Dead or Alive 3

Dead or Alive 3 is a fighting game in the Dead or Alive series. It was released exclusively on the Xbox as a launch title.

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, and added 4 new characters to the roster.

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 many more moves safe on block as well, sometimes even having a frame advantage on block, as in Jann Lee's Forward,Forward+Kick and Gen Fu's Up,Up (or Down,Down)+Punch. Many moves were given the additional status as guard breaking moves, crushing an opponent's guard when the attack is blocked. Slow escaping by holding Free, rotating the directional input, and pressing Punch and Kick alternatively resulted in guard break attacks being conditionally punishable by throws, if the blocker could perform the slow escape quickly enough. The main problem with the 3.1 update, as it is called, is that Hayate's cartwheel maneuver (Up+Punch+Kick or Down+Punch+Kick) became overpowered, being far too evasive and having virtually no drawbacks. This was fixed in the European version of Dead or Alive 3, which is termed by the hardcore Dead or Alive players as the 3.2 update.

Story
Ryu Hayabusa, the Super Ninja, put a stop to the evil doings of Tengu. Nevertheless, it was too late to stop the Tengu of Destruction from triggering a massive, worldwide collapse. The collapse churns up a dense cloud that covers the entire planet in a shroud of darkness and fear. DOATEC has gone astray, turning into the hunting grounds for power-hungry scam artists. This is when DOATEC's development department (a fortress for state-of-the-art military technology) witnesses the success of a genius. Following Project Alpha and Project Epsilon, the ever ambitious Dr. Victor Donovan completes the Omega Project, producing a new Superhuman: Genra. This man, who was once leader of the Hajin Mon Ninja, is no longer human. He (or it) is a force of singular and unprecedented capabilities. A slaughterhouse has now been provided as the exclusive domain of the Omega superhuman. It is a realm that has come to be known as the world Combat Championship, Dead or Alive 3.

Development
In 2001, Dead or Alive became widely known as simply DOA, officially competing against Tekken Tag Tournament, and was widely played in Japan. Tecmo was working on continuing the series when Microsoft 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 Itagaki's design philosophy of always targeting the most powerful console available for the development of DOA 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. Later on Tecmo and Microsoft decided to give the extra features Europe and Japan had to America. The update was distributed with the Official Xbox Magazine, June 2002 Issue, Game Demo Disc #7. It added character costumes, as well as the introduction CG video Japanese and European gamers had. This update was also released as an unlockable in Dead or Alive Ultimate (called "DOA 3 Booster Disc") if all costumes were unlocked for every character.

DOA3 saw the addition of two new female characters, Hitomi and Christie, as well as two new male characters, Brad Wong and Hayate (Hayate is not exactly a new character, 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.

The domestic release of DOA3 was also notable because three songs by Aerosmith were featured in the game: "Nine Lives" was played during the opening credits, "Home Tonight" was played during the ending credits, and "Amazing," though not actually used anywhere in the game, was also included in the option mode's soundtrack. This track would later be featured again in Dead or Alive 4.

DOA3 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.

Characters

 * Ayane
 * Bass Armstrong
 * Bayman
 * Brad Wong (New character)
 * Gen Fu
 * Hayate (Can also play as the alter-ego EIN, who must be unlocked)
 * Helena
 * Jann Lee
 * Kasumi
 * Lei Fang
 * Leon
 * Ryu Hayabusa
 * Tina Armstrong
 * Zack
 * Christie (New character)
 * Hitomi (New character)
 * Genra (Boss character, unplayable)