Tina Armstrong

Tina Armstrong
Dead or Alive character
Tina Armstrong in Dead or Alive 4
First game	Dead or Alive (1996)
Created by	Tomonobu Itagaki
Voiced by (English)	Kate Higgins (DOAX2–present)
Voiced by (Japanese)	Mami Koyama (DOA) Yūko Nagashima (DOA2–present)
Portrayed by	Jaime Pressly (film)
Fictional profile
Birthplace	Texas, USA
Nationality	American
Fighting style	Professional wrestling
Occupation	Wrestler and model Rock star (DOA5)

Tina Armstrong (ティナ・アームストロング, Tina Āmusutorongu) (born December 6 in Texas, USA; year unknown) is a player character in the Dead or Alive fighting game series by Team Ninja and Tecmo (Tecmo Koei). She was introduced in the original Dead or Alive in 1996 as an American wrestling star who dreams of even greater fame. In her subsequent entries into the Dead or Alive tournament, she changes interests, from wanting to be a model to wanting to become an actress and a rock star and finally a politician; these actions greatly disappoint her overprotective father, Bass, who only wants one goal for her. Tina has become known as one of the most iconic and attractive video game blondes. She is also considered to be one of the more beginner-friendly characters in the series, even though her combo throws require quick timing to be able to execute.

Appearances

Tina is the only daughter of the famous pro wrestler Bass Armstrong and his wife Alicia, who was raised in a world of wrestling and was trained by her father. After her mother died of illness when Tina was six years old, Bass cared for the girl by himself, wanting her to follow in his footsteps. From a young age, Tina was put through a rigorous training regime, becoming was an expert wrestler by the time she was in high school. However, she also started to have dreams and ambitions beyond the wrestling scene.

In Dead or Alive games

Storyline

In the original Dead or Alive, Tina first joins the Dead or Alive tournament hoping that she can use it as a vehicle for becoming discovered in Hollywood, but her father Bass forbids it, thinking that it was not a good idea for his daughter to end the wrestling career he built for her. To ensure that she does not achieve her goal, he also joins Dead or Alive to put an end to her fame-seeking. Tina made it into the finals but forfeited the last match to Kasumi, who did not take the prize money. Therefore, Tina took it instead.

After competing in the first tournament, Tina enters the second tournament to achieve her dream of becoming a supermodel. During the transition between the two tournaments, Tina dyes her brown hair blonde. She has an argument with Leifang about what true power is; while Tina says it is about brute, physical strength, Leifang tellls her it is all about the mind. She also met up with Zack, who tries to ask her out, but Tina is not interested. Later on, she has to fight with Bass and manages to defeat him. After the tournament, she got her wish and went on to be a supermodel for a show on the television.

Tina enters New Zack Island in Dead or Alive Xtreme 2 to escape the clutches of her overprotective father, whom she needed to stay away from to prevent any more conflicts. After she finally made her debut in Hollywood as a model, Tina decides that she wanted to be an actress and enters the third tournament to promote herself. Bass tries to stop her once again but she got annoyed at him, telling him that it's her dream and he is not the boss of her any more. She defeats him, and goes to star in an action film.

Tina joins the fourth tournament to become a rock star, much to her father's dismay. During the tournament, she confronts La Mariposa and both seem to insult each other on their ambition and appearance, but only for show. After the fight, Tina confronts her father. After a quarrel over the new dream to become a rockstar, Tina goes on to again defeat Bass in the ring. After the fourth tournament, she stars in a garish music video. She also takes part in and wins a tag-team wrestling match alongside La Mariposa, in which it is revealed that the masked-wrestler is in fact her good friend Lisa Hamilton.

In Dead or Alive 5, having retired after her previous successes, Tina is once again inspired to come back into the ring after having an impromptu sparring session with Mila. Tina is recruited into the fifth tournament by Zack, whom she easily defeats in a fight. Later, she fights Sarah Bryant, after getting furious with Zack for mistaking the woman as her. Tina fights Mila again and wins, after which they promise each other to see each other again in the Dead or Alive 5 finals. When she publicly announces her plans of entering the tournament, she catches the attention of the retired Bass, causing him to enter the tournament under the guise of "Mr. Strong". At the tournament, Tina faces off against Bass in the quarterfinals. Tina loses the fight, but convinces Bass to join her in a father-daughter team. She even announces that she plans on running for state governor, much to his dismay.

