WebHead
Active Member
I find it completely insane that people are calling one of the best fighting games of all time a bad game (Np, don't continue reading if that triggers you). Not even JK, DOA4 is one of the MOST POLISHED video games I have ever played. The developers really made the most of EVERY aspect, big or small, offline and online. Remember how every character had WIN STREAK icons that stacked up at the bottom of the screen? Remember how many avatars, animals, lobbies, hats, clothing, they made? They created the rotating shop 14 years before Fortnite did. How many online modes did this game have that were all interconnected and could be changed at any moment in a SINGLE 16 player lobby? That is actually insane to me. No fighting game (and I'll even say in any genre) has ever come close to creating an online mode as good as DOA4. And this was a LAUNCH title.
DOA4 created its own unique online community outside of DOAcentral because of the avatar lobby that supported text chat with KEYBOARD, with over 50 avatars to choose from. That was a once in a life time experience.
If you think it was bad because of the gameplay, think again mate. Force teching your opponent off the ground made it a fast paced fighter that really put your opponent on the spot to make a right decision. The highwake up kick being removed from DOA5 immediately disappointed me and dumbed the game down for knocked downs. I've seen some people say it made for more of a "guessing" mechanic. Wrong. It added another element to knockdowns for offense and defense for BOTH PLAYERS. It always felt rewarding when you knew your opponent was going to do a high wake up kick and you punished it by STUNNING them with a low crush (which was risky but PAID OFF).
Also remember in 2006 there were only about 5% of the gamers today. I was probably one of the 4 kids in highschool that owned a 360. A ton of people missed out on this masterpiece of a game. I hold DOA4 as one of the greatest games of all time next to DIABLO 2, HALO 2/3. What those games all have in common was not only were they polished to the gills, they all had their own online communities.
The ranking system is hands down the best and MOST ACCURATE ranking system I have ever come across in ALL ONLINE GAMING. Your rank truly represented your skill in that game. The B+ were noobs that knew how to play DOA but not yet at a competitive level. The A-'s were progressing from noobs and starting to hold their own but still made mistakes that would be punished by good players. A+ had many kinds of different players. There would be the A+'s that lost to other A+ and would hover around 50, 000 - 60, 000 points. There were the A+'s that only lost to S players and other pro A+ players which would have them sit around 65, 000 - 80, 000 points. Then there were the S players that played DOA2/3 for years online, and finally the SS players that lost to no one.
Those SS players had true skill. I remember witnessing a DOA4 player called EvilDancer27 in a 16 player lobby filled with nothing but S and SS players. EvilDancer27 was actually going on a 15+ win streak defeating every single S and SS player lined up to fight him/her.
Playing DOA is like riding a bike, you never forget how to play it. The way I remember playing DOA4 is exactly how DOA6 is played today (except for obvious changes to mechanics that don't actually make it better game). Stun game is still there, combos are still there. The characters moves are still the same. To say its a bad game really makes me ponder. You can say "I think DOA6 is better" but to say DOA4 is BAD makes me wonder what you are trying to make up for there, lad. Was it that you couldn't afford a 360? Was it that you couldn't get to S or SS rank?
Bottom line, the top DOA6 player will also be the top DOA4 player. The game is almost exactly the same but slower paced for reasons said above. Watching old youtube videos makes me wish Itagaki was still in charge. He was a perfectionist and it showed. DOA5/6 has never showed any signs of perfectionism. DOA4 felt like an AAA game. DOA5 and 6 feel like low budget company games that are always missing critical features.
DOA is starting to head back in the right direction with 6 but they still have a long way to go to reach the peak DOA4 was at.
DOA4 created its own unique online community outside of DOAcentral because of the avatar lobby that supported text chat with KEYBOARD, with over 50 avatars to choose from. That was a once in a life time experience.
If you think it was bad because of the gameplay, think again mate. Force teching your opponent off the ground made it a fast paced fighter that really put your opponent on the spot to make a right decision. The highwake up kick being removed from DOA5 immediately disappointed me and dumbed the game down for knocked downs. I've seen some people say it made for more of a "guessing" mechanic. Wrong. It added another element to knockdowns for offense and defense for BOTH PLAYERS. It always felt rewarding when you knew your opponent was going to do a high wake up kick and you punished it by STUNNING them with a low crush (which was risky but PAID OFF).
Also remember in 2006 there were only about 5% of the gamers today. I was probably one of the 4 kids in highschool that owned a 360. A ton of people missed out on this masterpiece of a game. I hold DOA4 as one of the greatest games of all time next to DIABLO 2, HALO 2/3. What those games all have in common was not only were they polished to the gills, they all had their own online communities.
The ranking system is hands down the best and MOST ACCURATE ranking system I have ever come across in ALL ONLINE GAMING. Your rank truly represented your skill in that game. The B+ were noobs that knew how to play DOA but not yet at a competitive level. The A-'s were progressing from noobs and starting to hold their own but still made mistakes that would be punished by good players. A+ had many kinds of different players. There would be the A+'s that lost to other A+ and would hover around 50, 000 - 60, 000 points. There were the A+'s that only lost to S players and other pro A+ players which would have them sit around 65, 000 - 80, 000 points. Then there were the S players that played DOA2/3 for years online, and finally the SS players that lost to no one.
Those SS players had true skill. I remember witnessing a DOA4 player called EvilDancer27 in a 16 player lobby filled with nothing but S and SS players. EvilDancer27 was actually going on a 15+ win streak defeating every single S and SS player lined up to fight him/her.
Playing DOA is like riding a bike, you never forget how to play it. The way I remember playing DOA4 is exactly how DOA6 is played today (except for obvious changes to mechanics that don't actually make it better game). Stun game is still there, combos are still there. The characters moves are still the same. To say its a bad game really makes me ponder. You can say "I think DOA6 is better" but to say DOA4 is BAD makes me wonder what you are trying to make up for there, lad. Was it that you couldn't afford a 360? Was it that you couldn't get to S or SS rank?
Bottom line, the top DOA6 player will also be the top DOA4 player. The game is almost exactly the same but slower paced for reasons said above. Watching old youtube videos makes me wish Itagaki was still in charge. He was a perfectionist and it showed. DOA5/6 has never showed any signs of perfectionism. DOA4 felt like an AAA game. DOA5 and 6 feel like low budget company games that are always missing critical features.
DOA is starting to head back in the right direction with 6 but they still have a long way to go to reach the peak DOA4 was at.