Dead or Alive 3 Xbox Review

Title: Dead or Alive 3 .............................................. Publisher: Tecmo .............................................. Developer: Team Ninja .............................................. Release: November 2001 .............................................. Xbox Live: No .............................................. ESBR: Teen ..............................................

The Dead or Alive series has been on different consoles before, such
as the two Playstation consoles and also two Sega consoles (the Sega
Saturn and the Dreamcast). Now Team Ninja has brought the series to
the XBOX and they continue to impress us with the installment of Dead
or Alive 3.

Story

The story of DOA3 is not great, but very good. A superhuman has been
created by DOATEC and its abilities are to be tested in the World
Combat Championship, known as “Dead or Alive 3. Although that is the
main story, you can take on the role of sixteen different fighters,
each who have their own reasons for entering the tournament, whether
it be a personal quarrel with other combatants or a conflict within
themselves. Each character’s story is fun to play through and will
hold your interest until the game is over.


Gameplay

The gameplay in DOA3 is fast and furious, but in order to really enjoy
it, you have master the timing of your attacks. The enemy A.I. is
pretty smart and is able to beat you down if you aren’t attacking in a
strategic manner, so button mashing won’t get you very far in this
game. Another notable feature in this installment is the ability to
use the environments to your advantage. You can literally “take it
outside” if you want by pummeling your opponent out the window (as
well as through walls or down cliffs). The effect of this causes your
opponent to have a good amount of health away from them and its looks
pretty damn cool. Some fighting stages also have a hazardous area
within them, such as exploding pipes or electrical walls.

All 16 playable characters have their own special combos and signature
moves, and there is a whole lot of them to use. There is much to be
learned when practicing with a character, such as which moves are the
most effective against certain enemies and which moves aren’t. Every
character has the ability to counter attacks, in which they
automatically do a cool move to kick (or punch) their opponent’s face
into the ground, so you should hopefully have really good reflexes in
order to counter an attack.

There also different modes in DOA3 that are offered to you and are
guaranteed to provide fun for a long while. The modes that are in the
game are Story Mode (where you choose a character and play the game to
the end of the character’s story), Survival Mode (where you choose a
character and play to win the highest score until your health is
completely depleted), Time Attack (where you fight all other 15
fighters until to get the best possible time), Tag Team ( where you
pick two fighters to fight with two other fighters, this is also a
four player mode), Versus mode (where you can go head to head with a
friend) and Watch mode (where you chose two computer controlled
fighters to fight each other as you sit back and watch them brawl).

Audio

The audio in DOA3 is very well done. The music, which consists of
Japanese, rock, and techno music, fits perfectly with the fast paced
gameplay. Three songs that have been recorded by the band Aerosmith
have been included in the soundtrack as well. The sound effects are
great, similar to sound effects in an action film. Every punch and
kick sounds realistic, giving you a sense of satisfaction when you’re
done showing your opponent who’s the boss. The voice-overs are in
Japanese (considering this, subtitles have been placed onscreen to
translate what the characters are saying) so I really don’t have an
opinion in whether the quality of the voice acting is good or not.

Controls

The controls are great and very responsive for such a fast paced game.
Here are the basic controls:

X: Free button (counter button when using the directional pad to
counter low, medium, and high attacks)

Y: Punch

A: Confirmation button

B: Kick, Cancel button, return button

White: Kick+ Punch

Black button: Switch fighter (available in only Tag battle)

Right Trigger: Free+ Kick

D-Pad: Move character

Graphics

DOA3 is a beautiful game to look at for such an early XBOX title. It
seems as though Team Ninja has really learned how to use the powerful
XBOX hardware very well for DOA3 pumps out great character models, animations,
and particle effects. Also, its obviously not hard to miss all of the
hot (and also very well endowed) women that are in the game that are a
pleasure to watch in the game. The environments in the game also look
ridiculously good with awesome lighting effects and textures. Overall,
this game is a great piece of art.

Overall

DOA3 has got it all: great looks, great gameplay, and great controls
that will surely bring you back for more. This is easily one of the
best games to grace the XBOX and one of the best fighting games out on
any console for that matter. With a $19.99 price tag, where can you go
wrong? Go out and get this one now, you won’t be dissapointed.

8.5 Overall Score  Fun 9  Gameplay 9  Graphics 9  Sound 8  Replay 8

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Xbox Core Rating System