Design

Tina is conveyed as a stereotypical believer of the "American Dream" - she is a girl with big dreams and will do anything to achieve them, no matter who or what tries to stop her. Following her motto "success breeds success," Tina aims high in everything she does, especially in her career goals, and is frequently entering a new profession to the point of being unrealistic. She is a stubborn and tough dreamer and hates it when people (especially her strict and overprotective father) tell her what she can and can not do, showing her independent outlook. However, she seems to recognize that she is stubborn and sometimes even bullish, saying that she inherited this personality trait from father Tina also has great confidence in her sex appeal, which she exhibits through her extroverted personality; some of her winning poses and sayings seem to be more sexually suggestive than those of the other female characters. She has using her role as a fighter and her wrestling career more as a foothold to reach more glamorous professions rather than a way of life. She is highly confident in her abilities - including her skills in wrestling, modeling, acting and music. In the English versions of the games, she speaks with a thick Southern accent.

Tina has healthy-colored skin and sapphire-blue eyes. In the first game, Tina's height, weight, and BWH measurements were: 5' 7" (169 cm), 129 lbs (59 kg), and B35" W22" H35" (B89 W56 H89 cm). Tina's hair color has changed since the first game, where she was a dark brunette, but she has been a blonde in later games since Dead or Alive 2. Her appearance and default costumes usually show her southern and patriotic upbringing, including cowgirl outfits and American flag motifs and most often wearing pendant necklaces that represent that. Being a wrestler, Tina has donned various wrestling gear outfits from different eras and regions. Tina's outfits from the original Dead or Alive are similar to Mila's outfits in DOA5. Tina was given a more realistic appearance with smaller eyes (and even more revealing outfits) in there fifth installment of the series. Dead or Alive 5 Last Round pre-order bonuses included Tina's skimpy "Showstopper" costume from Amazon. Her wardrobe in Last Round includes a downloadable costume of Mail from Nihon Falcom's Popful Mail.

Gameplay

One of the most popular characters of the DOA series, Tina is one bodacious babe that whose attacks can pack quite a wallop. Of all the grapplers in the game, she has the most balanced attacks; she can dish out good punch and kick combinations or piledrive opponents with powerful authority. With added ground throws and her air throw ability, she's one of the most exciting fighters to play.

IGN's guide to Dead or Alive 3

Saturn Power described Tina as a "nightmare opponent" due to her throw-oriented style. UK's unofficial Dreamcast Magazine called Tina "in every respect, the consummate Dead or Alive 2 babe" and cautioned not to "let her looks deceive you as she's one of the best best fighters in the game." According to DOA4 guide by GameSpot's Matthew Rorie, "Tina's moveset is definitely that of a wrestler: lots of powerful mid and high punches, complemented by a dizzying array of throws." That author opined that, similar when playing as Bayman, Tina's player has to "be an expert at baiting" their opponent into attempting to counter their moves, "and then making them pay." DOA4 guide by GameSpy's David McCutcheon states "Tina has a lot of disadvantages, mostly lying in her lack of speed in close combat" and thus requires "trickery and a great sense of reading [one's] opponent ... to succeed consistently with the female wonder. The upside to Tina is that she is a brute, despite her lack of strength by comparison to the other brutes in the game. Being an agile female, she draws a fine line between a fast character and a pure strength character, making her a decent starting fighter." She is also able to performs additional special moves while fighting on a wrestling arena. According to Official Xbox Magazine, in DOAX Tina is "very strong at the net and will be able to spike right through most characters' blocks or defense, but her finesse moves are lacking. She's weak as a back row player, though, as she's not very good at digging."

Other appearances

File:Tina Armstrong DOA.png

A comparison between Tina in Dead or Alive Xtreme 2 and Jaime Pressly's portrayal of Tina in the film DOA: Dead or Alive

Film

In the film DOA: Dead or Alive, Tina is trying to escape her wrestling background and prove to be a real fighter. She is constantly bothered by Zack who has a crush on her. She is also bothered by Bass who wants her to return to wrestling. In the Tournament, she beats both Bass and Zack to advance to the semifinals, and is one of the four women to beat Donovan near the end.

Tina's actress Jaime Pressly said about the film being shelved: "I can’t say that I’m upset that it didn’t come out. We were working with a director, Corey Yuen, who is one of the number one action and marital arts directors in the world. That’s why we did the film. In the process of filming, a lot of bad stuff came up and happened, [and] it just didn’t turn out the way that it should have. And I think for gamers, a lot of the stuff was inaccurate because they changed it along the way."

Merchandise

Various merchandising items have been released featuring Rina Armstrong, such as figures from various manufacturers including Bandai, Epoch and Kotobukiya. Other merchandise has included a key-chain figurine and tapestry from Tecmo, women's swimwear and an oppai mousepad from Tecmo Koei, and assorted items from Famitsu. Her card was added to Sega's game Samurai & Dragons in 2013.

