Xtreme


The next big thing in fighting games: Butt Boxing.

Right now, my Xbox360 is all about The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. Yeah, it's just total bliss to create your own bad-ass and build him or her up to the deadliest S.O.B. in all of Cyrodiil, explore every corner of the huge continent and strip fallen enemies down to their undies. But even so, I have no doubt in my mind that come late 2006/early 2007, when Dead or Alive Xtreme 2 comes onto the Xbox360, I'll be taking a bit of time off from Tamriel for some fun in the digital sun.

Team Ninja's bouncy sequel to their 'vacation' game is set to be bigger than the first one. DOAX2 this time around will feature not only improved beach volleyball as the main game, but also jet-skiing. The minigames will include a Photography Mode, Waterslides, the returning Pool Hopping game (this time now with two girls in a race), a Race-for-the-Flag beach race, Water Tug-of-War and, get this- Butt Boxing. Butt-boxing or 'The Flotation Device Game' has two DOA girls standing back-to-back on a floating platform, each trying their darndest to bump the other off using well-timed bumps with their behinds. The game will, according to Tomonobu Itagaki, use a similar system to the Rock-Paper-Scissors system used in the actual DOA fighting game, and so will be the closest to a 'fighting minigame' in DOAX2 (cheater...).

Aside from the main games, minigames and the casino activities, DOAX2 will also be featuring the return of the Gravure scenes- the non-interactive cinematics showing the girls in various poses and titillating vignettes. This time around, Team Ninja has invested a LOT of time into these cut scenes, with about 15 unique to each girl and totaling about 170 scenes. The girls however will be able to 'imitate' the scenes of other girls, so if you want to see nice girl Kasumi doing some of Christie's risque poses, you can. There will also be 'Pair Gravure' scenes, which will require you to build up the relationship of the two girls to compose the scene. Also available will be 'RARE' Gravure scenes... whatever that means. Mmmm.

Well anyway, the first DOAX game was solid fun, so having the bikini-clad DOA girls in next-gen splendour sounds pretty swell. Team Ninja hopes to have this game out by the end of 2006... let's see it. There's nothing quite like bikinis on Christmas. Heh.