Dead or Alive 2

I love this (fighting) game, and that is quite strange. The thing is that I've always hated fighting on the PC - I remember the original Mortal Kombat days, when everyone was literally losing their heads for the combination of kicks, punches and magic, they could do to rip the opponent...

Until the late 1990s, the few fighting titles I actually loved to completion, were Fighting Fist (ZX Spectrum), The Way of the Tiger (ZX Spectrum), and Tekken 3 (Playstation). Everything else, no matter how raved, simply didn't hit me.

Tekken 3 is a superb demonstration of great motion capture techniques. This title shows the most fluid and natural movements you can buy, even today, though is as been now equaled by many other software, after the maturating of the required programming.

Dead or Alive 2 [DOA2], for the much under-hyped SEGA Dreamcast (a console that deserves much greater support than its getting), is so fun, so instantaneously enjoyable and adrenalinic, that it really breaks apart from any other fighting title I ever tried.

DOA2 features superb human models, interactive backgrounds, and several playing modes, all delivering the most frenetic gameplay.

The human models are high on the polygon count, yet offering smooth / natural movements, thanks to a very fast 3D engine, highly optimized for its purpose of displaying relatively small scenarios, that are to be navigated in a rotational fashion.

Not only these models are technically impressive, but - perhaps most important - they are works of art, with distinct and effective differences, ranging from how they look, how they move, how they attack and how they defend, to how they speak...

One thing that is quite obvious is an implicit erotism on the female characters. The girls wear clothes that unveil their underwear, when they rise legs or turn quick... But there are more explicit sexy features, such as some gals' big breasts, and the "filming camera" positions, that can be quite provocative or "low level", depending on your attitude on these easy-to-exploit matters.

Man models tend to have "hollywood star" looks, or "Joe-that-can-not-be-more-brutal" looks. Anyway, I always go for the gals in these games. Yeah, trace my psych profile (and you'll fail - sorry).

So, DOA2 shows the same great animation quality that you can already find in other titles (Tekken 3 is the best example), but does it offer something unusual? Yes! DOA2's novelty is the interactive scenario. In Tekken, the scenario is... just that... it surely can't take active part in the fight... but in DOA2, the scenario lives!

In DOA2, you can kick your opponent down a riff or platform, breaking the protective barriers in-between. You can also throw your foe against specific objects, such as electrical gadgets, explosive barrels, and the like. This means that by using the surroundings to your advantage, a broader fighting strategy is born, only requiring the player to perfect his / her skills to push the adversary against the traps.

Perfect your skills, I wrote? Well, the thing is that you can win in DOA2, just by chaotically pressing the kick and punch buttons (the only attacks available), and then combining them with directions and sequences. I completed the game in story mode, some 2 hours after first trying it, and I never learned to perform certain tricks that helped a lot!

The most probable thing to happen is a player to throw some incredible move, score a great hit, and then lose it all on trying to understand HOW it was done :)!

After completing the game (in story mode), I tried the player VERSUS player mode (requiring two DC controllers, connected to ports 1 and 2), with my girlfriend. Well, I was completely humiliated, completely kicked to (perfect) deaths, by someone who had never, ever, played a fighting title - she just shacked to controller to random directions, always hitting the punch button, as if it had some bad bug on it...

True - DOA2 allows unexpected wins and loses - but that only adds to its fun!

There are other playing modes, including two-against-two configs that, for example, allow me to join my gf against two CPU enemies. This opens another NOVELTY of DOA2, which is the tricks that can ONLY be performed by two simultaneous players, against a single unfortunate.

These 2-against-1 tricks are of extreme terror to the poor character who gets trapped in the middle, and represent yet another challenge for the players. Sure you can win just by destroying your DC controller, but I bet you'll try hard to learn how to perform a stunt, until the moment you can win a fight by delivering exactly what you want to, and not whatever the console decides, in response to your random inputs.

DOA2 is a superb game. This is a MANDATORY fighting title!

The Dreamcast really is a top console, with great potential, unfortunately living under the shadows of incoming adversaries (PSX2 and Dolphin).

Check this article's video, for a taste of the beauty of DOA2! This video is available from a link below and from the videos section.

dc_dead_or_alive_2_intro_rs580kbps_17s.rm [17 seconds - 1999 KB] - requires real player 8 (get it from www.real.com)