by:	July 25, 2004

Dead or Alive 3 launched with the Xbox in 2001, and it was definitely a fine showcase for the graphical prowess of the system. Dead or Alive 3 continues the DOA games that have earned there reputation of being fast-paced fighting with gorgeous graphics, and a bunch of unrealistically attractive female combatants. The game is actually a lot like Dead or Alive 2 on Sega Dreamcast, just more of it.

Returning are such characters as Tina, a buxom blonde wrestler, Ayane the purple haired ninja girl with the huge bow on her back, Ryu Hayabusha better known as Ninja Gaiden, Zack the Dennis Rodman look-a-like of the game, and many others. There are three other new additions to the game including Brad Wong using drunken fighting style, Christie, and the “barely-legal” Hitomi. All characters have equally confusing back stories which are further explained in their ending cinematic.

The fighting in the game is pretty simply and is done with the right trigger to do a powerful move, X to throw, Y to punch, A to throw, B to kick, and black button to tag out in Tag battles. The game is insanely easy to get into and button mashers can go at it. The great thing about the game is if you’re a causal player against someone who never played, at least the person has a chance against you. The gameplay can get as deep as you want it though. You can switch it from analog or digital control depending on preference and you can use each characters style to your advantage. Brad Wong for example moves very unpredictably acting like he is drunk, dodging and jumping out of the way so you can not be hit, only to do a summersault and kick up into the air throwing your opponent out of the way. Characters like Ayane are easy to get used to and can having devastating combos with two button combinations. All of this can work to your disadvantage though as if you are not fast enough, someone can counterattack and perform a throwing move on you, or someone could easily block your high attack as they are in front of you then quickly kick you down then throw you. The variety of character styles is great, but to me it seems some of the characters move to slowly or, they just aren’t fun to use. This doesn’t go for all, just some of the beefier characters. The game is easy to learn but could take months to master. There are many game modes as well such as story mode, time attack mode, versus mode, survival mode, and my favorite, Tag Battle Mode. Tag Battle Mode opens up a lot of possibilities, not only can you play with four people—if you choose two characters that are allies in the DOA story, when you are switching, if you throw a character right they pull of a spectacular special move. Doing combos and tagging out, then doing a combo with the other character repeatedly can make for some insanely fast, difficult to follow fighting. The game at times feels cheap, and like the controls aren’t responsive even though your blocking. You feel like you know what your doing, and have beaten the game on hard, how is some “newbie” defeating you? There are times when you will feel this frustration when your friends come over and you’re playing the game. It also seems cheap at times that you can get a fourth of your life taken away when you are pushed off a cliff without very little effort from your opponent.