dead or alive 6

Or rather, Dead or Alive 6: Core Fighters is.

Remember when we lamented about how Dead or Alive 6’s absurd obsession with Season Passes is ruining the game? In that article, we said we can’t wait for Dead or Alive 6: Core Fighters to hit.

Well, now it has.

If you’re unfamiliar with the concept, Core Fighters is basically Dead or Alive 6 with two major differences. Story mode is locked (apart from the Prologue) and you only have Kasumi, Diego, Bass and Hitomi to play with in all the modes.

For the locked content, you can buy them ala carte or if you’re like us, just wait for months until they’re slowly given away free (like what Koei Tecmo did for the fighters in Dead or Alive 5: Core Fighters).

Other than those caveats, this is basically the same game as main Dead or Alive 6 game. All the stages, all the unlocks, all the modes…even the achievements/ trophies can be obtained.

We’ve played the game extensively and while we really like the fighting, we think the stages are a tad uninspired this time around. Dead or Alive 2 and 3 honestly had better fight arenas. Overlook the boring locales though and what’s left is a very capable (and fun) fighting game. Plus, it’s free so you basically lose nothing by just trying it out.

So what are you waiting for? It’s time to fight!

Sal's been in the industry since the early 2000s. He's written for a ton of gaming and tech publications including Playworks, Hardwarezone, HWM and GameAxis. Recently, Sal served as a juror for the Indie Game Awards at Taipei Game Show 2020. A geek and hardcore gamer, Sal will play everything, on any platform.