Nicole (Dead or Alive)

Nicole (SPARTAN-458)
Dead or Alive, Halo character
Nicole/SPARTAN-458, as she appears in Dead or Alive 4
First game	Dead or Alive 4 (2005)
Created by	Bungie
Voiced by	Lyssa Browne
Fictional profile
Nationality	UNSC, Martian
Fighting style	Close Quarters Battle
Occupation	Commando

Nicole (ニコール Nikōru?), codenamed SPARTAN-458, is a fictional character from Team Ninja's 2005 fighting game Dead or Alive 4. Originating from the Halo fictional universe, she is a result of collaboration between the game's developers and Bungie Studios, the developer of the Halo series. After Team Ninja asked Bungie to use the protagonist of Halo, the Master Chief, in their game, Nicole was created instead to avoid storyline conflicts. Her appearance in pre-release promotional previews of Dead or Alive 4 raised interest in the game's development.

Nicole is portrayed as a twenty-sixth century human female from Mars who was kidnapped by the United Nations Space Command (UNSC) and placed into the SPARTAN-II Project, and who eventually becomes a Petty Officer Second Class. Her presence in the Dead or Alive universe is explained as an accident involving the space-time continuum that has transported her to the twenty-first century.

Nicole was voiced by Lyssa Browne, who also voiced Slippy Toad in the English version of Star Fox 64. She has not appeared in any games since DOA4 due to copyright issues, although she has been integrated into the extended Halo universe. She was the first guest character to appear in the DOA series, which since then has also featured appearances by characters from the Virtua Fighter and The King of Fighters franchises.

Development

Nicole is the result of collaboration between Tecmo's Team Ninja and Microsoft's Bungie Studios. Team Ninja originally asked Bungie for permission to use the Master Chief, which proved impossible due to storyline restrictions. But the staff at Bungie were intrigued with the idea and wanted to try something similar. As a result, Bungie developed the concept of a Spartan not entirely connected to the Halo storyline who could conveniently and somewhat plausibly be fit into the Dead or Alive universe. This concept evolved into the character of Nicole. Nearly all of the resources for her design came straight from Halo 2 game data. The data was modified to work in the Dead or Alive game engine as a female combatant, but kept to the traditional Spartan design; a feminine figure would have been implausible for such a heavily armored, cybernetically enhanced individual.

Background

According to Nicole's fictional backstory, she is born in the Martian city of Legaspi in 2531. This, however, seems unlikely as the SPARTAN-II program used children of the age of 6 and born in 2511 (however it is possible as it is believed that there was a second class of spartan 2s). Members of the UNSC Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI) kidnap her at the age of six and enroll her in the SPARTAN-II Project, an initiative designed to develop the "Spartan" series of supersoldiers; this is the same program that the Master Chief, and other Spartans from the Halo series undergo.

Bungie explained Nicole's presence in the Dead or Alive setting of the 21st century in an article that revealed the character's background. The studio stated that the character, who has never appeared in any other Halo fiction, is sent to the 21st century when a partially stable "bubble" in the space-time continuum opens near Nassau Station, where she and her unit are preparing for a secret mission. This "bubble" is created when Apocalypso, an ONI stealth vehicle, interacts with real-space, as a result of an unusual slipspace incident.

This incident traps Nicole in the 21st century. While waiting for the bubble to collapse, which she hopes will enable her to return to the future, she battles any member of the DOA cast to arrive at the station, protecting its classified information. To keep the space-time continuum stable, she avoids lethal force in executing her current task.

Gameplay

Nicole's fighting style is very quick and powerful, a variation of standard military close quarters combat. Her move list contains moves of other characters in the game; her fighting style is a hybrid of Leon and Bayman's movesets to create a blend of striking combos and throws. Her style meant to incapacitate an armed opponent in a matter of seconds and take advantage of her enhanced strength, as well as to exploit any environmental advantages. She is described as having great speed despite her large size. Many of her moves allude to the Halo universe, with names such as "The Great Journey" and "The Grunt Punt"; the former is a powerful move that sends an opponent down stairs or off a ledge. Also in Nicole's repertoire are several technologies from Halo, including active camouflage, represented by her taunt and rendering her nearly invisible, and the plasma grenade, represented by a command throw. She is also one of the easiest characters in the game to both play as and master due to her simple, yet effective moveset. Even though she did not appear in Dead or Alive 5 due to licensing issues (as well as DOA5 also being on PlayStation 3), her moveset was mostly reused by Rachel (originally a non-playable character from the Ninja Gaiden reboot on the original Xbox) in DOA5's re-release Dead or Alive 5 Ultimate, effectively making Rachel Nicole's replacement.

Though Nicole's default tag partner in DOA4 is Bayman, she does not have any tag throws or an intro or outro with either him or any of the other characters in the game, making her one of two characters to not have any of these features (the other being Tengu).

Reception

Previews of Dead or Alive 4 showed a Spartan among the game's characters; this attracted attention and curiosity regarding whether such a character would appear fully functional in the final version of the game. The character's moves, all of which were homages to the Halo series, and the inclusion of a Halo-based level were positively described in pre-release reviews. Bungie returned the favor, and in the release of Halo 3 there is an armor type called Hayabusa, for which its design is based on Ryu Hayabusa's appearance.

See also

• Akira Yuki
• Jacky Bryant
• Kula Diamond
• List of Dead or Alive characters
• List of Halo characters
• Mai Shiranui
• Master Chief (Halo)
• Momiji (Ninja Gaiden)
• Pai Chan
• Rachel (Ninja Gaiden)
• Sarah Bryant (Virtua Fighter)