When Halo Met DOA

The official Bungie site is running an article entitled The Making of SlugFest, the story of how a Spartan ended up in Dead or Alive 4. From the article: "Initially, team Ninja wanted, and asked very politely, for Master Chief. Well, we balked at that. Master Chief is busy, fictionally speaking. We left him at the end of Halo 2, involved in a very large scale galactic conflict with world-ending repercussions. Fictionally speaking, he just wasn't available for fisticuffs. But we loved the idea of seeing a Spartan fight, unarmed. You have to figure they'd be pretty serious pugilistic contenders right? Half ton of bio-mechanically enhanced armor-clad uber-trained soldiering nightmare? Has to have at least a decent right hook."

no you're confused...

[Gravis Zero]

Half ton of bio-mechanically enhanced armor-clad uber-trained soldiering nightmare?

surprise! that's actually an angry PTA soccer mom.

Cool

[Anonymous Coward]

Impressive melding of two games that don't know when to come out.

Lack Of Submissions?

[ObsessiveMathsFreak]

Was this a slow submissions day or something? You're telling me no single submitter decided to post this?

Well, you can see why Zonk had to take affirmative action! Never mind those stories in the submissions box!! This one had Master Chief AANDD The Dead or Alive Girls!!

Re:Lack Of Submissions?

[spriteboy]

So...what are they playing??...

Half ton of bio-mechanically enhanced armor-clad u

[koi88]

Half ton of bio-mechanically enhanced armor-clad uber-trained soldiering nightmare?

I don't know Dead or Alive (I would never buy an XBox), but I'm sure all his armor and stuff won't help him against some Japanese teenage girl in a school uniform.
She'll beat him up. They just didn't want this to happen to their beloved Master Chief.

Re:Half ton of bio-mechanically enhanced armor-cla

[Taulin]

Let's look at a modern day example; Take one of our best marines (or your favorite blend), take away his gun, and put some armor on him. Then match him/her against Bruce Lee. Bruce would win, and that is the same situation they would be in in DOA. [Man, I haven't argued about something like this since college] Oh! and ha! obvious Troll against XBox since at least one DOA has come out on Saturn, Dreamcase, PS1 and PS2 also.

Re:Half ton of bio-mechanically enhanced armor-cla

[SanityInAnarchy]

We don't have Mjolnir armor yet.

Let me put it this way: Would Bruce Lee win against a tank?

It's really hard to say how this should work. A Spartan punch, if it lands, should go straight through anything human. You'd not only have to block it, you'd have to block it with a sort of throwing reversal, essentially a dodge -- anything to avoid taking that much force directly.

The only reason you can whack Spartans to death in the back of the head in Halo is the fact that you're doing it with another Spartan. What would happen if a human tried that? Clonk!

It's a bit more fair than actually using Master Chief, though. The Chief has a personal shield. I doubt there's anything like that in DOA.

Re:Half ton of bio-mechanically enhanced armor-cla

[Doctor Ian]

Let me put it this way: Would Bruce Lee win against a tank?

Well, Indiana Jones beat a tank, and he's pretty tough. And on this basis, I feel Bruce Lee could probably beat Indiana Jones.

So the question becomes: Is this sort of thing transitive?

Re:

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:Half ton of bio-mechanically enhanced armor-cla

[Gulthek]

The ground beat the tank, Dr. Jones SENIOR beat the people driving the tank.

Re:Half ton of bio-mechanically enhanced armor-cla

[sesshomaru]

Does Bruce Lee have access to IEDs?

Actually, this is the theme of Soul Edge the first Soul Calibur game. Mitsurugi is seeking the cursed blade Soul Edge in order to fight enemies who use guns, which I guess he feels makes his lifetime of training worthless. In fact in one of Mitsurugi's endings [wikipedia.org], you get to fight his nemesis, a rifleman, as I recall.

