The DOA series is upping the stakes
On a technical level, DOA4 can be considered the best game in the whole series. What we have here is a game that bears more than a resemblance to DOAU on Xbox (even in the hud), but that has been finetuned to make for more exciting online bouts. And exciting they are, really allowing for all kinds of combos and air juggling. Unfortunately I still happened to encounter more lag than I would have liked to. Meanwhile there has been an Xbox Live update for this game that is supposed to deal with the lag.
Of course Tecmo hasn't forgotten about the people that just like to play story mode and unlock daring costumes for their female fighters. Or have they? The number of costumes amounts to some 5-6 on average, so we're far off from DOAU where you could get as much as 20 costumes for certain characters. A.I. has been made considerably harder too, especially in the shape of the new boss, Alpha. She gives new meaning to the word "cheap", and if you have played The King of Fighters games before, you'll know what I mean.
As it stands, I think casual players are going to be put off rather fast by DOA4, as the unlockables don't match up to the sometimes ridiculously hard A.I., that can make you look dumb and inept like never before. Hardcore players on the other hand should really be in for a treat. Personally I am falling a bit inbetween the two groups, but if there is one thing I can acknowledge, it is that DOA4 is a technical masterpiece.