Back when the GTA Trilogy trainwreck happened, Dominic Tarason wrote a piece for us making the case that old games shouldn’t be delisted when they’re rereleased. It hasn’t stopped happening, of course, and most recently Dead or Alive 6 was removed from sale in favor of Dead or Alive 6 Last Round, a rerelease so underwhelming it’s currently got a 70% negative user rating on Steam. For comparison, the original version is currently 70% positive, and that’s after players started giving it negative reviews as well in protest.
Forefront among the complaints is the fact the DLC is even more expensive in the rerelease, and while transferring a save from the old version will unlock most of the characters and costumes you’d already paid for, crossover SNK characters Mai and Kula aren’t included and have to be paid for again.
Dead or Alive 6 Last Round is also being criticized for how barebones it is. While one stage has had its lighting upgraded, otherwise it’s not a noticeable difference visually. Costumes do unlock faster in Last Round, but the addition Koei Tecmo is billing as big-ticket excitement is just a photo mode.
The Dead or Alive series has spent a long time struggling to be taken seriously as a fighting game, periodically promising to tone down the jiggle physics and focus on the fighting, but as soon as the DLC costumes roll out suddenly it’s time to flog bikinis and bunny outfits to horndogs with deep pockets. Players who were hoping this would be an opportunity for Dead or Alive to actually be a better fighting game aren’t impressed.
As one Steam review puts it, “It’s insulting. Tecmo just sees this as the coomer franchise and thinks they can get away with the absolute bare minimum.” Others complain about the install size being “40% bigger” and the fact it still doesn’t have rollback netcode or crossplay, but frustration about the pandering is paramount.
“This is genuinely the biggest scam Koei Tecmo has pulled so far,” another review says, “and the fact that this game’s Steam Community page is already filled with horny content explains a lot of things.”
