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Knocks Out Its Competition

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: July 07, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I had never played a Dead or Alive game before but I had alot of people on my friends list on it so I thought i would give it a go. First of all I would like to say there is a strong learning curve to the game. Having never played a DOA game before I had troubles getting through the stroy mode but i decided to stick with it. I then went online and found myself losing fight after fight so i decided to try the sparring mode. This really helped as i got to learn some combos (button bashing will only give u very limited Success) and got the hang of the countering system. The game then got very interesting and after i had completed the story mode i turned to the online play and soon started winning fights.

The online is the best part of the game although if you have any people with slow connections it does become very laggy. The lobby system is pretty unique as you can walk around as a choosen avatar and talk to other players and form tag teams before you join the fight. The ranking system is also very well done and it helps keep the fights fair although there should be an option to make un ranked lobbies.

Overall I think the game is brillant its very skillful as you have to anticipate moves to counter and learn combos. It has a massive life span (I have played for over 100 hours and am still entertained) and it is very competitive. The only critism I have is that fighting the AI can be frustrating as they will begin countering random moves that you pull if they are losing and the story mode is not exactly extensive. So i would only advise buying this game if you have xbox live or play 2 or 4 player often with friends.

Fast, Furious, Infuriating

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: January 04, 2006
Author: Amazon User

There are a number of fighting games out there that kind of just toss you into heavy action and hope for the best. Most of those, at the end of the day, are thankfully button mashers, and often times have the full gamete of difficulty options for fighter game weakling like myself. Now I do have my fighting games I'm good at. I'm still a master of the old school Mortal Kombat I and 2, and I'm reasonably good at Tekken, but am only good enough with Soul Calibur 2 to survive the Normal Difficulty. With DOA 2 Ultimate I managed to actually bite, scratch and scrape my way through the hard mode, but it was not an easy thing to pull off, and it was something I swore I'd never put myself through again. You see I'm a hard-core role player, but a casual fighting gamer.
I am a real life martial artist, though, so martial arts based fighting games do hold an interest for me. I was eager to get DOA 4 because even though the screen shots for the XBox 360 games revealed titles that looked a lot like their old Xbox counterparts I had already become aware of an amazing but true little factoid. The 360 looks amazing in High Definition. I cannot lie, the same is true of DOA 4, and it looks breathtaking, though the character models are sadly disappointing at this point. I'd be nice if Team Ninja would have aimed for more realism. I also found the game's Barbie doll like "partial nudity" laughable. I can't believe they got an M rating for Barbie doll nudity. The ESRB must be overly strict...
The music, once more is awesome, and did I mention the graphics are amazing? I did? Oh... well they really are, especially the scenery. There's hardly any jaggies at all, and I only noticed one instance of any sort of graphical flaws.
The fighting system is similar to DOA 3 but revamped so that the moves that worked in the previous version don't quite have the same effect here, but here's where we get into my whining. There is no easy mode. It's true that there is a training mode, but it does little to prepare you for the raw aggression you're going to get from the computer run opponents. Simply put, for me, this game is too hard, even on the lowest difficulty setting possible "Normal" which is "medium" in MK terms. Clearing the game for newbies and people who are only casually interested in the DOA franchise is no easy feat, and for those of us wanting to learn by hands on experience rather than an unmoving un-reacting computer character it makes it difficult. I mean you can pause, and pull up a move list, but when you try to execute it the computer run opponent will pummel you into oblivion. Worse yet, the AI seems fully capable of breaking my combos (and I have learned a few sweet moves) but even though I try doing what the game's manual suggests I find myself unable to stop myself from taking a severe beating.
I'd love to give the single player mode a higher score, but as a casual fan of DOA, rather than a hardcore fan, I can't help but feel like this game was built for the hardcore. Had Team Ninja tossed in an easy mode it would be easier to pull like I did with DOA 2 Ultimate and eventually work my way up to where I'm good enough to bite, scratch, kick, and break controllers on my way through Hard or even very hard mode. Instead DOA 4 starts you in a difficult mode, and expects you to go from there.
That's not to say this game is bad. To the contrary, it's still a great game, and the endings are well worth suffering through the battle with the next-to-impossible-to-beat Kasumi clone at the end, but one thing Team Ninja did that I'm really happy about is make the story much more coherent, and the stories overlap each other so that you have a much better idea of the over all tale from beginning to end, and everything in between. As a player for story, I was very happy about that. And despite the game's increased and insane difficulty the great graphics make the game hard to pull your eyes away from, kinda like RE 4 did on GameCube a year ago, sans the life like characters.
Online I cried. The lag I experienced was absolutely horrible. I am not sure why, I read that the game had next to none. I may be experiencing technical problems, but I got beaten because of lag, and that did not make me happy. I'm sure a number of players may make the same "claim" but rest assured, I'm not the best at the DOA games, but I'm not the worst either, so I was really mad when the game froze up in the middle of a combo I was doing and when it unlocked I had been beaten. Then a similar problem occurred in the following round costing me the match. At any rate, the new lobby sure is weird, and to be honest I'm not sure I like it. I think I prefer the more simplistic approach taken by DOA Ultimate.
In the end, DOA 4 is a great game, but great for hardcore gamers. This game will try the patience of casual gamers pretty bad. I definitely recommend this title for in home multiplayer though, if you have a spouse, or sibling or friend or parent, etc. it can be great. Online seems to have a few bugs, sadly. I'd say hardcore fans of DOA should get this right away; others may want to rent it first and see if they can handle it. I don't regret buying it, but it is trying my patience at the same time.

