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Dead or Alive 2 is a fantastic fighting game, that manages to offer gamers a deeper level of game play than you might have thought at first. In my view it isn’t as good as Soul Calibur, but then nothing is – Dead or Alive 2 claims the honourable place as the second best Dreamcast fighting game, and that is something to be proud of! The creators Tecmo, released this game on Dreamcast before the Playstation 2, so you’d think that Sony’s machine version would have improved graphics over the Dreamcast one, but it doesn’t - that 60hz option does the trick every time! Although there is very little in it, the Dreamcast game actually is crisper, more vibrant in colour and has no glitches or ‘jaggedness’, but if you have a PS2 then it’s still worth getting as nothing comes close to it on that format (not even Tekken Tag Tournament in my belief). So why is DoA2 so good? I’m about to tell you…
I don’t know why but I was looking forward to this game more than most other Dreamcast games, it only cost me £29.99 so I saved 25% on the SRP, so it didn’t break the bank balance. Well, I remember the original Dead or Alive, which appeared on the Sega Saturn and Playstation, but I never managed to play it, and after reading some reviews claiming it was the best Saturn fighter so far, and naturally I would have wanted it in my gaming collection, but unfortunately, with the Saturn’s demise, I was unable to do so. But at least the second game arrived and it’s been fairly impressive to say the least!
The fighting game engine is very different from Soul Calibur, and I don’t feel it’s as well executed as Namco’s game, but nonetheless, Dead or Alive 2 plays very well indeed. The controls are simple to learn, so it’s easy to get straight into a game without learning any special moves, but there is a wealth of moves to be performed, so it will prove to be a challenge for die-hard fans of the genre. There are many power moves, various kicks, punches and throws, as you would expect, but the most impressive idea in the game are the ‘counter’ moves. So basically, whenever your opponent attacks you, you’re able to counter it by pressing certain buttons, and so the damage is inflicted on them instead. You cannot counter every single move, but when you do it’s quite impressive! Tecmo has made the game incredibly smooth and stylish – every move looks perfectly performed. You may notice that there are no weapons in Dead or Alive 2 – it’s an all out combat free fighting game, the characters don’t have swords or sticks like those in Soul Calibur, so you may want to consider this if you have to choose between the two games.
One major advantage that Dead or Alive 2 has over SC is the Tag Battle mode – enabling up to four players to fight it out until the death! You’ll be able to Tag whenever you need to, if you need your health to be replenished then tag, or if you’re tag team member wants to take over, they can do so too! Having played the Tekken Tag Tournament Tag battle, I have to say Dead or Alive 2’s is far better - it works so well! So, where Soul Calibur excels in the single player mission mode, and 2 player bouts, Dead or Alive 2 gives you the opportunity to make use of the Dreamcast four controller ports.
The single player experience of DoA2 is not particularly impressive, and there aren’t as many ‘features’ to unlock, whereas the mission mode in Soul Calibur will last a long time and reward you with pieces of artwork, and there are new characters to be unlocked also (via the arcade mode). If you play through the story mode here you’ll be treated to a few video sequences, telling a rather brief and pointless story in between the 6fight tournament. If you get past all the regular characters then you’ll be up against the game boss – ‘Evil Tengu’ (a huge boar like monster: he flies & is incredibly powerful!). Although there isn’t much to get through in this mode, you can increase the difficulty level to suite your fighting ability. You’ll learn a bit more about the different characters, things like Bass being Tina’s father and that Ayane killed Helena’s mum. Very nice! You’ll only be awarded extra costumes by completing the story mode, there are no new characters to unlock, but at least you have something to work for – it’s not much of an incentive, but you may as well reveal all of the player’s attire.
There are other modes to the game as well, which include:
Story mode: as described – work your way through the story of one character and then beat the boss.
Time Attack mode: Beat all 8 opponents as fast as possible! If you get a really quick time then you may well make it to the top 10 fastest times, where you can record your name or initials.
Versus mode: possible the most played mode in any fighting game – for 2 players only, but still you can never play enough of that good old ‘winner stays on’ or ‘first to 5000wins…’ you’re able to select various options for this mode of play: time length, number of game sets and health settings.
