Dead or Alive 4
From Dead or Alive Wiki
| Dead or Alive 4 | |
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Dead_or_Alive_4_X-Box_360_Cover.jpg)
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| Developer | Team Ninja |
| Publisher | Tecmo |
| Designer | Tomonobu Itagaki |
| Genre | Versus fighting game |
| Modes | Single player, multiplayer, Online Multiplayer |
| Input | Xbox 360 Controller |
| Platforms | Xbox 360 |
| Ratings | CERO: D ESRB: M PEGI: 16+ OFLC: M |
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.
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[edit] Story
After the ninjas successfully defeat DOATEC's last creation of Omega, Hayate returns to the Mugen Tenshin clan, taking over the leadership. Now, 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 his half-sister Ayane; Kasumi, though reluctant, is dragged into the events herself as she followes her brother. Ryu Hayabusa, a friend of Hayate, joins the group as well.
Helena, as the daughter of former chairman Fame Douglas, has now taken control of DOATEC. Knowing of the mastermind pulling the strings of all the chaos, Victor Donovan, she invites 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. Despite heading off on his own in pursuit of Donovan, Bayman is captured, drugged and interrogated.
That night, the Tritower comes under attack by the Mugen Tenshin clan. Helena comes across Lisa, who admits she tricked the ninjas into attacking to stop Donovan. After defeating Lisa, Helena prepares to set the towers to self-destruct, but meets Christie. Helena finally realises that Christie is the one who murdered her mother all those years ago. The outcome of this particular fight is unknown, other than that both of them survive.
The completed experiment of ALPHA-152 is awoken, and begins to escape from the DOATEC towers as Helena, plagued by flashbacks of her mother's murder, sets the Tritower complex to self-destruct. Kasumi is drawn to her clone, and the two of them battle through multiple levels of the now blazing Tritower complex.
Kasumi ends up fighting a long battle with ALPHA-152, while Ayane and Hayate fight DOATEC's forces. They are cut off and surrounded, Hayate battling through waves of DOATEC soldiers as Ayane casts ninpo spells. Supported by Hayate, she casts one powerful spell that breaks the foundation of the towers, slaughtering the DOATEC forces assailing them and, incidentally, Bayman's interrogator and guard, giving him an opportunity to escape. Ryu Hayabusa, meanwhile, uses his ninpo powers to destroy the various DOATEC aircraft & 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 Donovan.
Helena heads 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.
[edit] 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 other fighting games that came before it.
[edit] Characters
- Ayane
- Bass Armstrong
- Bayman
- Brad Wong
- Christie
- Eliot
- Ein (unlockable)
- Gen Fu (unlockable)
- Hayate
- Helena
- Hitomi
- Jann Lee
- Kasumi
- Kokoro
- Leon (unlockable)
- Lei Fang
- La Mariposa (Lisa)
- Nicole (Spartan-458) (unlockable)
- Ryu Hayabusa
- Tengu (unlockable)
- Tina Armstrong
- Zack
[edit] 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.
[edit] Tournaments
Dead or Alive 4 characters included in the Championship Gaming Series and World Cyber Games.
[edit] 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".
