STORY:
A great leader was killed at the end
of the 20th century. His name was Fame Douglas, and he was renowned as the
sponsor of the legendary Dead or Alive World Combat Championship. Since his
death, and in the absence of his charisma and leadership, the world has become
chaotic. Yet something appears to be transpiring. Amid this chaos, it is
announced that the "Dead or Alive Championship 2" will be held.
However, Douglas's passing has taken with it the purpose and significance of the
tournament. Even worse, the promoter of "Dead or Alive Championship
2", who is fond of conflicts and jealous of the string, is responsible for
Douglas's death. The new promoter is more than a corrupt mastermind, but a man
of pure evil. His involvement in the tournament has brought a sense of terror to
the world, resulting in the infamous Tengu disaster that occurred at the end of
the 20th century. The climax of the disaster is about to begin with a roaring
battle.
Behind you
Ayane! ....Kasumi's
a creeper.
REVIEW: Dead
or Alive 2 was originally released on October 19th, 1999 in Japan arcades,
running on Sega's NAOMI arcade system. The arcade version features 12 playable
characters, Story Mode and Time Attack. Survival Mode and Tag Battle could also
be unlocked with a code via the service menu. An update to the arcade version
entitled DOA2: Millennium was later released in January 2000, making
Survival and Tag mode available from the start and adding new school uniforms
for Kasumi and Ayane. This would be the last arcade installment of DOA
until the release of DOA5: Ultimate, thirteen years later.
Tecmo and Team Ninja's second installment
to DOA brings forward an innovative step
in the 3D fighting genre (one that would later become one of the defining
aspects of the series) - "Multi-tiered" stages. Arguably the main draw of
DOA2
is the fact that the fighters have the ability to
knock each other off of high areas / platforms, or slam their opponent straight through a guardrail
or wall, only to continue fighting on a lower level. Although it's completely
unrealistic to survive such a fall and continue fighting like nothing happened, the concept of multi-tiered
stages offers some uniquely flashy
gameplay... and something the fighting genre hasn't really seen thus far. From
smooth character models to impressively detailed backgrounds, DOA2's
polished graphics engine also provides plenty of next-gen eye candy. And yes,
the overly-exaggerated "bouncy boobs" effect has returned from the
first game. One can't say it's not entertaining, at times.
Well...
looks like Gen-Fu is not having a very good day.
Team Ninja fleshed out DOA's character designs
visually and evolved their original movesets quite a lot from the original game.
DOA2 also adds Story Mode into the mix, which can be summed up as a handful of short (and sometimes awkward)
cutscenes. While the DOA cast is certainly a "shiny" group of
people, their personalities still leave a lot to be desired.
To put it bluntly, the girls of DOA seem to be
more interested in showing off their boobs than fighting. (Was this game
designed by men with one-tracked minds)? All of the fighters of DOA
have fairly decent fighting styles, but their overall designs, movelists and fighting styles pale in comparison to
the likes of other 3D fighters, in my opinion. Tekken
Tag Tournament's characters, for example, offer a lot more diversity and
authenticity as fighters. Some of the featured martial arts styles of DOA2 aren't represented
as well as they could be (and many fan-favorite martial arts are sorely
missing).
DOA2's gameplay in general is respectively solid. The in-game action also
flows noticeably smoothly (possibly even a little too smoothly), offering a
unique visual experience as a 3D fighting game. Returning from DOA1, the
famed Counter System has returned. Even a novice player can easily pull off
counter "throws" with ease... and on that note, I'd say the counter
system is a bit overly easy. There's a high counter and a low counter, and "9 times
out of 10" if you attempt a counter, you'll likely succeed if you have even
the most basic level of reflexes. Indeed, this gimmick hurts DOA2 in high level
play, making battles pretty repetitive.
Off the invisible top
rope! ...Stop acting like a dog Hayabusa!
I'd even go as far as saying DOA2 teaches some poor fighting game
fundamentals, simply because counters in other 3D (and 2D) fighting games will
suddenly seem "way too difficult" for players used to DOA
mechanics. Counters do look pretty cool however, especially since
each character has his or her own unique hard-hitting throw techniques. There are
also some cool combo possibilities
in DOA2, but when counters can be used at any time and so frequently, the actual
gameplay becomes a bit monotonous and overly dependant on countering.
In the Dreamcast version of DOA2 (released Feb. 29th, 2000), players can fight 1-on-1
via Story Mode or try out the entertaining Tag Battle
Mode which allows for 2-on-2 tag team fighting (enabling some ultra cool tag
team throws). The Dreamcast version also introduces Team Battle, Sparring, and also features a surprisingly addicting Survival
Mode. About a month later, DOA2 was released on March 30th, 2000 as a
launch title for PlayStation 2 in Japan. The Japanese PS2 version adds 3 new
stages (Crimson, Koku An and Prairie) along with some new unlockable costumes.
Unfortunately, the PS2 version was inferior to the Dreamcast version due to
lower resolution, more aliasing, and bugs / freezing issues within Versus mode. DOA2
was eventually succeeded by the sequel, DOA2: Hardcore.
I enjoyed the Dreamcast version
of
DOA2 for quite a while. While Dead or Alive 2 wasn't the most technically sound
fighting game out there in 1999-2000, it was definitely a "different" and an
entertaining next-gen 3D fighter for its time.
Overlooking some of the unrefined gameplay quirks, DOA2's animation quality is top stuff, especially
the collision animations and which never fail to bring the ouch factor. The cool
tag-team special throws
are also quite satisfying and even might induce some teeth-cringing (in a good way).
While DOA2 has its
strengths, the odd character roster and overall "weird" artistic vibe of the
game lead to my eventual boredom with the title. If the dev-team put more
emphasis on authentic martial arts and interesting character designs (and less emphasis on boob jiggle
physics), DOA2
might've kept my interest for longer. At the end of the day, DOA2 a fun
and accessible 3D fighter that no fighting game player should miss out on. ~TFG
Webmaster
Arcade)
Dreamcast)
Dreamcast) 
