Dead or Alive 4

Dead or Alive 4 (デッド・オア・アライブ 4, Deddo oa Araibu 4), often abbreviated as DOA4, is the fourth main installment of the fighting series Dead or Alive. Developed by Team Ninja for the video game console, its plot follows the events after Dead or Alive 3. The game features twenty-two playable characters - four of which who are new to the series - as well as many multi-tiered and interactive fighting arenas.

Story
The main plot continues with the war between the Dead or Alive Tournament Executive Committee, and the Mugen Tenshin Ninja Clan. After Ayane successfully defeat DOATEC's last creation, Omega, Hayate returned to the Mugen Tenshin clan, taking over the leadership. Now leader, he goes on a quest; to put an end to DOATEC, for all the suffering it has caused to the world. He is accompanied by Ayane and Ryu Hayabusa. Kasumi, though reluctant, is dragged into the events herself as she follows her brother.

Helena, as the daughter of former chairman Fame Douglas, had taken control of DOATEC. Knowing of the mastermind pulling the strings of all the chaos, Victor Donovan, she seeked to get rid of him. She invited the assassin Bayman to the DOATEC Tritower in order to hire him to take out Donovan. However, Bayman declines, despite his true intentions being to finish Donovan himself. That night, the Tritower comes under attack by the Mugen Tenshin Clan. As the attack does on, the DOATEC's latest creation, a clone of Kasumi, Alpha-152, enters its final start-up stage.

Helena came across Lisa, a former DOATEC scientist, who admited she tricked Hayate into attacking to stop Donovan. After defeating Lisa, Helena prepared to set the towers to self-destruct, but meets Christie, who had been working as a guard for Donovan. Helena finally realised that Christie was the one who murdered her mother all those years ago, and full of hatred, fights her. The outcome of this particular fight is unknown, other than that both of them survive.

The completed Alpha-152 was woken, and began to escape from the DOATEC towers as Helena, plagued by flashbacks of her mother's murder, set the Tritower complex to self-destruct. Kasumi was drawn to her clone, and the two of them battled through multiple levels of the now blazing Tritower complex.

Kasumi ended up fighting a long battle with Alpha-152, while Ayane and Hayate fought DOATEC's forces. They were cut off from escape and surrounded, so Hayate battling through waves of DOATEC soldiers as Ayane casted ninpo spells. Supported by Hayate, she casted one powerful spell that broke the foundation of the towers, slaughtering the DOATEC forces assailing them. Ryu Hayabusa, meanwhile, used his ninpo powers to destroy the various DOATEC aircraft and gunships homing in. Incidentally, during his destruction of one of the aircraft, the camera focuses in on a man in a suit as he is killed in the resulting explosion. It is considered likely that this man is Victor Donovan.

Helena headed to the roof, resigning herself to death. As she is about to be consumed by the flames of the burning buildings, Zack flies in on a helicopter, saving her as the towers finally collapse.

Characters
Dead or Alive 4 has a grand total of twenty-two playable characters; 17 with their own story mode, and 5 which are unlockable by completing diffirent tasks in-game. Below is a list of all the playable characters in the game.

