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Dead or Alive 4 Preview (Articles)

Ah, the staple beat-em-up; an essential of any consoles launch. Dead or Alive once again returns with big bouncy boobs in check and a surprise addition. While the recently announced Spartan character wasn't available in the build we played, we were presented with a vast array of characters.

One of the main criticisms of the series so far has been the fact a button basher could easily knock out someone who is a master of moves. Team Ninja have rectified this (believe me, I tried beating the guys we played against but they kicked my ass badly) by making it slightly easier to block and counter. That's not, overly easy; just easy enough to combat the problem of button bashing.

Visually the game looks great, not as great a jump as Dead of Alive 3 was, but a jump all the same. Some criticism comes through the overly-shiny environments and characters but that can be put down to Team Ninja's artistic style.

Although the weakest of the titles on display; DoA4 is in no way a light weight. Combining an improvement in the counters and blocking department, as well as the undeniable geek-sheik coolness of having a Spartan as a character, DoA4 could provide a worthwhile purchase should you be a beat-em-up fan, or have the budget to stretch to all five games.

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