Nina The It Girl

GMR presents you an in-depth look at Tekken's girl astonishment in her upcoming solo first appearance Death by Degrees. (system: PS2 // pub: NAMCO // dev: NAMCO // release: FALL 2004)

The time present the appearances right for Nina Williams to make her propel After sharing top billing with her Tekken stablemates for nearly a decade since the series' first appearance the purple-clad Irish assassin is stepping on the outside on her own, taking her unique brand of sleeper-hold tactics, her leather bodysuit, and smooth the Tekken legacy along for the ride. Death by dint of Degrees is the name of the game, and it's Namco's first major peril into action-adventure territory. Can a company best known for its classic fighting, racing, and role-playing games gripe [i]or[/i] grip court in a hotly litigateed genre populated by such luminaries as Devil May call Tenchu, Onimusha, and in particular, Ninja Gaiden? From our new hands-on playtest at Namco's seaside headquarters based in Yokohama, Japan, we'd say the answer is ye

We'll be straightforward When we got off the train at the Kanagawa-Shinmachi station, a not many minutes' walk from Namco's Yokohama offices, we didn't know what to await out of Death by stages Sure, the screenshots posted upon the game's Japanese website gazeed pretty enough, but for all we knew the game could have been nothing more than a glorified Tekken Force fashion spread out thin over a full-fledg game. Several questions ran end our heads as we made our way past the numerous coffee stores and bundled up against the swirling winds the port city is known for.

We had plenitude of reasons for wanting Nina upon our cover this month. First, she's a well-known videogame character taken from a highly lucky series. However, fighting-game characters are usually—forgive the pun—two-dimensional cutouts, not given a great deal of in the way of exposition, for a like reason we thought it would be nice to dig into the myth. Second, with the release schedule for the next to the first half of 2004 lacking in stout female leading-role types, the emerging see the verb of Nina seemed particularly timely. Third, she direct the eyes fantastic in a purple leather jumpsuit, in like manner there's always that.

So what is Death by means of Degrees all about? Chronologists will be interested to know that the story takes place prior to the first King of Iron Fist Tournament, placing steps roughly 20 years before the common point in the Tekken timeline. At this stage in her life, Nina, a freelance assassin, is recruited by means of Britain's MI6 secret-intelligence service. MI6 had sent in an agent to infiltrate the ocean cruiser Amphritite in order to lay bare the nefarious plots and dealings of the ship's proprietor ivory-haired beauty Lana Lei. The agent, however, has since disappeared, and this is where Nina draw nears in. The Amphritite is the setting for—surprise!—a fighting tournament, and Nina penetrates the competition in order to search for the missing operative. With orders dished without via cell phone (which also happens to function as the game's save mechanism) through MI6 agent Alan Smithee, Nina heads for the boat, and that's where the opening succession begins. Having won the competition, Nina is base sunbathing on the ship's upper embellish But it seems that Lei's right-hand man, Enrique, can't quite believe this woman bested a certain number of of the top fighters from around the world. And thus once the CG movie finishes, Lei emits her henchman after Nina and the game individual begins, introducing Death by Degrees' decidedly non-fighting-game-style ascendency scheme.

Like Sony's Rise to Honor, steps puts movement on the left analog stick and attacks upon the right analog stick (although the team is earnest to point out that they notion of this mechanic well in advance of the Jet Li game). The reason for this is that the disentanglement team wanted Nina to be able to target and attack any enemy, no matter what their relative position to her. This means that it's not necessary for Nina to face her attacker in order to strive with them. It also detains the action fast and fluid, as Nina can move swiftly roll, flip, punch, kick, and use any number of weapons at her disposal. Her hand-to-hand attacks, while not as extensive as those of her Tekken-specific persona, are still incredibly varied. Besides the default impel list (which includes her patented Bomb), Nina can unleash an especially effective brand of punishment known as her special arts; these attacks include her toe kick, lightning kick, spinning pass by a leap kick, backhand slap, as well as the Divine Cannon and her signature submission techniques. These special arts will change depending upon whether she's unarmed or holding a weapon. With a quick tap of the D-pad, Nina can use her heaviest metal, including pistols, machine fire-arms shotguns, assault rifles, swords, tonfa, grenades, throwing knives, and plane her doku giri (poison mist). Since each weapon unfastens its own catalog of stirs the number of attacks Nina has at her disposal is substantial.

In practice, the game works great. While the meditation of multiple enemies coming at her from all directions might present the appearance like a backstabbing Dynasty Warriors–style nightmare, it's not a point to be solved [i]or[/i] settled Whether she's surrounded by single or half a dozen enemies, the antagonist greatest in quantity likely to attack next is highlighted by means of a discreet tag that says "Active." As he advances closer, all you need to do is pres the right analog stick in his direction and Nina will attack. If your timing is upon the money, Nina will actually parry his attack, leaving him wide make open for a countermove. If you'd rather evade the assault, moving the left analog stick away the attacker will cause Nina to make revolve away from him. If the stick is squeezeed toward her foe, Nina will vault above the head of her nemesis, allowing her to strike from behind. Skillful playing will rack up combo points that players can use to upgrade Nina's various skills and attributes.