Namco today announced that it has shipped Death by Degrees to North American retailers. The third-person action game is available now for the PlayStation 2.

　　The game stars Nina Williams, the beautiful blonde brawler from Namco's popular Tekken franchise, in a rare appearance outside the familiar one-on-one fighting scenario. Nina enters an underground fighting tournament being held aboard a cruise ship run by a nefarious organization. Although she opens a proverbial "can" on her opponents, her real objective is to assist two British agents secretly infiltrating the vessel. Her cover is soon blown, and the vixen must battle several minions and find safety.

　　Nina is well adept at putting guards on their backs with her fists and feet, but this time she'll also have the opportunity to wield some weapons such as sniper rifles and batons. She can also deliver a little more oomph to her punches with critical strikes. These high-damage maneuvers are literally bone-shattering--an X-ray camera shows enemies' skeletons breaking into fragments.

　　Death by Degrees is rated M for Mature and retails for $49.99. For more information on the game, read GameSpot's full review.