Normally any review of a Team Ninja game is filled with loads of jokes about perversion and about Tomonobu Itigaki’s drunken, sexist image. Many DOAX2 reviews probably even make reference to Itigaki’s recent legal trouble in Japan where a former Tecmo employee has sued for sexual harassment.
Well I’m not going to do that, because unlike some reviewers I’m not an immature child drooling over a pair of virtual knockers. I respect the girls of Dead or Alive just like Itigaki does.
There are no wet t-shirt contests or trampoline bouncing to be found here. It’s not Girls Gone Wild, it’s Dead or Alive Xtreme 2 and it’s all about having fun.
The game begins with Zach, freshly returned from tomb raiding with his girlfriend Nikki, searching deep underwater for the remains of Zach Island. Zach’s gotten in touch with a couple of extraterrestrials and reached an agreement to raise Zach Island from the depths and there by bring peace to the galaxy somehow. Seriously that’s the story. I know it’s beyond far fetched, but hey it’s Zach, crazy shit just happen.
After raising his Island and restoring it to its original beauty, Zach announces that he’s bringing back DOATEC and hosting Dead or Alive 5. Of course just like last time this is just a ploy to get the girls to his island for a few days of sun and sand.
Playing as any of the DOA beauties you have 14 days to lay back, relax and enjoy the sun. Want to play volleyball? Go right ahead. Don’t? Then feel free to explore everything else there is to do on Zach Island. There’s no pressure to do anything, the game just wants you to relax. It’s a vacation for you as much as it is for the girls.
Volleyball returns as the premiere event on Zach Island, and just like the last time games are played using first-to-seven rules. All strikes and passes are still handled by context sensitive actions, however this time the window of opportunity has been tightened up making you have to work much harder to control the ball and to score.
You also have some control over your partner and can use the right analog stick to give her orders. It takes a bit of getting used too, but once you adapt you’ll be winning in no time.
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