Cons: Comedy isn't intentional, story is mostly trite,boss, may offend
The Bottom Line: Those who love fighters,have a few friends that aint offended by jiggling breasts should have a great time with DOA2, one of the reasons DC was king of fighters
flash-hammer's Full Review: Dead Or Alive 2 for Dreamcast
Dead or Alive was a minor hit in the arcades, and wasn't long in making it's way to the homes of Saturn and PlayStation owners, but it didn't exactly set the gaming world alight, and was really only famous for the outrageous way in which the female characters dressed and how their breasts bounced.
So it's a bit of a wonder how a sequel was even made, let alone with obviously so much money and work put into it.
I have to admit that upon buying my Dreamcast, I had never even heard of Dead or Alive 2. But my DC proved to be the console that returned me to my fighting game obsession, and I was buying up every fighter I could find for the console, and even at the time when the DC was still 'alive', this only skinned me £15, so it was a relative bargain.
Dead or Alive 2 is a 3D fighting game where the idea is to select a character from a possible 12 and fight the other 11 (and sometimes yourself) and in Story mode a boss. Fights are won by reducing your enemy's Health bar to empty using a variety of punches, kicks and throws.
DOA2 sports a good few modes within it. First up is story mode. This is the basic single player experience, where you choose a character and battle through the rest, with the occasional Cut-Scene to bring along the 'plot'. You occasionally have cut-scenes specific to the enemy you are fighting, providing the character's story intertwines with theirs. For example whenever Kasumi fights Hayabusa or Ayane she will get a cut-scene depicting what happens pre and post fight. Once all the regular fighters are defeated, you must take on the boss of the game, Tengu to see a CG ending video.
Where Story mode stands out from most single player experiences in fighting games is that it doesn't require you to win the best out of three rounds, it's just a one round duel.
We also have Time Attack mode, this involves fighting 8 opponents (One Round fights), to see how fast you can complete the game, Versus Mode, where you can take on a friend/enemy at a fight, with the settings of how many rounds and handicaps and such being variable, Survival Mode, where you try and defeat as many enemies in a row with only one bar of health, which regenerates a little after each win, Sparring Mode, which is essentially practice, and last but without a doubt not least is Tag Battle, where up to 4 Players can battle in 2 on 2 battles to the finish, where you have to tag each other in and out.
The thing that really makes the game stand out is the areas that you fight in. Unlike Virtua Fighter, it isn't in arena's where you can be knocked out of the ring, unlike Tekken it isn't never ending stages and unlike Fighting Vipers you aren't always in enclosed arenas although it does happen occasionally), no Dead or Alive 2 is for the most part played like I have never seen a fighting game, in proper 3D enviroments. While they are finite in space, none of the arena's are a perfect square, and few of them resemble any sort of shape, they are actually proper stages that a 3D action game could take part in. Further fun is added by the fact that most of the stages allow you to punch your opponent into another area. For instance when you fight in a Clock tower, it is possible to smash your enemy (or be smashed yourself) through the clock face and down to the ground below where you will continue to scrap.
Things like this definitely set it apart from every other fighter that had come before it, and added a touch of strategy, given that enemies stuck against walls could be hit more, and knocking them off the edges/through the windows etc took helath away, meaning a punch that does decent damage, if placed right, could send the enemy off a cliff and do even more damage.
The game is (in)famous for it's 'Rock,Paper Scissors' style of play. You see, every move comes under one of three headings, Strike, Throw or counter. Strike will will win over throw, throw over counter and counter over strike.
While this is a much maligned system, personally I enjoy it, and while it may not be anywhere near as deep a combat system as the Virtua Fighter games sport, it's definitely more tactical than any of Namco's fighting games.
Accusations of Button Mashing are often thrown at the game, and while true to a a certain degree, anyone who is really good at the game should be able to counter a masher, so I feel these complaints are a bit harsh.
Controls in the game look like this:
A:Counter
B:Throw
X:Punch
Y:Kick
L/R: Free Movement
Pressinh Kick and Throw tags your partner in/out in Tag Battle Mode.
