On the 6th July, Tecmo Koei Games announced its return to game centers in Japan with Dead or Alive 5 Ultimate: Arcade, created in conjunction with SEGA, which will be launched in Winter 2013. The game is based on the PS3 and XBox 360 title Dead or Alive 5 Ultimate and will use SEGA's ALL.Net P-ras MULTI Ver.2 system.
In Tecmo's press release they explained their return to arcades, as translated by
Shoryuken on 4gamer '"DEAD OR ALIVE" is a fighting game birthed in the arcade. Our latest title brings the series back to its birthplace for the first time in 13 years. To develop for the arcade has been a deep wish of ours since it was first decided to revive the "DEAD OR ALIVE" series 3 years ago. (...) All the development team is working to create a title that will live up to the expectations while holding on a dream; the dream of a competitive scene where players in Japan can hone their skills to their hearts' content at home then compete with those skills at the arcade."
The story for DoA5 takes place two years after the destruction of the TriTower and Helena Douglas is rebuilding DOATEC with ideals of peace and prosperity in mind. Helena announces the fifth Dead or Alive tournament to show the world the principles and philosophies upholding the new DOATEC.
The game has many features - old and new. The basic gameplay uses three base moves - strikes, throws and holds - and uses a rock-paper-scissors style of fighting gameplay called the 'Triangle System': strikes beat throws, throws beat holds and holds beat strikes. When you land an attack of one type that beats another type, i.e. landing a strike when an opponent tries to throw, that attack becomes a Hi Counter attack and does even more damage. Other features include Danger Zones, Blockbuster Stages, Cliffhangers, Power Blows, the Critical System (which includes Critical Stuns, Critical Combos and Critical Bursts) and new Extras, such as the Move List and Photo Mode (which can be accessed in Watch Mode and viewed in Album Mode).
Characters include classic Dead or Alive favorites Kasumi, Ayane, Hayate, Hayabusa, Bayman, Christie, Zack, Leifang, Hitomi, Kokoro, Rig, Bass, Tina, Jann Lee, Eliot, Brad, Helena and La Mariposa; as well as some Virtua Fighter 5 favorites Akira and Sarah, and three new additions - Mila, Gen Fu and Pai Chan (from Virtua Fighters 5). There are also a total of 16 stages, including one new stage titled Zack Island.
Dead or Alive 5 Ultimate: Arcade has several gameplay modes including Story, Fighting (inludes offline fighting and tournaments, etc), Online and Extra modes (some non-fighting modes).
This announcement has started to create quite a buzz online as classic arcade gamers of Japan get ready for the release. It doesn't sound like their is any intention to bring the arcade version over West and I suppose any future discussion about that possibility will entirely depend on the success of the arcade version in conjunction, and also in comparison, with the console version which will be released much sooner.
Watch this space for more updates.
