03/20/00

Dead or Alive 2

Publisher: Tecmo
System: Sega Dreamcast
Genre: 3D Fighting
# of Players: 1 to 4
ESRB Rating: Teen
Difficulty: Normal to hard

(Fat) I gotta tell ya, I've been waiting a LONG time for this title. Ever since I first heard of it, more than a year ago, I knew that I had to have this game.

(Geeky) No argument there. Fat and I saw the arcade game back at the last CES (Before video games broke off into E3), since then, we had a prime interest in this title, and not just 'cause of the bouncing breasts either.

(Fat) Once it was released, I ordered the Imported Saturn Version of the first Dead or Alive, and I considered it a fantastic game at the time. Created off of a modified Virtua Fighter 2 engine, the Saturn DOA was a high-res, 60 fps game to behold. What really drew ME to the game was the fast, furious action, since the counters were easy to perform, and the many moves and nuances of each fighting style.

(Geeky) I liked that too, as well as the fact there were lots of girls to play, with big, bouncing chests. Later on we got the Playstation version some of you may be familiar with. It was a good game too, with extra characters, but it wasn't really the same. The backgrounds weren't as nice, the play seemed slower, and the characters seemed a bit deformed.

(Fat) About a year later, we heard of Tecmo making a sequel of this game on Sega's Naomi arcade system, basically known to all of us as the Dreamcast (the only difference is the ability to add more memory and hardware to an arcade machine). We could only imagine the potential that this sequel would hold, and now it's here, in all of it's glory.

(Geeky) To those unfamiliar with the series, Dead or Alive 2 is a 3D fighting game bearing similarities to such other 3D greats as the Virtua Fighter and Tekken series (it has MUCH more in common with VF, though). In the first game, two combatants fought in an arena surrounded by an exploding floor that hurt your character more if he/she landed on it. This game, however, has some HUGE, multi-layer levels that your characters can fight through. Have you ever wanted to knock somebody off a waterfall? How about smashing an opponent through a stained-glass window? In this game, you can, and even better, the fight doesn't end there, but continues on, provided your opponent still has energy left. Besides the vast number of punches, kicks, blows, holds and throws, each character has a number of counters. Almost any move can be countered with the right timing. This game uses what Tecmo calls a "Free" button. Use this button to defend and counter, and hold it down pressing the controller up and down to move to the side. When you get used to this, it adds a lot of depth to the gameplay.

(Fat) You have 12 ass-whoopin' characters to choose from: Kasumi, the runaway Shinobi ninja, looking for her long-lost brother...

(Geeky) She kinda reminds me of Asia Carrera.

(Fat) Who?

(Geeky) You know, Asia Carrera. She was in Betrayal, and Intimate Strangers. She was particularly good in that last one.

(Fat) What the hell are you talking about?

(Geeky) You're trying to tell me you've never heard of Asia Carrera? You lead a truly sheltered life, my friend.

(Fat) Uh...oh! THAT Asia Carrera! Yeah! I know her!

(Geeky) Rrrrriiiiigggght.

(Fat) Um...moving on. Other characters include Zack, a flamboyant kickboxer. Does he remind you of anyone, Geeky?

(Geeky) Hmm....Nope.

(Fat) He looks a bit like Dennis Rodman to me.

(Geeky) I wouldn't know. I don't get into that sports crap.

(Fat) 'sigh' moving on...we also have the ladies' champion wrestler, Tina..

(Geeky) Yeah! She's like Jenna Jameson, especially in the chest!

(Fat) Yeah, uh, she is, I guess. Also in the game is Tina's father, wrestling champion Bass, who looks almost just like....

(Geeky) Hulk Hogan. Only THIS guy can actually DO something.

(Fat) Oh. I thought you didn't get into sports.

(Geeky) Wrestling ain't a sport, dude. It's Sports Entertainment.

(Fat) Rodman wrestled for awhile too.

(Geeky) He must've sucked, so I ignored him.

(Fat) Well, yeah, he did. Anyhow... there's also Helena, a martial artist opera singer, of all things...

(Geeky) She's just like Savannah...

(Fat) Knock it off! I gotta get through a bunch more fighters here.