Tag Battle mode: 4 characters with the following combinations of teams:
Player 1 versus Computer
Player 1 & Player 2 versus Computer
Player 1versus Player 2
Players1 & 3 versus Player 2
Or even, Players 1 & 3 versus 2 & 4
Either way – these battles are usually lightning fast and superb to watch or play – definitely one of the highlights of DoA2!
Survival mode: just for 1 player this time, you have to stay alive for as long as you can to get as many points as possible! Survive the maximum amount of opponents as you can, but remember you health will only be partially replenished after each fight. It’s quite a hard mode actually, but still it’s an essential style of game.
Team Battle: Select several characters to form a team – played again, in this tournament style. Great fun!
Sparring mode: it’s the learning of new moves that makes Dead or Alive 2 last even longer than it should do. You think you’ve got all the moves sorted, and then you learn a new one – excellent stuff! You can’t get killed in this mode, so it’s great for practising.
Options: change various options to suite your needs, change your age and view the records and rankings.
The actual menu screen is superb, very nicely done and great music too.
The characters are all great with their special moves and all, but I can recommend using Helena and Ein as they seem to be the most effective – both fast and powerful. All the people have different costumes to be unlocked, but the most graphically impressive is Zack’s silver shiny one.
Great game for all who love fighting games – the alternative to Soul Calibur and a worthy purchase for anyone.
I don’t know why but I was looking forward to this game more than most other Dreamcast games, it only cost me £29.99 so I saved 25% on the SRP, so it didn’t break the bank balance. Well, I remember the original Dead or Alive, which appeared on the Sega Saturn and Playstation, but I never managed to play it, and after reading some reviews claiming it was the best Saturn fighter so far, and naturally I would have wanted it in my gaming collection, but unfortunately, with the Saturn’s demise, I was unable to do so. But at least the second game arrived and it’s been fairly impressive to say the least!
The fighting game engine is very different from Soul Calibur, and I don’t feel it’s as well executed as Namco’s game, but nonetheless, Dead or Alive 2 plays very well indeed. The controls are simple to learn, so it’s easy to get straight into a game without learning any special moves, but there is a wealth of moves to be performed, so it will prove to be a challenge for die-hard fans of the genre. There are many power moves, various kicks, punches and throws, as you would expect, but the most impressive idea in the game are the ‘counter’ moves. So basically, whenever your opponent attacks you, you’re able to counter it by pressing certain buttons, and so the damage is inflicted on them instead. You cannot counter every single move, but when you do it’s quite impressive! Tecmo has made the game incredibly smooth and stylish – every move looks perfectly performed. You may notice that there are no weapons in Dead or Alive 2 – it’s an all out combat free fighting game, the characters don’t have swords or sticks like those in Soul Calibur, so you may want to consider this if you have to choose between the two games.
One major advantage that Dead or Alive 2 has over SC is the Tag Battle mode – enabling up to four players to fight it out until the death! You’ll be able to Tag whenever you need to, if you need your health to be replenished then tag, or if you’re tag team member wants to take over, they can do so too! Having played the Tekken Tag Tournament Tag battle, I have to say Dead or Alive 2’s is far better - it works so well! So, where Soul Calibur excels in the single player mission mode, and 2 player bouts, Dead or Alive 2 gives you the opportunity to make use of the Dreamcast four controller ports.
The single player experience of DoA2 is not particularly impressive, and there aren’t as many ‘features’ to unlock, whereas the mission mode in Soul Calibur will last a long time and reward you with pieces of artwork, and there are new characters to be unlocked also (via the arcade mode). If you play through the story mode here you’ll be treated to a few video sequences, telling a rather brief and pointless story in between the 6fight tournament. If you get past all the regular characters then you’ll be up against the game boss – ‘Evil Tengu’ (a huge boar like monster: he flies & is incredibly powerful!). Although there isn’t much to get through in this mode, you can increase the difficulty level to suite your fighting ability. You’ll learn a bit more about the different characters, things like Bass being Tina’s father and that Ayane killed Helena’s mum. Very nice! You’ll only be awarded extra costumes by completing the story mode, there are no new characters to unlock, but at least you have something to work for – it’s not much of an incentive, but you may as well reveal all of the player’s attire.
