By Ricardo Torres

Design by Collin Oguro

Dead or Alive 4 First Look

Tecmo's Dead or Alive series is one of the few original fighting franchises to have emerged from the Virtua Fighter and Tekken era of 3D brawlers to have then made a name for itself. While the franchise originally rose to prominence with tight controls and a unique fighting system that featured countering as an integral part of its combat, the game's legend has grown considerably in the years since its 1996 arcade debut. The home versions of the franchise have, in fact, added to the series' reputation thanks to impressive visuals that have pushed their respective platforms on to new heights. In addition, some progressive thinking on the part of creator Tomonobu Itagaki and Team Ninja has helped the Dead or Alive games evolve the fighting genre.

Up until recently, the series' pinnacle was Dead or Alive Ultimate, the Xbox-exclusive two-disc compilation of the series that brought the franchise online courtesy of Xbox Live. However, that pioneering game is about to be surpassed by the latest, and likely greatest, entry in the series: Dead or Alive 4 for the Xbox 360. The gorgeous fighter debuted at this year's Electronic Entertainment Expo via a flashy trailer that teased just some of the content the game is set to offer. Unfortunately, there hasn't been much else put out on the game since then, leaving fans (ourselves included) hungering for more. That changes today. We recently had the opportunity to visit Team Ninja to get an exclusive look at the game, and we are happy to finally bring you our findings.

Expectations have run high among fans of the DOA series since the game made its debut at this year's E3. But fan expectations pale in comparison to Itagaki's and Team Ninja's expectations on themselves, as well as their vision for the next entry in the series. The wild card in the equation for the new game has been Microsoft's Xbox 360 hardware, the powerful successor to the Xbox. Though Team Ninja made quite a splash at the original Xbox launch with Dead or Alive 3, the 360 presented a much greater challenge. The brawny new box comes packing a considerable amount of raw processing power and support for high-definition resolutions, which Tecmo only flirted with in its previous Xbox games. In addition, the upcoming console's Xbox Live support offered a tantalizing opportunity for the ambitious developers, who whet their appetites with Dead or Alive Ultimate's Live support.

High socks in even higher res.

As far as the game's story goes, Team Ninja sees Dead or Alive 4 as the opportunity to tie up some loose ends and wrap up the current story arc. The game will pick up shortly after the ending seen in DOA3--roughly a month or two after--and it will trace the path of Helena, the winner of the last DOA tournament. When we last saw her, Helena had taken control of DOATEC. Yes, that development was more than a little ironic, given her issues with the mysterious and menacing corporation, but the flaxen-haired beauty appears to be up for the challenge, as it seems like she's got an ulterior motive. However, there are some new faces this time around that appear to represent key players in the story. The sexy and mysterious female wrestler La Mariposa (or "the butterfly" in Spanish) is an ex-DOATEC employee whose mysterious past leads her to enter the tournament to take care of some business. Oddly enough, the team's vision for this character was inspired in part by Steve Buscemi's character in Armageddon, although she's understandably curvier and tougher.

Another new face in the crowd is Elliot, the young fighter seen in the trailer on the stage with the howling monkeys. He's in the tournament for personal reasons, as well as to prove himself to his mentor, Gen Fu, who won't be included in the story mode this time out (although he is still a playable character in the other modes). Finally, Kokoro, the long-haired beauty seen in the first trailer, is tied to Fame Douglas, the randy founder of DOATEC who has a stable of six mistresses on the side.

In addition, the other major plotline in DOA4 is the story of the ninjas, Kasumi and Hayate, that are banding together to take out DOATEC as payment for the brainwashing and cloning that's been inflicted on them. In fact, the themes of revenge and family ties, which have always been prominent in the series, are at the forefront this time. The way things stand at present, some of the story threads in the DOA narrative will be tied up, and new ones will be opened up as well. Funnily enough, some of the story threads are still based on notes Itagaki scribbled all the way back in 1996.

The makers of Catwoman 2 are taking notes.

The story mode will be just one of the game modes to be included in DOA4, which will offer the same basic modes as Dead or Alive Ultimate, such as story, time attack, survival, team battle, versus, watch, sparring, and online. Additionally, it may actually feature a new mode, although the team is still sorting out exactly what it wants to do. Though you'll have a good idea of what to expect from the known modes if you've played the previous games in the series, the story will be given some added kick thanks to the ending cinematics Team Ninja is having made for each of the characters. Itagaki and company have rethought what the ending cinematics offer, and they've gathered a team of seasoned computer graphics professionals to craft punchy mini-movies that offer a nice reward for players who fight their ways through the game. While this may not seem different from the previous DOA games--and most other 3D fighters--after seeing some of DOA4's ending cinematics, we have to say they've been given a nice kick over those seen in the previous games. However, this isn't to say that the cinematics have turned into artsy black-and-white affairs; you'll still see a mix of cool, goofy, and wacky stuff.