Dead or Alive 3 - Xbox (2000)
The developers finally gave characters their own endings, all CGI rendered, and most of them are actually pretty cool. The music isn't quite as good as previous titles, and for some reason, various licensed songs from Aerosmith appear in the game. About the only complaint otherwise is the final battle - where the perspective switches to behind the player and you attempt to attack the main bad guy who blasts you away with ease. It's even cheaper than any usual final boss, and since throws and counters are useless, you're limited to ordinary punch and kick moves, but once you get the tactics down, it's pretty painless, but still annoying. Probably the weakest boss in the whole series.
Unfortunately, there's not many costumes to unlock. The European and Japanese versions (which came out after the American release) have extra costumes, but you can only obtain these otherwise by getting the Xbox Exhibition Vol 1 disc or old issues of the Official Xbox Magazine, which will add them to the game. Most of them aren't too terribly impressive, although Lei Fang gets an assortment of cool ones, Ayane's ninja outfit rocks (apparently enough to feature it on the Japanese cover) and Helena's harem girl digs are quite interesting too.
Dead or Alive 4 - Xbox 360 (2005)
The fighting engine is pretty much the same, for better or worse. Apparently Tecmo has mucked with the counter system a bit to make them harder to pull off, but it's hardly noticeable, because it still feels pretty cheap. The uber-powerful final boss this time is Alpha 152, a translucent, flying naked clone of Kasumi who can wreck you something fierce. What should be noticed is the serious shift in difficulty. While none of the former games was particularly hard even at the highest settings, Team Ninja obviously wanted to cater to their new reputation as hardcore game developers they've earned from Ninja Gaiden, so now the normal setting is at about the same level as "very hard" was before. You won't even find an "easy" option. Gameplay has also been sped up a bit, which doesn't make things any easier.
While there's a noticeable lack of cool costumes - more than Dead or Alive 3 but far less than Dead or Alive Ultimate - each character has a unique full motion video ending. They range from boring to absolutely hilarious - Zack and his girl face off against an army of skeletons, Lei Fang kicks some random guy off a train for accidentally groping her chest, Tina puts on a rock concert and uses an entire city block as her own personal amp, and Kasumi has a goofy (naked!) mermaid dream. Once again, the opening song is the not-so-brilliant Aerosmith song "Eat the Rich", and the rest of the soundtrack is fairly forgettable. The Xbox Live features are pretty much just like DoA Ultimate, although there's now a "lobby" where you can purchase cute little avatars. Character customization a la DOAX Volleyball would've been nice though - if Soul Calibur 3 has it, why not here? Overall, Dead or Alive 4 is a decent installment, even if it refuses to fix the balance flaws that the series continues to be maligned for.
Ending Screenshots
Dead or Alive 3D - 3DS (TBA)
American Xbox Cover
Japanese Xbox Cover
Dead or Alive 3
A launch title for the Xbox, Dead or Alive 3 isn't nearly as gigantic of a step as DOA 2 was. But for everything DOA2 did, DOA3 offers more of it, in spades. While at first glance it may not seem like the visuals have improved that much, there's lots of little details that add a lot to the overall look and feel. And it's a testament to Team Ninja's prowess that this, one of the first games released for the Xbox, is still one the best looking. The arenas are even more insane - a gigantic waterfall that reaches miles into the sky, an aquarium full of indivially modeled fish - in one arena, knock your opponent out of a window and they'll shock themselves on the neon lights before hitting the ground. Some of the more open areas like the beach bring about some immersion-breaking invisible walls or obstacles that don't make any sense, but of course that's hard to avoid without ringout rules. The controls have been streamlined so you don't need to use both the digital and analog sticks, but otherwise the gameplay system is pretty much the same, save for the obligatory moveset updates. The new characters around include Christie, the icy haired assassin; Hitomi, the Japanese-German karate master, and Brad Wong, a drunken fighter. While Hitomi basically replaces Ein, who now turned (back) into Hayate, introducing the now fourth Ninja to the series, Brad Wong and Christie both bring with them unique and interesting fighting styles.
Dead or Alive 3
Dead or Alive 3
Dead or Alive 3
Ayane C1
Helena C3
Hitomi C5
Hitomi C3
Lei Fang C2
Lei Fang C3
Lei Fang C4
Tina C3
Tina C1
American Xbox Cover
Dead or Alive 4
Dead or Alive 4
One of the first titles for the Xbox 360, Dead or Alive 4 is an odd choice to show off the power of the new system. Sure, it looks great, especially in high- def, but the improvements over Dead or Alive Ultimate for the original Xbox are fairly minor. Some of the new environments are pretty cool, especially the Vegas stage (where characters can get hit by cars if they dawdle in the middle of the street) or the dinosaur (!!) level, which features huge, animated raptors, pterodactyls and t-rexes. There are a few new characters - young pretty boy Eliot, who seems to be taking over for Gen Fu; Kokoro, whose enormous hair and flowing kimonos show off the new cloth physics; and La Mariposa, a masked wrestler who is pretty obviously Lisa from DOAX Volleyball. Most interesting is Nicole, a female version of the Spartan from Halo, you won't even know it was supposed to be a girl in there. If you're a fan of Halo, you'll welcome her, others my find her slightly misplaced. Sadly, none of them are as refreshing as Dead or Alive 3's newcomers in how they are played.
Dead or Alive 4
Dead or Alive 4
Dead or Alive 4
Dead or Alive 3D
Dead or Alive 3D
Dead or Alive 3D
It's been a while since the last fighting game in the series was released. Among the 3rd party developers for Nintendo's 3DS announced at E3 2010 was also Team Ninja. The presentation showed preview screenshots for the first handheld fighter by Tecmo, tentatively titled Dead or Alive 3D. The presence of Raidou in the pictures led many to believe it to be a remake of the very first game, but nothing is known for sure yet.
Dead or Alive 3D