Fisticuffs! Glorious competition, settled on a stage between two individuals who are ready to put everything on the line to see who’s the best. In many ways, fighting games are the essence of competition boiled to its purest form and unleashed with all manner of face-melting techniques that favour the skilled. 2019 may not have been bursting at the seams with fighting games, but what entries there were in this cult favourite genre were some of the best excuses ever to throw down a gauntlet and pick a fight online.

The latest game offering up a season pass for bonus content after launch? Team Ninja’s brand new brawler, the jiggletastic Dead or Alive 6. A solid game with some impressive character in each punch and roundhouse kick thrown, Dead or Alive 6 comes off as satisfying piece of digital fisticuffs. It also happens to have a price tag of $93 attached to its season 1 pass rate.

Coming off of February’s big-budget releases, March kind of feels like a tamer month in comparison. That’s not to say that there aren’t some high-profile releases on the way (Think Devil May Cry, The Division 2 and Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice), but the spacing between these games feels…better. On the other hand, indie games are thriving in March.

Esports in fighting games makes for huge business, with the likes of Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat and Smash Bros. hosting regular international tournaments where big prize money is at stake. One game that you seldom see reach the same highs? Dead or Alive, a franchise that has always had the potential to not only offer thumb-blistering competition, but spectacular matches for fans to watch as well. This year, Dead or Alive wants to get cereal.

Dead or Alive 6 aims to make players aware of its pedigree, not just by toning down the chesty physics, but also by heightening its action. To do so, the latest sequel is aiming to outfit its more buxom characters with outfits that would realistically create more restrictive movement up top so that characters can move more naturally.

Dead or ALive 6 recently unveiled two new faces to its roster: Diego and Rig. Taekwondo master Rig is an old face in Dead or Alive, a high-kicking master whose arsenal of roundhouses and leg-based offense is now even more versatile and acrobatic than ever before. As for Diego? This new face has no grace or style. He’s simply a rough customer, a street fighting prodigy who happens to be deadly when he closes the distance and gets within striking range.

The next Dead or Alive is aiming to emphasise its content over the usual best of the chest appeal that has driven previous games in the series. One aspect of Dead or Alive 6 that’s looking to draw in a new crowd? The inclusion of special moves that create a more cinematic breaking of bones that’ll look right at home on a TV screen or a big tournament. “

Dead or Alive (the fighting game, at least – not the beach paradise twaddle) is actually a pretty damned good game series, even if it has become known more for its overt sexualisation rather than its gameplay. I’ve always had a soft spot for Team Ninja’s Dead or Alive fighting game franchise, but not as many soft spots as the game’s female characters have had. For the next game, they’re toning the jiggly jubblies down.