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Back in 1997, there was gonna be a DOA port for N64!?

inochinagi

inochinagi

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This is pretty wild... I've never even seen anyone mention this before...

www.ign.com

Tecmo's Fighter: Dead Or Alive on N64? - IGN

Call it a rumor (but it's not), or call it lots of people saying the…
www.ign.com www.ign.com

And the port was gonna be worked on by some good devs (Iguana, under Acclaim at the time, which distributed DOA1 Arcade in at least UK afaik), who went on to form part of Retro Studios, developers of Metroid Prime.

Easily would have been the best FG on N64, and I know because I was dying for a good one back in those days (I got N64 on launch and didn't get a PS1 until late 1998).
 
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KasumiLover

KasumiLover

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That's interesting, probably was gonna be another port like Sega Saturn and PS1 but they probably couldn't go with it since Nintendo was probably just as if not more strict about the sexual content back then since I can't see them being on board with the boobs and the revealing costumes xD Would have still been nice to see since I don't remember many fighters on N64
 
inochinagi

inochinagi

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Probably... N64 was around the time when Nintendo was actually starting to actively try to shed it's "kiddie" image, actually, with games like Conker and Perfect Dark. Actually, Acclaim themselves were practically a 2nd party for the N64 for a while, that's why they got Turok as an exclusive.

I'm just surprised it was even considered by TN's end. I'm sure Itagaki himself would have still seen it as a kiddie console that his games wouldn't work on...

Yeah, there weren't many good fighting games on N64. I'm pretty sure I rented them all, lol. Off the top of my head, there was: Killer Instinct Gold, Smash Bros 64, MK Trilogy, MK4, Mace the Dark Age, War Gods, Flying Dragon, Clayfighters 64, Clayfighters 64 1/3, Fighters Destiny, Dark Rift... (out of these, the only good exclusives were KI Gold and Smash Bros 64, and KI Gold wasn't even arcade perfect, though it had some additional things compared to the arcade's KI2).
 
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inochinagi

inochinagi

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Compared to OG Xbox's Duke? lol. I remember liking the N64 D-pad for KI Gold, and (although not relevant to DOA) it even had the 6 button layout... all ready for a Street Fighter that never came, lol.

I think the more platforms, the better. Being on Saturn, PS1, and N64 would have given DOA an edge that every other prominent FG (other than MK) at the time didn't have. Would have changed my life for sure, I'd have played DOA for the first time many years earlier.
 
Moneyspider_Todd

Moneyspider_Todd

Active Member
Sounds pretty cool. I kinda wish it happened. The N64 didn't had much fighting games, let alone GOOD fighting games.
My 3D favorite N64 fighter (and in my opinion, the closer to the DOA/Virtua Fighter style) is the original Fighter's Destiny. It had that unique sport-like approach with the point system that really get that "olympic fighting tournament" feel. Sadly FD2 isn't that memorable (and my main, Veronica, didn't return :/ )
(man, i love that game)
 
deathofaninja

deathofaninja

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The article was updated in 2012? Almost 15 years after it was posted... I wonder if that was done by default. Game companies had the chance to keep things under wraps in those days - not everything came to light so quickly from online articles. Itagaki worked hard on Dead or Alive 2 and he wanted it to be on the most powerful game system it could be on.

Tecmo didn't have any type of relationship with Nintendo during the 64, and it's really too bad because DOA1 would have slapped on N64. I'll have to look around and see what I can dig up on this topic. Great find.
 
DestructionBomb

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I heard one of the major reasons was more towards actually trying to publish it and the technical hurdles it came with that Tecmo didn't want to cover or publicly announce. Which is weird considering Turok made it. Upon reading the article now, it's pretty similar.

The N64 was in a spot for being that specific era in particular that was not into the fighting genre for that specific platform itself, even though there were some fighting games in it like it was previously mentioned, Fighter's Destiny. Even if DOA somehow made it in, the N64 controller in itself was not suited for the type of game. I suppose it wouldn't technically matter if it's just being played casually but N64 had a decent chunk of a library that would just overshadow it. You had Smash Bros. 64, Pokemon Stadium (which was like a massive push for some reason), and KI. I guess if we are talking 3D, it might of been the best one, but even then...I wouldn't be surprised for overall poor sales either, heck some people only got N64 for very specific big name'd games.

It's actually pretty smart and understandable if Tecmo didn't go for it from a standard view. Pokemon was exploding in that era lol.
 
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Moneyspider_Todd

Moneyspider_Todd

Active Member
DestructionBomb said:
I heard one of the major reasons was more towards actually trying to publish it and the technical hurdles it came with that Tecmo didn't want to cover or publicly announce. Which is weird considering Turok made it. Upon reading the article now, it's pretty similar.

The N64 was in a spot for being that specific era in particular that was not into the fighting genre for that specific platform itself, even though there were some fighting games in it like it was previously mentioned, Fighter's Destiny. Even if DOA somehow made it in, the N64 controller in itself was not suited for the type of game. I suppose it wouldn't technically matter if it's just being played casually but N64 had a decent chunk of a library that would just overshadow it. You had Smash Bros. 64, Pokemon Stadium (which was like a massive push for some reason), and KI. I guess if we are talking 3D, it might of been the best one, but even then...I wouldn't be surprised for overall poor sales either, heck some people only got N64 for very specific big name'd games.

It's actually pretty smart and understandable if Tecmo didn't go for it from a standard view. Pokemon was exploding in that era lol.
Click to expand...
well, TECMO had it's own Pokemon in PS1, with Monster Rancher having a moderate success.
(one day i'll have the PS1 game to unlock the Kasumi pixie X'D)
 
TheIndustrialCowboy

TheIndustrialCowboy

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inochinagi said:
Yeah, there weren't many good fighting games on N64. I'm pretty sure I rented them all, lol. Off the top of my head, there was: Killer Instinct Gold, Smash Bros 64, MK Trilogy, MK4, Mace the Dark Age, War Gods, Flying Dragon, Clayfighters 64, Clayfighters 64 1/3, Fighters Destiny, Dark Rift...
Click to expand...
Oddly enough, the first fighting game I ever played was Mortal Kombat 4 on my Dad's N64. I wasn't any good at it (and it wasn't a very good video game in retrospect) but the sounds the characters made was funny as hell.

I wonder if my Dad would've played DOA on N64, if such a port had existed...
 
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