An underwhelming return for Tecmo's bouncy fighter.
Sadly this is not the case with DOA5, from the moment you start up the game a huge underwhelming feeling passes over you. A very bland title screen greets you with no opening move and some rather generic music in the background. Getting to the main menu screen and things don't get much better but then these are trivial things.
Something very different that Team Ninja have done is do away with the individual arcade endings and in their place is a rather comprehensive story mode. However arcade mode returns but no end boss of character ending awaits you.
STORY MODE:
A mode that comprises most (not all) characters stories into several segments that eventually join up together. Something interesting is that the game eases you in by giving you challenges that if you complete (and win the match) unlock a title. These can be used to customize your fight card and are very similar to Street Fighter 4's titles.
However there is a very frustrating thing about this Story Mode title collection
In order to obtain the title you need to both meet the requirement and win the match. This is easy for titles like "hit opponent X amount of times" however titles such as "counter opponent X amount of times" can be increasingly frustrating. More often than not you will meet the requirement with only a small amount of life remaining but then lose the fight AND the title and have to do it again.
Eventually you may end up forgetting about the titles anyway due to the somewhat confusing storyline, fighting games have never really had great stories so It's not something to complain about. Although you may find yourself skipping the story scenes (try not to though as there is an achievement for watching them all) and getting right back into the action.
SURVIVAL MODE:
Some fans may be disappointed with this mode as it loses the item collection of previous games and is now solely a "fight till you drop" experience.
None of the other modes have changed at all and you still get to unlock costumes after completing most modes. Although you may find that the costumes you unlock in game are rather unsatisfactory compared to the ones that are available as DLC.
This is one of the huge let downs of the game classic costumes are gone and replaced by color swaps and some very undesirables. No DOA2 Jann Lee C3 or Zack shadow man outfit, and on top of this no customization (though holding different buttons changes some costumes/hairstyles)
After waiting seven years one would think Team Ninja would go all out with their fighter and show the competition that Dead Or Alive is back and means business. Instead after completing story mode you may find yourself bored with things to do although the gameplay makes up for a lot of that boredom.
Yes that great system from previous games returns with enough tweaks to make it even better, tag mode is still oodles of fun with a friend and remains so satisfying you can taste it.
So overall a good fighting game but lack of content and modes AND the fact you have to pay for classic costumes makes DOA's return somewhat underwhelming.