LMK next time
I ended up asking steam for a refund of DOA over controls issues. The game is not compatible with fightpads or fight sticks. Triggers can't be mapped. Right thumbstick press is required to pause game and exit a fight. (The Start and Back buttons behave like normal punch and kick buttons. Could be that they are using dinput instead of xinput, but the on-screen controller is an xbox360 one).
Menu nav buttons can't be remapped. Keyboard control stops working in a fight once a controller is chosen, so you can't use it to exit the fight either. And on...
Someone posted an x-padder workaround but it requires you to wait until the game has loaded before plugging the controller in.
I expect better for $20. Might revisit it when it hits $5.
EDIT: Darius Burst is great!