Dead or Alive 4: Don't Bother Blocking

IGN: Dead or Alive 4 Review

The "Dead or Alive" series is one of my favorite fighting games. It has a good fighting system, great characters (and not just the ones with...um, bounce), and above all else an awesome blocking system. The name of the game with "Dead or Alive" has been the counter system. With carefully timed presses of a button, you could make all your characters stop an attack and counterattack the enemy. It didn't always happen, but it was pretty well balanced, and you could learn to perfect it. With "Dead or Alive 4" for the BOX 360, that unique feature has been thrown out the window.

No, it wasn't taken out of the game, but it may as well have been. Apparently someone at Team Ninja decided it was too easy to use the block button, so they made it harder to use it. They made it so that you could only use it at certain times. If you are right in your timing, you can stop an attack, but oh how difficult it is. Now you have literally0.1 second time periods to be able to properly block. If you don't press the button at these proper times, your character will do nothing. These are easy to pull off when the enemy isn't fighting at all, but once the combo's start coming you are at your enemies mercy.

Seriously, it gets to be pretty maddening when the computer A.I. can block against your best moves, yet you can't do a thing about his basic attacks. Note to Team Ninja: I respect you wanting to make your games more challenging, but you shouldn't make executing something so hard that you might as well not bother doing it at all. With how difficult it is to block, the block button is practically broken now. Maybe it's just me, but that seems like missing the whole point of "improving" this particular gameplay mechanism. Oh, and just for the record, people online aren't really using the block button either, do to the stupid difficultly in making it work properly. Just some advice.

Currently Listening To: Jon Secada - "Pocahontas" Soundtrack