These controls take absolutely no time to get used to, and the response is as close to perfect as you can hope for. Larger characters take longer to punch than the smaller quick fighters, but that isn't anything to do with response, just character differences.
Graphically, the game is astounding. Released in 2000, I have only seen 4 games which can actually claim to have outclassed DOA2 in terms of visuals. One of those 4 is the sequel, and 2 of them are Spin-Offs, the other is Panzer Dragoon Orta, not bad for an old DC game. I think this might actually be the best looking Dreamcast game available. The character models are smooth, with no jaggies, and the animation is as fluid and smooth and you could like.
You may read people talk about DC games and say about how well they hold up against today's games. I have actually bought XBox games released in 2003/4 that DOA2 doesn't just hold up against, but surpasses in terms of graphical quality.
The stages are also spectacular locales, not just fighting places, look at how awesome the bricks in the ground look in the stage with multiple balconies. The movement of the snow in the Snow stage. It isn't just white ground, they actually put work into making it look like snow.
And on to the graphical subject that most of you really want to know about, yes the girls Breasts are still over-active. A fairly amusing feature this game added was an age option. Pick a number from 16-99, and the girls breasts will bounce accordingly. (!). I actually only recently learned what this was for, and haven't tried it out, but apparently in you choose a teen/20 age, they are fairly realistic (if large), and at 99 they are like they were in the first game, comical.
It has to be said that the character models are awesome. While the male characters look buff as all hell, as you would expect, it's the girls that catch the attention. Now, I wasn't someone that bought into the whole Lara Croft is sexy bandwagon, and while I can't say I thought they were sexy, on occasion, I did think "f****n hell" about some of the female models, they are pretty realistically formed, well if they were based on models.
The sonic aspects of the game aren't shabby either. While the soundtrack isn't a CD that will be entering my collection any time soon, the odd sort of Japanese techno/rock is pretty weird but actually ends up being pretty cool to fight to. The character voices are all in Japanese in English subtitles, so I can't comment on how good they really are. The sound effects are fairly satisfying as well. Hits make a nice connection noise, and you have to love the noise when you smash an opponent into a piece of scenery.
How could I forget, the annoucer is hilarious. It is female, and says "winner" so that it sounds like "weiner", I shouldn't laugh, but I can't help it.
The game does actually have a story, and granted it isn't exactly begging to be made into a hardback, here it is, while I would usually put it into my own words, I think the official one is so much more better than any changes I could make to it:
At the end of the 20th Century a great leader was murdered. His name was Fame Douglas, who was known as the sponsor of the legendary Dead or Alive 1 World Combat Championship. Since his death, the world has become chaotic due to the lack of the presence of a great leader. In the midst of this chaos, the Dead or Alive 2 World Combat Championship has been announced to take place. However, the true purpose and significance of the tournament have been lost with the Death of Douglas. Even worse, the promoter of the Dead or Alive 2 World Combat Championship is responsible for Douglas's death. The new promoter is not just a corrupt being but one of pure evil. His involvement in the tournament has caused terror among the whole world resulting in the infamous Tengu Disaster that occurred at the end of the Century
Make what you will of that, but it's farcical at best and has little or nothing to do with Dead or Alive.
The characters in this tournament:
Kasumi - After the events of the original game, Kasumi was captured and cloned by the 'Super Human Development Project'. She is looking for her missing brother Hayate, and on the run from her former clan, due to her going AWOL.
Ryu Hayabusa - The legendary Super Ninja, it is his duty as a Super Ninja to take down the evil Tengu. He is also out to find Kasumi, as Hayate was his best friend.
Gen Fu - He is out to find the cure for his granddaughter, who has fallen ill with a hideos sickness that can only be cured by the nose of the Tengu (!?)
Helena - Fame Douglas' daughter who also lost her mother to an assassin, whom she believes will be at the DOA2 tournament.
Tina Armstrong - Now bleach blonde, the female Pro-Wrestler yearns to be a model, and feels winning this tournament is the key to getting there.
Bass Armstrong - Tina's father, who doesn't approve of her using her sex-appeal to become famous, he enters the tournament not only to quash her dreams, but to protect her from the other fighters.
