s logo and promptly cutting off the video immediately thereafter. Truly, a masterclass in subtlety. The question was, would all this traffic getting directed to games news outlets somehow be thanked in kind with more positive reviews?
Ha, of course it didn’t! Every critic worth their salt immediately took to tearing the game apart; condemning it for the quick and pointless cash grab it was, and warning consumers of the complete lack of content. After erroneously addressing the game as a “pocket-sized port of Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball originally released in 2003,” Kotaku would go on to bemoan a clunky presentation and lack of deeper mechanics driving the photography mode, before further condemning the ever-present breast physics as “slippery, sloppy and occasionally revolting.”[19] IGN honed in directly on the weak assortment of activities; noting that “the volleyball feels robotic and slightly unresponsive and the voyeur-style photography isn’t as heart pounding as it ought to be given the poorly constructed candy you’re supposedly gazing upon. The best activity is pool hopping, but it’s short and requires too many loading screens to provide sustainable enjoyment.”[20] Dan Rykcert as a reviewer for Game Informer would immediately draw attention to the demeaning treatment of DoA’s once-proud female grapplers: “The entire game is actually downright insulting to women, since they’re depicted as vapid, dim-witted babes with no real desires other than tanning and having people buy things for them. One onscreen prompt even says, ‘The best way to make friends is with gifts.’”[21]
What appears to be the most kind review to the game [according to Metacritic’s recognized sources] came courtesy of “PSM3 Magazine UK” — further attributed to an article on the old CVG (Computer And Video Games) website, and since absorbed into the archives of GamesRadar+. Regardless of where you may have read it; the review would go on to award the game a score of 6.9 out of 10 (Nice), with writer Andy Hartup chalking up “Semi-naked ladies” as one of the game’s positive bullet points.[22] In fairness to him, Andy does spend almost the entire text of the review being critical of every design choice, and excusing an early diatribe on the particulars of the bouncing breasts by joking that “a man can’t spend all his time reflecting on the deepening social rifts caused by hyper-capitalism.” Even as he contends that players may find themselves “secretly starting to enjoy the game – to an extent,” it’s not long before he’s writing off the character models for the ladies as “looking a little like zombie-dolls from the Uncanny Valley, rendering most of the sexy a little redundant.” When these sorts of jabs accompany as part of the most positive review written about your game, there’s a good chance that something has gone wrong.
Dead or Alive: Dimensions for Nintendo 3DS (Tecmo Koei / Team Ninja, 2011)
The underwhelming critical response was naturally met in turn with underwhelming sales numbers. With week one sales in Japan topping out at just 32,000 units moved,[23] and global sales ultimately topping out at just around 200 thousand [again by VGChartz estimation], the trend of slumping sales within the Xtreme series continued. Though, considering how cheaply this game was most certainly produced – what with it’s being a conversion and all – it’s still quite likely that Paradise had proven a financial win for Tecmo Koei when all was said and done, having successfully moved another couple hundred thousand discs for work that had largely been done four years prior. At this point, the only damage would be to the integrity of the franchise, which Tecmo Koei could just as quickly remedy: For their next installment, now on Nintendo’s 3DS, a return would be made to the franchise’s staple fighting in the form of Dead or Alive: Dimensions. For it’s part as a Mortal Kombat Trilogy-esque mash-up of characters and plot points from the first four installments in the mainline franchise, the release was much more warmly received by critics and consumers alike, as its choice of genre (and excellence of execution) made much more sense than Paradise’s trying to sell softcore porn “on the go.”
Unfortunately: Dimensions suffered as a result of Team Ninja once again missing a console’s launch window as initially intended. While the cartridge would eventually go on to sell a not-too-shabby 450 thousand copies in its lifetime, this was evidently seen as a disappointment by [the newly re-christened] Koei Tecmo. In an interview with Team Ninja producer Yosuke Hayashi, the man candidly admitted that the company had “hoped people would be playing more portable consoles out there but unfortunately that wasn’t the case,” while contending that his team had done their best in “squeezing pretty much all of the horsepower out of the 3DS that we could have.”[24] In more positive news for the franchise around this period – and as alluded to within that same interview – the studio was gearing up for an imminent crossover with Sega’s Virtua Fighter franchise; where characters including Akira, Sarah, Pai and Jacky would eventually appear in Dead or Alive 5. Across multiple revisions of 5 over the course of the next several years – spanning late 2012 to early 2015 – the game would make its way to a range of consoles and arcade cabinets, including a free-to-play digital download version called ‘Core Fighters.’ These efforts would result in over 1.5 million copies being sold, and 3.5 million downloads of the free release — as per a NeoGAF thread laying out these figures. For the faithful, it felt as if DoA might’ve finally been back on track after the loss of its original director.