Beautifully Difficult

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: January 12, 2006
Author: Amazon User

DOA 4 is both one of the nicest looking games currently available on the Xbox 360 and one of the most difficult. Without an easy mode, it's impossible to get past the first couple of rounds in any of the modes if you are a casual player. For those who want to dedicate hours to master the control scheme, DOA 4 could be a "5 star" game.
You can try going through the training mode to learn the moves (character voices are unlocked when you complete all the moves successfully for that character), but there are certain combinations where the finger acrobatics necessary to accomplish them are left more to luck than skill, and you probably won't remember all 100+ moves when you actually play the game.

It used to be that you could sit down with the other games in the series and have fun in the early stages without throwing the controller across the room with frustration (I don't recommend throwing a $50 wireless controller against the wall).
I'm guessing that Team Ninja took a page from their Ninja Gaiden book where they wanted to make a difficult fighting game for the SERIOUS fans, which they've done (instead of making a well rounded game).

I for one would like to see more games like DOAX exploring the DOA universe or what Namco did with "Death by Degrees"...but good. Just a thought.

I can't really speak for the online play because you can't earn points to unlock anything if you can't beat anything, but it looks like it has potential.

A surging paulse

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 8
Date: January 19, 2006
Author: Amazon User

For the launch of the 360
Pros:
-Untouchable graphics(The superb models and the excellent lighting effects from the multiple lights in diffrent places, and eyepleasing beckrounds, like the crowd in the wrestling arena)
-Excellent voice acting
-Hyper fast fighting
-Couple of new characters(It's good to have some new characters on a new installment)
-Easy to get into gameplay(same ol' button masher)
-I love theater mode(It allows you to see the graceful FMV endings for each character you beat the game with.)
-I love replay mode(If you record a fight were you did some spectacular stuff, it's good to see over again)
-And, oh yes, the number 1 reason this games is a high seller is the wemon with the high sex appeal(Increasing age to 99 makes it even more worthwhile. It gets me distracted sometimes, but that's allright)
-Online play is definitly the fun factor of the game. (You get to play against a variety of diffrent people)
-Dead or Alive 4 is alive, and easilly the best out of the series
Cons:
-The final boss is chessier than the for-jorking word cheese(I once beat her down to near 0 health, then she game me 2 strong counter throws, bringing me to low health, then she teleported multiple times until she hit me. I tell you it's as fair as life man)
-Computers are mind readers(Seriously you hit in diffrent directions, and they will block and counter you anyway, especially around rounds 5-8. I even tried to learn moves, but it was just as if I were a button masher anyway.)
-Story mode, as always, never makes any sence
-Some characters that were realesed in story mode can't be played in story mode, yet they are in story mode like normal characters, what the fudge is up with that?
-I wish they had an extra game in it(Like Tekken Bowl in Tekken Tag)
-I suck major bootie crack on Live, I get str8 up owned 90% of the time(I mean c'mon, I played 11 fights, won the first one then lost 10 in a row! Go ahead and laugh at my suckfest abilities on line)
Nutral:
-Stage falls are always funny, unless it's you tumbling down the stairs like empty trash can
-The enviorments are so life like, that depending on the stage, you and you're opponent can be hit by a dinosaur, cheetah, or car(It's either a good thing or a bad thing.)
-I've buid up a tolerance for getting creamed in both the game and online(I used to get mad yell, and throw controllers, but I remembered how long it took me to get a 360, so I now just am under the intention, that I'll win, it's just a matter of when)
-Realeasing costumes is cool, but playing story mode every time to realese one sucks, and the fact that I suck online doesn't help me get gamescore points to get costumes)
-It's sad that I got this game on the 29th of December, and I got the 360 on January 17th(It was torture to see that game and not play it for 19 days)

