Dead or Alive 2

aka: DOA 2: Hardcore, Dead or Alive 2
Moby ID: 3543
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Conversion (official)

Description official descriptions

The arcade conversion adds an improved tag feature, with new stadiums to fight in, new character moves to play with, and plenty of windows, walls and ledges to fall over and crash through. Unlike Tekken Tag Tournament, however, DOA2 also includes a single player mode, a dodge button (allowing you to move left and right away from attacks), and multi-level arenas.

Spellings

  • デッド γ‚ͺγ‚’ をラむブ 2 - Japanese spelling
  • η”Ÿζˆ–ζ­»2 - Chinese spelling (simplified)

Groups +

Screenshots

Promos

Credits (Arcade version)

91 People (86 developers, 5 thanks) · View all

Producer
Director
Chief Designer
Lead Programmer
Game System Designer
Motion Manager
Motion Design Director
Assistant CG Manager
Character Modeling
Character Texture
Stage Design Director
Sound Composer
CG Effect
Programming
Planner
[ full credits ]

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 87% (based on 51 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.9 out of 5 (based on 72 ratings with 2 reviews)

I'm in love with the Tecmo girls!

The Good
Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat, for many years, dominated my playing time when it came to fighting titles. I wasn't a huge fan of the 3D based fighters, such as Virtua Fighter or Tekken, as much as the Ryu or Scorpian's of old. That was until a group of friends introduced me to Tecmo's Dead or Alive series.

At first, removing the usual up, down, forward, punch cycle and replacing with less intricate moves seemed a little strange to me, but I began to warm to the design fairly quickly, especially when I purchased this updated release on PS2.

Now don't let my summary fool you, I wasn't just in love with the girls here. Sure, they aren't too bad, but it isn't exactly realistic stuff now ... is it? Anyway, what I began to realise was that DOA provided a different kind of strategy, much like Tekken as I soon discovered. Instead of mindless punching and rolling of the control stick, here it was all about timing and placement, and that actually made it far harder yet more enjoyable to master.

There's much to see and do in DOA Hardcore too. The tag team feature works a treat (as I originally mentioned here in this review, it had the better of Tekken Tag Tournament) while the other modes of play add some much needed depth.

But really, it's the visual style of each character, and the sometimes quirky storyarcs that Tecmo created for them. Not to mention the costumes.

The Bad
As I said, DOA is a hard game to master. The reward is being able to counter attacks and throw in a good number of combos to leave your enemy stunned beyond belief, but don't expect to do that as soon as you pick up the controller for the first time. That goes for the rest of the DOA series of titles, I might add.

The Bottom Line
Dead or Alive 2 went on to be one of those titles I couldn't put down for a good while. It was a well put together package, and in terms of a sequel, it clearly surpassed what Tecmo originally designed for the series.

Since DOA2, the franchise has gone on to great lengths on Microsoft's consoles (and the strange move by Tecmo to release a Volleyball spin-off game). Here, though, was where DOA really took off to become a challenge to Soul Calibur and Tekken.

So anyway, about the girls ...

PlayStation 2 · by Kartanym (12418) · 2006

Dead or Alive 3 is better, but this game is still a fantastic experience!

The Good
First of all, the team battle mode is fabulous, just the fact of choosing 5 characters and battling in a team is addictive. Some of the moves in this game are fabulous, proving the great technology and graphics we have in today's games. The story mode has nice stories for each character. The versus mode is pretty great too.

The Bad
The game is almost flawless, but I think the story mode is far too easy to finish, and since that's the main part of this game, it doesn't feel good to play for 10 minutes and then say i've finished the game.

The Bottom Line
The result: An exciting fighting game with very smooth 3D graphics. The only thing that they could make better: Make the story mode tougher, they have already achieved that actually in DOA3 for the Xbox.

PlayStation 2 · by Jim Fun (207) · 2002

Trivia

Extras

Dreamcast GD-ROM contains Bonus directory with five swimwear pin-up posters featuring the DOA girls. These are standard BMP images which you can read with your computer and use as desktop wallpaper for example.

Hidden intro

The Dreamcast versions of the game include a hidden intro for Kasumi that shows her naked in a cloning vat. Additionally as this is an engine-based cutscene you can hack the console with a Game Shark and use the naked model in-game.

References

Once again, Ryu Hayabusa from Tecmo's Ninja Gaiden series makes an appearance. This time, one of his bonus costumes is the outfit he wore in the old NES game trilogy.

Sex

This game shamelessly used as marketing a plug it's lineup of female fighters both before and after it's release with a series of..uhm..."suggestive" official swimsuit images released before the game, and the inclusion of, among other things, catwoman suits and schoolgirl uniforms as bonus outfits in the PS2 release.

Shadow Man

The European Dreamcast version has a Shadow Man costume for the character Zack, since it was released by Acclaim, the publisher and developer of Shadow Man.

Interestingly enough, all following versions of DOA2 (such as Hardcore or the upgraded version on DOA Ultimate) still feature Zack's Shadow Man costume, despite the fact that Acclaim wasn't involved in any of them.

Version differences

The only real difference between this version and its others is the lighting effects. In the PS2 version, the lighting was very bright and made it kind of hard to see. In fact, there have been some reports of people having eye problems from the lighting.

There are six versions of Dead or Alive 2 so far: First came the original Dreamcast port which was pretty much a carbon-copy port of the original arcade release, then the PS2 port which added a few extras but had some graphical issues. The lighting was very bright and made it kind of hard to see. In fact, there have been some reports of people having eye problems from the lighting. An expanded Dreamcast port then followed which included all of the extras from the PS2 version which was then followed with the "Hardcore" release that fixed most of the graphic glitches and added tons of extra material. Finally, even more stuff (such as conceptual galleries and story events) was added for the Japanese "Hardcore" release.

The sixth and final version is the X-box remake Dead or Alive Ultimate, which uses Xtreme Beach Volleyball's engine and adds even more stuff as well as online play.

Information also contributed by karttu, M4R14N0, NightKid32 and Zovni

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Related Sites +

  • Dead or Alive 2 Website
    DOA2 website as part of Sony Europe.
  • Official Tecmo DOA 2 page
    Tecmo's product page for DOA 2, including character profiles & moves and a downloadable PDF manual so you can keep your original in mint condition.
  • Official Tecmo page for PS2 DOA 2 Hardcore
    Tecmo's product page for DOA 2 Hardcore, including character profiles & moves, tips & tricks, and a downloadable PDF manual so you can keep your original in mint condition.

Identifiers +

  • MobyGames ID: 3543
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Contribute

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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Kartanym.

PlayStation 3 added by Charly2.0. Arcade added by mars_rulez. Dreamcast added by karttu.

Additional contributors: Ray Soderlund, Matthew Bailey, Unicorn Lynx, karttu, Patrick Bregger, Rik Hideto.

Game added April 3, 2001. Last modified March 13, 2024.