DANGEROUS thing, expectation. The Dead Or Alive series has legions of fans, many of whom will have been desperate to get hold of the Xbox 360 version.

Now it's here - already sitting at the top of the games chart - said legions probably aren't disappointed.

DOA 4 is everything they will have been dreaming of... and I'm not talking about the jiggly body parts of the female fighters, of which there are plenty.

But the thing is, I was hoping for a little bit more, which is why there are four stars up there, not five.

I was dazzled by the visuals but the gameplay left me with a strong sense of deja vu. The only major improvement to the fighting controls is the tweaked counter-move method.

Rather than simply timing your counter by hitting X at the right time, you need to predict where your foe's attack will land.

Mistime the move and you are left wide open to attack, making pulling off counter-moves very challenging.

Otherwise, it's just like every other version of Dead Or Alive - and every other fighting game, for that matter - with the Y, B, and A buttons allowing you to punch, kick and grab your opponent.

You can add a bit of variety to your attacks by pressing the D-pad in different directions and there's a huge number of combos to master.

DOA 4's characters move with customary style and fluidity but they look just that little bit better on the 360.

The environments, however, are stunning - easily the best I've seen in a fighting game.

If you want to unlock all the characters you'll need to play through the eight battles in Story mode.

I say 'Story mode' in the loosest sense because there's not much character development or story.

The most entertaining options are Survival mode and Time Attack mode. You can also do battle offline in Versus mode, or online via Xbox Live.

Don't get me wrong, DOA 4 is a very good game, it just lacks that extra something that would have made it an all-time great.