Dead or Alive 3

Dead or Alive 3 (デッドオアアライブ3), often abbreviated as DOA3, is the third main installment (5th overall) of the Dead or Alive fighting series. Developed by Team Ninja and published by Tecmo, Dead or Alive 3 was first released on November 14, 2001 in America as a launch title for the Xbox.

It was the first title of the series not to be released in the arcades, and the last game in the series to be rated "T for Teens" until Dead or Alive: Dimensions was released.

Story
Shortly after the events of the second Dead or Alive Tournament, the Dead or Alive Tournament Executive Committee kidnapped the leader of the Hajinmon sect of the Mugen Tenshin clan, Genra, to use him, as a human weapon, to create the "ultimate fighter", as part of Project Omega. The experiment was a success, and Genra was turned into the monstrous, inhuman creature Omega. To test the subject's skills against others, DOATEC held the third Dead or Alive World Combat Championship to use as a testing ground.

The leader of the Mugen Tenshin Clan, Hayate and his sister Ayane (Genra's foster-daughter and heir) entered the tournament, also with their friend Ryu Hayabusa, to kill Omega to stop any destruction that may arise, and to put Genra out of his misery.

As the shinobi made it to the final rounds, an argument started about who should kill Omega: as leader of the clan, Hayate felt it was his duty to help a fellow master, and Ayane felt that, as the foster-daughter of Genra, only she could slay the monster her father had become.

After defeating Hayate, Ayane was the one who faced Omega. She managed to destroy the super-human, and Genra was laid to rest. As a result of Genra's passing, Ayane became the new master of the Hajinmon Sect.

Characters
Dead or Alive 3 features seventeen playable characters, four of which were new to the series in this title. Only one character is unlockable and can not be played in Story Mode.

Returning

 * Kasumi, a compassionate, kind-hearted runaway shinobi from the Mugen Tenshin clan, who entered to tournament to see her older brother, Hayate.
 * Ryu Hayabusa, a stoic master shinobi and member of the Hayabusa clan's head family, who entered to tournament to help Ayane and Hayate to take down Omega.
 * Zack, a happy-go-lucky DJ, who enter the tournament to fund his trip to Las Vegas.
 * Gen Fu, a wise and honorable bookstore owner and master of xinyi liuhe quan. He enters the tournament as a way to earn money to pay off his granddaughter's medical bills.
 * Tina Armstrong, the stubborn and heavily-driven daughter of Bass Armstrong and the women's pro-wrestling champion. She entered the tournament to use the publicity to launch her acting career in Hollywood.
 * Bass Armstrong, the proud and slight-arrogant retired all-time pro-wrestling champion, who ender the tournament to stop his grown-up daughter from trying to get an acting career.
 * Leon, a driven and merciless mercenary 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.
 * Bayman, a ruthless assassin who was hired by Victor Donovan to kill Fame Douglas, the former leader of DOATEC. Bayman now enters the tournaments to take down Donovan, who tried to kill him as "payment" for assassinating Fame.
 * Jann Lee, a hot-blooded bouncer, self-taught in the art of Jeet Kune Do. He joins the tournaments to prove his fighting skills, looking to test himself against worthy opponents.
 * Leifang, a spunky and determined t'ai chi quan prodigy, seeking to prove herself against Jann Lee.
 * Helena Douglas, an elegant, graceful opera singer and the illegitmate daughter of Fame Douglas. As she is the only one standing in Donovan's way of full power over DOATEC, he forces her to enter the tournament and he would give her the "truth" she is seeking for if she wins.
 * Ayane, a strong-willed and honour-bound kunoichi of the Mugen Tenshin clan. She entered to tournament to slay the super-human Omega, who once was her foster father and master, Genra.

New

 * Hitomi, a cheerful, energetic high school student, skilled in karate. She entered the tournament to prove her skills against other fighters.
 * Brad Wong, a master of zui ba xian quan with a nonchalant demeanor, on the search for the mysterious drink called "Genra".
 * Christie, a cold-blooded assassin who was hired by Donovan to keep an eye on Helena, and eventually kill her.
 * Hayate - After his first appearance in the series as Ein, Hayate becomes the leader of the Mugen Tenshin clan, seeking to destory Omega with Ayane and Hayabusa.

Unlockable

 * Ein, a reserved, quiet karateka suffering from memory-loss, who turned out to be Hayate in Dead or Alive 2.