Dead or Alive 4 does everything better than it's predicessors. It's a ton of fun, and it has a whole lot of variety in it. It's funny to my friends when they learned I lost 10 fights in a row after wining my first, but only one of them has a right to say anything, cuz he has the game too, yet he's got a C rank, and I'm at a F. Anyway, Team Ninja took total advantage of the 360's graphics, and fired on all cilinders for a fighting game with absolute action, and more than enough for gamers to enjoy. The bottom line is this, if you have a 360 and not this, you should be pimp slapped.

peace

The definitive 3-D fighter.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 6
Date: December 30, 2005
Author: Amazon User

This is truly the definitive 3-D fighter. Tecmo has revamped the fighting engine to provide an even deeper experience than DOA 2 Ultimate. With 22 selectable fighters, amazing graphics, fully interactive backgrounds, and an online mode unlike any other, DOA 4 is the game worth owning an Xbox 360 for. I also recommend the Hori DOA 4 Arcade Stick for Xbox 360. It's a limited edition, rock solid stick, which is also Xbox Live compatible.

Style over substance

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 5 / 9
Date: March 04, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Before I start any review that gives this game lots of stars and doesn't address the AI or difficulty of this game is a fake review. Probably from a person who has a load of boxes full of DOA4 lying around like a bad drug.

I have had the game for about 2 months now and feel I'm in position to give an honest review Firstly the game looks amazing, great interactive backgrounds, character details, a reasonable number of characters and costumes plus great end movies. All this game needed was reasonable gameplay and it would have been a great game, but Team Ninja or as I like to call them Team Numbskull, have failed and kind of ruined the game.

When I first got the game DOA4 was probably the most frustrating unenjoyable game ever! People, who say that this is a good thing, probably pay women in leather to whip them. And that is how I felt when I first started playing the game. I paid £50, which is about $80 and god knows how much yen to get my ass kicked. There is nothing more annoying than a game where the CPU can do things a Player can't do. The CPU can do all these fancy throws and counter throws, while it is near impossible for Players to pull off a simple throw. With a lot of practice you might be about to counter a CPU move once in a blue moon, but it is more down to luck than Judgement. The gameplay also isn't organic. If the CPU player is low on energy the CPU player will pull off a 10 to 15 hit combo out of nowhere to bring your energy down. While that is okay sometimes, when it happens every round it makes the gameplay artificial, predictable and unenjoyable. What makes that worst is the fact that the CPU can counter throw player combos easy, while it is again near impossible for players to block or counter CPU combos. Especial the last boss who can actually throw, not a counter, you while you are punching and it's this unfairness that makes the game unsatisfying. Players are better off just pressing buttons fast because the minute you try to pull off good moves the CPU hits you more. I know a lot of the reviews say it is great that is hard because it sorts out the men from the boys, but I think that kind of gamer elitism is wrong, because if I don't want to fight psychic CPU opponents then there should be an easy option. After a lot of practice I am very good at the game and the game becomes slightly easier. You learn you can't do the same move more than twice in row and with characters (La Mariposa) that have fast combos that hit high and low the game becomes more reasonable. I've finished the game with all the characters, but the game just isn't that fun. Because there is no easy level to experiment and use a range of moves or tactics so the game becomes boring even when you are winning. I play games fun and relax from work. DOA4 just seems like work. The music is mostly Rubbish J-Rock. When will Japanese game companies learn from Grand Theft Auto, we are the Ipod generation, so we want to hear real music in our games, rather than the work of some poor guy in their Music department producing average music. And why the hell do all the characters speak Japanese? I know there are subtitles, but surely given most of the world speaks English it would of made sense to have a game with English voices and Japanese subtitles. There is also something very subversive about the character Zack with I just don't like.

I think useless you are some kind of Professional Games Player then I wouldn't get it. It's an expensive that does not deliver in the most important thing gameplay. If Team Ninja for made this way deliberately then I won't be buying anymore of there games. DOA4 is a beautiful game, but I say if you like nice pictures go to a gallery not and don't pay for this game that becomes dull fast.
Bring on Tekken 5, where the characters speak English, there is an easy and normal level, the throw moves isn't pointless and the game is fun to play.

More work, less play.

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 5 / 9
Date: January 03, 2007
Author: Amazon User

In redesigining Dead or Alive for the XBOX 360, Team Ninja seems to have systematically removed any element of fun from the game. By drastically changing the countering system, by increasing the challenge, and by introducing a new boss, somehow they lost that which made the other games enjoyable in the first place.

