When Microsoft first announced the Xbox, the list of "premiere" games was slim to none. For hardcore console gamers, nothing really popped out; until the shocking announcement that Tecmo was going to make DEAD OR ALIVE 3 an Xbox exclusive. This was rather shocking news, as DEAD OR ALIVE 3 is clearly one of the premiere 3D fighting game titles with a rather large fan base (who are now forced to buy a new system, Xbox, if they want to continue playing this series.)

So, after months of anticipation, the moment of truth arrived when DOA3 debuted with the Xbox launch in the U.S. And after many weeks of butt-kicking, jaw-dropping matches, the verdict is in: DEAD OR ALIVE 3 is the most beautiful 3D fighting game ever created, with the best fighting system to back it up.

It's really hard to put into words just how amazing and retina-searing the visuals in DOA3 are. Sometimes the greatest improvements are in the "little things," as in the case of DEAD OR ALIVE 3. If you give just a passing glance at the game, you may think that it looks similar to DOA2 on the PS2. But stop and really watch the game and soon, the glory begins to seep in. "Natural," realistic-looking sunlight bathes the sunny beaches in the Beach Level, where the sand on the beach actually shifts with the fighters' feet as they step across it. The palm trees cast real-time shadows that display individual leaves on the sand! Everything is lovingly crafted—the polygon count is so beyond what has been in previous fighting games that it's scary.

Other levels are the same way—in fact, every level in the game is nothing short of amazing. The Aquarium stage features see-through glass on all sides as the fighters battle it out, surrounded by aquatic marine life so well-modeled that they could've been main creatures in a game all by themselves. There's an ancient temple stage where it looks simple at first, until you realize that every time you smash your opponent into the brick/tile ground, the stone tiles shatter into pieces! The detail is truly astounding. The best stage is the Hong Kong one where you're battling it out in a high-tech corporate building, but as soon as you smash your opponent through the window, he/she goes flying out, crashing through a column of stunning neon signs from the Chinese businesses, before you land on the wet streets of Hong Kong proper!

Moving to the characters, they are also sometimes hard to appreciate, as Tecmo has chosen to pull the camera out slightly, making the characters look just a bit smaller than their DOA2 appearance (but they are still more than large enough on screen as is.) The most likely reason is perhaps to give more viewing space to the amazing levels that they spent so much time on, and it works well, but it might've been better if they had given the user the option to choose the camera angle. The characters themselves are truly a cut above DOA2. The subtle folds in the clothing, the actual cloth physics are truly mind-boggling; each character's clothing flaps and waves in a certain way. And of course, the (in)famous "chest-bounce" is back in full force. All of the female fighters in DEAD OR ALIVE 3 are well-endowed and their... polygons... bounce and move even more than ever.

The entire cast of DEAD OR ALIVE 2 comes back (although Ein is a secret character you have to unlock), and all of them have been refined and their polygons increased. The three new characters to DOA3 deserve special mention: Brad Wong is a super-refined version of Shun Di (from VIRTUA FIGTHER) or Lei (from TEKKEN) in that he uses the Drunken Boxing fighting technique. His animations are excellent, to say the least. Christie is a user of the Snake Fist style and, besides her low-cut outfit, her fighting style is one of the most unique ones to hit a fighting game in years: all the classic Chinese Kung-Fu movies with "Snake Style" fighting are encapsulated here. And finally, this reviewer's favorite new character, Kasumi, is a traditional user of Karate.

At first she plays exactly like Ein, and many of her moves are drawn from his animations from DOA2, but they've given her some additional moves as well. Overall, when you see her in her Karate gi, you can't help but think that Akane from RANMA 1/2 has finally been put into 3D form.

The audio is solid, rocking music with great sound effects. The first thing you'll notice is something distinctly American about the game: Aerosmith rocks the house with their tunes in DOA3! An interesting choice, but not surprising since the DOA series has always had some heavy guitar riffs in its music track. The sound effects are huge, beefy "BOOM!" sounds when the strongest attacks connect, excellently accentuating the fight on hand. And Tecmo did the right thing again by keeping the excellent Japanese seiyuu (voice actors) for the fighters and giving us English subtitles.

But visuals and audio mean nothing if the gameplay isn't there, and DEAD OR ALIVE 3 has more than enough gameplay to put most 3D fighters to shame. Over the years, the DOA series has truly gone from a "VF clone with a counter button" to the most impressive 3D fighting game ever created. Tecmo has refined the gameplay even more yet still keeps the classic three button setup: There's a "Free" button (used for Counters and other combinations), and "Punch" and "Kick." That's it. But from there a myriad of combinations can be created. DOA3 has been so refined that it truly is to 3D what STREET FIGHTER II with its combos was to 2D fighters back in the day. They have finally given the player the ability to truly "chain"/create their own combos by allowing you to string together certain moves. These are outside of the standard "regular preset button combos." So, like the 2D STREET FIGHTER series, in DOA3 you can "open up" an opponent by stunning them, then string together a few combos, then link something else, and go from there.

The only downside in this whole masterpiece is the fact that it feels a bit Incomplete. Normally, DEAD OR ALIVE's trademark has always been tons of secrets in the game—unlocking multiple costumes, a secret boss or two and other extras. But in the U.S. Xbox version, everyone has on average three costumes total, which is nothing in comparison to the nine plus costumes in the previous versions. It's really a disappointment, as for a one player game, the key incentive (besides learning the character) was to unlock secrets—it was worth playing over and over again to unlock the secrets. But now, with almost nothing to unlock, the only incentive left is to play against the CPU and learn a character.

To make matters worse, Tecmo has created the worst end boss for a fighting game, ever. First off, the angle you fight in is downright stupid. They tried to make it dramatic, but the perspective is just wrong. On top of that, you continuously get knocked down by long-distance attacks from the boss (usually unblockable), and it only gets worse from there. It's just really bad, and in the end, makes beating the game an exercise in frustration. It's so bad that it really takes the game down a notch.

To conclude, DEAD OR ALIVE 3 is the most visually stunning 3D fighting game ever created. With an awesome gameplay engine that allows true creative combination fighting, it's the fighting game to get. It's only mired down by the fact that the single player game is almost useless (except learning the characters), and the secrets are almost nil. I'd imagine that the Japanese version of DOA3 (which launches next month in Japan) will be ten times better with tons of secrets and more. But grab one to three buddies and pile on for the excellent versus mode, which is where the true fighting is at. A masterpiece.

Rating: 9.3 / 10.0