DOA Lives Again?

After being dead for five years, DOA 6 lives again, with DOA 6 Last Round.  I actually called this in my original DOA 6 review, not knowing what to expect while expecting...something.  So, what will be included?  I'm still not sure about a lot of things, but it looks like a lot of the things you'd expect will be there.

First, legacy characters that were DLC in the original will be standard.  Yay...I guess.  Unfortunately, it doesn't appear like Mai and Kula are going to be standard.  That's understandable because they are not DOA characters.  But the question is, will they be carried over if you've already purchased them for the vanilla version or do they have to be repurchased?  An even bigger question is whether or not they are even going to be on the roster?

Are Kula and Mai going bye?

Kasumi, Ayane, Marie Rose, NiCO, and Honoka look like they'll each be getting a new costume.  They look pretty cool.  I'm especially liking Honoka's new outfit.  And Kasumi's new outfit is fire.  I'm never going to be against more outfits in a DOA game, so thumbs up here.

It also appears like there will be a camera mode, which could be awesome.  Finally, you'll be able to create that perfect screenshot, if you're into such things.  I wonder if this means we're going to view victory and defeat poses again, like in DOA 5.  One can only hope.

Of course, I still have questions.  Will some or all of the current DLC be included?  How many and which ones?  If not, will you be able to carry over the ones you've already purchased?  Will there be new characters?  Vanilla DOA 6 clearly looked like that wanted to add more characters, but the game died before they could.  They say they will add them here.  Will they be legacy characters, new characters, or crossover characters?  It's exciting to wonder.  Finally, do we still have to pay for hair colors?  That was an atrocity against gamers and should not come back.  And what does "improved gameplay" mean?

Ultimately, they are still a lot of unknowns with this one.  The game comes out in three months, so a lot of these questions should be answered soon, unless the fact that the questions remain IS the answer.  I am looking forward to it but prepared for disappointment.  Definitely keeping my eyes on this one.

DOA 5 Omen

The final fight in DOA 5 is disappointing, to say the least.  Think about it.  In other games, you fight a Japanese deity, a Kasumi death clone, and a zombie cyborg.  As much as I like Rig, somehow fighting a generic kickboxer with amnesia just doesn't hit with the same impact.  One thing that doesn't disappoint, however, is the theme song, Omen.

What's so good about Omen?  It sounds so evil.  You can just hear it.  I can see the Devil working out while listening to this.  Running on a treadmill.  Riding the exercise bike.  Doing Pilates.  Satan is getting in shape.  Take a listen.

And that's Omen.  It's a good theme for an underwhelming fight.  Check it out in any version of Dead Or Alive 5.

Mega Man Zero 2 Instructions

The Mega Man Zero series is balls hard.  Every one of them are among the hardest games I've ever played.  No song exemplifies just how hard these games are than the Mega Man Zero 2 stage select theme, Instructions.

I assume it's called Instructions because Elpizo is telling you about all the robots you have to kill.  Anyway, this song has a little bit of everything.  It has hints of a futuristic princess and the military.  Check it out.

And that's Instructions.  The Mega Man series is fill with good music, especially when it comes to stage select themes.  Where would you place Instructions among the stage select themes?  Wherever you put it, play Mega Man Zero 2 and give it a listen, along with the rest of the good music.

Marmoset Review (Switch)

A girl in rocket boots.  A treetop village.  Weird dreams.  This is Marmoset.

Marmoset is an action platformer where you take the role of a girl called Luna.  Your mission is to descend from the relatively safe tree village into the caves below to battle monsters.  You'll run and jump your way through a number of puzzle-like levels collecting resources, which you will then take to a workshop to make things you'll need to aid you, such as keys and potions.

Our protag, Luna.

As far as Luna's fighting skills, you can defeat enemies by jumping on their heads like Mario in a miniskirt...and that's it.  And don't miss, because you don't get invincibility frames.  So even the cutest, little enemies can whup your ass faster than you can say, "I just got my ass whupped."  And while there's no lives counter, you have three chances to die before you are kicked back to the tree village.  Fortunately, Luna has a great tool to aid her in this and getting around in general; her ever-present rocket boots.