There are other modes to the game as well, which include:
Story mode: as described – work your way through the story of one character and then beat the boss.
Time Attack mode: Beat all 8 opponents as fast as possible! If you get a really quick time then you may well make it to the top 10 fastest times, where you can record your name or initials.
Versus mode: possible the most played mode in any fighting game – for 2 players only, but still you can never play enough of that good old ‘winner stays on’ or ‘first to 5000wins…’ you’re able to select various options for this mode of play: time length, number of game sets and health settings.
Tag Battle mode: 4 characters with the following combinations of teams:
Player 1 versus Computer
Player 1 & Player 2 versus Computer
Player 1versus Player 2
Players1 & 3 versus Player 2
Or even, Players 1 & 3 versus 2 & 4
Either way – these battles are usually lightning fast and superb to watch or play – definitely one of the highlights of DoA2!
Survival mode: just for 1 player this time, you have to stay alive for as long as you can to get as many points as possible! Survive the maximum amount of opponents as you can, but remember you health will only be partially replenished after each fight. It’s quite a hard mode actually, but still it’s an essential style of game.
Team Battle: Select several characters to form a team – played again, in this tournament style. Great fun!
Sparring mode: it’s the learning of new moves that makes Dead or Alive 2 last even longer than it should do. You think you’ve got all the moves sorted, and then you learn a new one – excellent stuff! You can’t get killed in this mode, so it’s great for practising.
Options: change various options to suite your needs, change your age and view the records and rankings.
The actual menu screen is superb, very nicely done and great music too.
The characters are all great with their special moves and all, but I can recommend using Helena and Ein as they seem to be the most effective – both fast and powerful. All the people have different costumes to be unlocked, but the most graphically impressive is Zack’s silver shiny one.
Great game for all who love fighting games – the alternative to Soul Calibur and a worthy purchase for anyone.
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Dead or Alive 2 is a fantastic fighting game, that manages to offer gamers a deeper level of game play than you might have thought at first. In my view it isn’t as good as Soul Calibur, but then nothing is – Dead or Alive 2 claims the honourable place as the second best Dreamcast fighting game, and that is something to be proud of! The creators Tecmo, released this game on Dreamcast before the Playstation 2, so you’d think that Sony’s machine version would have improved graphics over the Dreamcast one, but it doesn’t - that 60hz option does the trick every time! Although there is very little in it, the Dreamcast game actually is crisper, more vibrant in colour and has no glitches or ‘jaggedness’, but if you have a PS2 then it’s still worth getting as nothing comes close to it on that format (not even Tekken Tag Tournament in my belief). So why is DoA2 so good? I’m about to tell you…
I don’t know why but I was looking forward to this game more than most other Dreamcast games, it only cost me £29.99 so I saved 25% on the SRP, so it didn’t break the bank balance. Well, I remember the original Dead or Alive, which appeared on the Sega Saturn and Playstation, but I never managed to play it, and after reading some reviews claiming it was the best Saturn fighter so far, and naturally I would have wanted it in my gaming collection, but unfortunately, with the Saturn’s demise, I was unable to do so. But at least the second game arrived and it’s been fairly impressive to say the least!
The fighting game engine is very different from Soul Calibur, and I don’t feel it’s as well executed as Namco’s game, but nonetheless, Dead or Alive 2 plays very well indeed. The controls are simple to learn, so it’s easy to get straight into a game without learning any special moves, but there is a wealth of moves to be performed, so it will prove to be a challenge for die-hard fans of the genre. There are many power moves, various kicks, punches and throws, as you would expect, but the most impressive idea in the game are the ‘counter’ moves. So basically, whenever your opponent attacks you, you’re able to counter it by pressing certain buttons, and so the damage is inflicted on them instead. You cannot counter every single move, but when you do it’s quite impressive! Tecmo has made the game incredibly smooth and stylish – every move looks perfectly performed. You may notice that there are no weapons in Dead or Alive 2 – it’s an all out combat free fighting game, the characters don’t have swords or sticks like those in Soul Calibur, so you may want to consider this if you have to choose between the two games.
