With the launch of the Xbox 360, there’s a new generation of games being released from a variety of existing series. Developers are working hard to give gamers’ favorites a graphical upgrade and add new features for the next-generation console. In an undisclosed location in Japan, Team Ninja has developed the latest iteration of their Dead or Alive series. This is not another eye-catching volleyball game, but a legitimate fighter in the vein of Dead or Alive: Ultimate. At first glance, Dead or Alive 4 might not look like much more than Dead or Alive 3 with prettier environments. Thankfully, this is not the case. Significant changes have been made to ensure that the game can be taken seriously as a fighter, and not just function as launch time eye candy. Not only does Dead or Alive 4 feature the same intense fighting, deadly combos, online tournaments and outrageous cutscenes, but a new and tougher counter system. Dead or Alive 3 and Ultimate matches often resulted in quick skirmishes where players did nothing but trade counters. This was because the window to perform a counter was very long, with the counter animation lasting several frames.
In Dead or Alive 4, the counter system has been tightened up quite a bit. The shortened timeframe available to perform counters results in a tougher and more rewarding counter system. Team Ninja also gave Dead or Alive 4 a 4-point counter system, instead of the previous 3-point and 2-point systems used in the series. In the 4-point system, there are four types of counters. High kicks and punches, low kicks and punches, mid punches, and mid kicks, each requiring a different button input to perform the counter, all before the attack hits you. This may sound daunting at first, but after a little practice, the counter system becomes a deadly tool that can make or break any fight.

The game also features improved graphics. On a standard definition television, Dead or Alive 4 looks a lot like Dead or Alive 3. The character models look a bit more detailed, and the environments are prettier for sure, but otherwise the game doesn’t look much different. This is mostly due to the more anime style art direction Team Ninja has gone with the series. However, when plugged into a high definition TV, this is where Dead or Alive 4‘s graphics really shine. The game looks fantastic at 720p or 1080i, and runs at a silky smooth 60fps. With high definition support, it’s easily the best looking fighter on the market right now.

The game modes available in Dead or Alive 4 are your standard fare for a fighting game. Time Attack lets you try to beat your own times while fighting through eight stages of computer controlled characters, and Survival Mode allows you to take on a barrage of enemies, gaining life back through dropped food and a small bonus at the end of each round. Both are fun, but the real meat of the single player game comes from the Story mode. Story mode lets you go through each character’s story, and unlock a gorgeous, and sometimes hilarious, ending cutscene for each of them. However, actually finishing story mode has shown to be a bit of a problem for some players. While Team Ninja has easily bested the earlier Dead or Alive games with this one, they forgot to bring over one simple feature–an easy mode. The AI on normal is brutal, sometimes ridiculously so.

At the higher tiers, and while fighting the game’s new boss character, the AI can counter moves and perform holds with lightning accuracy, far better than any player I’ve seen. To some, this is good. It provides a significant challenge, even on normal difficulty, and there are still hard and very hard modes for players who master the default setting. To others, it results in something of a roadblock in the game’s learning curve. It’s already difficult enough to get down the counter system, and the increased difficulty makes it even harder. Spending ten or even twenty minutes trying to defeat one character in Story mode, while learning the mechanics of the game, can be very disheartening. Luckily enough, Team Ninja has included an excellent Sparring mode in Dead or Alive 4. You can set the computer on any difficulty level, from Level 1 to 8, or set them to repeat a certain move or combo in order to work up your offense and defense against them. Sparring mode also has the excellent exercise feature, which runs through a majority of your character’s move list, and has you complete them in sequence. Spending time in Sparring and Exercise mode is the best way to improve at Dead or Alive 4, and you’ll need the practice to hold your weight in the Dead or Alive Online mode.

This is where the game really shines. Online Mode hosts a variety of different game modes for you to play against players around the world. Some of the modes offered for online play include Winner Stays, Loser Stays, and Survival. It also has an innovative lobby system so players can sit in a lobby with virtual avatars while socializing and watching the fights go on. The lobby system helps usher in the new generation of online play in a fighting game, making it more like a social arcade experience than a traditional online pairing mode.

The game also does a fairly good job at matchmaking, since every player is ranked, and every fight counts toward your rank. The point of the ranking is not necessarily to prove which players are better than others, but so you can fight players of your own skill level, making the game a fun experience to play online. Currently, a lot of fighters, good and bad, are ranked around a “C”, because that is what the game starts you out at. However, I’d expect the rankings to even out a bit as players get more accustomed to it and play more games, and the rankings should help ensure you can find a competitive match with your skill level almost every time you play.

Aside from gaining and losing rank while playing online in Dead or Alive 4, you also earn or lose Zack dollars to spend at Zack’s Shop. Zack’s Shop sells a ton of new things, from new lobby avatars, to customizations for lobby avatars, to new lobbies and upgrades, to unlockable costumes for use in-game. Unfortunately, Online Mode isn’t entirely smooth sailing, because of some glaring bugs that exist in the current version. The game will outright freeze if any player leaves the game by turning off their Xbox 360, and sudden unexplainable spouts of lag can slow down fights to an unplayable pace. It’s nice that these glitches and bits of lag are not the norm, but they are still frustrating to run into, especially after the numerous delays the game had prior to its eventual release.

Dead or Alive 4 is a great experience, that adds a lot to the series. With the new counter system, and tons of moves available, this is the first Dead or Alive game, aside from Ultimate, not shunned by hardcore fighting fans. Though the learning curve can be tough for some to overcome, most feel it’s worth the effort. Dead or Alive 4 is most definitely a game that carries the “easy to play, difficult to master” label, but is well worth mastering in the long run. A varied and innovative online mode just fuels the fire that Team Ninja set forth on the Xbox 360 community. It easily trumps the previous versions, and is still the only console fighting series with a decent online mode. With deeper gameplay and improved graphics with HD support, Dead or Alive 4 is a must play for any fighting game fan.

Score: 91%