Dead to Rights is a neo-noir third-person action video game developed by Namco Hometek. It was released in 2002 as a timed exclusive for the Xbox, and released for the PlayStation 2 and Nintendo GameCube followed thereafter. A year after its console debut, the game was released for Microsoft Windows. It was followed by Dead to Rights II in 2005, Dead to Rights: Reckoning for the PSP, also in 2005, and Dead to Rights: Retribution on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in 2010. Dead to Rights makes use of bullet time (a mechanism used mostly in Max Payne series), a popular gameplay mechanic of the time. The game advertises itself as drawing inspiration from Hong Kong action cinema, i.e. gun fu. The player is sometimes accompanied by Shadow, a canine partner who can attack enemies on command, and who will automatically kill whatever enemy he's aimed at and then bring the player whatever the enemy was carrying (to keep the dog from being too powerful, his attack can only be used when a meter for it fills up). In some puzzle sections, the player actually takes direct control of Shadow to reach areas that the human character cannot.