Bungie has finally decided to explain how a female character from the Halo universe has decided to turn up in a fighting game. In usual Bungie style the news covers everything from the character's creation to her body proportions and hobbies.
The story begins when Tecmo approached Bungie with a request for Master Chief's participation in Dead or Alive 4. Bungie would have refused any request outright had it not been for their respect for Tomunobu Itagaki and Team Ninja. Even that however, was not enough for Bungie to sign the Chief's permission slip so an alternative cameo was agreed upon. After thinking long and hard about it, Bungie ...created Spartan 458 - Nicole. And she's quite a lady. If you define "lady" as ferociously violent killing machine.
The official reason a Spartan warrior actually turns up in DoA 4 is as follows:
Nicole was born in the year 2531 in the city of New Legaspi on Mars. At six years of age she was abducted by agents of the Office of Naval Intelligence and conscripted into the Spartan II program. The Spartan II program was the UNSC's highly successful military project to augment and hone perfect soldiers.
SPARTAN-458's unit was preparing for a classified mission on Nassau Station when the ONI stealth ship Apocalypso tumbled into real-space - being carried along in the wake of a freak slipspace anomaly. The anomaly intersected Nassau Station; creating a semi-stable "bubble" in the space/time continuum on its way back to the 21st Century.
For the time being Nicole-458 is trapped in the 21st century; guarding Nassau Station's secrets with all but lethal force (she realizes killing someone in the past could have dire consequences), waiting for the "bubble" to collapse and hopefully returning her to the year 2552.
How can we say all that with a straight face? Shut up is how. How does this explain why she's fighting a schoolgirl in a prehistoric oasis? Silence fool! How does this explain a very cool secret on a Casino-inspired level? Shut your noisehole is how.
Considering the buzz created around Nicole and her fighting skills, Bungie also rushed to make a few things clear about the character:
-She's not a character who's ever been described in other Halo fiction.
-She's not a character from our next project.
-She's not one of the Spartans from Fall of Reach.
-She's not a character from the Halo movie.
-She's not returning my calls. I blame time bubbles
If you need more (much more) information on the details of Bungie's cooperation with Team Ninja, as well as some hints about how to play the game and details on how Nicole-458 still manages to maintain her femininity, even when covered in spartan armor.
The record of Bungie's partnership with Team Ninja also reveals that the developer was responsible for the character's dialogue as well as for its history and appearance.
Bungie has once again managed to create a very entertaining yet informative entry to its website, to read the complete entry follow the download tab above.