First, the countering system. Since the inception of the Dead or Alive series on the Playstation One, the countering system set DOA apart from other fighters and became, next to the female characters, the title's major gimmick. In DOA 4 that countering system has been complicated by adding a counter-intuitive command for middle and jumping kicks. Instead of entering back and the free button, one has to go forward instead. Compounding this, the window of opportunity for successfully countering an attack has decreased substantially, making it more difficult to break a combo.

This in itself wouldn't have been so bad if the same treatment had been given the CPU opponenet, but no. They counter more often...as if at will. The opponent also blocks more effectively, severely limiting your offense. But not only has the CPU's defense improved, but offensively the CPU is a rediculous challenge. You will find yourself consistently being pummeled by perfectly executed combos, juggles, bounce combos, chain throws, and counters. Meanwhile, your ability to defend against these attacks is nearly absent. There are gaping holes in your blocking, you can't seem to break a chain throw, and if you do somehow manage a block the hardwired CPU executes a throw instead. Overall this challenge makes the game more frustrating than fun. Yet, as NORMAL level is the lowest difficult setting available (and their definition of normal is other games' hard or hardest), that is your only option. Even sparring mode proves to be a pain as there is equally no easy setting. However, by varying your attacks, you can catch the opponent off guard and manage a few good combos. The problem is, you go from entering known commands to random direction and button combinations. DOA goes from a fairly sophisticated game to a mindless button masher. Combine all this with a controller that cannot seem to register a simple crouch command and makes you jump forward when all you want is to step forward and you have a recipe for a lot of swearing and control throwing. There are some moments when you cannot do anything at all, and you wonder why you're even holding a controller in the first place.

If you do manage to slog through these hyped-up, Wheaties-eating, omniscient opponents you eventually meet with the game's new boss, a poorly coceived Kasumi made out of bluish plasma, Alpha-152. This boss will go down in history as one of the cheapest, most difficult of all bosses. Not only can she string together 10 to 12 hit combos, but she has a counter attack that takes nearly half your life bar, she teleports, and she can seemingly complete a throw from anywhere. Even still, once you figure her out, she is surprisingly easy to beat provided you have the right character (Kasumi seemed to work best for me). If you only had to face her once, it would be no big deal, but you have to face her again and again if you want to unlock more features. Honestly, I don't know why fighting games even need a boss.

Your reward for all this work is, excpt for a few exceptions, a lame movie and or an equally lame new outfit. Apparently all the best outfits have to be purchased online. As I am not an online player, there is very littly reward or satisfaction in this game. What happened to Leifang's leather one piece spy outfit. And though her movie is quite funny, it is not taijiquan. Tai Chi is about maximum result with minumum effort. Spinning around a pole by your hands in order to kick a guy is more in the style of a ninja. And do we really need Tengu? Moreover, you can also unlock a Spartan from Halo. What a Halo character is doing in Dead or Alive is anyone's guess. I suppose as Mario is to Nintendo, Halo is to the XBOX.

Story wise, DOA is also lacking, but fighting games were never known for their depth. There seems to be little reason why any of them, aside from those with connections to DOATEC, would even be fighting in the first place. The new characters Eliot and Kokoro are kind of boring compared to the old cast. What is with Kokoro anyway? An apprentice Geisha studying Chinese kung fu? Besides, she too much resembles Leifang which creates some confusion. La Mariposa is slightly better, but suffers from too elaborate moves. Her acrobatic attacks often take to long to be effective.

What has improved are the environments. The interactive nature of the stages is by far the most enjoyable new aspect of the game. It is satisfying to knock your opponent over a table or log, or smash him into a cart of fruit. Sadly, there is little else of any appeal here. Even the much touted graphics were not as impressive as what I had first heard. The hair looks like ribbons of plastic and, like scarves and jewelry, seems to move of its own accord. Fabric often looks fake escpecially in some of the textures and in the movement of skirts. Otherwise, it is a beautiful game, but still too frustrating to actually be enjoyable. I play video games to aleviate stress, not add more. I think many players would agree.

REBORN TO BE ALIVE

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: February 10, 2006
Author: Amazon User

In his dark underground secret lab the mad scientist with the name Victor Donovan works hard to complete his evil project called the Epsilon Project. His task is to create the absolute human warrior and he accomplishes his goal it after long time by creating A-152. The deadly warrior has been created by using the genes of the infamous ninja warrior Kazoumi.
I am not going to uncover all the scenario of XB360 Dead or Alive 4 but if you plan to buy it I guarantee you will be really proud for your XB360. You will be amazed not only with the really good interface witch allows you to enjoy the battles but also with the details like the cherry flowers falling from the sky or the movement of the hair of the heroes. The graphics and the sound are really fantastic and you will enjoy it. I wish they could have more clothing options for the characters of the game but we going to forgive them for that because they really created a must have game.