Perhaps feeling jealous or momentarily irrelevant as his franchise carried on without him, Itagaki would take to the press at a point in 2014 to bemoan how his “daughter” [in Dead or Alive] had been “totally ruined, spoiled” — additionally claiming that “many DOA fans here are crying,” and that he would attempt to “do something for DOA after I finish Devil’s Third.”[25] Because that’s right: After leaving Tecmo, Itagaki’s Valhalla Games studio had been working on developing none other than Devil’s Third; eventually to be published on Nintendo’s Wii U, and soon rating as one of the most universally reviled titles for that platform. More on that sorry story at some point in the future, I promise you. But for now, in the interest of moving quickly past the temper tantrums of a grumpy old man: It’s here where we have to talk about Dead or Alive Xtreme 3, and Koei Tecmo’s “controversial” return to the realm of volleyball and small bikinis. It’s also here where I have to audibly groan as I think to myself, “can I get away with not talking about this part of the story?” Ughhh. Fine, to hell with it: Here it goes.
Dead or Alive: Xtreme 3 – Fortune for PlayStation 4 (Koei Tecmo / Team Ninja, 2016)
After a November 24th announcement via Facebook that Koei Tecmo would not be bringing Xtreme 3 to Western audiences, that aforementioned anti-censorship crowd quickly took to claiming that the decision had been made for “fear of backlash” — based on a quote by a Koei Tecmo rep which read “Do you know many issues happening in video game industry with regard to how to treat female in video game industry?”[26] This raised the dander of the sort who took to bemoaning the “bloody feminists and their bloody censorship campaigns,” or the “SJW harpies” and so forth. Of course, what many failed to acknowledge during this time was that the news of Xtreme 3’s region exclusivity had actually been established as early as August of that same year; where Famitsu first reported on the impending releases, and where a representative for Koei Tecmo at that time had discussed the possibility of a North American release on the condition that “demand called for it.”[27] What KT ultimately determined, of course, was that the demand for the game would not in fact be sufficient in justifying the additional production run — where English audience players who were so set on playing the game would likely feel compelled enough to pay the import fee for it. This, in turn, spurred the likes of the Eastern-import giant Play-Asia to begin drumming up demand for the title within the outcrying community; pandering to their protests of “#SJW nonsense,” and embarrassingly tweeting out statements along the lines of “Tits are life, ass is hometown.”
Never mind that other interviews with Koei Tecmo staff had reinforced the narrative that “[Japanese] fans made up an overwhelming majority” of the Xtreme series’ sales,[29] or that Paradise’s own sales data five years ago would confirm that very same story. Never mind that the game that eventually came out would release to critical apathy and a series low-point in sales (even when considering the Japanese audience as an exclusive entity across every release) — to the point where Koei Tecmo had to return to the Xtreme 2 strategy of recycling the assets across further console conversions and a microtransaction-laden free-to-play PC release. Never mind that for the vocal minority of English-speaking players who so vehemently demanded the game, the option to import (with full English subtitles and menus available) had been mentioned and promoted from the very start. Nah, forget all that: Clearly, this is all just part of some social justice agenda, and most definitely has nothing to do with a record of declining sales and a corporation looking to save a dime wherever they can.
All this being said: The future for Dead or Alive did briefly appear to be in attempting to present a less “provocative” brand image, when considering the fact that Xtreme 3 was nothing short of a huge flop in spite of its having been as gratuitous as the series has ever been. As such, initial marketing around the latest mainline installment in Dead or Alive 6 was made to focus around the toning down of the sexualization — framed as the franchise keeping up with “global trends,” and allowing consumers to “play without being embarrassed.”[30] While certainly a noble sentiment – and one which was clearly informed by that lack of interest in Xtreme 3 – it was also a decision guaranteed to continue in that prior controversy. Sure enough, just as soon as those same crowds returned to protest the effects of feminism / social justice / soy products on their beloved DoA, game journos would just as quickly reveal that the marketing line had been largely lip service in the first place: Dead or Alive 6 had promised to be just as bouncy and revealing as before, only now requiring that the regular assortment of skimpier outfits first be unlocked by players. In the words of the most recent in the line of Team Ninja’s game directors, Yohei Shimbori: “The thing is, this is part of the legacy of DOA. If you lose this, the core fans would move away. So you can’t really move it.”[31]
Dead or Alive Xtreme Venus Vacation for PC (Koei Tecmo / Team Ninja, 2017)
In effect, Dead or Alive 6 failed to win over either side: It lead the outrage crowd to convince themselves that the game was still being toned down to appease the “PC police,” while folk who were eager to actually play a desexualized game found themselves frustrated by the lies presented in the early marketing. This all helped contribute to a lacklustre 350 thousand copies being sold over the course of the game’s first month — just over half of Dead or Alive 5’s first month sales (600 thousand sold) some seven years earlier.[32] Of course, there are other factors at play here; including launching without online lobbies, pushing pricey DLC offerings, and the gameplay generally doing little to iterate or improve over its predecessor. But when the protesters and the company itself spend so much of their time making so fine a point of having to “concede to a modern audience” – only for the final product to actually change up absolutely nothing – the attention drawn to that facet becomes harder to look away from. The most damning criticism you can levy at Dead or Alive 6 is one shared with Paradise before it: It just feels redundant.
