DOA2: Hardcore

""Hello!" "Wrestling... is the baddest!""

Intro
After getting the PS2, I saw there wasn't many games that I really wanted other than the few RPG's they had out for it. After taking a look and reading reviews, I soon found that the one game I really wanted for Christmas (2000) for PS2 would be, at highest priority, DOA2: Hardcore. Let me tell you, it was a very wise choice!

''You don't know what hardcore is!''- What Kane said in one of my friend's dreams
In DOA2: Hardcore, the original sponsor of the DOA tournament, Fame Douglas, was killed. His murderer brought about a great amount of chaos in the world and even took control of the DOA tournament, creating the DOA Hardcore tournament. Amidst all this disaster at the end of the 20th Century, a new evil has come to being: The Tengu Disaster, and the climax of this disaster takes place at the end of the DOA Hardcore tournament.

Fighting as Usual
Playing this game is a lot like any fighting game. Two basic attack buttons, a throw button, and a block button. Pushing a different combination of directions and attack buttons can generate some pretty solid attacks. The game takes a lot of practice before you become really good, which is one thing I like about this game. I've noticed that with some fighting games, all people really have to do is push a bunch of random buttons without really knowing exactly what they're doing and they can actually win that way. This one, you almost have to know what your doing in order to win.

Modes
There are various different modes in the game: Story, survival, vs., tag team, team, sparring, time attack, and watch mode. There are also some extras such as UPS mode (allows you to personalize your own game file with ID), CG gallery, collection (the items you gained in survival mode), and battle records.

While it may seem there are quite a bit of fighting modes, most of them don't go beyond 5 stages. Tag mode is pretty cool with how you can do double team moves and switch people instantaneously during battle to make bigger fighting combos. How 'bout I give a breakdown of each mode...

Story Mode- The basic mode of the game. I think they called it Story for lack of a better name, because you sure as hell aren't getting much of a story out of it. You basically see some minor interactions between different characters at different times. There is a little development of a story, but it seems more like filler than a story.

Survival- This mode can be a bit of fun. You fight one-on-one against opponent after opponent. Once you defeat one, another appears and you must keep going until either you've been defeated or time runs out. If you're good enough, you can quite literally go forever on this. As you beat each character to a pulp, items fly out of them for you to pick up and collect in your gallery. You can go back and see how many you've collected total, as long as the game was saved after each session. I somewhat like this mode, but I don't play it too often. Still a nice contribution.

Vs.- I think most of you out there know the drill in Vs. Player one vs. Player two. Great if you're looking for competition. However, when I have someone else playing with me, I prefer playing Tag mode.

Tag- A small tournament of 2 vs. 2. You pick two characters and, one by one, you take on other teams of two. This mode is especially fun when you have another character who knows well how to do the moves. You can get some crazy stuff going on this. I think this is my favorite mode of the game, especially with all the mad combos you can do in this game.

Team- You form a team of players and play against a computer team, elimination style. Nothing really big, but okay nonetheless.

Sparring- Great if you need to build those fighting skills and learn some of the better moves in the game, here's the perfect place to do so. You play against a still-standing competitor, which you get to beat the tar out of.

Time-Attack- Another mode I actually like. This one sets you up against all the regular characters (less Tengu) in matches of best two out of three. You can adjust the number of victories, so don't worry. You also have the entire mode timed, so you can go back and keep trying to beat your time.

Watch- For those who are extremely bored... You get to watch the computer ceaselessly fight itself. I guess this is okay if the computer ever does any really good moves against itself and you want to see some major brutality.

Suit Down
There's also many hidden suits for each character as well as two hidden characters: Tengu and Bayman. The only thing I don't like about the hidden suits is that you have to continuously play over and over and over again until you get them, or get extremely good at survival mode and get the special items from that.

Game Elements
The graphics are great. They display some very well put together design, which is no surprise from Tecmo. There is also a very good use of color The sounds are pretty good. Enough to keep the game interesting. The controls may be a bit complex, but they're easy to learn if you play enough.

FINAL JUDGMENT
Graphics: Great graphics and animation 10/10
Sounds: Workable. Some of the voice acting wasn't top notch, but it was good enough. It also had sufficient music and great sound effects. 8/10
Control: The better you get with the controls, the more fun this game becomes 10/10
Plot/Storyline: Well, at least this isn't people fighting for fortune or glory. Each person has their own objective throughout the game. 8/10
Gameplay: What can I say? Loads of fun. 10/10
All together: 9/10

Perks
*Lots of action!
*Great gameplay
*Great graphics
*Surprisingly good controls
*Tag mode rules!

Downers
*Story mode really doesn't have much ''story''
*Needs a few more characters
*Also needs to be a bit more lenient on unlocking stuff

Recommendations
Anyone who likes fighting games will most likely enjoy this game. It's a lot of fun and I honestly wish I would've gotten this instead of Evergrace on release day. Not to say Evergrace is a totally bad game, I just enjoy this one better. I think $50 is worth this game.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 12/27/00, Updated 09/29/01