Dead or Alive 4

Dead or Alive 4
North American boxart
Developer(s)	Team Ninja
Publisher(s)	Tecmo
Designer(s)	Tomonobu Itagaki
Platform(s)	Xbox 360
Release date(s)	JP December 29, 2005 NA December 29, 2005 EU January 27, 2006 AUS March 13, 2006
Genre(s)	Versus fighting
Mode(s)	Single player, multiplayer, online multiplayer
Rating(s)	CERO: D ESRB: M PEGI: 16+ OFLC: M
Media/distribution	DVD-ROM

Dead or Alive 4 (デッドオアアライブ4, Deddo oa Araibu Fō^?) is a fighting game developed by Team Ninja and released by Tecmo for the Xbox 360 in 2005. As the latest entry in the Dead or Alive video game series, its plot follows the events of the 2001 title Dead or Alive 3.

Story

Dead or Alive 4 focuses on the story of Helena, the young woman taking over the mantle of DOATEC as its second chairman.

Gameplay

The game features 22 playable characters and many multi-tiered and interactive fighting arenas. There are six modes in the game. Story Mode offers the player to play with the character and learn its backstory. In Time Attack, the player must defeat a set amount of opponents in the shortest possible time. In Survival mode, they player must defeat many opponents as possible. Team Battle has a team of characters fighting each other, and there is a total of 8 characters on each side. Versus mode depicts two players fighting each other, without needing to plug in the second controller. Players cannot select Tag Battle but it is still available for use by selecting Time Attack, Survival or Versus. DOA Online, available via Xbox Live, is similar to the Versus mode.

DOA4 has a number of updates in reference to previous titles. Characters' move lists have been vastly updated and four new characters have been added to the fighting roster, with returns from a couple of past characters as well. The counter system has been tightened, making the window for counters shorter and more difficult to execute, and the amount of damage that counters inflict has been changed.

Characters

• Alpha-152 (non-playable character)
• Ayane
• Bass Armstrong
• Bayman
• Brad Wong
• Christie
• Ein/Hayate
• Eliot
• Gen Fu (unlockable, cannot be used in the story mode)
• Gohyakumine Bankotsu-bo (unlockable, cannot be used in the story mode)
• Helena Douglas (unlockable can be used in story mode)
• Hitomi
• Jann Lee
• Kasumi
• Kokoro
• Lei Fang
• Leon (unlockable, cannot be used in the story mode)
• Lisa Hamilton (La Mariposa)
• Nicole (unlockable, cannot be used in the story mode) (HALO series crossover)
• Ryu Hayabusa
• Tina Armstrong
• Zack

New characters

DOA4 contains three new playable characters: Kokoro, a young Geisha in training; Eliot, a 16 year-old boy from England and protégé to Gen Fu; and Lisa, a female Lucha Libre wrestler.

In addition, DOA4 features a playable unlockable character from the Halo series, a female Spartan supersoldier going by the name "Spartan-458".^[1] It would later be revealed that her real name would be "Nicole".^[2] In conjunction, a Halo-themed stage named Nassau Station is incorporated in the game.

Development

In an interview with Famitsu Xbox, Tomonobu Itagaki remarked that he spent 99% of his time developing Dead or Alive 4, while only sleeping 40 minutes in four days.^[3] On May 12, 2005, the first screens from the game were leaked on the Internet via the elotrolado.net message boards.^[4] The first official screenshots, in-game demos and cinematics were presented by Microsoft at press conferences,^[5] with the game originally slated to be a launch title for the Xbox 360. However, the game was delayed many times before eventually being released on 29 December 2005, more than a month after the console debuted.^[6] Famitsu Xbox editor-in-chief Munetatsu Matsui pointed to Dead or Alive 4's absence as a launch title as the main factor behind the slow sales of the Xbox 360 in Japan.^[7]

Reception

Reception
Review scores
Publication	Score
Game Informer	9/10
Official Xbox Magazine	8.5/10

Dead or Alive 4 has received generally positive reviews. IGN gave the game 9.0/10, calling it "a move in the right direction for the series", and praised the fighting system as "deeper and more sophisticated".^[8] GameSpot awarded the game a score of 8.8/10, with one of its only negative comments going to a couple of features during online play.^[9] Dead or Alive 4 has sold 1.2million copies world wide.

Tournaments

Dead or Alive 4 was included in the Championship Gaming Series^[10] and World Cyber Games.^[11]

References

1. ^ "Mystery Dead or Alive 4 Character Revealed". XBOX365. 2005-13-13. http://www.xbox365.com/news.cgi?id=GGuLurNdHN10131611. Retrieved 2007-10-05. 
2. ^ "Halo's DOA4 fighter unwrapped". GameSpot. 2005-14-14. http://www.gamespot.com/xbox360/action/deadoralive4/news.html?sid=6141230. Retrieved 2007-10-05. 
3. ^ "Team Ninja's Tomonobu Itagaki Is Sad". IGN. 03-05-2005. http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/609/609715p1.html. Retrieved 2007-10-07. 
4. ^ "Primeras imágenes de Dead or Alive 4 (Spanish)". Elotrolado.net. 12-05-2005. http://www.elotrolado.net/showthread.php?s=&threadid=414837. Retrieved 2007-10-07. 
5. ^ http://www.fileplanet.com/153645/150000/fileinfo/Dead-or-Alive-4-E3-2005-Trailer-%5BInsane-Quality%5D
6. ^ "DOA4 delay déjà vu". GameSpot. 2005-12-20. http://www.gamespot.com/xbox360/action/deadoralive4/news.html?sid=6141564. Retrieved 2007-10-07. 
7. ^ "Slow start for Xbox 360 in Japan". BBC News. 2005-13-13. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4524036.stm. Retrieved 2007-10-07. 
8. ^ "Dead Or Alive 4". IGN. http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/678/678269p3.html. Retrieved 2007-10-06. 
9. ^ "Dead Or Alive 4". GameSpot. 2006-01-27. http://www.gamespot.com/xbox360/action/deadoralive4/review.html. Retrieved 2007-10-06. 
10. ^ "Champion Gaming Series Games". Championship Gaming Series. http://www.thecgs.com/index.php?s=games. Retrieved 2007-10-07. 
11. ^ "WGC 2007 Official Games". World Cyber Games. http://www.worldcybergames.com/6th/2007/Games/officialgames.asp. Retrieved 2007-10-07. 

External links

• Official website
• Dead or Alive 4 - The Dead or Alive Wiki