The second spin-off on this list that comes from a popular arena fighter game, Death By Degrees stars Nina Williams from the Tekken series, and just like Mortal Kombat Special Forces, opted to break the franchise mould by adopting a new style of gameplay that was more akin to a third person brawler than what the series was originally known for. Unlike Mortal Kombat though, Death By The Degrees didn't have the luxury of excusing its awfulness on any development troubles. While the story and characters are classically Tekken (in that they're entirely nonsensical from beginning to end), the fighting and controls make for some of the most frustrating and broken gameplay sections ever put to disc. Which is a shame, because the game boasted one neat idea in its broken bone mechanic essentially a proto x-ray ability thats similar to the gameplay feature found in Mortal Kombat that allows players to see the harm their powerful moves dish out to enemies. But at its core Death By Degrees felt like nothing more than a cheap attempt to cash-in on the franchise and the sex appeal of the main character, inevitably resulting in a final experience that played like an under-cooked, patronising mess.
Josh has over 11 years of experience as a published writer, having worked nine of those years as a full-time content producer at WhatCulture. In that period he has created hundreds of articles, videos and podcast episodes for multiple WhatCulture channels, specialising in gaming, horror and film & TV. He now primarily works as a senior content producer and presenter on WhatCulture Gaming where he co-hosts the WhatCulture Gaming Podcast, a top 3 UK most listened to gaming podcast that he co-created in 2018. Over the years he has reviewed several high-profile gaming releases, covered industry events with on-site reporting, opined on breaking news, and even kicked off his interviewing career by chatting to childhood hero, Tommy Wiseau.