One major advantage that Dead or Alive 2 has over SC is the Tag Battle mode – enabling up to four players to fight it out until the death! You’ll be able to Tag whenever you need to, if you need your health to be replenished then tag, or if you’re tag team member wants to take over, they can do so too! Having played the Tekken Tag Tournament Tag battle, I have to say Dead or Alive 2’s is far better - it works so well! So, where Soul Calibur excels in the single player mission mode, and 2 player bouts, Dead or Alive 2 gives you the opportunity to make use of the Dreamcast four controller ports.
The single player experience of DoA2 is not particularly impressive, and there aren’t as many ‘features’ to unlock, whereas the mission mode in Soul Calibur will last a long time and reward you with pieces of artwork, and there are new characters to be unlocked also (via the arcade mode). If you play through the story mode here you’ll be treated to a few video sequences, telling a rather brief and pointless story in between the 6fight tournament. If you get past all the regular characters then you’ll be up against the game boss – ‘Evil Tengu’ (a huge boar like monster: he flies & is incredibly powerful!). Although there isn’t much to get through in this mode, you can increase the difficulty level to suite your fighting ability. You’ll learn a bit more about the different characters, things like Bass being Tina’s father and that Ayane killed Helena’s mum. Very nice! You’ll only be awarded extra costumes by completing the story mode, there are no new characters to unlock, but at least you have something to work for – it’s not much of an incentive, but you may as well reveal all of the player’s attire.
There are other modes to the game as well, which include:
Story mode: as described – work your way through the story of one character and then beat the boss.
Time Attack mode: Beat all 8 opponents as fast as possible! If you get a really quick time then you may well make it to the top 10 fastest times, where you can record your name or initials.
Versus mode: possible the most played mode in any fighting game – for 2 players only, but still you can never play enough of that good old ‘winner stays on’ or ‘first to 5000wins…’ you’re able to select various options for this mode of play: time length, number of game sets and health settings.
Tag Battle mode: 4 characters with the following combinations of teams:
Player 1 versus Computer
Player 1 & Player 2 versus Computer
Player 1versus Player 2
Players1 & 3 versus Player 2
Or even, Players 1 & 3 versus 2 & 4
Either way – these battles are usually lightning fast and superb to watch or play – definitely one of the highlights of DoA2!
Survival mode: just for 1 player this time, you have to stay alive for as long as you can to get as many points as possible! Survive the maximum amount of opponents as you can, but remember you health will only be partially replenished after each fight. It’s quite a hard mode actually, but still it’s an essential style of game.
Team Battle: Select several characters to form a team – played again, in this tournament style. Great fun!
Sparring mode: it’s the learning of new moves that makes Dead or Alive 2 last even longer than it should do. You think you’ve got all the moves sorted, and then you learn a new one – excellent stuff! You can’t get killed in this mode, so it’s great for practising.
Options: change various options to suite your needs, change your age and view the records and rankings.
The actual menu screen is superb, very nicely done and great music too.
The characters are all great with their special moves and all, but I can recommend using Helena and Ein as they seem to be the most effective – both fast and powerful. All the people have different costumes to be unlocked, but the most graphically impressive is Zack’s silver shiny one.
Great game for all who love fighting games – the alternative to Soul Calibur and a worthy purchase for anyone.
I don’t know why but I was looking forward to this game more than most other Dreamcast games, it only cost me £29.99 so I saved 25% on the SRP, so it didn’t break the bank balance. Well, I remember the original Dead or Alive, which appeared on the Sega Saturn and Playstation, but I never managed to play it, and after reading some reviews claiming it was the best Saturn fighter so far, and naturally I would have wanted it in my gaming collection, but unfortunately, with the Saturn’s demise, I was unable to do so. But at least the second game arrived and it’s been fairly impressive to say the least!