Gorgeous and Aggressive

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 4 / 7
Date: July 20, 2006
Author: Amazon User

First of all, this is the most beautiful fighting game I have ever played. The scenery is amazing and the character detail is unbelievable. The characters even have... well... uh... bounce.

The gameplay is first rate. The controls are very simple compared to other fighting games but if you've never played a DOA game the "Free" button can take a little getting used to. The flow of the matches is extremely fluid and the martials arts choreography is fantastic. Note to newcomers, this is an aggressive fighting game. You can just sit back and pick your shots. You have to go in full force with hard and varied combos to beat the computer. "Varied" is also key. The computers AI and the turnovers allowed with the "Free" button mean that you can keep doing the same cheap moves to win. No Mortal Kombat leg sweeps or Street Fighter fireballs to get you through the game. You have to really learn the character and vary your attacks. Fortunately the top notch Sparring Mode helps with that a lot.

As a fan of both Ninja Gaiden and the Halo series, I thought it was really cool to able to play both Ryu and the Master Chief in the game.

The one flaw, and the reason I held off the perfect score is the story. There is a "Story" mode but it's pretty much just a few stock cutscenes. They could have done more to develop that. All in all, I very worthy buy.

Ouch! Did that game just hit me?

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: January 07, 2007
Author: Amazon User

The Dead or Alive (DOA) series of fighting games has always presented us with excellent games, and the addition of Dead or Alive 4 to that series proves to be no exception. It is a beautifully rendered and executed piece of interactive video art, and pretty damn fun to play... as long as you have a real person sitting next to you to play it with.

The graphic engine that runs this game is a testament to the power of the Xbox 360; a superb title to shows what this system is capable of doing, and provides us a window through which we are presented hints of what is to come. All of the character models are beautiful and move with a grace I have rarely ever seen in a game of this genre before.

The stages are complex and gorgeous also. Many of them have multiple levels, and some even branch into different arenas. On some of stages elements in the background will come to the foreground and interact with you. There is a stage where animals will run across the screen and knock you over, and another where you fight in the street while dodging cars.

The sound is adequate. If you like Aerosmith (apparently the game designer Tomonobu Itagaki does), you'll probably enjoy the sound track. Overall the music seems to fit the game well and the sound effects along with the character comments all appear to fall right on cue.

There are multiple game play modes to enjoy. You can play the story mode and discover each characters tale. This title, more than any of the previous titles, gives you more story background and explains things in much greater detail by use of the cut scenes and endings. The story of each character also determines what boss that character will face, not everyone faces the same opponent in the end. You can play the time attack mode where you try to beat the game a quickly as possible, or survival mode where you try to survive as long as you can against a stream of opponents. You can also take your fight online is that is something you like to do.

The combat system is somewhat complex, and seems to be quite a bit different from this series earlier incarnations. In addition to learning the combat moves you need to learn how to guard and how to counter. Becoming a master of the game play can be quite frustrating. A sparring mode for training is provided that will help you master some of the more difficult moves.

All of the fighting styles are based on hand to hand martial arts of some sort. There are no weapons as in Soul Calibur, or supernatural powers or projectiles (that I know of) as in Mortal Kombat. Some of the ninja characters can teleport though.

The major fault I find with this game is that it is very hard when playing against the computer. The computer opponent will block and counter many of your moves while you will often fail while trying to do the same. Against a human player you will find that you have a much greater chance of success at these attempts, but against the computer - you will end up getting really frustrated. There are times that you even find yourself driven to hurl your wireless Xbox 360 controller across the room and smash it into the wall (so far, the thought of replacing that fifty dollar controller usually stops me in mid swing).

I blame this obscene difficulty on Tomonobu Itagaki. He is one of those game designers, in the school of thought that is enjoined by Capcom and a few others, who believe that pain is enjoyment. That you must be nearly bleeding from your fingers and greatly frustrated to properly enjoy the games he helps to create. If the title is not supremely difficulty, you will have no reason to play it. Or so he and others seems to think.

Me, personally, I'm perfectly fine with healthy fingers, and good game play. That is why I say you should play this beautiful title with friends. They will suck just as bad as you suck. The will not counter and block every single move you try. They will not be able to cheat, as the computer player will always do.

With your friends, you will enjoy this title.

Alone, it will hurt you, or hurt your wallet when you end up buying a new controller after smashing your old one in frustration.

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