Itagaki confirms Dead or Alive 5

by Ross Miller { Nov 20th 2006 at 11:36AM }

A fifth Dead or Alive is in development -- no surprise. That DOA creator, on-the-job drinker, and overly-friendly coworker Tomonobu Itagaki made the announcement at the DOA 10th anniversary party among a throng of supporters made us giddy. After all, after the sexual harassment charges we weren't sure whether he had been demoted or somehow shuffled in the background. But there he was, wine glass and sunglasses in tow.

Not much was revealed, except that Itagaki has a few ideas circling in his head, he's planning on axing the Tag Team system, and he already knows how the opening cinematic will begin. No console was mentioned, but we're placing our bets on another Xbox 360 iteration. After five of the most recent DOA titles (including two softcore simulators) have been Microsoft exclusives, we think the odds are in our favor.

Tags: dead or alive, DeadOrAlive, itagaki, team ninja, TeamNinja

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

snow @ Nov 20th 2006 11:40AM

The bearer of good news, an american badass

Player1 @ Nov 20th 2006 11:40AM

Then again, Ninja Gaiden Sigma is coming out on PS3.

Brian @ Nov 20th 2006 11:45AM

The entire DoA franchise is just... such an overwhelmingly mediocre fighting game.

Then again, the only 3D fighters I actually played and enjoyed were Smash Bros (N64 and Cube) and Soul Calibur.

I'm more partial to 2D fighters, a-la Marvel vs. Capcom, etc. "Berserker Barrage!"

CapAmerica @ Nov 20th 2006 11:49AM

Ninja Gaiden Sigma is a 3 year old port of the Original Xbox game.

Plus Team Ninja is NOT making it, its being ported over by someone else at Tecmo.

bobeotm @ Nov 20th 2006 12:05PM

I'm sorry, but im not exactly looking forward to yet another DOA game covered in even more "shiny sauce" (DOA4, it looked like everything was made of plastic). When the hallmark of your fighting franchise is how the boobs move in bizarre ways, that says alot. Give me Virtua Fighter, Tekken, and Soul Calibur anyday.

Fish Face @ Nov 20th 2006 4:24PM

What's the 5th DOA game? There's DOA 3, DOA 4, DOA X, DOA X2. Is the 5th one supposed to be Ninja Gaiden?

Count Noobula @ Nov 20th 2006 12:13PM

I am a DOA fan, its an easy fighting game to get into with friends who have never played it. HTe learning curve is easy. I just hope that Itagaki learns how to make a REAL final boss of the game, all the ones except for Tengu in DOA2 were lame.

I also hope that he changes the look of the characters slightly. In all the versions since DOA2 the characters only look more muscular, or with larger tits. Come on, do something original with them. Shave Kasumi's head, make Ayane have like one eye, make a sumo wrestler, something.

p-diddy @ Nov 20th 2006 12:16PM

Can someone please explain Smash Brothers to me? It is the most non-strategic button mashing "fighting game" of them all. How it is ever actually brought up in any conversation regarding fighting games blows my mind. I love nintendo, but Smash Brothers sucks.

Btw, another DoA? *yawn*. It was a great fighting game... 7 years ago on the dreamcast.

Where is the innovation?

-p-

The Intangible Fact @ Nov 20th 2006 12:17PM

GUILTY GEAR 360

HighDef Edition @ Nov 20th 2006 12:21PM

bobeotm ... spoken like a true idiot of the DOA series. DOA-4 for the XBox-360 lead the way with the multiplayer fighting format. Join a lobby then wait your turn while watching your opponients fight all in HD glory.
Tomonobu Itagaki is a great game designer.

PS:I'm not exactly looking forward to yet another idiotic comment from you'

Player1 @ Nov 20th 2006 12:25PM

"Plus Team Ninja is NOT making it, its being ported over by someone else at Tecmo."

According to an interview I read in OXM with Itagaki, Team Ninja is developing it. I don't think Itagaki is neccessarily the lead on it, but it's still a Team Ninja deal.

ahhhyeaa @ Nov 20th 2006 12:37PM

"After five of the most recent DOA titles have been Microsoft exclusives, we think the odds are in our favor."

odd are in your favor? is this the conspiracy to rule them all???

joystiq = microsoft?!?!?!

hopefully it becomes a better game, fifth times a charm.

navstar @ Nov 20th 2006 2:26PM

How has DOA changed since the awesome DOA2 Dreamcast version? I played DOA3 on Xbox and was bored silly.