As you might have guessed, her rockets boots allow her to slow her decent when she jumps.  This is useful for when you're falling down blindly or giving yourself that little extra bit of distance when crossing poison lakes.  You can go faster by holding the L and R buttons while airborne.  As mentioned before, you can use the boots to attack enemies with more precision.  Using boots drains energy and while that energy is plentiful and restores when you're not using the boots, it CAN run out.  It drains even faster when holding L and R, so be careful when floating about.

Luna's Rocket Boots help her fight enemies and float over hazards.

You'll also notice I mentioned that the village is relatively safe.  This is because weird, but weak enemies appear in town at night, and you can grind apples to sell for money.  They only show up outside, so you don't have to worry about entering a building and being ambushed.

There are a surprising number of things you can do while in town.  You will need to build machines so you can build items you'll need to advance the story.  You can fish, grow stuff, and go to the arcade to play a Flappy Bird knockoff.  You can unlock more stuff, but it can get pretty grindy to do so.

Fishing is just about the hardest thing you'll do in the game.  Your goal is to keep the colored fish somewhere within the outline of the clear fish until the bar fills up and you catch the fish.  The thing about it is that if you make a mistake and the colored fish gets all the way to the bottom, you'll have little to no chance to catch the fish.  There's a glitch where Luna will throw her fishing line on the land instead of into the water.  It's weird and embarrassing.  There's another glitch where you'll catch the fish, only to be told you didn't catch it.  WTF?

What are you doing?  The fish are the other way.

On to the little things.  The graphics are blah.  They aren't atrocious, but a little too pixelated for my liking.  I like what they were going for with Luna's design, but it's not very well done because of the style they went with.  There were a few things where I had trouble judging what they were until it was too late.  And when you're jumping on enemies, the camera will give you whiplash.

The music is mostly forgettable.  It's just some relaxing beats that sound like something you'd listen to sitting near the lake with your girlfriend.  The boss theme is pretty good, though.  It sounds like what radioactive hipsters would listen to while fighting monsters in the future.

If the game has one big flaw, it's the constant freezing, particularly when you're in the menus.  It's bad, to the point that you have to reset the game.  The game froze so often, I half expected Elsa to show up and start singing Let It Go.  It was especially problematic in a cabin you MUST go to in order to progress.

Also, it's clear that English is not the creator's first language.  I mean, it's Mistake City.  There are some big-time translation errors.  On a good note, you may learn a few words of Portuguese.

Clearly, English isn't the creators first language.

Maromoset had a chance to be average, old-school platforming fun, but just wound up being a glitchy mess.  The game is far too grindy for its own good.  The fishing minigame isn't fun.  It's a decent platformer but could have used more polish.  You aren't missing anything if you choose to pass on it.  However, if you can overcome grind and glitches, Give It A Try.

10 Sexiest Outfits In Dead Or Alive That Aren't Swimsuits

Let's face it.  Dead Or Alive has always been about the girls as much as the combat.  We also need to face the fact that some of the outfits that the girls wear are, in fact, sexy.  So, let's swallow our pride and ready our eyes.  These are the 10 sexiest outfits in DOA history that aren't swimsuits.

10.  Lei Fang's Black Leather

I could fill this entire list with Lei Fang's wardrobe, but for the sake of fairness I won't.  This little black gem is a take on what is my favorite of her outfits.  I'd have preferred she kept the footwear from the original rather than switch to heeled boots, though.

9.  Momiji's Shrine Maiden Outfit

What I like to refer to as the Momiji Surprise because when the skirt inevitably flips up (it is DOA), you'll receive a hell of a surprise.  It's kind of hard to concentrate on the fight after seeing something like that.

8.  School Bloomers

These look good on just about all the ladies, but only a handful truly seem like they belong in them.  Ayane, Kasumi, Kokoro, and Hitomi pull this look off the best.  Phase 4 has a good one, too

7.  Christie's Black Dress

I can't lie.  Christie is smoking hot in this outfit.  A mature, sexy outfit for a mature, sexy woman.

6.  Ayane's Overalls

A sexy skimpy set of overalls for Ayane that will get anyone hot under the collar.

5.  Tina's School Uniform

This take on a school uniform is typical, sexualized fare.  Just because it's typical doesn't mean it isn't effective.

4.  Kasumi's ? Outfit

Maybe it's just me, but there's something sexy about everything being covered and still being able to see it.

