What else is DOA: Paradise, really? Here you have a situation in which a girl is chosen to go to a two-week, all-expenses-paid trip to a tropical island just to relax and have fun. The catch is that they must look nice for the camera – an issue that has, unsurprisingly, proven controversial in various media outlets. How offensive one finds this aspect of the game will depend on the political outlook of the player, yet suggesting that Team Ninja should just drop pretending this is a game and just develop a porn video with no game-like artifice (as some have suggested) is missing the point.

The so called "softcore video" can be said to be a stereotypical example of the male gaze, as the viewer is allowed and encouraged to impose an objectifying gaze upon the female model, reducing the role of the model to that of a mere object. But what the viewer really buys into, though, is a fantasy in which the model is presented as an object to be lusted at, but, paradoxically, must not be allowed to fall out of the chaste fantastical image that is presented. The models must remain pure forever, and men, as defiling elements, are given no direct agency, left in the role of voyeurs.

DOA: Paradise is interesting in this regard because what it does for the player is incorporate a bit of that agency not found in the videos by letting him (because ‘he’ is the target audience) take the role of the cameraman. Sure, there is the beach volleyball, as well as the casino and other minigames, but they just emphasise what the game is about: a softcore-video-cameraman simulator. It’s a joke made by a game that seems to be laughing at the player from the start, with its ‘Paradise’ subtitle.

Could there be any more irony in a game in which you are made a slave to the whims of the vacuous-headed bimbos around the island, helping them fill their days with inane minigames, tedious item-trading, and uneventful gambling, with the only ‘reward’ being minute-long opportunities to take photographs of the same girls in stereotypically inane poses? What kind of paradise is this where you are made to follow a set routine every day, and the only freedom you’re allowed is to decide the small variations in the day, without even the smallest possibility of walking around the island? What’s the point behind the titillation when the models have the most ridiculous breast physics?

The game might be an elaborate, post-modern prank, but it’s not malicious, really. It’s just a relaxed, carefree game, and it’s up to the player to decide whether or not he will buy into the absurd fantasy and play pretend. And, to be fair, it’s not difficult to do so: the PSP might not be able to replicate the graphical illusions of the 360 version (and it’s obvious Team Ninja paid more attention to the models than to the backdrop), but it manages to be a faithful portable version that can lure the player into an endless two-week vacation which he can dip in and out of easily and at any time. Embrace the silly premise of the game, and you’ll enjoy the vacuous diversions of the volleyball and the casino. Throw yourself into Team Ninja’s rabbit-hole, and you might also enjoy the Animal-Crossing-lite pleasures of trading gifts and collecting swimwear. It’s all done well, and manages to offer a breezy, enjoyable experience.

Outrage or discontent about this game seems out of place: the critics have a point about the sexist elements in DOA Paradise, but it’s something that is not only a problem with this game, but society in general. Three games on, there are no nipples, no wet T-shirt contests – nothing that approaches any lurid fantasies. One gets the feeling that the next instalment will be another non-threatening fantasy, just with more polygons – which, one hopes, will be used for the backgrounds.