Dead or Alive 2

"Better than Soul Calibur? Tough call..."

Show of hands - Who here remembers the first Dead Or Alive? ::sees a few hands:: It was that game with the outrageous bouncing breasts? ::sees a million hands shoot up:: Okay, okay. Yes, it's that game we all know and love, Dead Or Alive 2, and it's finally showed up on the Dreamcast. And I'll just say this: AWESOME. This game plain ROCKS. It's one of the greatest fighting games I've ever played. But the greatest? Hmmm...I'll answer that last.

Graphics - I do know this, however...It's the greatest LOOKING fighting game I've ever played. See, while the character models might be a tad less detail then Soul Calibur's, there's one category in which DOA2 wins hands-down: backgrounds. Unbe-freakin'-lievable. The textures, the detail...it's all so amazing. There's so much going on in the backgrounds that it's not surprising during a match to just throw down the controller and stare at all that's going on around you. Also, did I mention the backgrounds are multi-leveled? Eh? Don't know what that means? Take this for example: Say you're fighting on top of a building(and you will, too). You can deliver a blow that will knock your opponent off the building. Now, this doesn't result in a ring out. You will jump down and continue the fight normally on the ground. My GOD. This is a great addition. Characters look superb. They're just about on par with Soul Calibur, although, as I mentioned, slightly less detailed. But they still beat out anything else on the Dreamcast. The fighters move gracefully and clothing moves realistically. Take for instance, Lei-Fang in her normal red dress. When she moves around, the dress will fly about in the air, and it looks great. Now take Zack, that wild black guy. He has a costume that covers his whole body and it reflects EVERYTHING. It looks amazing. Oh yeah, the breasts do still bounce, but it's not nearly as outrageous as it was in the original DOA. It's more realistic now. ^_^

Gameplay - The game plays great. You've got your standard fare of buttons: Punch, Kick, Block. You've also got a Free button. In the arcade, the Free button was used to counter and to sidestep. At home, the Free button does the same things, or you can use a simpler setup where you move around the level using the Stick, kind of like SC's 8-Way Run. To counter, all you have to do is push the Free button and a direction at the right time, and you'll counter. Counters look awesome, but I think they do a tad bit more damage than they should. Go figure. The game modes are pretty basic. Arcade mode is your regular fight-through-the-ranks thing. Team Battle mode is where you pick 5 characters and battle it out with 5 other characters. An amazing fact about Team Battle mode is that when your fighter is defeated, the next fighter up jumps into the ring in about 3-4 seconds. The game DOESN'T SLOW DOWN at all while this is happening. It's fast, fluid, and freakin' amazing. Tag Battle mode is really cool. In it, you select two characters and fight against two other characters. You can switch between the two characters at random, and you can even do tag throws and finish a combo that the other character started! It's basically Tekken Tag Tournament on the DC. It does limit you to one arena though. 4 people can go head-to-head in this mode as well, although not simultaneously.

Sound/Music - This game has your typical grunts, groans and yells. The voices are in Japanese, but there are subtitles at the bottom. The music is good, it works for the fighting. It's not outstanding like the graphics are, but it does it's job.

Buy Or Rent - Buy. Buy buy BUY. Do it now. Why are you even still READING this? Go and buy it! If you're one of those ''I-hate-fighting-games'' types, at least rent it to see the beautiful graphics.

Conclusion - So, here's the burning question: Is this game better than Soul Calibur? I think it comes down to a matter of preference. Soul Calibur has weapons-based fighting, while DOA2 has fists and kicks. SC has ringouts, while DOA2 has interactive environments. SC is deeper than DOA2, but DOA2 has better pick-up-and-play value. So it really comes down to how you feel. Me? If I had to choose, I'd pick DOA2. But thankfully, I don't have to because these games are both on the DC, and I can play both. And in the end, that's what it's about, friends: having fun.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 03/16/00, Updated 03/16/00