Dead or Alive 2 brought to the table some impressive visuals, an interesting countering system and several fighters with different styles, attitudes and ways to put on the pain. With the release of the X-Box and Dead or Alive 3, you have a game that looks incredibly stunning, but also is a game that features little more than the visual face lifts and a couple of extra characters thrown into the mix! As with most fighting games, you have to take into consideration the amount of moves, fighters and locations as well as what you can do to your opponent in the ring and what they can do to you.

With no real discernable story line to speak of, and the sight of fully bouncing breasts of female fighters, the game play falls into the simple mash and attack game that the previous Dead or Alive game was.With Dead or Alive 3, most of the characters from the second game have returned with the addition of a couple of fighters that seem to have pasted moves from other characters. Although this may not turn off some fighting game fans, its hard for me to really get into a game that features little or nothing new to play and costs me fifty bucks in the process! Once you get into the game, you're doing it for the visuals and those alone and if you're trying to kid yourself into believing there is something else, then you may be sadly mistaken.

The game play is your typical mashing the buttons slug fest in which you select one of several characters and beat the hell out of each other. The move lists are easily found in the pause menu and you can practice your move sets through the practice mode from the start screen. Combinations are more or less variations on the punch and kick system with a couple of directional movements thrown in for good measure. All in all, you've got a game that anyone can beat, and anyone can play as long as you have a basic understanding of the countering system that allows you to stop most attacks before they even get started! If you're looking for fireballs and dragon punches, you won't get either, and you're on a quest to pound someone into the ground only.

Control is a factor that you're going to have to work with considering that the X-Box controller is exceptionally large and heavy. While the buttons are all placed out where you can get at them, the countering system is something that you have to work with and learn in order to play the game effectively. As I said before, all of the moves and combinations can be practiced with in a Practice Mode, so there really isn't much of a problem for beginners and veterans alike. As always, once you've got a combination or move down, you should be able to fly through the game and learn what there is to offer in little or no time!

Visually, Dead or Alive 3 is one of the most stunningly beautiful fighting games that I've come across to date. With exceptional fighting locations, multi-tiered stages and characters that move with life and near flawless beauty, you may wonder what could possibly go wrong here. Although there really is little wrong here, and the moves, characters, throws and otherwise move with speed, precision and extreme camera angles, there is just one simple problem. Once you've performed the moves, seen the stages and watched the introduction, endings and otherwise, there just isn't anything left to watch and see and you'll have to dive into the game play which is rather shallow!

While some people may like Aerosmith as a band and enjoy their music, I don't. For some reason, I don't want to hear Steven Tyler's voice crooning while I'm trying to pimp slap the hell out of Bayman, and in all honesty, I don't see the reasoning behind having them here! Aside from that problem, the game music sets the pace of the game and keeps the theme for the most part without going too far overboard. The sound effects on the other hand are done fairly well, with plenty of thuds, crunches, and objects breaking at every point. Something that I found to override the music was the voice effects that the game has to offer and even though the voices aren't dubbed from the Japanese version, they are done in such a way that you'll enjoy listening to them talk!

What Dead or Alive 3 does is to create a game that shows off the visual power that the X-Box is capable of. On the other hand, in doing that, you have a game that really doesn't have much else to offer and if you're looking for true depth inside of this title, then you need to look a little further. Something that I heard rumors of was that there would be additional discs that you could buy for this game to increase the game play but to be honest with you, there is no way in hell that I would play more money to play a game that I've already bought. For some odd reason, that seems like a ploy to draw more money out of you just like Sega did with their first few games and having gamers log onto their site to get more game options.

If you're into fighting games, then you may find this one to be one of few that are actually good on the X-Box so far. With Kabuki Warriors being a game that is more suited for Bushido Blade players, this one is more of button mashers who like to stare at women's breasts. Although the visual power of the X-Box is shown, and the game looks great, it plays like any other fighting game out there with little or nothing to offer. Worth a weekend rental at best, you have to make your own choice on this one and decide if watching bouncing virtual body parts is worth five bucks, or fifty!