Software:Death by Degrees

From HandWiki
Short description: 2005 video game
Death by Degrees
Developer(s)Namco
Publisher(s)
Producer(s)Youzou Sakagami
Composer(s)Kazuhiro Nakamura
SeriesTekken
Platform(s)PlayStation 2
Release
  • JP: January 27, 2005
  • NA: February 8, 2005[1]
  • AU: April 14, 2005
  • EU: April 15, 2005[2]
Genre(s)Action-adventure, beat 'em up
Mode(s)Single-player

Tekken's Nina Williams in: Death by Degrees, known in Japan as Death by Degrees Tekken: Nina Williams (デス バイ ディグリーズ 鉄拳：ニーナ ウィリアムズ, Desu bai Digurīzu Tekken: Nīna Wiriamuzu), is a 2005 action-adventure video game developed and published by Namco for the PlayStation 2. It is a spin-off of Namco's Tekken series of fighting games. It was originally announced with the title Nina.[3]

Gameplay

The game is fully controlled by the analog sticks. The left analog stick is touch-sensitive; through various degrees of holding, tapping or pressing along with other buttons allows the player character Nina Williams to walk, run or evade. The right analog stick is used for offensive moves.

The game's most remarkable feature is the ability to allow Nina to use her martial arts skills to break the bones of her enemies through use of carefully aimed attacks. These attacks do more damage to the enemy and show the player the damage being inflicted on the opponent's skeletal structure. Strangely, this does little to actually disable opponents, as they may continue to use shattered limbs and survive destructive blows to the head.

Once the game is completed, "Anna Mode" will be unlocked, offering the player the ability to play as Nina's younger sibling and rival, Anna Williams. Various outfits can be unlocked throughout the game, which include a bikini, cocktail dress, purple jumpsuit, black and silver stealth suit. Playing the game a second time causes LCD crates throughout the game to contain infinite supplies of certain weapons, such as infinite katana and infinite rail-gun.

After completing the game twice, the wrestling costume as seen in the opening FMV is also unlocked. A third clear game file additionally unlocks "Tekken 2 Nina", which instead of an outfit is actually a different facial and bodily construction, exactly as she appears in the Tekken title, in low resolution.

Plot

Nina Williams, world-renowned assassin, has been hired by the CIA and MI6 to join a team that is attempting to infiltrate "Kometa," a notorious criminal organization. The team's strategy involves gaining access to the target through a fighting tournament being held on the "Amphitrite," a luxury cruise ship owned and operated by Kometa. A leaked video on the Internet showed a Kometa ship exploding within the Bermuda Triangle, and it is feared that they are working on some kind of superweapon in the aftermath of the fall of the Soviet Union. Nina's official cover involves infiltration as a competitor in the tournament. However, Nina is also the team's "sweeper"; should her partners fail, she must finish the job. Nina enters the competition but is quickly discovered and captured. She soon receives a communication informing her of the team's failure and the death of one of the agents named John Doe (killed by Kometa executive Edgar Grant), and that she must now conduct the operation herself.

Nina must fight her way through Kometa's forces and expose the truth behind its criminal activities. As she progresses in her mission, Nina fights the Kometa's top executives, starting with the personal bodyguard and lover of Lana Lei, Bryce Adams. She then moves on to photograph a meeting of the directors, with the help of MI6 agent Alan Smithee.

Nina barely escapes the cruise ship with her life and is taken to a Kometa Island research facility. Here, she encounters Lukas Hayes, a scientist who informs her about Kometa's plan to use satellites to heat and activate methane hydrate on the ocean floor. The result is bubbling, which causes ships to lose their buoyancy. The weapon thus has the power to destroy naval vehicles from afar, sinking them to the bottom of the sea. Hayes' plan was to find a new energy source and alternative to fossil fuels, but his research was twisted into a form of warfare. The project is Salacia, the mysterious operation CIA and MI6 have heard rumors of. Nina realizes that she must stop the project, and takes on the second Kometa executive, Enrique Ortega. However, he is joined by Anna Williams (Nina's sister), hired along with the Tekken Force as bodyguards. After briefly engaging in combat with Anna, Nina continues on her mission and after Enrique's conversation on video link with the head of the Mishima Zaibatsu, Heihachi Mishima, Nina manages to kill Enrique. Lukas Hayes, however, is also killed as Lana Lei arrives and recovers a case which houses the electronics to operate Salacia's satellites. With Alan's help, Nina escapes the base by helicopter, chasing Lana Lei back to the luxury cruise ship.

For a second time, Nina must fight her way through the Kometa boat, only this time against advanced cyborg soldiers, another of Lei's weapons projects. After recovering the keys to her quarters, Nina finds Salacia and engages with Lana. After her defeat, they are interrupted by Alan, who is revealed as Kometa executive Edgar Grant. Shooting Lana, he acknowledges that he is also a sweeper, there to destroy all evidence of his part in the atrocities. Before he can kill Nina, however, Lana shoots him dead and escapes to a secret room. There, Nina witnesses her powering Salacia, targeting methane hydrate pockets all around the United States coastline. Nina finishes Lana off before she can continue with her insane plan, and makes her way to an escape pod as a self-destruct mode is activated on the boat. Her pod, however, explodes, and Nina lands on the ship's edge. As a rescue helicopter comes for her, she is knocked down by none other than Anna Williams. The two sisters face off as the ship nears destruction and almost both fall to their deaths. However, the two grudgingly work together to escape and grab the helicopter rope line, with Nina having a flashback to the events before her father's death, in particular, the moments following when the two sisters comforted one another. Anna drops Nina into the ocean after saying that they are now even. Nina watches on as rescue boats approach from behind her, the Kometa ship exploding and sinking, as Anna leaves on the helicopter.

Reception

Reception
Aggregate score
AggregatorScore
Metacritic51/100[4]
Review scores
PublicationScore
Edge5/10[5]
EGM5.33/10[6]
Eurogamer3/10[7]
Famitsu29/40[8]
Game Informer5.5/10[9]
GameProStarStarHalf star[11]
GameRevolutionC−[10]
GameSpot5.6/10[12]
GameSpyStarStarStar[13]
GameZone5.9/10[14]
IGN5/10[15]
OPM (US)StarHalf star[16]
Maxim4/10[17]
The Sydney Morning HeraldStarStarStarHalf star[18]

