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It's the best game on the XBOX 360, but it still has flaws.

User Rating: 9.3 | Dead or Alive 4 (Platinum Hits) X360

By Filthy_Animal | Review Date: August 13, 2006

First, I’d like to say that this is a great game and I love it deeply. I will be playing it almost daily until the next installment in the series comes out. I just wanted to get that out of the way, because I’m mostly just gonna list the flaws. Unfortunately, I don’t have a high-speed internet connection, so keep in mind I’m doing this based on the main game. The main problem I have with the game is the difficulty. It’s not hard enough to be considered impossible, but it is difficult and the final boss (Alpha-152) cannot be beaten the first time you play the game. The game seems to read your controller and react based on that rather than having a complex system, but that could be just because it’s really good. It certainly doesn’t help that the easiest difficulty setting is Normal and I have trouble getting through that without putting my fist through my screen. Another problem: the graphics. Beautiful graphics, except for the characters, the thing you’ll be focusing on the most. The hair actually looks worse than it did in past games and the character models still seem to be made of plastic (except Jann Lee, who has veins sticking out and realistic muscles and such). You won’t even notice the music, so let’s not even get into that. There are only seven costumes max for each character and some of those are just color changes. The unlockable Spartan character from Halo is really just a combination of moves from other characters with Halo-related names and two gimmicks (plasma grenade, active camo).
Now, on to the good stuff. If you take the time to master a character, it can be very rewarding and my friend tells me online play is some of the most fun stuff out there. The character models may not look that good, but there have been improvements, no matter how small. The new characters (except Spartan) are quite fun and useful. Brad Wong is one of the greatest fighting game characters ever. Kokoro, the Geisha-in-training’s costumes could use some work (unless that’s traditional geisha attire) but she is a good character when mastered. The FMV in this game is beautiful. In Kasumi’s ending scene, if you can take your eyes off of her, the fish looks beautiful, the coral is grand . . . but as far as I can tell she has two right hands in the final scene. Some of these scenes, however, are downright hilarious, like Brad’s Genra Trip (like a kaleidoscopic acid trip on wine) and Zack’s treasure-hunting with Nikki. The final ending, Helena’s, is a movie to rival the best of Final Fantasy and is moving and emotional and downright beautiful and well-executed. It’s worth buying the game just to see some of the ending movies. The reversal system is vastly reworked, making the game much less defensive-based and more balanced. It also makes it challenging for defensive players like myself who are used to being able to win a fight by using series of reversals.
The game has ups and downs, but in essence it’s the greatest thing ever if you work at it and a nightmare (or lesson) to button-mashers. Thus, since it also teaches, I'm classifying it as the best in the series.

Dead or Alive 4

It's the best game on the XBOX 360, but it still has flaws.

Excellent Game.

The DOA series is upping the stakes