08-03-2006, 10:28 AM
this game was made available for purchase yesterday on xbox live arcade(aka xbla) for $10. first off, single player is recockulously hard! harder than i ever remember it being in the arcades or consoles. you dont realize this is a 20 year old game until you get online and you hear kids wondering how to do a dragon punch. 
it's ever weirder trying to explain it!
online gameplay has about 4 features: ranked 1 on 1 matches which is basically fighting one dude and once the match is over you can fight each other again or look for another opponent in the lobby. capcom has a leaderboards system set up so you can see where youre ranked and who are the best and worst players. unranked 1 on 1. same as above but no leaderboards/ your win-lose ratio isnt recorded...i think. then theres (unranked)quarter mode that's pay homage to the arcade days where you'd place a quarter on the arcade's glass window to signify your turn was next. basically a "winner stays" kinda thing. max players of 4 which was a total shock to me since DOA4 can handle up to 8. it boggles the mind how an old game cant be made to handle more than 4 players with this next-gen hardware.
as fun as online gaming is, there are a few cons. first, there's definitely a noticeable sense of lag. your moves are executed a split second after they've been input. feels weird, but you get used to it unfortunately. for some reason when playing quarter mode and there happens to be a switch of host after a match, you're usually gonna run into the "establishing connection" screen which means theres a 50/50 chance youre gonna be disconnected. happened quite a few times when playing with friends from another forum. another con is the lack of more online gaming features. i would have loved to see a bracket-type tournament mode and more f'in players, ffs!
graphics: B- (biased/nostalgia)
sound: B- (biased/nostalgia)
presentation: A
gameplay/controls: B+
overall: B
it's ever weirder trying to explain it! online gameplay has about 4 features: ranked 1 on 1 matches which is basically fighting one dude and once the match is over you can fight each other again or look for another opponent in the lobby. capcom has a leaderboards system set up so you can see where youre ranked and who are the best and worst players. unranked 1 on 1. same as above but no leaderboards/ your win-lose ratio isnt recorded...i think. then theres (unranked)quarter mode that's pay homage to the arcade days where you'd place a quarter on the arcade's glass window to signify your turn was next. basically a "winner stays" kinda thing. max players of 4 which was a total shock to me since DOA4 can handle up to 8. it boggles the mind how an old game cant be made to handle more than 4 players with this next-gen hardware.
as fun as online gaming is, there are a few cons. first, there's definitely a noticeable sense of lag. your moves are executed a split second after they've been input. feels weird, but you get used to it unfortunately. for some reason when playing quarter mode and there happens to be a switch of host after a match, you're usually gonna run into the "establishing connection" screen which means theres a 50/50 chance youre gonna be disconnected. happened quite a few times when playing with friends from another forum. another con is the lack of more online gaming features. i would have loved to see a bracket-type tournament mode and more f'in players, ffs!
graphics: B- (biased/nostalgia)
sound: B- (biased/nostalgia)
presentation: A
gameplay/controls: B+
overall: B