In this day and age there are a few fighting games that need no introduction. Since the Dreamcast (Soul Calibur) there has always been a fighting game at launch that usually has jaw dropping visuals. There was Dead Or Alive 3 for the Xbox and to a lesser extent DoA Hardcore for the PS2.

So needless to say, when Dead Or Alive 4 was announced for the Xbox 360, gamers were very excited. Even Xbox.com displayed video (albeit grainy video) of the game as a sales point. Unfortunately, the game had been delayed for a month at launch time and the last week of December 2005 was painfully slow waiting for the release.

Finally we have the game, and it’s very enjoyable. Firing up the game you see the traditional Team Ninja intro for most DoA games with the ocean and the lightning. You know you’re in for something good.

On a high definition TV, the graphics are outstanding in 720p or 1080i – especially the backgrounds. I have to say that viewing the game in 480p isn’t as stellar. It looks great, but it looks similar to the DoA game on the Xbox. The characters all look very nice, but it is the backgrounds that really catch your eye. Two backgrounds are especially good: the Las Vegas like setting and the wildlife preserve setting. Note that in the Vegas scene the operating marquee displays your Gamer Tag quote. Pretty neat.

There are many different modes in the game: Story mode (follow a ‘story’ of a character), Time Attack Mode (best time), versus mode (duh), Survival mode (beat as many people as you can with limited life), Team Battle mode (duh), Sparring mode (training), watch mode (duh), and of course DOA online.

Story mode has got to be the silliest thing I’ve ever seen. Only a Japanese game would call this a ‘story’. While playing as one character, you just start fighting, then towards the end of your story, you go to the produce market and want to buy ….some lettuce! Then you ask the shopkeeper to give you a discount on lettuce (mind you, here in the USA, lettuce is about a dollar a head, maybe that’s 3 billion yen, I’m not sure). He of course says no, and then another woman character comes in and buys the lettuce, making you mad enough to fight.

I’ve heard of some silly reasons to fight, but lettuce has got to be the silliest. When you defeat all your enemies in story mode you are treated to a cut scene. Following this story, Kasumi decides to dance around in a thong, take a shower and make a salad with some of the goofiest music this side of Sonic-R. Then someone is at the door. The end. Not all of the stories are this lame, but they aren’t great either.

Survival Mode is my favorite offline game. Tecmo has integrated Xbox Live leaderboards into this mode – so after you are knocked out, you are taken right to a rank screen showing how well you did on points and KO’s against everyone else that has played the game. A rank of 20,000 never felt so good.

Control in the game takes some time to get used to. While many of the moves are going to be familiar to experienced DOA players, there are also some new moves. The biggest addition is the ‘enhanced’ countering system. With this system not only do you hit a button to counter an attack, you also have to point in the direction that your opponent is going to hit you. Getting counters down is essential to winning in DOA, however during some games, I see it being more of a counter-fest. Many people often complain that fighting games are nothing but button mashers and the counters are supposed to negate those quick reflexes. The idea is noble; however if you’re just hitting the counter button to offset someone hitting an attack button, it doesn’t really seem productive.

Tecmo was nice enough to show the combos for each player on screen; however they are shown as Japanese moves and nothing that you really understand. I’d rather see "super high kick/punch combo" than the Japanese name for it. A major beef of mine is that the manual translates the buttons. In the manual they say that the "F" command is the “X” button. You know what would be easier to comprehend? How about just saying press "X" instead?