The Dead Or Alive series has been the fighter all other fighters look up to on the Xbox. Not so much for the fighting, which has always had its critics I’ve always found to be fun, but for it’s appearance. It has always looked phenomenal, pushing graphics and animation to the limits of what’s possible on a console. So when the ‘next gen’ xbox came out, it seemed natural for the console to come out with the flagship fighter showing off the machines power.

And boy does it show it off! Dead Or Alive 4 is the sexiest game ever to grace a console. And this is not because it features scantily clad women with large breasts that bounce and heave in defiance of nature and gravity alongside barrelchested musclebound hunks, although that does, of course, help, but because the game looks simply breathtakingly amazing. From the beautifully rendered and textured character models, the fluid animations when fighting, to the flapping and deeply detailed textured clothing, to the wonderfully sculptured backgrounds in the well lit arenas, the look is simply stunning.

Although some have complained about the porcelain doll look of the characters, personally I think it works very well. The characters are beautiful and not all that realistic. This is no Fight Night, the characters will have arms bent and faces bashed, but show no signs of wear and tear. But I think this makes it easier to beat the crap out of the opposing player. If Tina looked more realistic, I think I’d have a real hard smashing her head into the turnbuckle in the wrestling ring.

Speaking of wrestling ring, the arenas you fight in are simply fantastic. From a street outside a casino, to a rope bridge over a canyon, a market stall, a Jurassic park ‘lost world’ with dinosaurs, to a scientific cryogenics lab, everywhere you fight is simply awesome. The amount of detail is often lost until on you as a player until the game is play online, jumping out at you as you wait for a game, but the detail is very much present in all arenas. From bunnies hopping around, pumas and monkeys, to cheering and leering crowds, there’s always something going on.

On top of that, many arenas are mutli-tiered, with different levels to smash and throw your opponent into. It is utterly satisfying throwing your opponent over a bridge or kicking them through a glass window. There are also obstacles which can be used to smack your opponent into or over, and moving obstacles such as cars and animals that can smash you and your opponent flying. And the game is one of the most well lit I have ever played. In other games on the xbox360 faces can appear ghoulish, especially in blue light, but that issue never crops up here.

The outfits have always been a big part of the DOA series, and this time Team Ninja has truly outdone themselves. Cloth and hair twirl and flow with bodies as they fight, sparkle and glint in the light. The cloth flows in a natural and realistic yet exaggerated manner. The detail on the costumes is outstanding. From the embroidery on newcomer Elliot’s gee, to the detail in Hitomi’s jackets, to the chains on Bass’ wrists, the attention to detail is superb, and you will never think that the clothing look amiss. Well, apart from some of the unlockable costumes, which whilst they still look superb, they also look utterly ridiculous and are laugh out loud funny. Examples are Zack’s silver alien suit, Bayman’s Scuba diving suit, and some of La Mariposa’s rather revealing Lucha Libre wrestling outfits.

Speaking of laugh out loud funny, some of the unlockable endings are hilarious. You’ve got to hand it to the Japanese game makers, they’re a crazy, out-there bunch. Whilst there are a few characters whose endings fit the overall story of the game and series, such as Rya and of course Helena, there are some which are just insane. Brad Wong’s ending is one of the trippiest endings to a video game period, and Liefang’s ending with a pervert groping her breasts and his subsequent ass kicking is achingly funny. It really is worth playing the game just to unlock these cutscenes.

But to unlock the cutscenes and outfits, you’ve got to fight, and if the fighting isn’t done well in a game then there’s no point playing it, even for the amazing graphics, cutscenes, unlockables and so forth. Luckily, DOA4 does hold its own when it comes to fighting. Team Ninja hasn’t tampered with the underlying mechanics found in previous DOA games, but rather have refined and honed the fighting. When you first start the game, button mashing can get you into the game a little, but as you play the game forces you to adjust your style by subtly helping you, as you’ll find that mashing moves get countered time and time again, so you start timing your attacks and stringing different button mashes into combinations.

Of course this help is subtle, and to be a true master of the fighting you have to practice, practice, practice. There is a sparring mode in which you can fight against a dumb bot, which fights back depending on what you set their AI to, and you can learn all the moves presented on screen. This mode is great for learning all the characters special combinations.

However, the series is all about attacking, and to this end blocking and countering have been revised ever so slightly. Countering in the DOA Ultimate was brutal, with half your health sometimes been taken down with one counter. DOA4 doesn’t seem as harsh on the whole, but there are certain combos which simply cannot be countered, and certain counters, especially those of Alpha 152, the end boss, are even more brutal than those found in DOAU. Blocking is all but pointless, as there always seems to be some easy attack that gets through, but can be used in a pinch especially if you find yourself stuck in a corner.

DOAU introduced online play, and DOA4 utilises Xbox Live to great effect. The staging areas are a very Japanese and very cutesy little backdrop, ranging from space stations to jungles to candy land. Your representative in these staging areas are bobble headed cartoon figures of ninjas, crocodiles, cats, dogs, skeletons, even a tree! In these staging areas you can chat to other players without interfering with the battling players, and watch the action on TV Screens. When you enter a battle, you watch the action as if you were playing, and it’s here you can cheer or smack talk the two combatants. It is here you’ll notice just how great the arenas are. As you play on line, and earn points, you can upgrade these staging areas and also buy accessories for your avatar, which is a bit of pointless fun.

Online play was good, and was as fast and furious as battling friends in the same room or against the computer, when it’s not suffering from lag. I found that, especially when playing with people overseas, lag often got to the point of being unplayable. I battled a few American hosts, and the game slowed right down, and it really wasn’t worth it. When playing Aussies, those with greater than 512K connections seemed to play fine, but those with less caused the game to lag, especially in arenas with lots going on, such as the Sahara and Casino levels. As I have ADSL 2+ and get well over 512K, the only time I noticed it really lagging was when 2 or more players were on 512 or less. It was disappointing, but the key is to play with your friends, and hope they have a good connection.

Conclusion:
DOA4 is a must have game for fans of the series, and those Xbox360 owners who need something to show off the power of the console and justify the purchase to friends and relatives. It really is a beautiful game, truly ‘next gen’ in appearance if not gameplay. This is not to say the gameplay is in anyway bad, but there isn’t much here that’s different from previous iterations of the series. This is because, of course, the series has always outdone itself in terms of the fighting, and as the old adage goes, ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’.

Pros:
Absolutely stunning in appearance across all areas of the game.
The great fighting of the series has become even more honed.
Heaps of single player unlockables and a host of Xbox Live achievements
Great online staging areas that easily facilitate online play.

Cons:
Counter system still seems a little unfair.
Lag when playing online can become unbearable when playing people on slow connections or overseas.

90/100