Price: £29.99 Players: 1-online Widescreen: Yes 60Hz: Yes Dolby Digital 5.1 sound: Yes Xbox Live-enabled: Yes Downloadable content: Yes There's not much new to Dead or Alive 4, but then at the time of reviewing (Jan 2007) it's a comparative budget game at a penny under 30 quid, such is the price now, so if you held back from buying it at full price and did enjoy a good kick and punch back in the day then it may be worth a purchase now.

The basics are all here with this chapter in the DOA series, starting with the Story Mode in which you'll experience each character's story as they kick and punch through the stages to reach their destinies. Then there's the Time attack mode (go through the stages in the fastest time, Survival (beat a succession of baddies), Team Battle (form a team of up to 7 characters and use most or all of them to be the winner once one team is defeated in full), Versus mode (1 on 1), Sparring (i.e. a practice mode) or Watch (sit back and let the CPU characters duke it out). You can also look at snapshots taken in Watch mode, view player records and playback saved replays. Online play is also available here. Rather than try and work out the different combos, since there's scores of these and all available via the Command List when you pause a game, you'll experience an awful lot of 'hit and hope' action here like every other DOA game I've played before. In fact, it is rather difficult, even in Normal difficulty, so there's not much to be gained from trying out fancy moves as you'll just get wiped out before you've had chance to half-complete one! That said, you can sidestep as you could in Dead or Alive Ultimate so that's a bit of a help in avoiding the kicks and punches of your enemies as it doesn't always work. Another irritation is that in some scenes you can't fall off the edge of the gameplay area onto new sections like you could in Dead or Alive Ultimate, but here there is some of that brought into it, so bounce the old man with grey hair down the stairs - and that's not a euphemism, but on the Xbox you could smash someone through a wall or plate-glass window and fall to our, otherwise certain fate but here, next level of ground down, be it a mountainous area or a lush, snowy and icy landscape. However, this seems to happen on a very few and far between occasion, by comparison, so most of the time you just reach the 'edge' of the playing square which is rather bemusing and frustrating.

The characters talk in Japanese only, although English subtitles (and other languages) are available so you can understand what they're saying. I would've preferred an English dubbed version, though, like previous games. Also, this sequel looks nice, such as a Vegas scene that has you fighting in the middle of the road as cars drive past you and beep their horns but you know this isn't the centre of Manchester on a Friday night and the cars aren't going to drive into you so it loses it's impact. Musically, the in-game audio is typical arcade hi-energy synth or some heavy rock-style music, accompanied by grunts and taunts from the onscreen foes. It's also got the same old basic flaws as past games such as in kicking someone while they're up against a wall - they fall down and you seem to 'hover' away from them so they can lie down fully, and it feels a bit plasticky overall since the gameplay just hasn't changed over the years and we've been here too many times before. On the bonus side of things, you can unlock costumes by completing the Story Modes, plus there's the Movie Theater mode where you can view each character's ending. You can also achieve Bronze, Silver and Gold in the other game modes as well as completing individual wins and straight wins online as well as a host of secret achievements. Basically, if you want to play more of the same but with better graphics, take DOA4 home with you, but if you're not sure then a rental is advisable.

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Review copyright © Dominic Robinson, 2007.