Non-playable

 * Chen
 * Hitomi's father
 * Mei Lin
 * Omega
 * Rolande
 * Unnamed woman in Zack's ending

Gameplay
The basic gameplay controls and commands remain essentially unchanged from Dead or Alive 2; however, some minor tweaks have been added to the game system in the form of increased counter periods, unrestricted 3D-axis movement, and less emphasis on juggling combos. All these gameplay enhancements make the game more suited for beginners, and makes the artificial intelligence much more forgiving. Finally, the game incorporated less damage percentiles in counter maneuvers, added four new characters to the roster, and game's tag battle system controls were changed to insert Attack Change, a new tag system feature where the fighting character can switch places with his or her tag partner, which can then unleash an attack while a character is jumping in.

Despite the somewhat lacking gameplay updates of the US version, the Japanese version featured many gameplay changes, with new attacks for characters, tweaked move properties for attacks, and a new intro cinematic for the game. Among the tweaks was to render most moves as safe against throw punishment on a normal hit, and to make version of Dead or Alive 3, which is termed by the hardcore Dead or Alive players as the 3.1 update.

Unlocking Ein
Ein is the only unlockable character in Dead or Alive 3, and is playable in every gameplay mode, except Story Mode.

To unlock Ein, the player must finish Story Mode with every character then play Survival Mode with Hayate, getting enough victories so you can put your name in the rankings. While at the ranking screen, enter EIN as the name.

Development
After the success of Dead or Alive 2, Tecmo was working on continuing the series when approached them, offering a deal to develop the next Dead or Alive as an exclusive title for the recently announced Xbox. The Xbox was still in development, and Microsoft was in need of exclusive, high-profile games to show off the technical capability of their product. This deal also fit in with series creator Tomonobu Itagaki's design philosophy of always targeting the most powerful console available for the development of Dead or Alive games.

In 2001, the release of Dead or Alive 3 was announced in Japan, but the game was first released in the US, in order to coincide with the American Xbox launch. An updated version of Dead or Alive 3 was then released for the Japanese and European Xbox launches several months later.

Dead or Alive 3 saw the addition of two new female characters, Hitomi and Christie, as well as two new male characters, Brad Wong and Hayate (note that Hayate was not exactly a new character, as he appeared in the previous game as Ein, though his moveset is new). Hitomi quickly took off as one of the more popular female characters of the series, despite her late addition. Dead or Alive 3 became the best selling game of the series and one of the top 50 best selling Xbox games.

Dead or Alive 3 was later re-issued as part of the Xbox Platinum Hits of games, sporting a new case design and a reduced price of $19.99.

Booster Disk
The European and Japanese versions of Dead or Alive 3 feature more content such as extra costumes, a time attack mode and a new CG introduction.

Because of its early release, the American version does not feature any of the above. On June 2002, the provided a 'Booster Disk' for Dead or Alive 3, which included all of the extra costumes released on the European and Japanese versions of the game. It did not, however, contain the extra fighting moves or general game balancing tweaks that the other versions brought.

The booster content continued to be provided with the Official Xbox Magazine demo disc from June 2002 to September 2002. Each disc featured the same content but gave magazine buyers multiple times to acquire it.

This update was also released as an unlockable in Dead or Alive Ultimate, called "DOA 3 Booster Disc". It can be unlocked if all costumes were unlocked for every character.

Music
In addition to the original song in the game, three songs by the American rock band also appear in Dead or Alive 3. Nine Lives was used as the opening theme, and Home Tonight was played over the credits. Amazing was not used in the actual game, but was a music sample under the Settings option.

After the release of Dead or Alive 3, Tecmo released the Dead or Alive 3 Original Sound Trax featuring every original track from Dead or Alive 3.

Reception
Dead or Alive 3 received generally very positive reviews following its release. IGN gave the game 9.4 out of 10, giving a lot of praise to the game's graphics, which were considered one of the best examples of Xbox graphics at the time; under the graphics sub-section, reviewer Anthony Chau gave it a 9.9 out of 10, claiming that "only Halo rivals the graphic quality" of the game.

On GameSpot, Dead or Alive 3 received an overall score of 7.9 out of 10; the reviewer also praised the graphics, saying the game "looks absolutely stunning" and was the "best-looking home fighting game ever released" (at the time) but commented that "once you get past its graphics [...] you'll find that Dead or Alive 3 doesn't offer much of anything that hasn't been done in other 3D fighting games."

Trivia

 * The font style of the Dead or Alive 3 logo became the current style logo for the series.
 * The commands in Dead or Alive 3 were colored to match the controller's face buttons: Xboxx.png, Xboxy.png and Xboxb.png becoming Free, and . This has remained consistent for the rest of the series, even on other platforms.
 * In the 11th episode of the sixth season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer entitled "Gone", two of the Trio members, Andrew Wells and Jonathan Levinson, play Dead or Alive 3 at the arcade.