REVIEW: Dead or Alive Xtreme 3: Scarlet


Title	Dead or Alive Xtreme 3: Scarlet
Developer	Koei Tecmo
Publisher	Koei Temco
Release Date	March 20th, 2019
Genre	Beach Time Volleyball!
Platform	Switch, PS4
Age Rating	18 in Asia
Official Website

It’s time once again to hit the beach in Dead or Alive Xtreme 3: Scarlet. This is an upgraded version of Dead or Alive Xtreme 3: Fortune that released on the PlayStation 4 back in 2016. This version of the game includes a new character, Misaki, from the gacha game Dead or Alive Xtreme Venus Vacation, some new music and HD Rumble features on the Switch. The Switch version also includes some destructible swimsuits and items not found in the PlayStation 4 version due to Sony’s new content policy. This review will cover my time with the Switch version of the game, so let’s see if I had good time with the girls or this was just a bust!

Let’s address the elephant in the room with any Switch release, graphics and performance. This version does not run at 1080p like the PS4 version and it only runs at 30 FPS instead of 60 like the PlayStation version. I personally didn’t have an issue with either of those. The game runs at 720p in handheld which looks great on the Switch’s screen. The 900p it runs at docked was fine as well, but if you have a huge TV, maybe more than 32”, you may notice some difference between the two. The gameplay was smooth and personally I think this trade off is fine to have it portable and not deal with Sony’s censorship.

There’s no real story here to speak of. All you really need to know is the girls go on vacation on the newly rebuilt Zack Island and it’s your job to make sure they have a good time. You have have 14 days to make sure the girls have the time of their lives. You do this by completing missions, completing activities, giving them gifts and of course playing volleyball. Some missions will be for the girl and some will be for you in owner mode. You will gain cash in both modes, but EXP only in owner mode. As you level up you will unlock new swimsuits, poses for photography mode and other goodies to gift the ladies. It’s important to remember the owner cash you have and the cash you have with your girl are completely separate. I would recommend saving most of your owner cash to spend in the owner store, since this is where you can get some of the best swimsuits. You can buy tickets to use in owner mode from the Shop, but honestly there is no need to do since it’s not hard to build up cash quickly.

Winning or losing at activities causes your girl’s satisfaction to increase, of course this goes up a lot more for winning. Losing a lot may result in your partner abandoning you as well, which never helps your vacation be successful. I’ll go over some of activities in more detail, since this is basically one big mini-game collection and these are the meat of the content. Events at the pool include pool hopping, tug of war and butt battle. Pool hopping will have you jumping on square floats from one end of the pool to the other. These will be marked with the various face buttons on the controller. A slight tap will move you one square while holding down a button will move you two squares. Tug of war and butt battle play basically the same way. You use the directional pad left or right to make your opponent fall out. First to three wins is the winner. Swimsuits tend to malfunction during this quite often.

Sometimes the girls will want to go rock climbing. This is a fun little mini game in which timed presses of the face buttons and top triggers will allow you to scale a huge rock. I’ve noticed a couple different routes here, one is a bit easier than the other. If none of these games suit your fancy, maybe its time to play some volley ball! The gameplay here isn’t very deep, but I found it pretty fun. Basically tapping A and B on the controller will cover most actions. This includes serving, setting up your partner for a spike or spiking the ball yourself. If you time the button presses correctly you will get a more powerful serve or spike as well as earn extra zack bucks at the end of game. A girl trying to block a powerful spike may have her swimsuit explode! You thought this only happened in Senran Kagura, right?

If you’re running short on cash from buying up drinks, swimsuits, lotions or other in-game items you can always try your luck at the casino. Every night you are given an opportunity to go gamble. This can be done in both girl and owner modes and there are a few different games you can test your luck at. Poker, Blackjack and Roulette are on tap here. There are settings for the amounts you wish to bet. You may start out with 10 buck chips in Roulette then start feeling lucky and roll up to 100, the choice is yours. Some missions will require you meet certain conditions here as well. These are simple like get a pair in poker or win with a blackjack. I don’t have very good luck at this most of the time, but I can’t say I didn’t have a good time playing. I want a deck of these cards with girls on them really bad, or a least a deck of nothing but cards with Marie.

I know a lot of folks say that Dead or Alive Xtreme 3: Scarlet doesn’t have enough content to keep them interested at the $69.99 price tag. I will have disagree with that statement. I found the mini-games here quite enjoyable and there is a ton of unlockable swimsuits and content to keep players busy for hours. I thought the photography mode was a nice touch and it’s always fun to take pictures of the girls relaxing their various suits in the main game as well. This game may not be for everyone, but if you’re a fan of Dead or Alive or you just want to spend some fun time with the girls on the beach, you really can’t go wrong here.