Returning Characters

 * Ayane - A Japanese Kunoichi of the Mugen Tenshin Ninja Clan. She has pledged her life to help destroy DOATEC for all the suffering the company has caused her clan.
 * Bass Armstrong - An American professional wrestler, who wants to stop his daughter from winning the tournament to become discovered by Hollywood.
 * Bayman - A former Russian commando, who entered the tournament seeking revenge on Victor Donovan.
 * Brad Wong - A Chinese master of Zui Ba Xian Quan on the search for the mysterious drink "Genra".
 * Christie - A British assassin who was hired by Donovan to prevent the clan from destroying DOATEC.
 * Hayate - The Japanese leader of the Mugen Tenshin Ninja Clan, seeking to destory DOATEC.
 * Helena Douglas - The mixed-French leader of DOATEC, who wants to take out Victor Donovan.
 * Hitomi - A German-Japanese Karate black-belt. She joined the tournament to get money for her father's dojo, which is facing financial trouble.
 * Jann Lee - A Chinese Jeet Kune Do bouncer who joined the tournament to prove his fighting skills, and looking to test himself against worthy opponents.
 * Kasumi - A Japanese Runaway Shinobi, trying to convince her brother Hayate to stop the war against DOATEC and return to the Mugen Tenshin Village with her. Her efforts failed, and she reluctantly joined him and the others in destroying DOATEC.
 * Lei Fang - A Chinese T'ai Chi Quan student, seeking to finally prove herself against Jann Lee.
 * Ryu Hayabusa - A Japanese master Shinobi, who is helping the Mugan Tenshin clan to destory DOATEC.
 * Tina Armstrong - The American daughter of Bass and a professional wreslter, who enters the tournament to help her Hollywood career.
 * Zack - An American DJ, who is trying to raise money after losing his island in a volcano explosion.

New Characters

 * Eliot - A British high school student, and the sole apprentice of Gen Fu. He joins tournament to prove to himself that he is worthy of being the successor to a great master.
 * Kokoro - A mixed-Japanese -in-training, whose heart also lies in fighting. She joins the tournement to test her skills against over fighters.
 * Lisa - A former American DOATEC scientist, acting as the masked luchadora "La Mariposa". She was the one to trick Hayate into attacking DOATEC.

Unlockable/Guest Characters

 * Ein - An Karate instructor sufforing from memory-loss, who turned out to be Hayate in Dead or Alive 2.
 * Gen Fu - An old Chinese master, who no longer joins the tournaments, as his granddaughter is well, and the medical bills are all paid off.
 * Gohyakumine Bankotsu-bo - A Tengu who wanted chaos to reign over the world, until he was defeated by Ryu in Dead or Alive 2.
 * Leon - A Italian man who joined the tournaments to fulfill the expectations of his dead lover Rolande, who said the strongest warrior in the world is who she loves.
 * Nicole-458 - A character which was a result of collaboration between Team Ninja and, based on the  character.

Improvments
As well as four new characters joining the cast, the game has a number of updates in reference to previous titles:
 * The counter system has been tightened, making the window for counters shorter. and more difficult to execute.
 * The amount of damage that counters inflict has also been changed; in Dead or Alive Ultimate, the counters were rather damaging and in Dead or Alive 3, the amount was much less, relying on players to strike or throw more to defeat their opponents. In Dead or Alive 4, is a more balanced amount of damage taken.
 * Characters' move lists have been vastly updated as well.
 * Characters now emit cries of pain when hit, much like other fighting games that came before it.

Pre-release
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. However, the game was delayed many times before eventually being released on 29 December 2005, more than a month after the console debuted. 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.

Reception
Dead or Alive 4 received generally very 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". Gamespot awarded the game a score of 88%, with one of its only negative comments going to a couple of features during online play. The website calls the online lobby system "cute but feels needlessly tacked on", but still praises the online system as providing a "near-limitless challenge for competitive players". Gamezone.com gave it 9.3/10 praising its online lobby mode as "really cool, interesting, and very unique[sic] ", while Teamxbox.com states that "Team Ninja have created a true work of art", and gives it 9.1/10.

However, Jolt Online Gaming UK gives the game an average 6.5/10, calling the single player mode "an exercise in frustration and joypad throwing". The website also states that the online mode "is probably best locked away and only spoken of in hushed tones when you think no one who isn’t in the know is listening".

Trivia

 * In an interview with Famitsu Xbox, Itagaki remarked that he spent 99% of his time developing Dead or Alive 4, while only sleeping 40 minutes in four days.
 * Dead or Alive 4 was included in the and.
 * Following its release, two updates were made available for the game, one of which altered the characters' stats to even them out in regards to power.
 * The cover for Dead or Alive features the greatest amount of characters out of any of the game covers, with a total of twelve characters. The people who missing from the cover are Hitomi, Brad, Hayate, Lei Fang, Bayman, and the unlockable characters.