The fighting game engine is very different from Soul Calibur, and I don’t feel it’s as well executed as Namco’s game, but nonetheless, Dead or Alive 2 plays very well indeed. The controls are simple to learn, so it’s easy to get straight into a game without learning any special moves, but there is a wealth of moves to be performed, so it will prove to be a challenge for die-hard fans of the genre. There are many power moves, various kicks, punches and throws, as you would expect, but the most impressive idea in the game are the ‘counter’ moves. So basically, whenever your opponent attacks you, you’re able to counter it by pressing certain buttons, and so the damage is inflicted on them instead. You cannot counter every single move, but when you do it’s quite impressive! Tecmo has made the game incredibly smooth and stylish – every move looks perfectly performed. You may notice that there are no weapons in Dead or Alive 2 – it’s an all out combat free fighting game, the characters don’t have swords or sticks like those in Soul Calibur, so you may want to consider this if you have to choose between the two games.
One major advantage that Dead or Alive 2 has over SC is the Tag Battle mode – enabling up to four players to fight it out until the death! You’ll be able to Tag whenever you need to, if you need your health to be replenished then tag, or if you’re tag team member wants to take over, they can do so too! Having played the Tekken Tag Tournament Tag battle, I have to say Dead or Alive 2’s is far better - it works so well! So, where Soul Calibur excels in the single player mission mode, and 2 player bouts, Dead or Alive 2 gives you the opportunity to make use of the Dreamcast four controller ports.
The single player experience of DoA2 is not particularly impressive, and there aren’t as many ‘features’ to unlock, whereas the mission mode in Soul Calibur will last a long time and reward you with pieces of artwork, and there are new characters to be unlocked also (via the arcade mode). If you play through the story mode here you’ll be treated to a few video sequences, telling a rather brief and pointless story in between the 6fight tournament. If you get past all the regular characters then you’ll be up against the game boss – ‘Evil Tengu’ (a huge boar like monster: he flies & is incredibly powerful!). Although there isn’t much to get through in this mode, you can increase the difficulty level to suite your fighting ability. You’ll learn a bit more about the different characters, things like Bass being Tina’s father and that Ayane killed Helena’s mum. Very nice! You’ll only be awarded extra costumes by completing the story mode, there are no new characters to unlock, but at least you have something to work for – it’s not much of an incentive, but you may as well reveal all of the player’s attire.
There are other modes to the game as well, which include:
Story mode: as described – work your way through the story of one character and then beat the boss.
Time Attack mode: Beat all 8 opponents as fast as possible! If you get a really quick time then you may well make it to the top 10 fastest times, where you can record your name or initials.
Versus mode: possible the most played mode in any fighting game – for 2 players only, but still you can never play enough of that good old ‘winner stays on’ or ‘first to 5000wins…’ you’re able to select various options for this mode of play: time length, number of game sets and health settings.
Tag Battle mode: 4 characters with the following combinations of teams:
Player 1 versus Computer
Player 1 & Player 2 versus Computer
Player 1versus Player 2
Players1 & 3 versus Player 2
Or even, Players 1 & 3 versus 2 & 4
Either way – these battles are usually lightning fast and superb to watch or play – definitely one of the highlights of DoA2!
Survival mode: just for 1 player this time, you have to stay alive for as long as you can to get as many points as possible! Survive the maximum amount of opponents as you can, but remember you health will only be partially replenished after each fight. It’s quite a hard mode actually, but still it’s an essential style of game.
Team Battle: Select several characters to form a team – played again, in this tournament style. Great fun!
Sparring mode: it’s the learning of new moves that makes Dead or Alive 2 last even longer than it should do. You think you’ve got all the moves sorted, and then you learn a new one – excellent stuff! You can’t get killed in this mode, so it’s great for practising.
Options: change various options to suite your needs, change your age and view the records and rankings.
The actual menu screen is superb, very nicely done and great music too.
The characters are all great with their special moves and all, but I can recommend using Helena and Ein as they seem to be the most effective – both fast and powerful. All the people have different costumes to be unlocked, but the most graphically impressive is Zack’s silver shiny one.
Great game for all who love fighting games – the alternative to Soul Calibur and a worthy purchase for anyone.
Page: