It will probably come as no surprise to you, dear reader, to learn that I enjoy the Dead or Alive Xtreme series — perhaps even more so than the fighting game series that they are a spin off of. Dead or Alive has always been the one fighting game series that I’ve actually felt like I sort of almost understood, though I’ve never been able to play it at anything approaching competitive level; however, the fact that I’ve always enjoyed it has, at least, meant that I know a lot of the characters reasonably well, and am a particular fan of several of them.

So when the original Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball came out on the original Xbox, of course I was all over it, but not only for the prospect of seeing Kasumi’s delicious curves in a swimsuit. No, the concept of the game actually sounded rather interesting to me; bear in mind that in the original Xbox generation, getting our hands on some of Japan’s quirkier games — particularly those that weren’t RPGs or fighting games — was a bit of a rarity, especially in Europe, and I had always been fascinated by the idea of non-violent games about relationships. Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball, despite the name, is more a game about relationships than it is about volleyball — and this is a pattern that continued throughout subsequent installments.

Let’s back up a moment for the benefit of those unfamiliar with the Dead or Alive Xtreme series. The concept is simple and rather silly: Zack, a character from Dead or Alive who is noteworthy for having some of the more outlandish costumes among the male cast, lures a bevy of beauties to his own private island under the pretext that he’s holding a new round of the titular fighting tournament that forms the ultimately irrelevant backdrop to the plot of all the main installments in the series. When the girls arrive, they are momentarily shocked to discover that Zack lied to them, and instead has simply lured them to his island so they can take some time off from kicking each other in the tits and so he can enjoy the view. No-one involved appears to have a problem with any of this, and thus begins a virtual vacation in the extremely pleasant surroundings of Zack Island. Dead or Alive Xtreme 2 is based on the exact same concept, and almost certainly Dead or Alive Xtreme 3 will be too.

The gameplay involves you taking on the role of one of the girls and doing whatever you feel like on the island for two virtual weeks. On each day, you have the opportunity to hang out with characters, buy swimsuits and items, play volleyball, roll around in the sand provocatively, play a pool-hopping game and, in Dead or Alive Xtreme 2, go jetskiing and watersliding. It initially seems like a rather shallow, silly game — and it is — but there’s actually more going on than meets the eye.

Essentially, at its core, Dead or Alive Xtreme is a game about collecting things. There’s not really a set way to “beat” the game, but most players would probably agree that this is achieved when you’ve successfully filled every character’s inventory with every single possible swimsuit and every single collectible item. This takes a very long time indeed, since it’s not a simple case of just grinding out enough money to buy all the items; many of the swimsuits in particular can only be put in a girl’s inventory by successfully giving them to her as a gift — and in order for her to accept them as a gift, she has to like both you and the gift itself, and in order for that to happen, you have to hang out with her, partner up with her, play volleyball with her and all manner of other things. Manipulating the relationship system in order to further your collection is the main point of the game once you get into it.

There’s another reason I like Dead or Alive Xtreme, though, besides the relationship gameplay and the boobs. It’s the fact that each game in the series is, without question, one of the most unashamedly happy, cheerful and genuinely summery-feeling games I’ve ever played. This is achieved through a combination of brightly coloured, highly saturated visuals, beautiful character models and animations, an airy, lightweight tone to everything that happens, and some simply wonderful soundtracks that feature some of the most horrendously cheesy summer pop hits you’ll ever hear. We’re talking Baha Men, B*witched, Hilary Duff and all manner of other goodness. It’s quite something, and even if you don’t particularly like listening to the songs on the soundtrack in isolation, it’s hard not to have a broad grin on your face when they’re used in context in the game to add to the overall atmosphere.

In short, it saddens me that there’s so much negativity surrounding Dead or Alive Xtreme, largely from people who have never played it, because it’s a wonderfully positive, happy, uplifting and enjoyable series of games in which you can just switch off your brain and enjoy a virtual holiday alongside beautiful people. And, in a world increasingly filled with cynicism, bitterness and snark, something so unabashedly honest about its intentions — to make the player happy — is refreshing and enjoyable.

So yes. I will be importing Dead or Alive Xtreme 3‘s Asian English version when it releases. And I’m far from the only one; import specialist PlayAsia has had so many preorders following the announcement that it would not be officially localised that they’ve even dropped the price today.

So much for people not wanting this game on Western shores, huh.