Death by Degrees received mixed reviews from critics.[4] While the cutscenes and depth of story were praised, critics generally found fault with camera controls, extensive loading times, and fighting controls, which limited all fighting sequences to use of the analog stick, which in many games, is used instead to control the camera. In Japan, Famitsu gave it a score of 29 out of 40.[8]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Namco 2005 Product Calendar: March Update" (in en). 2005-03-04. https://www.gamesindustry.biz/namco-2005-product-calendar-march-update. 
  2. ↑ "What's New? [date mislabeled "10 Jun 2005""] (in en-gb). Eurogamer.net. 2005-04-15. https://www.eurogamer.net/whatsnew-150405. 
  3. ↑ IGNPS2 (September 19, 2003). "Nina, the Tekken Adventure Game". Ziff Davis. https://www.ign.com/articles/2003/09/19/nina-the-tekken-adventure-game. 
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 "Death by Degrees for PlayStation 2 Reviews". CBS Interactive. https://www.metacritic.com/game/tekkens-nina-williams-in-death-by-degrees/critic-reviews/?platform=playstation-2. 
  5. ↑ Edge staff (March 2005). "Death by Degrees". Edge (Future plc) (147): 89. 
  6. ↑ EGM staff (March 2005). "Death By Degrees". Electronic Gaming Monthly (Ziff Davis) (189): 121. 
  7. ↑ Reed, Kristan (April 20, 2005). "Death By Degrees". Gamer Network. https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/r_deathbydegrees_ps2. 
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 "デス バイ ディグリーズ 鉄拳：ニーナ ウィリアムズ [PS2"] (in ja). Famitsu (CBS Interactive). https://www.famitsu.com/cominy/?m=pc&a=page_h_title&title_id=96&redirect=no. Retrieved July 20, 2019. 
  9. ↑ "Death by Degrees". Game Informer (GameStop) (143): 132. March 2005. 
  10. ↑ Hurh, JP (May 13, 2005). "Death By Degrees Review". CraveOnline. https://www.gamerevolution.com/review/33352-death-by-degrees-review. 
  11. ↑ "Death by Degrees". GamePro (IDG Entertainment): 80. April 2005. 
  12. ↑ Gerstmann, Jeff (February 3, 2005). "Death by Degrees Review". CBS Interactive. https://www.gamespot.com/reviews/death-by-degrees-review/1900-6117859/. 
  13. ↑ Turner, Benjamin (February 4, 2005). "GameSpy: Death by Degrees". IGN Entertainment. http://ps2.gamespy.com/playstation-2/death-by-degrees/585550p1.html. 
  14. ↑ Bedigian, Louis (February 16, 2005). "Death by Degrees - PS2 - Review". https://www.gamezone.com/reviews/death_by_degrees_ps2_review/. 
  15. ↑ Sulic, Ivan (February 3, 2005). "Death by Degrees". Ziff Davis. https://www.ign.com/articles/2005/02/03/death-by-degrees. 
  16. ↑ Varanini, Giancarlo (March 2005). "Death By Degrees". Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine (Ziff Davis). http://www.1up.com/do/reviewPage?cId=3138267&did=3. Retrieved July 20, 2019. 
  17. ↑ "Death by Degrees". Maxim (Biglari Holdings). 2005. 
  18. ↑ Wilcox, Mike (March 19, 2005). "Join the hunt". The Sydney Morning Herald (Fairfax Media). https://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/join-the-hunt-20050319-gdky4u.html. 
  • MobyGames is a commercial database website that catalogs information on video games and the people and companies behind them via crowdsourcing. This includes over 300,000 games for hundreds of platforms.[1] Founded in 1999, ownership of the site has changed hands several times. It has been owned by Atari SA since 2022.

Features

Edits and submissions to the site (including screenshots, box art, developer information, game summaries, and more) go through a verification process of fact-checking by volunteer "approvers".[2] This lengthy approval process after submission can range from minutes to days or months.[3] The most commonly used sources are the video game's website, packaging, and credit screens. There is a published standard for game information and copy-editing.[4] A ranking system allows users to earn points for contributing accurate information.[5]

Registered users can rate and review games. Users can create private or public "have" and "want" lists, which can generate a list of games available for trade with other registered users. The site contains an integrated forum. Each listed game can have its own sub-forum.

History

Logo used until March 2014

MobyGames was founded on March 1, 1999, by Jim Leonard and Brian Hirt, and joined by David Berk 18 months later, the three of which had been friends since high school.[6][7] Leonard had the idea of sharing information about computer games with a larger audience. The database began with information about games for IBM PC compatibles, relying on the founders' personal collections. Eventually, the site was opened up to allow general users to contribute information.[5] In a 2003 interview, Berk emphasized MobyGames' dedication to taking video games more seriously than broader society and to preserving games for their important cultural influence.[5]

In mid-2010, MobyGames was purchased by GameFly for an undisclosed amount.[8] This was announced to the community post factum , and the site's interface was given an unpopular redesign.[7] A few major contributors left, refusing to do volunteer work for a commercial website.{{Citation needed|date=June 2025} On December 18, 2013, MobyGames was acquired by Jeremiah Freyholtz, owner of Blue Flame Labs (a San Francisco-based game and web development company) and VGBoxArt (a site for fan-made video game box art).[9] Blue Flame Labs reverted MobyGames' interface to its pre-overhaul look and feel,[10] and for the next eight years, the site was run by Freyholtz and Independent Games Festival organizer Simon Carless.[7]

