Dead or Alive 4

Dead or Alive 4 (DOA4) is a fighting game developed by Team Ninja for the Xbox 360 video game console. As the latest entry in the Dead or Alive video game series, its plot follows the events of the 2001 title Dead or Alive 3. The game features twenty-two playable characters and many multi-tiered and interactive fighting arenas.

Story
Dead or Alive 4 focuses on the story of Helena, the young woman taking over the mantle of DOATEC as its second chairman.

Pre-release
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. 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.

Famitsu Xbox 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.

Aside from nothing being changed gameplay-wise, characters now emit cries of pain during a match, much like all the other fighting games that came before it.

Characters

 * Ayane
 * Bass Armstrong
 * Bayman
 * Brad Wong
 * Christie
 * Eliot
 * Ein
 * Gen Fu (unlockable)
 * Hayate
 * Helena (unlockable)
 * Hitomi
 * Jann Lee
 * Kasumi
 * Kokoro
 * Leon (unlockable)
 * Lei Fang
 * La Mariposa (Lisa)
 * Nicole (Spartan-458) (unlockable)
 * Ryu Hayabusa
 * Tengu (unlockable)
 * Tina Armstrong
 * Zack

New Characters
DOA4 contains three new playable characters: Kokoro, a young Geisha in training, Eliot, a 16 year-old boy from England and protégé to Gen Fu, and La Mariposa, a female Lucha Libre wrestler.

In addition, DOA4 features an unlockable character based on the Halo series. The November 2005 issue of Game Informer revealed that this character is a female Spartan supersoldier, going by the name "Spartan-458". It would later be revealed that her real name would be "Nicole". In conjunction, a Halo-themed stage called Nassau Station is incorporated in the game.

Tournaments
Dead or Alive 4 characters included in the Championship Gaming Series and World Cyber Games.

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".