Gaming Target - Xbox: Dead or Alive 3

Written by Patrick Geurs on October 01, 2001

First Impressions: The premiere bounceЕ I mean fighter is back and better than ever.

The Dead or Alive series have always boasted intense gameplay, beautiful women, and an entirely different approach to your average fighting game. Gone are the fireballs and insane jumps, and in its place is simply pure fighting. No tricks, no fancy mid-air 30 hit combos, just a fighting game for fighting purists inside and out. We have seen many games attempt to be Уtrue 3D fightersФ, but none of them have really lived up to the task. Dead or Alive changed all that. With the inclusion of a УfreeФ button, gamers could walk freely in any direction at any time they chose to do so. Unfortunately, DOA disappeared into thin air and nothing was heard of a sequel for some time. Then, along came DOA2 for the DC (DOA2:HC later for the PS2), seemingly out of nowhere, and left many people staring in disbelief that it was all real-time featuring fully interactive 3D stages with breakable windows and rails and walls (oh my).

Enter Dead or Alive 3. The 3rd installment into this series is unlike anything ever seen. Not only is this game shaping up graphically to embarrass its previous versions, but DOA3 is looking set to head-butt the competition into submission, and still have the polygon power to stand back and laugh afterwards. Every person that I know of that has witnessed the game themselves, or even screenshots, have had nothing to say except, УOh my God!Ф As if that wasn't enough to get you excited about this game, here's the kicker. It's exclusive to the Xbox indefinitely. Team Ninja feels that Xbox is the only console that can handle the sheer graphical prowess of DOA3. Judging by what I have seen, I can imagine why. The stages, for lack of a better word, are HUGE! The beach level has trees, a heck of a lot of birds flying about in the air, and crashing waves on the sand, all done for you by the Xbox GPU in real-time. The forest stage, with its rolling hills, sunlight filtering through the trees, and the entrance of Hyabusa with 5,000 floating leaves (yes, you read right, now pick your jaw up off the floor and back away, slowly), is nothing short of utterly phenomenal. The best part though, is that these aren't just backdrops that are there for looks, but rather actual fighting stages all in 3D polygonal glory. Also, on a technical level, load times have all but been eliminated, thanks to the built-in hard drive.

All of that makes for a visually impressive game, but how does it play? On the game modes, you can expect your standard arcade, versus, story, and tag team affair, and no, you don't need a multi-tap to play this game with 4 players like in the PS2 version (what were they thinking?). It is not known, at least to me, what other modes will be included, (CG gallery on the PS2 version, anyone?). One thing to note about the story mode is that it is much improved over DOA2's, what there was of it anyways. Each character has a longer ending, up to 70 seconds in some cases, as well as deeper development, making the characters more УaliveФ and not just droning martial artists. Unfortunately, I am not one of the lucky blokes that have been able to play DOA3, as of yet, so I can't say anything more on this. However, Xbox kiosks have apparently started making appearances around certain game stores as I write this. While exactly what title(s) are in them are unknown, one of the titles is being rumored to be DOA3. Perhaps the best answer would be to try it out first-hand. Just don't try breaking into the store at midnight to play. You wouldn't want to be locked up when this bad boy launches. All in all though, word is that DOA3 retains all of the gameplay that made DOA popular to begin with, adding a few new elements and styles along the way. Bottom line, if you liked DOA2, then DOA3 will not disappoint.

As if all of this wasn't fascinating enough, there are 3 new characters to mix it up with the vets. There are now 16 fighters to choose from, 16 gorgeous stages to duke it out on and through, as the environments are damageable once again, and a whopping 13 different fighting styles to master. As for the new guys, each one of them is as different from each other as they are from the returning champs. There is Christie, a 24-year-old English assassin that uses the style of She Quan. Also coming to us is Hitomi, the 18-year-old German high school student using the tried and true style of Karate. Finally, there is Brad Wong, a 30-year-old Chinese fighter using the style of Zui Ba Xian Quan. Each of those fighters will offer a wide range of styles to go with the already impressive variety found in the current DOA lineup.