DOA2: Hardcore

"One of the best fighting games ever!"

Dead or Alive 2: Hardcore was an extremely good game that was released at the launch (or very close to the launch) of the hugely successful PlayStation2 computer entertainment console, and was the sequel of the game that introduced the concept of bouncy boobs and the danger zone, Dead or Alive. About four years later, the sequel was released, and turned out to be one of the best games made for ANY system, due in part to its awesome characters and game play. Well, enough with the intro, and on to the review!

Game play 10/10: Ahh, the game play. This part of a game decides whether or not the game is good. A game can have great graphics and great sound, but the game will not be truly great unless the game has truly stellar game play. Fortunately, this game has almost perfect game play. The first thing you probably want to know is “Who are the characters?” so I will answer that right now. The characters in this game are Tina Armstrong, who is a pro-wrestler, Bass Armstrong, also a pro-wrestler, Helena, an opera singer, Jann-Lee, who is a bouncer, Gen-Fu, a bookstore owner, Leon, a VERY annoying person who knows Thai-style boxing, Leon, a mercenary that knows Russian martial arts, Lei-Fang, a college student, Ryu Hayabusa, a ninja that happens to own a curio shop, Ayane, a ninja assassin, Ein, a karate martial arts teacher, and last, but definitely not last, Kasumi, a ninja and my favorite character. By now you are probably thinking “ But how does the game play?” so I will explain that now. This game has very responsive controls and has a punch button, a kick button, and a throw button. These controls may seem pretty basic, but each character still has an extensive list of moves, which include special attacks that are used to taunt rather than damage, bone-crushing attacks and various holds and reversals. There are even attacks for when your back is to your opponent! Even better, most of the attacks are not very hard to execute! If you are wondering if this game has full 3-D movement or just 3-D character models and backgrounds, you can rest knowing that this game DOES have full 3-D movement! Another thing worth mentioning is that all the stages except the tag battle stages have multiple levels, which means, for example, that you can kick the opponent off a building and continue the fight down there! Even better, in addition to taking the damage from the attack, if the fall is big enough, they will take even more damage! One last note: I hope you like reversals, because there are a lot of them in this game!


Graphics 9/10: The graphics for this game are very good (or, at least, were very good for the time). There aren’t very many jaggies, and the characters are very well animated and move very fluidly. Hell, they move a lot better than most of my friends! The character’s clothes even move realistically when they move and dust can be kicked up!

Sound effects/Voices 10/10: The sound effects in this game are very good and clear, from Jann-Lee’s annoying battle cries to Leon’s grunts after punching the opponent to the other end of the screen. The sounds are all perfect, except for Zack’s voice and Jann-Lee’s war cries. After hearing those two for one minute, I wanted to yank them out of the game and toss them out into the street! So, my advice is, when you fight them, mute the T.V. and play some good music. Kasumi and Ayane’s voices are the exact opposite. In fact, my only complaint is that they don’t talk nearly enough!

Story, not even worth rating: Just as in every other fighting game, the story in this game sucks. Oh well, you probably don’t play a fighting game for it’s story anyway!

Replayability: Very high. This game is full of secrets.


So, in conclusion, this game rocks! If you have still not bought this game yet, then do so immediately!

Pros- Just about everything!

Cons- Zack and Jann-Lee’s voices

Overall score: 10/10

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 09/14/02, Updated 09/14/02