And that’s effectively where Dead or Alive is left sitting at this moment in time. It feels as if Koei Tecmo has no idea what to do with it at this point; where leaning into the sexiness didn’t help them, announcing that they would tone it down didn’t help either, and where each successive release only serves to further erode their growingly-impatient audience. While I’d love to sit here and claim that Paradise serves as the turning point for the franchise’s fortunes – since it’d helpfully lend more weight to it as the focal point of this article – the true title responsible for that role would have to be Xtreme 2. As such, you can’t really point the finger at Itagaki’s departure as sending the series into its spiral, as DoA was likely already on that track by the time of its ill-fated 2006 entry. If anything, the release of Paradise may well actually be something of a “last hoorah” for Tecmo’s old IP — the final entry to effectively measure development cost against potential earnings. It’s funny how what may stand as the most hated title in the brand’s catalogue is likely also the last release to turn a tidy profit. Hey, at least DoA is still doing better than Devil’s Third could have ever hoped to.
When going back to Dead or Alive Paradise knowing what was yet to come for its larger franchise, you can begin to appreciate the game in a whole other light. Not that it somehow does anything to improve the dire state of available content, mind you. Rather, you may find yourself appreciating just how little effort or money was invested in this portable conversion, and how that concerted lack of care actually wound up totally being the right call by its publisher at the end of the day! The true beauty of Paradise isn’t in its buxom babes or beautiful scenery: It’s in the fact that Tecmo Koei half-assed a game to a tremendous effect, and that 200 thousand suckers were made to unknowingly play a role in their plan. If that doesn’t bring a beaming smile to your face… well, I reckon you can go ahead and book yourself a two-week luxury vacation, instead.
“When you see a girl in DoA, I can understand why one would want to undress her. But if you do so [by hacking the game], you really should be embarrassed.” ~ Tomonobu Itagaki[1d]
I’m one of those weirdos who’s nostalgic for DoA and the DoA Xtreme series, despite also being the sort of ‘feminist SJW’ that sweaty morons like to get vocal about online. My brother had a copy of DoA Xtreme 2 when we were kids, and it went a fair ways towards helping me figure out I was queer. (Shocking.) Honestly, it kinda sucks because buried underneath the gross marketing, half-baked gameplay, misogynistic creator, toxic fanbase and the ~ buck fucken wild ~ decision to include characters who are obviously intended to read visually as barely pubescent, there’s actually a cute, fun, stylish game that knows it’s a bit silly, and isn’t afraid to lean into the silliness. DoA feels like it has so much unexplored potential as an IP! I mean, if there’s one thing the last few years have proven, it’s how much people love games where they hang out in a tropical island, creating outfits and playing fun minigames with their friends. A DoA lesbian dating sim would be a great idea! As long as it’s, you know, cute and cheeky instead of sexist and exploitative…..meaning there would have to be actual women and queer people making it…..meaning… Read more »
The wildest thing about Shimbori’s statement up there is that Soul Calibur 6’s director said almost exactly that in regards to the opposite reasons (sexuality being front and center) but I guess because they had more of a direction for marketing people didn’t really pay it mind
“pop wheelies on a bicycle while appearing practically buck-naked”
Have you considered talking about BMX-XXX?
The game was a cash grab, taking advantage of pervs or depressed players for a quick buck, and since it’s DOA kind of got away with it. a man hasn’t truly appreciated the female form until it has dissected a woman with a scalpel.
Cynic jokes aside, the fuss about softporn games back then was pointless, today steam it’s crawling with titles like that and more hardcore stuff it’s coming.
games like DOA paradise and the extreme series take advantage of our frustrations has men, instinctively you want to see those gals naked, so you carry on and on, with the slim hope that at any moment a bare boob or butt will appear, until then, imagination fills the blakns.
That frustration was one of the many reasons why the pc releases of DOA 5 & 6, got quick nude mods.
Whoa, didn’t even know this existed – nice work, especially since it didn’t sound like a vacation at all!
You mentioned not knowing what’s considered the best DOA game. Though i can’t speak for the wider fandom, i can tell you that DOA5 was hugely favored among competitive players; hell, it was one of SonicFox’s main games for a while!
A few folks have nostalgia for 4 because (and this could be a whole article in itself) it was the first real “esports” fighting game in the West. Players sponsored by company teams, pro leagues, developers/publishers pouring money into tournaments…DOA4 was where that all began for the FGC here. It doesn’t hold up that great as a competitive game though, for reasons too numerous to get into here.
In fact, before 5, many of the old heads used to argue that the best DOA was an obscure arcade-only remake of the first game called DOA++. That apparently fixed a bunch of the core problems with the series, though i haven’t played it myself.
Putting a softcore porn game on PSP is such a weird idea. Even ignoring the problem you mentioned about the low screen resolution getting in the way of the details, there’s also the fact that… well, you wouldn’t want to be caught playing a game like this on the bus or the train, or really any kind of public place, would you? So why would they put this on a portable console, one of the main appeals of which is that you can play them in public places?