Dead or Alive 2

Dreamcast owners have been treated to some of the best fighting games in the history of console gaming, with Soul Calibur, Power Stone, and all those nifty li'l 2D Capcom titles already on the shelves. Adding one more to this winning list, Tecmo brings you Dead or Alive 2, and folks, Sega's fighting lineup is finally the cast of your dreams.

Dreamcast owners have been treated to some of the best fighting games in the history of console gaming, with Soul Calibur, Power Stone, and all those nifty li'l 2D Capcom titles already on the shelves. Adding one more to this winning list, Tecmo brings you Dead or Alive 2, and folks, Sega's fighting lineup is finally the cast of your dreams.

Alive. Definitely Alive.
Dead or Alive was a silent but deadly title on the PSX a few years back, debuting right around the time of Tekken 3. Whereas Tekken centered on deadly combos and multi-part throws, Dead or Alive introduced an all-new element to the more tactical and defensive combat of Sega's Virtua Fighter. Using one button for kicks and one for punches, in addition to a throw button, DoA simplified fighting for those of you without weeks to practice complex combos. By replacing VF's Block button with a Hold button, DoA revolutionized the strategy of fighting games and made for an all-new martial arts experience.

You'll notice that this review hasn't mentioned the bouncy females yet. That's because, if you look beyond the cheesy marketing tactics, Dead or Alive 2 is an awesome fighting game for those of you who like tension and technique in your video brawlers. Thanks to the Hold button, that bad-ass 10-hit combo you know so well could easily be reversed by an opponent with his timing down pat. You must use feints or other tricks to draw an opponent into a mistake, or you'll never know what's coming. All this is in addition to the lovely ladies, of course.

Maybe She's Born With It
The much ballyhooed "outrageous fighting babes" are all here, and they're all rendered to look like women that would make Cindy Crawford wanna go on a diet. Hey, the male characters are all incredibly well built as well, and regardless of gender the characters move with graceful and realistic motions that are easily among the best animated in gaming history. On top of that, the fighting arenas are by far the best yet, with a muti-tier, interactive design that future fighting games would do well to copy.

DoA2's sound is pretty much typical fighting fare, but it's very, very well done. "Generic" fighting tunes pump with a mean rhythm, rather than being washed-out by the other game noise, and the patented grunts and cries manage to avoid becoming repetitive.

Gameplay in DoA2 is top-notch, with the limitation that, while the control scheme is easy to master, the timing of reversals and grapples are not. This leads to many times when you think you blocked but didn't, or when you tried to grapple but did so before the exact right moment, allowing the opponent's attack to sneak through. Thankfully, the reversals mean that no character is ever completely out of the fight; at any moment a well-timed reversal could turn the tide. You'll find times when you're afraid to throw an attack, for fear that the opponent will reverse it and win the match. It's this tension that makes DoA2 such a great fighting game.

Dead Sexy
DoA2 might not be quite as flashy as Soul Calibur, but it's every bit as engaging as Namco's epic master of melee. Gamers who balk at memorizing pages of combos will delight in DoA2's defensive gameplay, and fighting veterans will enjoy having an all-new, incredibly awesome fighting game to conquer. Dead or Alive 2 is, most positively, alive.

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