On November 24, 2021, Atari SA announced a potential deal with Blue Flame Labs to purchase MobyGames for $1.5 million.[11] The purchase was completed on 8 March 2022, with Freyholtz remaining as general manager.[12][13][14] Over the next year, the financial boost given by Atari led to a rework of the site being built from scratch with a new backend codebase, as well as updates improving the mobile and desktop user interface.[1] This was accomplished by investing in full-time development of the site instead of its previously part-time development.[15]

In 2024, MobyGames began offering a paid "Pro" membership option for the site to generate additional revenue.[16] Previously, the site had generated income exclusively through banner ads and (from March 2014 onward) a small number of patrons via the Patreon website.[17]

See also

  • IGDB – game database used by Twitch for its search and discovery functions

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Sheehan, Gavin (2023-02-22). "Atari Relaunches The Fully Rebuilt & Optimized MobyGames Website". https://bleedingcool.com/games/atari-relaunches-the-fully-rebuilt-optimized-mobygames-website/. 
  2. ↑ Litchfield, Ted (2021-11-26). "Zombie company Atari to devour MobyGames". https://www.pcgamer.com/zombie-company-atari-to-devour-mobygames/. 
  3. ↑ "MobyGames FAQ: Emails Answered § When will my submission be approved?". Blue Flame Labs. 30 March 2014. http://www.mobygames.com/info/faq7#g1. 
  4. ↑ "The MobyGames Standards and Practices". Blue Flame Labs. 6 January 2016. http://www.mobygames.com/info/standards. 
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Miller, Stanley A. (2003-04-22). "People's choice awards honor favorite Web sites". Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. 
  6. ↑ "20 Years of MobyGames" (in en). 2019-02-28. https://trixter.oldskool.org/2019/02/28/20-years-of-mobygames/. 
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Plunkett, Luke (2022-03-10). "Atari Buys MobyGames For $1.5 Million". https://kotaku.com/mobygames-retro-credits-database-imdb-atari-freyholtz-b-1848638521. 
  8. ↑ "Report: MobyGames Acquired By GameFly Media". Gamasutra. 2011-02-07. https://www.gamedeveloper.com/game-platforms/report-mobygames-acquired-by-gamefly-media. 
  9. ↑ Corriea, Alexa Ray (December 31, 2013). "MobyGames purchased from GameFly, improvements planned". http://www.polygon.com/2013/12/31/5261414/mobygames-purchased-from-gamefly-improvements-planned. 
  10. ↑ Wawro, Alex (31 December 2013). "Game dev database MobyGames getting some TLC under new owner". Gamasutra. https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/game-dev-database-mobygames-getting-some-tlc-under-new-owner. 
  11. ↑ "Atari invests in Anstream, may buy MobyGames". November 24, 2021. https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2021-11-24-atari-invests-in-anstream-may-buy-mobygames. 
  12. ↑ Rousseau, Jeffrey (2022-03-09). "Atari purchases Moby Games". https://www.gamesindustry.biz/atari-purchases-moby-games. 
  13. ↑ "Atari Completes MobyGames Acquisition, Details Plans for the Site's Continued Support". March 8, 2022. https://www.atari.com/atari-completes-mobygames-acquisition-details-plans-for-the-sites-continued-support/. 
  14. ↑ "Atari has acquired game database MobyGames for $1.5 million" (in en-GB). 2022-03-09. https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/atari-has-acquired-game-database-mobygames-for-1-5-million/. 
  15. ↑ Stanton, Rich (2022-03-10). "Atari buys videogame database MobyGames for $1.5 million". https://www.pcgamer.com/atari-buys-videogame-database-mobygames-for-dollar15-million/. 
  16. ↑ Harris, John (2024-03-09). "MobyGames Offering “Pro” Membership". https://setsideb.com/mobygames-offering-pro-membership/. 
  17. ↑ "MobyGames on Patreon". http://www.patreon.com/mobygames. 
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