Fans of Tecmo's Dead or Alive series who happened to make the trek to the 2005 Tokyo Game Show will more than likely be a bit disappointed. The next installment in the series, Dead or Alive 4, has a very small presence in Tecmo's booth, with no hands-on stations or new trailers to be found. However, a select few members of the press were invited to take a look at Tecmo's upcoming masterpiece at a hotel close to the convention center.

After spending a few hours with Dead or Alive 4, it's safe to say that the game will offer more depth than any previous installment in the series. The easiest way to describe the changes would be to simply say the game offers a counter system that's not nearly as loose as previous installments of the game, more offensive and defensive options, better use of the environment and more ways to use the environment, and a slightly revamped stun system.

For the hardcore fighting game fans out there, DOA4 has attacks that grant frame advantage on block, and while the counters still execute in zero frames, the counter window has dropped from 22 frames down to about 10 frames (our best guess). The ground game (also referred to as okizeme in the hardcore fighting game scene) offers the ability to attack your opponent on the ground with more than just the two basic attacks offered in previous DOA titles, as well as the ability to catch rising opponents with certain attacks.

The build Tecmo had available for us to play was about 60% complete, but the game is still on track for the Xbox 360 release in all territories (yes, that means US Xbox 360 owners will be playing DOA4 on 11/22). In fact, series creator Tomonobu Itagaki stated that he had been up for the last 50 hours without sleep in an attempt to get the game finished for launch. There were 24 boxes on the select screen, but only 10 characters were playable: Kasumi, Jann Lee, Ayane, Ryu Hayabusa, Hitomi, Elliot, Zack, Lei Fang, Christie, and the mysterious masked female wrestler who most believe to be Lisa. Non-playable, but featured on the character select screen were: Kokoro, Brad Wong, Bass, Tina, Bayman, Hayate, and Helena. Rounding things out were six boxes with question marks (presumably unlockable characters), and a random select box.

While at first glance, Dead or Alive 4 may appear to be very much like previous games in the series, the more you play, the more you'll realize that quite a bit has changed. For starters, several characters have lost their bread and butter attacks. Kasumi and Hayabusa no longer have their stand alone elbow attacks that proved to be highly abusable in previous DOA titles. In addition, the entire game seems to run slightly faster than any other game in the series.

Gameplay isn't the only area of change in Dead or Alive 4. The online mode has made several strides since DOA Ultimate. First and foremost, 16 players can now hang out in the virtual arcade setting first seen in DOAU. The lobby itself is now a complete 3D environment. The lobby we were shown had a Halloween theme, and looked as if it was set in a pumpkin patch, with a large TV in the background. Each of the players in the lobby was represented by a 3D avatar. These avatars ranged from ghosts, to chickens, to aliens, to pigs. Players will be able to make their avatars perform random motions by pressing any direction on the d-pad (including the four diagonal directions). Our chicken was able to peck the ground, wave, cry, show surprise, perform a jumping cluck, and several other random motions. Text and voice chat are also available in the lobby area.

Even at this early stage, Dead or Alive 4 is a must have Xbox 360 launch title. Not only is it the only fighting game that will be available at launch, but it picks up where DOA Ultimate left off by significantly improving the gameplay, doubling the amount of people who can hang out in an online lobby, completely revamping the lobby system, and adding enough depth to the title to finally satisfy tournament savvy fighting game fans who have complained about DOA's lack of depth for years. In fact, we've only just scratched the surface of Dead or Alive 4, so be sure to stay with us as we'll be taking closer look at the gameplay aspects of DOA4 next week.