Reception

The character has been often noted for her sex appeal. In 2000, Tina was ranked as number one "girl on the Dreamcast" by Dreamcast Magazine, described as "undeniably the most gorgeous," and won a reader poll by Revista Oficial Dreamcast, easily defeating the staff's other choices (Claire Redfield, Sophitia, Lara Croft, Ulala and Chun-Li) with 34% of all votes being casted on her. She later won G4's Video Game Vixens of the year award for 2005 in two categories: "Dirtiest Dancer" and "Video Game Vixen of the Year".

Sega Saturn Magazine named this "hot all-American babe with buns of steel" as the "muscle" of the first DOA game. Official Xbox Magazine preferred Tina over Ayane as the "Queen of Fighters" in Dead or Alive Ultimate "because of her violent wrestling moves." IGN stated in 2004: "We love Tina, because she fights unlike any of the other women in DOA. She's got a bit of tomboy and American sass and [and s]he's got power to go along with beauty and puts the real ladies of the WWE to shame. If her sexy cat outfit doesn't convince you she's a winner, you have got some serious emotional issues." In the article titled "Battle of the Beauties: Gaming's Hottest Female Characters Face Off" by Rich Knight of Complex Tina faced and won against Rainbow Mika from Street Fighter in the female wrestlers category. She was also featured in Complex's list of most humiliating victory quotes in fighting games, and made third place on GameDaily's 2008 list of top wrestling characters in video games. GamesRadar's Henry Gilbert ranked Tina as the fourth best wrestler in video games, observing "Tina can pull off just about every devastating grapple ever invented--all while wearing a string bikini, no less--but she dreams of using her talents for something more."

Guaranteed to offend sexists everywhere, Dead or Alive's female characters are in a class of their own. Putting even the Last Bronx babes and Lara Croft to shame, the lovely Kasumi, Lei-Fang and Tina are a sight to behold. Easily capable of holding their own against the game's macho male fighters, these battling beauties are the proud owners of what can only be referred to as the biggest, bountiful breasts we've ever gawped at. And gawped we have.

Sega Saturn Magazine in 1997

Brazilian magazine SuperGamePower listed her among the 20 "muses" of video games in 2001. Including her on his 2007 list of 50 greatest heroines in video games, Rob Wright of Tom's Games wrote "she absolutely oozes sex appeal in between fights." PLAY ranked Tina as the third top "hottest" blonde in games in 2010, also jokingly calling her breasts "the undisputed #1 and #2 of all Dead or Alive’s features." In 2011, the staff of UGO included her among the "hottest girls in games", stating "this female wrestler hits harder than any of the other DoA characters while still managing to show off the maximum amount of skin. We call that a perfect recipe for both in and outside of the fighting ring." UGO's Aubrey Sitterson also ranked Tina as 11th in her 2011 ranking of the "foxiest fighting females to be ever pixelated," described as a "perennial favorite when it comes to Dead or Alive Xtreme 2's totally-classy, not-objectifying-women-in-the-least bikini-clad Butt Battles," while Rich Shivener of Joystick Division chose Tina's breasts (together with Kasumi's) as the seventh "most incredible chest" in video games. She was listed fourth on Brazilian site Portal PlayGame's 2014 selection of their top 100 female video game characters. She is, however, not very popular in Japan, where she failed in a popularity poll to qualify for Dead or Alive Xtreme 3.

According to Official Xbox Magazine, Dead or Alive "girls have always been slightly controversial, with high-minded types lamenting the gratuitous use of bouncing bosoms" but eventually "all gamers, feminists included, realise[d] that Tina, Kasumi et al are actually rather fit." Tina Armstrong's "strong arms and legs" in DOA2 impressed the actress and model Leila Arcieri, while the actress and model Jaime Bergman said she reminds her of herself. Nevertheless, Matthew O'Mara of National Post alleged Tina embodies the most "sexist design choices" in DOA5U, including having a second idle animation and more outfits than any other character in the game. On the other hand, Zachary Miller of Nintendo World Report praised Tina's alternate idle animation as the "most impressive realism in terms of movement" in the history of video game breast physics. He also noted that "Tina and Kasumi are the only ladies with bikini costumes and they both display the usual DoA jiggle more than the other ladies" in Dead or Alive: Dimensions while writing about his favorite "chesty heroines on Nintendo systems."

Electronic Gaming Monthly praised the film's "for its hot chicks [and] spirited casting: My Name is Earl’s white-trash hottie Jaime Pressly as Tina!" even as they excepted the rest of the film to be "crap". Pressly's role in the film was ranked as the third "hottest woman in video game movies" by Peter Rubin of Complex in 2012.

External links

• Official website (DOA5)