Average Customer Review: ( 203 customer reviews )
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First, I have to admit that the 'story mode' is very cheezy. Well, that's the same for any fighting game. You choose one of the many characters, choose an outfit, and jump into battles. Your person says a few words, the enemy says a few words, and they fight. With some good button-mashing, you can zip through any story in no time at all.

That's not what these games are built for, though. They're best when played multiplayer against a real human opponent! The story mode and other training modes are just to get you to learn the moves. And this is where it truly begins to shine! There are a variety of fighting styles represented in the game, and each one has a wide number of moves. They're truly amazing once you get them down, and the graphics are incredible. Their movements are smooth and fluid, from the slice of the hand to the bouncing of the pom-poms.

The backgrounds are true eye candy. There's a level where you're playing surrounded by aquariums, and even the floor you're on is the glass top of a fish tank! Another level has you fighting in the snow - and your feet mess up the snowdrifts! You can fight in a candle-surrounded room, with beautiful flickering fire, and knock them over with your opponent. Smash through a wall, and you're out on the roof! Roll off the roof, and you're down in the courtyard! It's truly like watching a fighting animation on tv, but you can control the action.

Half the fun is figuring out the secrets of each level. Can you smash through the trees? Can you throw your enemy through that plate glass window? The water splashes with each step you take, the electric fence zaps your enemy, the neon sign flickers as you fall against it.

This game definitely shows off the incredible capability of the X-Box, and is a must-have for anyone who loves fighting games. Even if you don't currently, this game might convince you why they're so much fun!

11 of 11 found the following review helpful:

Amazing Graphics, Okay GameNov 16, 2001
By smyrgl "smyrgl"
Okay, so we all know that Halo is the best Xbox game out there. But we need more then one game to play on our shiny new Xboxs right?

DOA3 is a sheep wrapped in wolf's clothing (well a very cool sheep anyways). I'm not the biggest fan of fighting games, but I found this title to be quite entertaining. From a purely gameplay standpoint it certainly holds up. Not the best fighting game in the world, but a damn solid one.

The really exceptional part about DOA3 is the graphics. Animation is smooth and fluid with breathtaking effects (yes I know it's an overused term, but the graphics really are amazing). This has to be the most graphically inspired game I have ever played. If your looking for a showpiece title, this one qualifies easily. The anime style characters are nice to look at, and the level design is borderline obsessive. Seriously, levels look confined at first until you knock your opponent out of a window and see them fall 100 feet to the ground and continue to fight.

If you like 3D fighting games or if your looking for a showpiece title then by all means pick this one up. However, its hardly a must have title. Lots of fun sure, but not nearly as much replay value as Halo. Of course nothing in my recent experience has the replay or fun factor of Halo but as far as a great looking 3D fighter goes this game rocks.

10 of 10 found the following review helpful:

Definitely the best fighting gameNov 20, 2001

First off, fighting (kung-fu) games are not for everyone. The gameplay can get repetitive quickly, because basically all you do is punch the buttons in order to hit the other guy. Games like DOA 3 have characters with different fighting styles, but if you are not into fist fights, you'd better stay away and save the money for something else.

That said, DOA 3 is more alive on arrival than dead. In fact I think it's the best fighting game ever made. No, I don't get bought out by great graphics only, but one has to admit the graphics is simply breath-taking, and more so than any previous games on any previous consoles (plus GameCube). The background adds so much enjoyment to the overall gaming experience, and the smooth gameplay showcases the prowess of the Xbox system.

What I truly like is how much fun I have with the fightings. There are many characters to choose from and each one has his/her fascinating style. While I don't think you can learn kung fu this way, you are free to experiment with various styles. And it's even better when playing with friends.

In short, if you enjoy fighting games, this is *the* one to have.

13 of 15 found the following review helpful:

Beautiful game, but better suited for certain guysNov 10, 2001

The DOA series is notorious for 2 things... extremely gorgeous graphics in its backgrounds and its buxom fighting women. The fighting is smooth with some spectacular moves, but the gameplay mechanics remains to be a button-mashing game exactly as previous DOA incarnations. It carries the same flaws in its fighting engine that DOA2 had. The most notable of these flaws is the reversal system being implemented. While the reversal command is simple to do, there is no escape when an attack is countered and the resulting damage is still too much. However, as mentioned earlier, the gameplay often will degenerate into erratic button-mashing due to the game's fighting formula, meaning that even very practiced DOA players will fall more than periodically to a beginner who is just frantically hitting buttons.

The creator of this series, Itakagi, has traditionally focused less on gameplay though. DOA's strengths will lie in its incredible fighting stages and extremely well modeled characters.

DOA3 does take a step up in the graphics department compared to DOA2, but the innovation stops there. A few additional new characters, with unfortunately the same fighting engine.

So whether to buy this game really comes down to one thing...

Gamers who enjoy beautiful CGI girls, this is for you. If Itakagi were to take away this element from this fighting game, popularity would definately drop drastically. He knows what guys like though, given that Japan is famous for drawing seductive animated females.

Yet, if you're a serious gamer who wants a fighting game with depth in its gameplay... it would be much better to pass this up.

Rating (on a scale of 1 to 5 stars, with 5 stars being the best)

Presentation ****
- Good loading times, cool attitude
Gameplay **
- Unimpressive fighting engine, haphazardly press buttons and still look like a good player
Graphics *****
- Excellent framerate, massive and beautiful environments, fluid character animation
Sound ****
- Very good soundtrack, cool voices, background noises are well implemented
Lasting Appeal **
- Multiple characters to play with, lack of solid gameplay will soon bore the more serious fighting gamers

(final rating at the top is not an average)

7 of 7 found the following review helpful:

Providing INFINITE replay value through booster discsMay 13, 2002
By E. Conforti
Dead or Alive 3 is in every way a superb game.

The graphics, needless to say, are THE most impressive ever seen for any fighting game on ANY console. This is eye candy at it's best, but also has much depth to it. The gameplay could not get better. Many people say that DOA3 is "masher friendly," that a "rookie can take on pros without practicing." Statements like those simply are not true. It has just as much depth as Tekken or Virtua Fighter. Veteran players can truly utilize the counter system and interactive objects instead of getting lucky like newbies do. Positioning, wall combos, wall throws, and "late" counters are just a few of the ways that veteran players can use to easily dispose of a "button masher".

Along with being truly 3D unlike Tekken, DOA3 also takes items like wall combos and multi-tiered stages to a whole new level. Some stages are so small that you can't help but send your opponent off a cliff or smashing into a wall. This really forces you to strategize against an experienced player and shows that this game does in fact require some strategy. But enough about gameplay.

I LOVED the music in DOA3. Now I'm no fan of Aerosmith, but the character themes are completley un-orthodoxed, but very original. I really liked Hitomi's theme as well as Lei-Fang's. The sound effects are crisp and ride nicely over the music. The one area DOA3 comes up short is, unfortunately, its replay value. There isn't much to unlock in DOA3 and a lot of players were expecting dozens of secrets like in number 2. But that just didn't happen. Still the reason I give DOA3 a perfect 5, despite it's lack of replay value, is because it REALLY didn't come up short in this category. The game already has a booster disc available (found on the demo disc in the June 2002 issue of OXM) with extra costumes for the characters, extra moves, and a new intro movie found in the Japanese version. What this means is that instead of having little or no replay value, DOA3 could have INFINITE replay value. And for a hardcore DOA fan like myself, it doesn't get any sweeter than that!

Pixel for pixel. Poly for poly. Dead or Alive 3 has NO short comings.

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