A scary package for Team Ninja fans...
This game is a big mess of concepts and old ideas. The game plays a lot like the first volleyball game, but takes the overall premise from the second. The same exact story is completely ripped from the second game in which Zack rebuilds his sunken island and tricks the girls into coming to it yet again. This is extremely disappointing as the CG openings for this series have had incredibly interesting setups, but there is nothing new to this Paradise.
Like in the first game, there is only one REAL sport you can play. Volleyball. And with that said, the volleyball isn't terrible. The mechanics are rather sound actually. There are no special mechanics needed, and the mediocrity of it may kill you, but the game is challenging and earns you a lot of money to spend on those succulent bikinis. Bump, set, spike is the name of the game, and if you're down with those three easy steps the volleyball could turn out to be as relaxing as it is imperative to enjoy the assets of the island. There are some mini games thrown in from the second extreme game that are just there for novelty sake such as the "butt battle" and the infamous "pool-hopping" but they don't offer a lot, and they aren't much fun.
Paradise does a lot wrong, but it looks good. The white beaches and blue water aren't as vibrant as they were on the 360, but for what we are working with we have a good looking game. The girls look great as always. On the portable device they look a little jagged and rough around the edges, but at the same time they look juicy and colorful. There are many bikinis to put on the girls and it really gives the look of the game some extra depth and versatility. The bikinis look great and it's fun to dress the girls up and see how they look in that two piece in comparison to that mini-skirt. Another big selling point for the series has always been the rest sequences which basically means gyrating, stretching ladies for thirty seconds. You can take pictures of the girls as they strut their stuff on the island and save them to a photo album. Sadly, the pictures come out bad most of the time and sometimes they even glitch up and frames in the background such as water continue to run whilst the body is frozen in position.
There aren't a whole lot of reasons to play this game as it's basically a port of the first two games with compressed activities and visuals. They add Rio, a card dealer from some Blackjack game but she doesn't really fit in with the DOA girls and she's more fit for a full on Japanese animation game.
At the end of the day, Dead or Alive: Paradise is another entry to the Extreme franchise, but it's not what the fans want. It does nothing to improve on an already overused formula, and it lacks in everything it tries to do. It may feel like a slap to the fans of the franchise. And hopefully it's not a precursor to Dead or Alive 's pernicious future.