by Jay "THE FLEA" Wade
Tecmo's fighting Champion has returned on the Sega DreamCast.
Dead or Alive 2 is one of the best looking fighters made today.
The detail is uncanny. The characters all look beautiful and no detail was overlooked.
The flow of the dresses, the movement of hair and the FMV story looks just like the gameplay.
The animation of the characters is also vary impressive. Smooth and true to life.
The arenas and characters are vary colorful and give you a lot to look at.
The details are so fine you can see finger nails,
Most all the characters from DOA1 have returned, Kasumi, Hayabusa, Gen Fu, Tina, Bass, Zack (Dennis Rodman look-a-like), Jann Lee, Lei Fang and Ayane. New to DOA is Leon (replaced Bayman), Helena (A opera singer) and Ein (A man with no past). Also a new boss replacing Raidou, Evil Tengu (a fat winged creature). The arenas are a HUGE improvement. (and I do mean huge) The arenas have multi levels, you can knock opponents off ledges, over railings, through windows and fight on a lower level of the arena.
Another added feature is a four-player fighting match. You against three fighters or you against three friends. The biggest weak point on DOA2 is the story, Most are silly and have endings that really show nothing. (there are in between fights story FMV are great to watch.) The "bouncy" feature is still in DOA2, but you have to adjust the age meter in the options. (yes the only game that asks for your age.) And it's not as over exaggerated as DOA1 was. If you don't know what "bouncy" feature is, you never played DOA have you?
Another great feature on the past DOA was tons of outfits for the characters. (14 each for the women characters) but DOA2 there's only 4. (maybe there's some you earn? but so far It doesn't look like it does) Included are Hayabusa's Ninja Gaiden outfit & Zacks Alien Teletubby outfit.
The control is pretty simple but at times the combo's have trouble pulling them off.
There's also counters and specials and most can be preformed with a little or no practice.
Modes include; Story, Time Attack, Vs., Tag Battle, Survival, Team and Training.
If you played Soul Calibur to death and are looking for another great fighter, then I highly recommend Dead or Alive 2.
PUBLISHER: TECMO
GRAPHICS: 10 MUSIC & SOUND: 7.5 CONTROL: 8.5
SECRETS: 7 ORIGINALITY: 8 FUN & REPLAY: 10
OVERALL: 8.5