Dead or Alive 4
Published by: Tecmo
Developed by: Team Ninja
Released December 28, 2005
Why we chose it: Squeezing in just before the cut-off for the awards (such is why we wait until the year actually ends to start on these awards), Dead or Alive 4 ended the year on a high note for many an Xbox 360 owner. Team Ninja have made a name for themselves amoung the Xbox fanbase as masters of visual presentation and quality gameplay, and Dead or Alive 4 will do nothing to tarnish that reputation – in fact, it will in all likelihood serve to strengthen it significantly.
Dead or Alive 4 is, in no uncertain terms, a masterpiece, one of the best fighting games made for any platform ever. Whereas critics of the franchise often attacked the counter system as unbalanced or broken due to the ease with which they could be performed and the damage they inflicted, Team Ninja have fixed the issue. Better timing and faster reflexes are now required to perform the significantly weaker counter-attacks, and the entire affair has been sped up to match the 60 frames per second at which the graphics engine renders the action.
Online play is handled exceptionally well, and has quickly risen to rival Perfect Dark Zero in popularity online. Players have a wealth of search parameters to adjust in order to find the matches they’ll enjoy most, the eccentric lobby system is a hoot, the action is hardly ever laggy when the proximity to the server is decent, and the ranking system ensures that experienced players arent destroying noobies with a vendetta unless the noobies actually hunt down such punishment.
Graphically, whats left to say? The only point of dispute is the style with which the characters are rendered. While the backdrops are displayed in nearly photo-realistic glory, the fighters are designed almost as an amalgamation of realism and anime-inspired styling. From a technical standpoint, there’s nothing to object to – the texturing is insanely well done, the character models are animated flawlessly, and various particle and lighting effects bring every battle to life.
Xbox 360 had one of the most solid launch lineups in history, but Dead or Alive 4 is in a league of its own as far as Xbox 360 software is concerned. If you only buy one game for Xbox 360 this year, make it Dead or Alive 4. We’ll see you online.
Runners-up:
Project Gotham Racing 3
Perfect Dark Zero
__________
Best of 2005: Xbox 360 Categories
Best Graphics
Best Art Direction
Best Music
Best Audio
Best Storyline in a Game
Best Action/Adventure Game
Best First-Person Shooter
Best Fighting Game
Best Racing Game
Best Sports Game
Best Multiplayer Game
Sleeper Hit
Most Disappointing Game
Xbox 360 Game of the Year
