Dead or Alive 4

Dead or Alive 4
North American cover art
Developer(s)	Team Ninja
Publisher(s)	Tecmo
Designer(s)	Tomonobu Itagaki
Series	Dead or Alive
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
Distribution	DVD-ROM

Dead or Alive 4 (Japanese: デッドオアアライブ4, Hepburn: Deddo oa Araibu Fō, abbreviated as DOA4) is a fighting game developed by Team Ninja and released by Tecmo for the Xbox 360 in 2005. It is the fourth major title in the Dead or Alive video game series, its plot following the events of the 2001 title Dead or Alive 3.

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 eight characters on each side.
• Versus mode depicts two players fighting each other, without needing to plug in the second controller, with that, players can fight with the computer.
• 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.

Plot

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

Characters

Ryu Hayabusa from Ninja Gaiden fighting against SPARTAN-458 from Halo

• Alpha-152 (unplayable, cannot be used on any mode)
• Ayane
• Bass Armstrong
• Bayman
• Brad Wong
• Christie
• Ein/Hayate
• Eliot
• Gen Fu (unlockable, cannot be used in the story mode)
• Tengu (unlockable, cannot be used in the story mode)
• Helena Douglas (unlockable in all modes)
• Hitomi
• Jann Lee
• Kasumi
• Kokoro
• Leifang
• Leon (unlockable, cannot be used in the story mode)
• Lisa Hamilton (La Mariposa)
• SPARTAN-458 (unlockable, cannot be used in the story mode) (Halo series crossover)
• Ryu Hayabusa
• Tina Armstrong
• Zack

DOA4 features 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". It would later be revealed that her real name would be "Nicole". In conjunction, a Halo-themed stage named Nassau Station is incorporated in the game.

Development

On May 12, 2005, the first screens from the game were leaked on the Internet via the elotrolado.net message boards. The first official screenshots, in-game demos and cinematics were presented by Microsoft at press conferences, with the game originally slated to be a launch title for the Xbox 360. In an interview with Famitsu Xbox, Tomonobu Itagaki remarked that he spent 99% of his time developing the game, while only sleeping 40 minutes in four days. Technical assistance for Dead or Alive 4 was given by Blindlight.^{[citation needed]}

Release

The game was delayed many times before eventually being released on December 29, 2005, more than a month after the Xbox 360 debuted. 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. This was the first main series game to have a legally-restricted M rating by the ESRB, due to female characters' outfits focusing on very revealing swimsuits and some cutscenes.^{[citation needed]}

Reception

Reception
Review scores
Publication	Score
Game Informer	9/10[citation needed]
GameSpot	8.8/10
IGN	9.0/10
Official Xbox Magazine	8.5/10[citation needed]

The review by IGN called the game "a move in the right direction for the series" and praised the fighting system as "deeper and more sophisticated".

Dead or Alive 4 has sold 1.2 million copies world wide.^{[citation needed]} The game was included in the Championship Gaming Series and World Cyber Games.

In 2008, GamePro ranked it as the 11th best fighting game, stating: "The first new-generation fighter to be released, Dead or Alive 4 still makes a strong case as the best one. [...] This is a fighting game that can stand in the ring with any major series." In 2009, Virgin Media ranked it as the seventh top 20 beat 'em-up of all time. In 2011, Complex ranked it as the 28th best fighting game of all time.

External links

• Official website
• Official website (Japanese)