Oh, it's also an important plot element in Once Upon a Time in China [lovehkfilm.com], as the character Yim says "No matter how good our kung-fu is, it will never defeat

Re:Half ton of bio-mechanically enhanced armor-cla

[Pxtl]

I remember that ending. I was so startled at the very idea of it that I just stood there while he shot me through the head.

The game only gives you one try.

Re:Half ton of bio-mechanically enhanced armor-cla

[sesshomaru]

I still like the original Soul Edge best even though I no longer own it. I wish I could remember the name of the rifleman. I thought he was sufficiently creepy, and including him made the game remind me somewhat of Yojimbo [tohokingdom.com]. Too bad they couldn't make the rifleman a playable character, but I guess then the game would be way too short...

Oh, and the same thing happened to me, blam! thud!

Re:Half ton of bio-mechanically enhanced armor-cla

[Pxtl]

Battle Arena Toshinden series had a riflemen in the later games - in the second game he was a hidden character - a mad vagrant named Vermillion wielding a shotgun and pistol. In the 3rd game they lost a lot of the charm by converting him into some Bond-esque spy villain.

Of course, BAT was a horribly balanced and primitively modeled mess, but it was a fun fighter back when the only other 3d fighter was Virtua Fighter (which I found dull).

Re:Half ton of bio-mechanically enhanced armor-cla

[Ykant]

The guy with the rifle at the end of Soul Blade was called Tanegashima.

I seem to remember someone plugging in a cheat code one time that made him playable, I remember he didn't have many moves (bayonet stab, rifle butt type stuff), and it took a long time to actually load and fire the rifle, but it was a one-shot kill.

Re:Half ton of bio-mechanically enhanced armor-cla

[sesshomaru]

Interesting, I found this article when searching on "Tanegashima" and "soul," it is described here "Arquebus technology came to Japanese shores with the Chinese during the early Sixteenth Century, but came into widespread and pivotal use soon after Portuguese sailors were shipwrecked on the island of Tanegashima in 1543." [samurai-archives.com]

Another thing I loved about Soul Edge, really obscure historical references. I mean, it mentions the Italian Wars [wikipedia.org] in reference to Voldo's employer the Merchant of Death, Vercci.

Re:Half ton of bio-mechanically enhanced armor-cla

[Taulin]

Hayabusa (char in DOA) in Ninja Gaiden (XBox version) destroys tanks and big ass crap. Kasumi can beat up Hayabusa, so that means she can beat those Halo wimps.

Re:Half ton of bio-mechanically enhanced armor-cla

[drinkypoo]

Also on the topic of tanks and fighting games, Bryan in Tekken 3's animation is of him ripping the turret off of a tank and throwing it. (At least, I think it was Bryan. And Tekken 3.)

Re:Half ton of bio-mechanically enhanced armor-cla

[Keeper]

Given that said Japanese girl can jump off of a 10+ story building without skipping a beat, you'd probably need to be an armor-clad uber-trained soldier to have a fair chance of winning ...

Re:Half ton of bio-mechanically enhanced armor-cla

[DeadScreenSky]

By "Japanese teenage girl in a school uniform" I assume you meant "highly trained Japanese ninja who has magical abilities (and happens to have an optional school uniform available)"? If these ninjas can destroy ancient fiends, high-tech soldiers, cybernetic monsters, mythical Japanese demons, etc. (see Ninja Gaiden and the previous DOA games) I assume they can handle an unarmed soldier, regardless of how nice their armor and bio-mechanics are...

Re:haha

[apoc06]

dead or alive 4 will encompass the lead characters for at least 3 of the xbox's exclusive AAA titles. dont forget that ryu from ninja gaiden is already in there too.

Re:haha

[Asmor]

Ninja Gaiden and Dead or Alive are part of the same continuity/universe, and made by the same manufacturer. Of course Ryu's in there. He was in DoA 3, and I'm pretty damn sure he was in DoA 2 as well.

