I honestly bought this as a novelty. Early 3DS games are a weird breed, with a bunch of third-party titles that simply existed to make the system look like a good investment while Nintendo scrambled to make some 1st party games that were worth a damn. I will give credit where it's due though; The ads for this game put the DOA franchise in the back of my middle-schooler mind, which lead to me picking up a copy several years later. Honestly? It's pretty good.

The story mode is a retelling of the plot that takes place over the course of DOA1-4. It's barely comprehensible to me (something about experiments to create superhumans, and a very angry ninja clan), but it was still a fun experience. The presentation in the cutscenes varies wildly, however. Some of them are FMVs, some are fully animated in-engine, and most of them are just watching the camera pan around inanimate character models. The bottom screen also sometimes gives extra details on certain topics when they come up in the cutscenes. It's useful for catching up on lore, but some of them are just descriptions of basic concepts (why are you telling me what "commodities" are?).

The real reason I enjoyed the story mode was its integrated tutorials. Every few missions or so, the game will give you a hands-on tutorial that teaches you one of the many dense mechanics of DOA. The battles that follow often pit you against opponents who will use tactics that favor using the tech you just learned, which is really cool. The game will also rarely slow time in the middle of battle, and give you a QTE command that can help turn the tide against your opponent. I think elements like these go a long way towards easing new players into the frantic pace of DOA's combat.

The combat itself is standard DOA fare, just condensed onto the 3DS. I will say that you SHOULD NOT play this game in 3D. The game runs at a mostly smooth 60 FPS when the 3D is off, but caps at 30 when the 3D is on. It really isn't worth it. This game also happens to contain the one redeeming quality of Metroid: Other M within it. The area where you fight Ridley makes for a pretty sick fighting arena.

Overall, DOA: Dimensions makes for a good anniversary title, and the only portable rendition of pre-DOA5 combat. I personally think that the accessibility of the story mode could make this game a very appealing entry point for the DOA franchise as a whole, but I don't think it holds much value overall. Still a good time though.

I had this at some point when I was a teenager and it faded from memory. But I decided to pick it up again recently on a whim and I'm really glad I did! It's genuinely a ton of fun to play. I love how the Chronicle mode drip-feeds you all the game mechanics and ways to play while you're getting a crash-course on all the story of the first four games. The cutscenes in Chronicle mode range from fully-animated to 3D character models just standing or posed in place and "talking" without even their mouths moving. The inconsistency is a bit jarring at time, but the fully-animated cutscenes look fantastic. Unfortunately, the Tag battles are fucking dreadful, and sometimes you're forced to do them in Chronicle mode. But after finishing Chronicle mode, it's easy to ignore the existence of Tag battles thanks to the Arcade and Survival modes. I had a blast playing as Tina, Leifang, and Kasumi. If you have a 3DS and enjoy fighting games at all, you really owe it to yourself to give this one a shot!

Enjoying this so much has me really wanting to go back and play some of the older DOA titles as well.

Honestly, this was a surprising find on the 3DS. As a longtime fan of the mainline series on regular consoles; I was expecting this to be "less than" but it was similar to the main ones but in a compact form.

What is useful is the dual screen usage. During a fight, the character moveset is displayed on the bottom that the player can either perform normally with the D-pad/ buttons or press it with their stylus ( a welcome way in for beginners to learn the mechanics). Everyone flows really well battling that I was impressed on the 3ds!

- The story is ok. Nothing to really fawn over and thier are other modes such as time attack, sparring, versus, etc.

- There are as couple new stages mixed in with the old stages from the mainline games.

Super fun game for on the go battles!

I have never been a huge fan of Dead or Alive outside the characters. The fighting system is convoluted, overcomplicated, and not ever explained very well. Dimensions break this barrier with a great Chronicle story mode that introduces these complicated techniques little by little so you can absorb it and it works great. The story mode is entertaining but nothing to write home about. You play as various characters trying to stop Alpha-152 which is Kasumi’s evil clone. DOATEC is trying to use this to destroy the ninja clan Mugen Tenshin.


The fighting system actually is complicated but after the story mode, you can actually use it. There are the usual combos of kick and punches, but you can juggle opponents and stun them in a critical state. You can throw and hold opponents while holding is kind of a counterattack you can actually counter a counter in this game. If someone counters your attack with a hold you can counter back or get out of the hold. Understanding how to do this takes some getting used to but it adds some strategy to online fights. You can also do a super stun which is called OHing an opponent and this means they can’t counter. There are also special stances that the characters go into which can be used to strategically add extra combos without the opponent knowing. You can also delay attacks in combos to kind of trick the other player in thinking you’re done so they stop blocking.


The fighting system is fluid and smooth with great animations and controls, but my favorite part is that the combos are listed on the bottom screen so you can tap them or just use them as a quick combo list. This is really handy and actually makes playing the game more enjoyable so you aren’t constantly pausing the game to remember a combo. On top of this, you can now tag team which is fun and adds some great combos to the fray. I liked the extra modes such as tag team, and infinite mode, and of course the showcase mode where you unlock figurines to take pictures in 3D.

There are a lot of costumes to unlock to make the females look sexier or the males look cooler and StreetPass and SpotPass are wonderfully integrated into the system. I’ll have my 3DS in my pocket all day when going out then come home and have a few challengers ready to fight online that I passed when going out. I might even drive by a few SpotPass areas and come back with some downloaded costumes. Dimensions really utilize these features and I have a blast using them.


With all that said the 3D effects are amazing and really show off the features of the system in this way, but overall the graphics are smooth and crisp and look very detailed. I highly recommend Dimensions because it’s the best fighting game on the system right now.