Three Big Changes for Dead or Alive 5

The recurring slogan for Dead or Alive 5 has been "fighting entertainment." This philosophy has led to several outrageous locales, including a fight under the big top and in the middle of a war zone. At this year's E3 we got the chance to see Bass, the professional wrestler from past DOA games, and Sarah, the latest addition to the Virtua Fighter/DOA crossover, in action. Sadly, it was for only a very brief moment, as the rest of our presentation focused on three new announcements for the game's mechanics.

POWER BLOWS These heavy attacks that knock opponents into walls--thus starting an environment-based attack--have been altered from the last time we played DOA5. Previously, we could perform these attacks at any time. Now, we could perform them only when our fighter was at 50 percent health or below. The developers cited community feedback as the reason for this change since the community was worried power blows would be too easy to abuse. Each character will have a different input to launch a power blow, and you do not have any sort of armor while charging it up.

TAG MATCHES Like previous Dead or Alive games, Dead or Alive 5 will include tag matches in addition to standard one-on-one fights. Tag throw attacks and tag combos are still possible as well, but there is a new, third type of attack: the tag power blow. To perform this devastating combo, both of your fighters must be below 50 percent health. One fighter connects with a power blow, but instead of knocking the opponent into the environment, they knock them toward their partner. The partner performs a quick combo and then knocks the opponent into the environment, leading to an environmental attack.

CRITICAL BURST This special attack is a mechanic designed for advanced players. If you look closely, when a character is struck, a portion of their health gauge flashes silver and then fades away, representing damage. The flash lasts only a split-second, and it's during that brief window that the attacking player can perform a critical burst. If timed correctly, the critical burst will put the opponent into a crumple state, making it very easy to land a power blow--or start another combo. Currently, there are no restrictions on critical bursts, but the developers are exploring ways to prevent players from abusing them.

While there is a lot of emphasis on environment attacks, the developers also realize that not all players will want to use them. Therefore, a simple stage that lacks any outlandish environment attacks will be available as well. That's all we have to share at the moment, but if you have any additional questions, feel free to leave them in the comments blow. Dead or Alive 5 will be available on September 25 on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.