Re:haha

[Prophet of Nixon]

Well, he's been in every DOA game, so he predates DOA4 and the xbox, but he is originally from the old arcade/NES Ninja Gaiden games, so DOA gets him from those. His current form (that does more than jump and stab) is from DOA though.

Re:haha

[apoc06]

pretty much those found in DOA. the first halo is on the PC, but i guess it still counts as an xbox exclusive.

Paid ad? I don't think so...

[Ares Halcyon]

Why are people saying this is paid ad? They must either not have played either game or just want to post for the sake of good karma! I for one enjoy playing both halo games and the DOA series (since the saturn) and am looking forward to seeing the spartan nicole in doa4 when it comes out early next year!

Bungie's Web site?

[JeffHunt]

Wow, did anybody else notice how awful the navigation is on that page?

Re:

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:Nitpicking with the Japanese

[TheLink]

Those same attitudes work well when you want high quality stuff.

My friend who used to work for a Japanese car company was sent to Japan for training for a few months.

Whilst he was there he found that it was common for staff to be rearranging and tidying their desks etc at 9pm just so everything is nicely in place for efficient work the next day.

In the normal office area there were circles on the floor to mark where wastebaskets should be. Lots of little details like that.

I doubt the staff of the local offic

Hmm

[Sv-Manowar]

Seems like they didn't want to infringe on the Master Chief 'brand' by putting him in another SPARTAN (pretty much indentical) to please fans, why not just let team ninja used the Master Chief?

I must say though, the halo fighting level does look very well done and sharp.

New Title

[Gogo0]

When Marketing met Video Games.

It's a cross-promotion, nothing special here.

Female?

[Funk_dat69]

So there are female spartans now? I guess having a male spartan was "not Master Chief" enough. So now it's Master Chief with Super Armor boobies? Looks pretty lame to me.

Anybody read those Halo books? (what am I talking about, this is slashdot, of course you have) Is there any precedent in the Halo universe for female spartans? I was kinda under the impression that spartan were almost manufactured, cloned maybe, and enhanced to be supa-stong. What would be the benefit of having a female? Or do they need fem

Re:Female?

[KDR_11k]

Of course there are female spartans! I mean, what would a bunch of men with genetically enhanced power and no women do to each other?

Re:Female?

[Gravedigger3]

Ive read the books. There are several female Spartans. Kelly was one in particular I remember. She was a sniper on an assault team with Master Cheif. They were not cloned or manufactured. They were chosen. They searched for kids with DNA or genes or some shit that were nearly perfect (dont remember the details). They then kidnapped them and superenhanced them. Injected them with shit to supercharge their muscles, enchance their reflex's 100 fold and make their bones unbreakable etc etc. With those kind of e

Samus FTW

[Strell]

Samus would pwn her, especially given the amount of training she has had via Smash Bros.

Armor Tech Crossover

[FACEMILK]

Made me realize how much Master Chief resembles Fulgore of Killer Instinct but without the ponytail and long fingernails.

But consider these dates:
MC of Halo via MMIV of Marathon c1991
vs
Fulgore of Killer Instinct c1993

Putting Realism over fun

[Headcase88]

"Fictionally speaking, he just wasn't available for fisticuffs."

Fictionally speaking, who gives a shit? He's a video game character, he can do whatever the hell he wants. What's next? "Oh, we had this awesome idea for a minigame in Halo 3, but fictionally speaking, it just didn't make any sense for the storyline, so we scrapped it.".

That's the kind of bullshit that makes me avoid many of the sports games currently on the market.

Luckily, they probably just said that as a way of sidestepping the real i

What a stupid fucking premise

[drinkypoo]

We left him at the end of Halo 2, involved in a very large scale galactic conflict with world-ending repercussions. Fictionally speaking, he just wasn't available for fisticuffs.

WTF? When making Super Smash Bros., do you think they agonized over whether they could get the ice climbers because they'd be out on a mountain peak somewhere? Do you think they worried about whether Link could end up in the same place as Samus and Starfox? Fuck, they're probably not even from the same universe. Ditto for char