Dead or Alive 2

[lastcallgames]

Dead or Alive 2 is a great game. One of the best games on the system.

Before all the jiggle physics and side games that made you feel creepy for buying them, the Dead or Alive games were about fighting. And jiggle physics, a bit, but mainly fighting.

As such, the game features a standard compliment of modes, arcade, versus, tag, team (not tag team, though the tag has a team of two), time attack, survival, etc. The storyline is relatively good for a fighting game, it doesn't thrash you over the head with exposition, but it won't make you wonder why these people are fighting (hint: it's a tournament, it's always a fighting tournament).

The gameplay is very good, using the DOA staple triangle fighting system (better explained herethan anything I'd come up with) in lieu of ridiculous combinations to inflict major damage (I'm looking at you, MK and SF). One less common feature is multi-tiered stages, where you can knock an opponent through a destructible part of the stage in order to fight on a lower level. Not all stages you'll play in have it, but it's a great feature. I prefer it to the ring outs you see in most other 3D fighters (Virtua Fighter and Soul Calibur being notable).

The game looks great. Hands down one of the best looking Dreamcast games. When it was remastered for DOA Ultimate, it was definitely improved, but not as much as, say, DOA 1 could have been. The sound is good but not great. The music is alright, and all the characters are voiced (only in Japanese, even for the non-Japanese characters, which always seemed odd). I swear if I hear Jann Lee one more time I'll throw something.

In all, DOA 2 is a great game. Is it better than Soul Calibur, I don't think so. Though that could be due to my liking of the weapons combat in the former. It's one of the best looking games on the system, hands down, and it plays very very well.

DOA 2 is worthy of an 8/10.

Also the video might not be working because Youtube didn't like it.

[dark]

With the 4 player tag option and the high quality of the graphics, animation, smooth gameplay - this was about equal to Soul Calibur in terms of fun at parties back in the day. It was really ahead of most other fighting games of the time, especially when you remember that this came out in 1999, years before the ps2 existed.

[MikeStutzzzz]

Don't forget the Ult version in japan still looked better then the version for PS2

[beanboy]

Nice review dude.
Yeah DOA2 is a really cool game. I liked it so much, that I bought an original copy of the game, back in 2001 and I still have it. And I had alot of fun playing it too. Great game.