3.  Christie's Dominatrix Outfit

Christie turns up the heat with this sexy number.  This outfit has been with her since DOA 4.  It is an essential outfit for her.  It's legendary.

2.  Kokoro's Sexy Detective Outfit

Kokoro trots out there like a sexy, gender-swapped Sherlock Holmes.  Great, now I need to see a gender-swapped Sherlock Holmes.

1.  Lisa's Carnivale Outfit

Well, it's technically not a swimsuit, though the coverage is on par with several of them.  It IS a damned sexy outfit, though.  Very little is left to the imagination with this one.  Maybe I just like my girls super skimpy, but there aren't many non-swimsuit outfits that can compete with this.

And those are my picks for the 10 sexist outfits that aren't swimsuits in DOA.  But that's just my opinion.  What would your list look like?  Comment and have your voice heard.

If I Were Making DOA 7...(Part 3)

Here we are with another post of what DOA 7 would look like if I were in charge of production.  In the first two entries, I talked about things like how costumes, features, and DLC would work.  Now it's time to get down to the fun part; building the roster.  So, let's fire up the Hypernerd Workbench and get to work.

Before that, let's break down how this roster will be made up.  First, we'll have twenty-four returning characters.  That number seems quite large, but if this is going to be the biggest and best DOA yet, then we have to go big.  Then, there would be four new characters to bump the roster up to twenty-eight.  Next, there will be four guest characters to push the roster up to thirty-two characters.  Finally, I'll talk about four characters who could/should be DLC, for a final roster size of thirty-six, roughly the size of the roster of DOA 5 Last Round.  Anyway, enough talking.  Let's fire up the workbench.

Retuning Characters

1.  Ryu Hayabusa

2.  Kasumi

3.  Ayane

4.  Hayate

5.  Momiji

6.  Bayman

7.  Bass

8.  Tina

9.  Lisa/La Mariposa

10.  Mila

11.  NiCO

12.  Marie Rose

13.  Eliot

14.  Brad Wong

15.  Diego

16.  Zack

17.  Helena

18.  Kokoro

19.  Rig

20.  Honaka

21.  Jann Lee

22.  Tamaki

23.  Christie

24.  Lei Fang

New Characters

I'm not very good at creating characters, so I will leave all the major details to the experts.  I can, however, talk about the basics.  First, the ideal breakdown would be two new males and two new females.  Things could break 3-1 in favor of the males, but I would not go 3-1 for the females.  If you look at the returning characters, it's 14-10 in favor of the females.  Bringing in three new males would balance the roster better.  I also would not break 4-0 either way.

Also, clones would be avoided if that character is already on the roster.  For example, a Gen Fu clone would be okay because he's not on the roster, but a Kasumi clone would be off-limits.  On that note, unrepresented fighting styles would be the rule, not the exception.

Guest Characters

If you've been reading enough of my posts, you'll know who these characters are going to be.  Tekken characters.  I would be excited to see any of these characters show up, never mind all of them.

1.  Asuka Kazama

2.  Nina Williams

3.  Lili Rochefort

4.  Heihachi Mishima

DLC Characters

In terms of DLC, the only character who is a must is Mai Shiranui.  I'll never get tired of seeing her in DOA.  The others are characters who would be difficult to pull off, but a man can dream, right?

1.  Mai Shiranui (Fatal Fury/King Of Fighters)

There's not a more natural fit for DOA than Mai.  One of the hottest game girls in a game where the hotness of the girls is embraced.  What more could you want?

2.  Sakura Kasugano (Street Fighter)

There's been a disturbing trend of women without assets popping up in DOA over the last two games.  I don't really like it, but if we're going in that direction, why isn't this cutie getting a nod?  Yeah, she's an acquired taste, but she's popular and has a ton of outfits to bring with her, including her iconic school uniform.

3.  Kyo Kusanagi (King Of Fighters)

A cool guy from King Of Fighters.  Nuff said.

4.  Cammy White (Street Fighter)

In a series that's as much about T&A as it is about the fighting, a character who puts emphasis on the A would fit right in.  She has some outfit diversity for those who are averse to the A, though.

And that would be my DOA 7 roster.  Of course, it's likely that if DOA 7 happens, the roster won't look like this.  But this is my roster.  Agree?  Disagree?  Who would you add or take away?  Comment and have your voice heard.