Online Play
Online play is the main attraction in DOAU, and it provides some of the best the fighting genre has to offer. Up to 8 players can meet up in a lobby to hang out and compete. Two players fight at a time, and the rest of the group can watch and play with camera angles as well as chat. You can also set the game up so that you can have one-on-one fights with just one other person so you don’t have to worry about waiting your turn. There are a lot of modes available online including “winner stays” matches where the winning player keeps on fighting new challengers until they lose. Another mode declares that the winner of each match is the lobby champion and they are free to change the rules as much as they want. Something wonderful that DOAU does is that it ranks players according to their skill level and matches them up accordingly. You star with a “C” grade and it then goes up or down depending on how you do. This is a great way to ensure you are always having fun because you can always fight against people of similar skill. The game runs surprisingly smooth and there are virtually no load times. This is an online experience that few other games can match.Graphics
Graphically, Dead or Alive Ultimate is absolutely superb. At least, DOA2 looks good. The original DOA is slightly cleaner looking than when it was first released on the Saturn, but it still looks very dated. DOA2, on the other hand, has been given a complete graphical overhaul and it looks absolutely phenomenal. DOA3 and DOA Xtreme Beach Volleyball are among the best looking games on Xbox (and perhaps ever) and DOA2U is right up there with them. The characters look sort of like action figures instead of real people since they are so smooth and perfect, but they still look really great. The backgrounds feature lots of breakable objects and cover multiple levels and every single area looks great. Not only does the game look great, but it performs very smoothly even with all of the graphical detail.
Sound
The sound isn’t quite as good, but it fits the game and gets the job done. Attacks make very solid sounds when they connect and go a long way towards making the combat in this game feel real and painful. The voice acting is all in Japanese with no option for English voices, which is either really good or really annoying depending on how big of a dork you are. The music is mostly forgettable, but it doesn’t ever get in the way which is the most important part.Bottom Line
Dead or Alive Ultimate is the best entry in the DOA series and stands as the best online fighting game so far. You get two games for the price of one (though you’ll only likely ever play one of them) and the online gameplay is some of the best to hit Xbox Live yet. The fighting isn’t as deep as in other 3D fighters, but it is still very fun and very satisfying. There is a ton of stuff to unlock in DOAU and the online play is absolutely phenomenal. Even if the gameplay is mostly the same, the sheer amount of stuff that is available in DOAU alone makes it a better game than Dead or Alive 3, and that is why DOAU gets a higher score. Rent it if this is your first DOA and buy it if you are already a fan. Just make sure you play it.