Zack - The arrogant Muay Thai champion is back to try and take the prize money and fame that only winning a Dead or Alive tournament can.
Leon - An Italian mercenary, whose dead lover's last words were that she loved the strongest man in the world, so he sets out to become that man.
Jann Lee - The Jeet Kune Do master is back to prove that he is the best fighter in the world.
LeiFang - A 19 year old Chinese girl who dreams of defeating the mighty Jann Lee in fair combat, and sees this as a perfect opportunity to attempt it.
Ayane - Kasumi's jealous half sister, who enters the tournament to kill Kasumi.
Ein - An amnesiac found in a forest in Germany, he has mastered Karate in a remarkably short time, and for some reason feels drawn to the Dead or Alive 2 tournament.
Ok, so the plot is actually all over the place and pretty naff, but parts of it, such as the Kasumi/Hayabusa/Ayane/Hayate angle are worked pretty well, but the whole Kasumi clone thing is completely under-used, and most of the rest of the stories are laughable, especially Leon's.
Dead or Alive 2 is just generally one of my favourite games in terms of sheer fun ever. I greatly enjoyed the single player game, completed it to unlock all the costumes and such, and spent a good amount of time in the survival and Time Attack modes, you see, the game is just generally a marvel to watch, and the fact you are in perfect control of it makes for one of the most enjoyable fighting experiences in gaming. While games like Virtua Fighter 2 can produce spectacular fights, nothing, NOTHING (except Dead or Alive 3) can produce battles that can claim to be anywhere near as fun to witness, and play than DOA2. There is something uniquely supreme about watching your enemy come at you with a punch, only to counter it and kick them off a balcony all in one smooth movement.
When you add 2 player action to this, it just becomes infinitely awesome. The only thing better than what I mentioned above is doing it, to one of your friends.
The game's easy to pick up and play controls also make it easier to get friends to play than stuff like VF2 which requires a good knowledge of the game to get anywhere. In DOA2, someone who has played it and learned it will always have the advantage and will win a lot of the time, but there is a slightly higher chance that a lesser skilled player, with a bit of luck, could usurp them, and I feel that actually adds to the game. It doesn't aim for VF levels of mastering, it just wants to be a fun and great looking fighter, and it succeeds.
And then there is Tag Battle. Tag Battle literally adds months, actually if I didn't have an XBox and DOA3, it would be years now, of play value to the game. Teams can perform link up moves and so on, and with 3 friends rivals any sports game in terms of sheer arguments caused, banter and general greatness.
The game isn't perfect of course, but the only complaints I have, is that you can only do Tag Battles in One arena and that the Tag stage doesn't have any ledges or windows or such to make it even better, and that, actually this is less of a complaint from me, but some people may be offended by the whole Breast thing and the fact that the female fighters are slightly scantily clad.
One thing I will moan about is Tengu. DOA had a fairly cool boss in Raidou (Streetfighter's Akuma with big buffs), here we have this fat, brown...thing. No Tecmo, that isn't a good boss. At all. In fact he may be the worst boss I have ever seen.
But those aside, the only complaint I have heard is actually something I am glad of. Survival also only takes place in one arena, but unlike other games, it isn't a case of you defeating the enemy and waiting for it to load up the next match, the next fighter just jumps down into the arena, this saves time, and is just generally a better way of doing things.
On the whole, just due to the sheer great fun I have gotten from this game, and the true awe I was in upon first playing it, I feel I have to give Dead or Alive 2 full marks. It just stands out for so many great reasons, and while the story is for the most part complete trite, the game is just so much fun to play on single, 2 and 4 player play that I feel it warrants a place amongst what are my Elite games, the ones that I would never even consider doing away with.
If you own a DC , love fighting games and aren't offended by bouncing breasts,which aren't anywhere near as over the top in this game as people say they are, then you really should be getting around to getting Dead or Alive 2. Especially if you have friends willing to play, it's one decision I doubt you will regret. The majority of it's faults, such as the trite story, actually add an element of comedy to it that no other fighter has, and the good parts, of which there are many, are incredibly enjoyable, and have brought me, and my friends many an evening of great fighting action, and I would put money on it doing the same for you.
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