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The Most Beautiful Fighter Available

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 25 / 32
Date: January 08, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Dead of Alive 4 doesn't disappoint. First of all, the graphics are just mind-blowingly beautiful. You've never seen such a beautifully designed fighter game before. To tell the truth, I bought an X-box 360 because I'm a big fan of the Dead or Alive series. Now that I've played the game, I can say that I'm satisfied.

I give a quick rundown of the changes from the previous version. Multiplayer is as fun as usual, but the story mode will be a little more difficult than in previous versions. The reason for this is that the computer AI is a little stronger than before. If you tend to use just a few moves, the computer will pick up on that and will counter you almost every time. If you learn to vary your moves, then it's not much of a problem. Also, the window for pulling off a counter has been reduced, so it's much more difficult than before to do a counter. Again, with practice and timing, you can improve your skills to make up for this. Also, I felt that the final boss in this game is a little more difficult than previous bosses. By that, I mean much faster and much trickier. I found that by using charges and footsweeps, you can usually beat the boss with only a few tries. Overall, the single player game has become more challenging.

So should you get it? The answer is YES! If you have an X-box 360 and you don't have this, then you need it. That's all I can say. This game has left me speechless.

The Atonement

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 22 / 28
Date: January 05, 2006
Author: Amazon User

The newest installment in Team Ninja's fighting game series, Dead or Alive 4 has met all it's expectations. Every fighting game series on the market today has their respective strong points, DOA always being the amazing graphic edge, but more than anything on this newest edition, tecmo has slightly revamped the fighing techniques making DOA4 the most balanced game in it's genre.

Single player lacks an easy mode, so for the casual gamer, it might be somewhat of a challenge. But because of this factor, it helps develop the mechanical skills used in the game. Some veterans might find some slight difficulty at first, but should get the hang of things after a few goes. Definately not a "button mash" game. This aspect I gladly invite. I think that usually easy modes lack any challenge, if anything the only positive aspect of the mode is to learn move sets and combos, which can easily be learned in the Sparring mode. With unlockable costumes, characters, and other achievements, the single player mode will likely keep your interest.

The online mode has it's kinks, but for the most part is very good. I really like the lobbies and the avatars to install goals within the online game. Rankings and scores also helps keep a competative nature. Within the mode you can set-up tournaments, private matches, and many other fighting settings. Their has been a few glitches and every once and awhile some lag. The glitches I'm sure will be fixed as they are found and the lag in a lobby has more to do with a bad connection as opposed to bad service.

If you are into fighting games and want a challenge both offline and online, Dead or Alive 4 is a must have if you have a xbox360.

An Incredible Experience

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

Dead or Alive 4, the most recent iteration of the popular DOA series, is an incredible experience. Everything is superb. The character models-though still cartoony in appearance-are still detailed enough to drop a few jaws. All 22 fighters have multiple costumes that can be unlocked that are almost life-like. Each costume has realistic textures to further enhance the experience, but the true pinnacle of DOA4 (graphically) are the battlefields. It is apparent that the level designers spent a lot of time crafting each individual level. All arenas feature multiple tiers, destructible items, and backgrounds that will make you question if you're still in reality.

Aside from graphics, DOA4 boasts gameplay that is extremely fun and easy to get into. While beginners may button-mash, the inclusion of small, yet important, improvements will keep veterans interested. Such improvements include a more difficult counter system, and a more in-depth ground game. Furthermore, all 22 fighters have their own unique fighting styles and each character has an expanded arsenal of moves.

Overall, this game does not leave much to be complained about and is a solid addition to the library of Xbox 360 games. If a game like DOA4 can achieve the best graphics of any game thus far only a month after the launch of the 360, imagine what future games are capable of once game developers adjust to the new system.

I would recommend Dead or Alive 4 not only to fans of the DOA series, but also to any fighting game fan.

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.

Great Graphics with Not-Great Rampup

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: January 22, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Dead or Alive is one of my favorite series, and I was waiting eagerly for DOA4 to come out for the XBox 360. The graphics were great! Gameplay, though, was not well ramped.

