Dead Or Alive Ultimate review

Despite looking soft, warm and expensive, girls are secretly very violent. All fluttering eyelashes, teasing necklines and fruit-smelling hair - but so much as think of commenting on their figure, and there'll be a fist against your throat before you can say 'doghouse'. Dead Or Alive Ultimate is a tribute to that lady-violence; this being the ultimate in the Dead Or Alive games series, all dedicated to the allure of busty girls hurting each other.

DOAU is a two-disc compilation, and a spanky one at that. It contains the original DOA game that gave the series its jiggly reputation, as well as a gorgeous update of Dead Or Alive 2, which looks as pretty as any Xbox game out there. Both feature Xbox Live play, via a 'Virtual Arcade', allowing up to eight players to hang out, challenge one another, watch others play and compare burps across time zones.

Apart from this inclusion, however, there's nothing new here when compared to DOA. The idea behind DOAU seems to be to provide a glossy, all-in special edition for Xbox owners, allowing them to catch up on the series while basking in the luxury of cutting-edge visual jazz. Anyone expecting something clever or fresh will be left with lemon in their eyes, really.

There are an extensive number of unlockable costumes to find, if you're up really for the slog. Otherwise, it's DOA business as usual - a supremely accessible beat 'em up, but if you're an experienced fight fan, it's little shallow. Only bother with this game if you're a collector of luscious games packaging, or take in Xbox Live as a regular part of your gaming diet. Or, of course, if you like watching make-believe ladies smack each other senseless.

Dead or Alive Ultimate will be released for Xbox in April