Brian @ Nov 20th 2006 12:46PM

"Can someone please explain Smash Brothers to me? It is the most non-strategic button mashing "fighting game" of them all. How it is ever actually brought up in any conversation regarding fighting games blows my mind. I love nintendo, but Smash Brothers sucks."

Non-strategic? Try playing against someone with actual skill, and let me know how you do.

There's more skill and strategy required in SSB than there ever was in any fighting game, ever. Sure, there's no 4-button combination to do a hyper fireball or whatever.

Here... try this... find a Gamecube, and try playing Smash Bros Melee in Versus mode, against 3 level 9 CPU characters of your choice.

The fact that I'm able to do fairly well, and not just get my ass kicked repeatedly speaks volumes. Smash Bros REQUIRES skill. It demands it. If you can't see that, then I'm sorry. I know SSB isn't for everyone, but don't knock it because you're no good at it.

maximus @ Nov 20th 2006 12:47PM

Meh.
Yawn..

I'm bored with the Dead Or Alive games and the latest DOA:Volleyball is awful. Just wish he'd create something totally new, another action adventure along the lines of Ninja Gaiden.

matt @ Nov 20th 2006 1:38PM

@ p-diddy.

You are completely wrong on your "button-masher" name calling. I've played tekken, doa, virtua fighter, etc. (Your typical "fighters") And smash bros. is the one that actually doesn't feel like a button masher. i guarantee someone can join a tekken match against the best and randomly win once in a while by just mashing away. in smash bros, it's just not the case. it actually takes innovation and creativity to win matches, rather than memorizing a set of combos. especially in the higher levels of competition, the gameplay requires more adaptation than any other fighting game out there. to call it a button masher is just inane.

Count Noobula @ Nov 20th 2006 1:11PM

I personally think that DOA5 will be multi-platform. I think that Ninja Gaiden Sigma is a test run on the PS3 hardware. Since both the 360 and the PS3 are relatively on par with each other, then I think Team Ninja will be doing a lot of multi-platform titles, they make more money that way.

eM @ Nov 20th 2006 1:21PM

There's more skill and strategy required in SSB than there ever was in any fighting game, ever.

I'm as big a Nintendo fan as anybody, but to pretend that competitive SSBM requires anywhere near the skill of Super Turbo is absurd. SSB may be as deep as the string-based Tekken or the reversal-happy DoA, but those are jokes compared to ST (heck, any SF past SF1) and Virtua Fighter.

Go compete in some SSBM and ST regional/national tournaments, or just watch the footage. VF and SF are all about mind games and spacing; knowing the button presses is nothing (especially so in SF; there are only five simple motions [quarter circle, half circle, charge, 360, DP], doubled for supers, to learn for the whole freakin' series).

"Here... try this... find a Gamecube, and try playing Smash Bros Melee in Versus mode, against 3 level 9 CPU characters of your choice."

You can wipe the floor with the CPU (even on level 9) just using [Young] Link's Up+B and Down+A, Jigglypuff's Down+B, or even Ness's Towards+A. In any case, CPU battles mean diddly squat; it's playing actual human opponents that counts.

p-diddy @ Nov 20th 2006 1:24PM

>> Smash Bros REQUIRES skill.

Yeah, repeatedly knocking people off platforms requires tons of skill. Meh. You're right. I'm not good at it. I played it for about an hour and found it terribly banal and hackneyed. I freely admit I have no skill at it, but apparently it required no skill because I did decently just smashing the buttons. Give me reversals, give me combo breakers, give me something other than button mashing. Blech.

-p-

Kimosabae @ Nov 20th 2006 1:25PM

p-diddy:

As a gamer that has been around the fighting game community at large for quite some time and has played many of them competitively, I think I can safely opine that SSBM is one of the most technical fighting games in the history of the genre (honestly, I think it is THE most technical).

I understand it's near impossible to understand this, being bombarded with the game's saccharine and Nintendo-kid-freindly-colorful aesthetics, but Hal Laboratories has achieved the holy grail in regards to SSBM's fighting game system: Easy to pick up and learn, VERY hard to master.

What a poster like Brian fails to realize is, while he may be a fan of the game, he has no idea what he's talking about in regards to what a competitive Smash player would deem "skill". There are two versions of SSBM being enjoyed; there's Smash the "party game", which Brian is describing which is the most commonly known form of Smash; 4-player free for alls, items, crazy moving stages etc.