Let's start with the graphics. I've loved each new version of DOA with how it has pushed the envelope. This release was no exception. On our HD TV, the lushness of some scenes was just mind boggling. There were active characters in the background. There were tiny details in every scene. Foot movements would stir up the water or snow.

The audio was reasonably good - not nearly as awesome as the graphics, but certainly good enough that I didn't mind playing with it in the background, as well as it was turned down a bit.

The gameplay in this series is NOT a button masher. You might get lucky occasionally with button mashing, but it really works best if you learn the specific combos that match up to your character's style and for use in certain conditions. Having a near opponent vs a far-away opponent, having an opponent that stays low vs one that launches high attacks, all of them need the proper response.

I don't mind that at all. I respect the game a lot for that reason. On the other hand though, the game is KILLER tough without memorizing those combinations. I had several players in my home who were very, very good on the previous DOAs and they were slaughtered in the new game until they sat down and re-practiced the combos in sparring mode. Yes, sparring mode is there and a good training tool. But it is INCREDIBLY BORING. I would really rather "learn" in some sort of actual gameplay setting. Maybe they could have a "beginning set of rounds" that was easy, that advanced players could skip over.

Instead, the way the game is set up, there is no difficulty options at all. There is only one "main game" that you take each character through, to unlock his or her outfits and endings. That one path is rather hard. So either you sit there in boring sparring mode for a while to prepare - or you just dive into it and get smashed around a lot.

There are other issues. One of our household members went fully through 3 characters. I then took over and went fully through 3 more characters. When he woke up in the morning, the save games were all completely gone. He went through and re-unlocked 3 characters. Everything seemed fine when he was in the game - but come back later, and it had reset. There's just something very wrong with the save situation here.

On one hand I really appreciate that there are female characters in here, and that men as well as women enjoy playing them. It wasn't that long ago that all fighting games were all fighting characters, and that male players would refuse to play as "just a girl". In modern times we realize that girls can be just as good at karate as guys are. That being said, some of these outfits are crossing the line into sleaziness. It denigrates a highly trained female martial artist to say she's got to have a big chest that is almost naked.

If you're a fan of fighting games, definitely get this one. Just be sure to prepare for a serious round of training before you start taking on the actual combat.

Only For the Patient

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: March 21, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I'm sorry, but I have to defend Tecmo/Team Ninja here. I can easily understand why many people are frustrated with their work - nothing they have done is easy to pick up and play around with. Rather, their games are for the fast and furious, and those who are willing to take time and learn. This is why all the professional reviews are good; they are forced to learn, and they wind up liking it.

If you like an easy and accessible game, then this game is NOT for you. But, if you are patient, quick, and you actually USE YOUR HEAD instead of button-mashing (which the bad reviewers obviously did), then this game is a blast. (By the way, this game was designed to punish both button-mashers and countering whores - which really ups the multiplayer and forces the player to learn.) Fighting games are supposed to be fast and furious, and the winner will be the one who can think quickest and act the best upon their abilities and the actions of their opponent. This game balances that perfectly.

Besides, look at one screenshot and you'll know how beautiful this game is. It is especially amazing if you have an HDTV. If you have multiple controllers and a few friends, this game can entertain you for countless hours, and if you are motivated by unlockables, this game will addict you for a good 30+ hours even without friends.

This game is only for the patient, who are willing to develop themselves to it. I would also recommend Ninja Gaiden Black, an excellent action title from the same developer (for those of you who still have an old Xbox).

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

Great graphics

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 3
Date: January 15, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I've owned this and all the DOA's. Great game, great price. Enough said.

BUY THIS

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 7
Date: December 30, 2005
Author: Amazon User

If you have an x-box 360 this is a must have game. The most amazeing graphics ive ever seen, buy this game its just amazing.

Good Game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 1
Date: January 13, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I'm mainly just writing this to disagree with some people. I don't play many fighting games and when I bought this game I took it out of the box and played it and enjoyed it. If you expect to beat the game in the first five minutes then this isn't your game there's a learning curve as with any game but it isn't that hard. You can play against people you skill level online so if you don't want to invest time learning 10 hit combos you can still have fun.

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