DEAD OR ALIVE: DIMENSIONS vs. SUPER STREET FIGHTER IV 3D EDITIONBecause I'm bored, I'll compare both games in this post. It's from the perspective of someone who loves fighters, but had never played a DOA game and was stuck in the Alpha 3 days in Street Fighter.
Presentation:DOA wins here. It feels less like a port (because it's not one) than SF. Better menu for every single option, much shorter loading times, tons of unlockable announcer voices, the option to choose between English and Japanese audio! Not only SF is stuck with English, but the voice acting is cringe-worthy. Makoto, my main, pronounces "karate" like "ferrari", but with K instead of F. Ugh. Also, DOA lets you go from 30fps to 60fps by turning the 3D off with the slider at any given time, while in SF you have to go to the options menu and manually turn the 3D off to get 60fps.
Winner: DOA.
Graphics:I honestly don't know which game looks better. DOA looks technically better I think, has really nice models and backgrounds, with some low-res textures here and there. SF looks great too, but the static background would have looked better without the frozen, lifeless people. Still, it's more colorful and varied. I have always personally hated the character design since SFIV was announced, though. Ryu looks like Donkey Kong and Chun Li is way too meaty.
Winner: tie.
Features:SF has the better online mode, but for some weird reason I've been having more trouble finding people online. Maybe because I use the filter to avoid people who play in "Lite mode" (AKA tap the screen to spam charge attacks). SF also has the trials mode which is nice for learning basic moves and combos, and arcade much is more fun with the specific after battle quotes and rival fights. On the other hand, DOA has a much better figurine mode and the tag battles are very fun. I love that DOA shows the move list on the bottom screen, would have been awesome for SF but SF really needs those extra "virtual" buttons.
Something I love about both titles - there are plenty of costumes for the characters. Yes, I'm shallow like that. DOA has unlockable costumes and also lots of DLC costumes (that are not available anymore), but lacks different colors for each costume. SF includes the DLC costumes that you have to pay for on home consoles, and you have 10 colors for each costume.
Winner: SF.
Sound: As I mentioned, the voice acting really hurts the sound in SF for me. Other than that, I found that the only similarity between DOA and Tekken is that both have awful music. So in that sense, SF wins, even if the music is nowhere as awesome as the music in the Alpha or even EX games. The sound effects in both games are okay, the hits sound hard, especially during the Ultra Moves in SF.
Winner: tie.
Gameplay: DOA is fun, simple, smooth and polished. I love the fact that stages interfere with the flow of the fight, the animations for wall attacks blow Tekken out of the water, and this is coming from a huge Tekken fanboy. It's also better suited for a handheld with 4 face buttons, you never struggle to perform any action.
SF is more technical and complex, and unlike in DOA, every character feels vastly different from each other (with the obvious exceptions). Learning a character in SF is definitely more rewarding. It's a shame some actions are difficult to perform on the 3DS, and doing plenty of half quarter circles and shoryuken motions for a long period of time may be hard on your thumb.
Winner: tie. This would be SF otherwise, but DOA works way better for a handheld game.
________________
So in the end, I'm glad I bought both
Really looking forward to Tekken 3DS.
Player