(Geeky) Oh. Okay.

(Fat) There's Leon, an italian soldier with most of the same moves as Bayman from the first DoA game, which involves a lot of arm and leg snapping. There's Hayabusa, who a lot of you know as the original Ninja Gaiden(He even has the original Ninja suit as one of his costumes!). There's Gen-Fu, the old master, and Jann Lee, probably one of the best Bruce Lee style fighters ever in a 3D game. There's Ein, a skilled martial artist with a mysterious past. And, to round off the roster, there's Lady Kunoichi assassin Ayane...

(Geeky) She's like Tricia Yen, only with pink hair.

(Fat) Uh-huh. And Lei Fang, A young girl who uses the same style as the old master, Gen-Fu.

(Geeky) She's a bit like Kobe Tai.

(Fat) Fascinating.

(Geeky) Hey, I'm a fountain of porn knowledge.

(Fat) You're a fountain of SOMETHIN', ya perv.

(Geeky) Now, is that nice? Like most other fighting games, this one also has a final villain to defeat. His name is Tengu, and he is a myhtical character out of Japanese mythology. Fat thought he was kinda stupid, but I think he's cool in a Japanese way.

(Fat) DOA2 gives you all kinds of options for play as well. There's the Story mode, which goes through a story for each character, told by some nice looking real-time cut scenes that use slightly more detailed models and move at 30 frames per second (the game itself moves at 60 fps). This is what Soul Caliber SHOULD have done with their endings, instead of the lame still pictures they used. Other modes are Versus, Survival, Team Battle, and Tag Team mode.

(Geeky) Tag Team mode can actually be played by 4 players. It's fast and furious, and the tag teams can get off some really impressive team combos.

(Fat) As for what we think of this game, let's cut right to the chase. This is one of those games that owners of a fairly new platform would call "Paydirt". Like Soul Caliber and a few other DC titles, Dead or Alive 2 just gives you that warm and fuzzy feeling inside, that destroys any insecurities you may have had about your system buying decision. Pure and simple, games like this are why I play Video games.

(Geeky) This is one of those games that just might get you a precious moment of silence from your anti DC fanboy friends, however brief it may be. In fact, once they start playing the game with you, their bias just may disappear, if only for a little while.

(Fat) The graphics are beautiful (Geeky and I can't stress enough how great it looks with the VGA box), the Animation is phenomenal, The music, while maybe a bit overbearing, is catchy and fits the game's mood, and the gameplay is fast, fun and deep. While I won't say this game is BETTER than Soul Caliber (It's not like I'm the god of all gaming, and what I dictate is law), I certainly will say that I prefer it.

(Geeky) As do I. Caliber's got more hidden goodies, but this game's got all kinds of play value and technique. The bouncing breasts aren't as noticable, but they are more realistic, so that's okay.

(Fat) It was almost a distraction in the other game. Another point worth mentioning is DOA2's load time. In story and versus modes, it only does some loading at the beginning before the game starts. Once it's done, no loading time again. The tag mode has minimal loading between rounds, but that's understandable. If I was to cite any problems in this game, I guess it would be the somewhat weak subtitling and translation, in both the game and the instruction booklet, as well as the somewhat cheap CPU opponents, and just a tiny hint of slowdown here and there (never during gameplay, though, not that I saw). These, however, are very small qualms in a game which exhumes too much utter quality to ignore.

(Geeky) If you go for fast and deep 3D fighting games, Here's one that hits that description dead-on. It'll probably take a game like Virtua Fighter 4 to top this one.

Graphics: 9.9
Sound: 9.8
Control (pad):9
Control (Stick):10
Worth a rent?: YES
Worth a buy?: YES
Worth buying the system for?: YES. This game is coming out on the Japanese Playstation 2 around March 30th, but who knows when it will be released here, especially since Sega and Tecmo have an exclusive US licensing agreement. At any rate, it's good enough to buy a DC OR an import PS2 for.

Fat and Geeky's final thoughts: This is a great fighting game that meets and/or exceeds all of our expectations. If you don't care for fighting games, that's fine. But if you do, you owe it to yourself to give this game a look.

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