Dead or Alive 3

The Good
The first thing that you notice when you insert the game into your XBox is the absolutely stunning graphics. This title really shows off the power of the XBox, and puts other titles to shame. Another cool thing is that the arenas are interactive, and many have multiple levels, for example, when fighting in the DOATEC building, if you are hit hard enough in the proximity of a window, you will go flying through the window, sometimes shorting out the neon sign as you fall down, the fight then continues in the street. The characters themselves are very detailed, clothes and hair move in the wind, the animation is very realistic, and there is a good range of moves for the characters. There are a few different modes of play, survival, versus, tag-team, and story mode. There is also a sparring mode that has a very helpful onscreen display of your button presses. The computer AI is fairly tricky and is quite the challenge on the higher difficulties.

The Bad
The soundtrack is generic and repetitive, as are most of the sounds. The split-second countering that is often necessary can be frustrating to learn, a tutorial mode would have been very helpful. This title could also be much better if they included more modes, and extra costumes and characters, they can certainly fit it all onto a DVD. These are small quibbles, though, and shouldn't keep you from playing this stunningly beautiful fighter.

The Bottom Line
A great looking, fun, fighting game that shouldn't be missed.

The Good
Let me get this out right off the bat. The graphics are awesome. Incredible. Breathtaking. Everything from the character models to the animations to the backgrounds are absolutely flawless. I couldn't find anything wrong with them... and trust me, I tried. Definitely one of the best games, graphics-wise, for the xbox to date... including all the titles that have been released recently. If they could make games that looked this good for FIRST generation titles, why do most of the second and third generation titles look like mocked up PS2 games? Huh? ANSWER ME THAT, MICROSOFT! ahem. Moving on. The frame-rate is good, too. I haven't seen this game slow down once. I had some pretty serious multi-player tournament fights going on... and, the load times were fantastic. Only... a couple times, when explosions happened did the game stutter quite noticeably, but... it was excusable.
The characters and their fighting personalities are wonderful. My personal favorite was Brad Wong, the drunken master. Absolutely loved that guy ;) The sound was... well, it was japanese, but it sounded good to me. There were some cool fighting options too, like the tag-team fighting tournaments. Also, the ending scenes were some of the most beautiful I've ever seen in a fighting game. Definitely top notch stuff here. Oh yeah... back to the environments... I forgot to mention (although most people know about it) the ability to throw your opponents through walls, off cliffs/roofs, into electric fences, and whatnot. That was definitely a lot of fun.

The Bad
Well... the music was pretty lame, i hate to say it... but, the action was so intense, it didn't really matter.
I also didn't really like the lack of options in the game. Like someone else mentioned, Tekken has a ton of fighting options in the game, and that's where DOA3 is lacking. It has the bare bones essentials and the tag team fights... and that's IT.
Also... the game is a bit short. Even on the most difficult setting, it won't take you long to beat the entire game with every single character. And the unlockable secrets aren't really enough to keep you playing for extended periods of time. Even your friends are going to get sick of getting their asses kicked after a while. Also... some of the endings just made me go "huh? what the hell was that?", as there is almost NO speech in any of them... and it can be difficult to understand what they were trying to explain in it. But you weren't playing it for the storyline, now were you?

The Bottom Line
The best fighting game for the X-Box... and definitely has the potential to be one of the best fighting games period. There are tons of moves for you to learn, lots of fun characters to use... and plenty of interesting (and beautiful) environments to play with them in. But, as far as longevity goes... this game is somewhat lacking. Sure, it'll be fun for a while... but, after a (fairly short) while, it gets tired.

The Good
In one word: Excellent! This game (like most other Xbox) is graphically perfect, all the exciting elements from DoA and DoA 2 are there, and what makes this game the best of the series? The new multiplayer options, the new fighting moves, and the ultimate reason, it's on the Xbox! The most powerful console!

The Bad
Nothing At all, no problems, nothing, dry as a desert!

The Bottom Line
Excellent, buy it or go play it at some pay per play shop! Play it! 10/10