I'm a collector of collector's editions.
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/blog/31928
So one of the only games I came away from E3 impressed with was Tecmo's Dead or Alive 5. I've always liked the series, although DoA4 felt like a step in the wrong direction. Dimensions, on the 3DS, which I reviewed favorably, is very fun and a great place for people new to the series to begin. Dead or Alive 5 picks up where Dimensions left off. That is, once you've masters Dimensions (thank to that game's excellent Chronicle mode, which is basically a very long tutorial), you can try your hand at its big console brother. DOA5 is kind of like Dimensions for Advanced Players. So far, the biggest change has been that holds are tougher to pull off successfully, there are more of them, and they don't result in an insta-win damage deal when you do. I'll talk about my experience with the game itself once I've gotten a change to get through at least the impressive (so far) Story Mode. This, here, is the unboxing of the DOA5 Collector's Edition.
The huge box is larger than the one that came with the Soul Calibur IV Special Edition, and is seemingly more fragile. It bends and dents at the slightest provocation. The slipcover (shown in the picture at the top of the page) fits so snuggly around this box that it's actually kind of a pain to remove.
Popping open the cover, we can see the DLC cards (one for a Prima Games Kasumi tutorial) and the bikini outfits, which I've already used and thrown away. I'll show those off in a bit. You can also see the nicely-produced "art book," which is hardcover and printed on quality paper stock. As we'll see in a second, though, it's not really an art book at all.
It's more of a milquetoast "render" book, because 95% of it is renders of the characters, like Tina, here. There are precious few pages dedicated to actual production art, and about a quarter of the book shows off the individual stages, which is not high on my list of "thing I want to see concept art of." It's not even concept art--it's more renders. At least there's some very minimalistic annotations from somebody on the production team. He gives such insightful tidbits as "Helena's bangs were really hard to get right," and "Kokoro is the youngest character in the game." Thanks, guy.
If you're a poster person, you'll be thrilled to know that this collector's edition comes with a landscape folding poster of the entire cast. I don't do anything with posters (except my kickass Godzilla movie posters) so this will remain folded up and it will live in this box.
The CD soundtrack actually comes in a jewel case--a rarity these days. Dead Space 2 came with a slipcase, and I've seen plenty of games simply give out a download code. And honestly, that might've been better, since this CD was put into my computer, uploaded to iTunes, copied to my iPod, and will never be heard from again. Still, though, a part of me wants all game soundtracks to come on giant LP's.
In case you were wondering, yes, it also includes the game itself.
The collector's edition comes with a download code that unlocks swimsuits (mostly bikinis) for every female character. I haven't tried them all, but Tina's is pretty great. Her idle animation is...eye-catching.
AND if you pre-ordered from GameStop, you also get white "bunny bikinis" for Kasumi, Hitomi, and Lei Feng. Preordering from Amazon gets you black bunny bikinis for Christie, Tina, and...Lisa? Maybe? Despite thinking these bunny bikinis are kind of lame, I will be powerless to resist the inevitable availability of the opposite ones on PSN. Because I'm THAT GUY.
So there you have it. The art book is a disappointment. I like the one for Soul Calibur IV more (but not too much more, since half of it was a worthless comic), but the CD and bikini DLC are well worth it for me. I also like the giant box, which will be used to store other things. I've been keeping my "misc. special edition stuff" in my SCIV box, and it's getting kind of full, so DOA5's box will doubtlessly replace it. I might even be able to fit my awesome Dead Space 2 Plasma Cutter inside it. Oh, this WILL be fun...
Topic: Zach's Gaming Stuff: DOA5 Unboxing (Read 1698 times)