Then there's "competitive" Smash. I can assure both are two completely different types of Smash. Most here at Joystiq and the gaming community at large are cluless to all the techniques invented by competitive players, or subtle skills and nuances devloped into the game by Hal. Competitive Smash is a COMPLETELY different kind of beast.

I would suggest both of you check out Smashboards.com. Therein lies the hub for Smash's competitive community, and if you take a minute to look around the site and attempt to learn more about the games' intricacies, you're both likely to see the game in a much different light.

-SynikaL

p-diddy @ Nov 20th 2006 1:56PM

@synikal/Kimosabe - great post. You explained that there are different "games" to play. I probably played the free-for-all item crazy, etc. version, which frankly I though sucked. After your post, maybe I'll give SSB another try.

@matt and brian - meh. you have yet to convince me. what innovation and adaptability does it take to win? I honestly don't know. Give me an example, e.g., with tekken, if you can't reverse a reversal, you are sunk. "Sure, there's no 4-button combination to do a hyper fireball or whatever." OK, so what IS there. What makes it so strategic? I'm genuinely asking because it is not apparent to a casual observer.

-p-

jopojelly @ Nov 20th 2006 2:17PM

I really don't consider button combos or long strings of button presses as skill. Super Smash Brothers Melee requires a different type of skill than most other fighters. For most, it's just simply pusing the buttons in the right order, but for Smash you have to utilize positioning, items, throwing, meteor smashes, blocks and dodges.

Anyone "button-mashing" in SSBM will be uterly destroyed by me, but in Soul Calibur II, a button masher can usually get me down to half health, but I'll still win.

bobeotm @ Nov 20th 2006 2:50PM

@HighDef Edition

Being the first online multiplayer fighting game is all well and good, but does that make the game deserve classic status, no. You can slap on excellent lag free multiplayer onto a polished turd, it doesnt make it any better. Not saying the game is THAT bad, but its definitely not anywhere near the greatest. I guess 360 fanboys have to covet something, since there are no other fighters on the systeM (unless they want to play Street Fighter 2 for the MILLIONTH TIME, or yet another lame iteration of Mortal Kombat).

BTW, to the SSB fans, you can add subtlety and nuance to virtually any game played competitively. Its simply a case where the complexity comes from the people playing it, not the game itself. There's complexity in chinese checkers, its just depends on who's playing. The reason most other fighting game fans have issues with SSB is that with games like Virtual Fighter, tekken, and Soul Calibur, button mashers have a hard time winning. Without some sort of skill set, or strategy, you end up sucking big time. But with games like DOA and SSB, there isnt that singular focus of making a deep fighting game. DOA seems more interested in style, and SSB has that party aspect to contend with, so stigmas seem to stick.

matt @ Nov 20th 2006 3:39PM

back @ p-diddy:

i don't have enough time to convince you. you should give it a try sans items and play like a 2-4 player stock match.

the more you play, the more you realize there are certain things that are just different and more challenging that spouting off a combo or reversing a grab, etc. each character brings a truly different style and your KO's can come from a multitude of methods rather than just "i knocked you out by punching you more than you punched me." Wave-dashing, edge-guarding and well timed spike moves are all very difficult to learn and cannot be acheived merely by button-mashing.

Pulse @ Nov 20th 2006 4:20PM

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!

Keep that terrible perverted game for nerds without GFS right where it is, Itagaki, do not even think about insulting the PS3 with that game, don't let it even cross your mind, right now, hearing that teenage mutant hero turtles is coming to PS3 would be better news then this game being multiplatform.

You know why you moved over to Xbox in the first place, it flopped on PS2 compared to the other fighters, they'd have to want to loose cash if he even thinks about switching it over, I'm certainly never going to buy :P Count me out right now!

DirtDevil @ Nov 20th 2006 6:15PM

No! Please do not remove tag team from the DOA series, its the most fun part of the game, well not necessarily but its better than Tekken tag.

Kamizar @ Nov 20th 2006 5:55PM

That sucks TT is the only mode me and my friend play online, and we actually do the tag up, cutting it would take away from my enjoyment of the game...

Let me tell you there is almost nothing more hilarious then being tagged and not using your char the entire round...

Pulse @ Nov 21st 2006 9:12AM

Tekken has only ever included tag in tekken tag, would be cool online, otherwise a pointless feature for less then 3 gamers. I'd prefer Tekken with no tag and more depth then tag and a complete and utter Virtua Fighter rip off with anime girls smooth visuals and nothing else.

I think Tekken should concentrate more on blood, sweat, fatigue and cloth ripping, thats more important then tag.