Say what you will about the creative usage of physics in the Dead or Alive series, but Team Ninja’s fighting game franchise has not been without its creative bosses. Of course, they can all be home runs. Such was the case in the final boss of Dead or Alive 4, Alpha-152.

Alpha-152 is basically a clone of the character Kasumi. That is, a clone made entirely out of sentient, super-powered Jell-O. Dead or Alive: Dimensions clarifies things a bit by stating that she’s actually the powered-up form of Kasumi Alpha, the twisted, non-Jell-O clone that appeared in Dead or Alive 2. But yeah, Jell-O clone.

And the disappointment doesn’t stop there. Fighting game bosses tend to be a notorious bunch. Bred from the genre’s roots in arcades, a lot of bosses tend to be difficult in blatantly unfair ways. Whether that be the use of full-screen super attacks that are nigh impossible to defend against or an AI that is programmed to react in specific ways to button inputs. In Alpha-152’s case, it’s a Get Out of Combo Free Card. Launch into a combo, and she’s likely to teleport right out of it and into a position where you’re a sitting duck.

Like the worst fighting game bosses, Alpha-152’s design forces the player to abandon the normal strategies that the game otherwise encourages. To avoid launching into combos, and only deal a few quick hits before backing off to guard against her inevitable retaliation. Facing her in the time trial mode of Dead or Alive 4 is especially painful, as without a doubt, she’s wrecked more of my trial runs than any other opponent due to the number of times I’ve had to retry that fight.

Regardless, she’s not the worst I’ve ever fought. I’d argue that Shao Kahn from last year’s Mortal Kombat reboot was far, far worse in the above respects. That being said, Alpha-152 was easily the worst thing about Dead or Alive 4 unless you simply abhor Halo. Strangely, I didn’t find her nearly as bothersome in Dead or Alive: Dimensions, but that may just be because I knew well enough what to expect from her this time.

But yeah. A Jell-O clone? That’s the best that Team Ninja could come up with? Did they spend too much of the budget licensing Aerosmith music to have the resources for something better? Does Tomonobu Itagaki have a dessert-based fetish that we would really all be better off not knowing about?

The world may never know.

Great series of blogs! I'm gonna have to play catch-up with the rest of them sometime soon.

There are two types of bosses/characters I despise, and both seem prevalent in fighting games. One is the boss or character who just uses everyone else's abilities (Shang Tsung, Seth, the wooden practice dummy from Tekken, etc.) and the other is the evil clone type character (Alpha-152, early versions of Akuma, etc.). Both character types just feel like lazy designs. Can't come up with a memorable, original evil character? Just recycle characters and moves!.

The fact that Jell-o Jigglin' Kasumi Klone was cheap as hell didn't help matters much either.

I'm with Sparky. Shape-shifting (or at least those copying your moves) bosses in Fighter games is a trope that probably needs to die, though I guess it's preferable to the other trope of the utterly unbeatable boss. Thanks, SNK.

Alpha-152 reminds me a lot of the Supervisor from Rise of the Robots in particular. I presume I'm not jumping the gun on a future Boss Month entry by mentioning Rise of the Robots?

@Mento said:

I'm with Sparky. Shape-shifting (or at least those copying your moves) bosses in Fighter games is a trope that probably needs to die, though I guess it's preferable to the other trope of the utterly unbeatable boss. Thanks, SNK.

Alpha-152 reminds me a lot of the Supervisor from Rise of the Robots in particular. I presume I'm not jumping the gun on a future Boss Month entry by mentioning Rise of the Robots?

Nope. Although, I jumped the gun on myself. I had been intending to talk about Shao Kahn, but seeing as Alpha-152 falls for the same faults as him, I'm thinking I'll have to slot someone else in to replace him. Not sure who yet.

@Sparky_Buzzsaw said:

Great series of blogs! I'm gonna have to play catch-up with the rest of them sometime soon.

There are two types of bosses/characters I despise, and both seem prevalent in fighting games. One is the boss or character who just uses everyone else's abilities (Shang Tsung, Seth, the wooden practice dummy from Tekken, etc.) and the other is the evil clone type character (Alpha-152, early versions of Akuma, etc.). Both character types just feel like lazy designs. Can't come up with a memorable, original evil character? Just recycle characters and moves!.

The fact that Jell-o Jigglin' Kasumi Klone was cheap as hell didn't help matters much either.

Thanks! I'm glad you're enjoying it.

And yeah, those are both two of the worst types of bosses. If it isn't an evil clone of an existing character, it's a character that can turn into other characters. (And yet, on the latter, Shang Tsung was even more disappointing in the Mortal Kombt reboot simply because he was limited to which characters he could morph into in a given match. It's a no-win situation for him.)

You would be surprised with the amount of slime girls hentai that exists in the internet. Also, movecopying fighters are cool, sometimes. Mokujin is the best, people, c'mon.

Alpha is hard although I do remember getting double perfects on her a few times. The worst part is she you can't predict anything she does. With Shao Khan at least you can bait Khan into attacks and have at least a general idea of what he might do Alpha was basically hold onto your ass and hope you come out the other side. Interested to see if she makes any sort of cameo in any form playable or non in DOA 5.

I HATE YOU ALPHA I HATE YOU ALPHA I HATE YOU ALPHA

also, she's much easier in Dimensions. along with the seriously toned down difficulty, her moves just aren't as ridiculously hard hitting as they were in 4.

@Demoskinos said:

Alpha is hard although I do remember getting double perfects on her a few times. The worst part is she you can't predict anything she does. With Shao Khan at least you can bait Khan into attacks and have at least a general idea of what he might do Alpha was basically hold onto your ass and hope you come out the other side. Interested to see if she makes any sort of cameo in any form playable or non in DOA 5.

She's actually playable in Dead or Alive: Dimensions. It's kind of weird playing her, though I can't really say how with too much detail since I hardly touched any character in that game other than Kokoro once I finished the story.

@AjayRaz said:

I HATE YOU ALPHA I HATE YOU ALPHA I HATE YOU ALPHA

also, she's much easier in Dimensions. along with the seriously toned down difficulty, her moves just aren't as ridiculously hard hitting as they were in 4.

Well, that would explain that, then. I will trust your words on this matter seeing as you're Giant Bomb's foremost Ayane Dead or Alive expert.

Oh man this brought back some trauma! One of the most frustrating ordeals I've ever had with a video game I can remember from this generation!

Hmm who's the cheapest her or Azazel from Tekken 6? I didn't play DOA4 but I don't remember having a tough time with Tengu or that other guy from DOA3 so this is a surprise to me , hopefully DOA 5 Boss reflects on the whole ' we're making a more grounded fighter ' thing and has a proper not crazy boss, but just some jack of all trades fighting master instead of a monster.

@Hailinel: Yeah, so I've heard. One reason why I wonder if she will make a playable appearence in DOA5. They've been ever so slowly revealing the roster. God, its still weird that Virtua Fighter peeps are in DOA5 kind of ironic as well considering VF is highly technical and DOA is considered by most to be a button masher.

@AngelN7: Oh man..that guy. Ugh. Fuck that guy. Tekken has had some fucking dumb-ass bosses that is for sure.

Alpha-152 is part of the reason I stopped playing fighting games :(

Oh god. I've been replaying DOA 4 now in anticipation for DOA 5 and Fuuuuuuu forgot how awful Alpha-152 is.