DOA2: Hardcore

"Fatal Relations"

The Dead or Alive series has always had a poor reputation among the fighting community. You'll always see these self proclaimed “hardcore” fighting gurus prance about saying that the series is essentially a crumby button-masher with bouncy boobs while berating the intelligent fans at the same time. Yeah, well they're all nothing but a bunch of no good wussies that don't know an awesome fighter when they see one. Dead or Alive 2: Hardcore is by far the best 3D fighter I've ever played. Forget that broken Tekken junk or that Soul Calibur with all atmosphere and no gameplay! Hell, who gives a damn if Virtua Fighter is deep? We play games for entertainment, and Dead or Alive 2 is packed with so many bone-crunching moves and intense combos that your thumb will be sore from the hours upon hours of extreme fighting. This is a game based on excellent mechanics and not breasts. The voluptuous vixens are merely a really, really, really nice extra.

The Dead or Alive tournament has once again come around for all those fighters to beat each other up. But who really cares about that? I just want to get my grubby paws on those busty babes and to a lesser extent the manly men. You'll start with a cast of twelve combatants and unlocked an additional two. The roster is insanely well-balanced as you'll find yourself dishing out a dinner plate of hurt with each and every character. Take control of the top-heavy kunoichi Kasumi and dazzle your opponent with a flurry of quick punches and high, panty revealing kicks. Or lay your fingers gently upon the menacing Ayane and start spinning with a whirlwind of slaps to the face. But my personal favorite is the cute karate babe Lei-Fang with her beautiful artistic variety of well-placed hits, swift jabs, and fierce bone-crushing bashings to make a first date the last. But don't worry, ladies! The manly men will come in with muscles pumped as well such as the superhero ninja extraordinaire Ryu Hayabusa with his high-flying ninja piledriver (reminds me of the good old days of Hatori Hanzo) or chunky heavyweight wrestler Bass with his hardcore parenting skills that rival those of Dr. Heathcliff Huxtable. With these gorgeous women and burning hunks of man meat, how can anyone not have fun kicking some can all over the place?

With control over your fighter, you'll have four buttons to bring devastation to the arena. First you have your standard Punch and Kick buttons, but then Dead or Alive 2 makes things interesting with both Grapple and Counter buttons. The Punch and Kick buttons are just what you'd expect allowing you to execute a string of stunning combos to both massacre your opponent and look damn good doing it. These are done with simple button combinations like P, P, P, K or applying the analog stick with an attack button. For example Back, K can be used to create a more advanced and technical back-kick that's more powerful and harder to string with other maneuvers. An experience player will know when and how to employ all these ass stomping feats. Grapples, however, are more difficult to connect, but pay off with dynamic camera shots of your fighter assaulting their foe while chipping away a large chunk of their health meter. The Counter button is no doubt the most interesting of all. By pressing a direction and the Counter button, you'll find yourself stopping an enemy's attack with graceful ease. Of course, you'll have to pick the right direction in regards to wherever the impending blow is coming from. For example, if your opponent kicks high, you'll want to hit the upward direction to grab their leg, throw it back down and leave them open for a good thrashing. Hitting a different direction would cause the counter to fail and you to receive damage. When you get the hang of countering, you'll find it a much better defense than simply blocking the barrage of attacks of the enemy AI.

But to have that AI really start throwing a tough offense, you'll need to put Dead or Alive 2 on a halfway decent difficulty setting. Simply put, this game isn't anywhere near as fun until you set the game to at least Normal AI. Anything less causes the AI to be a complete dumbass and fall for every cheap trick in the book. You can get away with rehashing the same few moves repeatedly to make a quick and dirty victory. But once you're playing like a man on the harder difficulties, that won't swing around here. The AI will recognize your cheap tactics and begin countering you back to the Stone Age. It will kick your ass and them some. But believe me, you'll be having loads of fun when you're trying all these sweet combos and moves out to find a hole in the AI's defense and finally bring it down to its knees.

And while you're trying to finally bring down a mighty foe, you'll be doing in all in one of the fabulous environments. Each stage gives you a large space to move totally around in. Simply jerking the analog stick a bit causes your character to sidestep all around the stage. This is especially advantageous when you want to sneak up behind an opponent or walk out of the way of a vicious attack. You can also back your opponent into a wall of some sort may it be a mountainous boulder, solid stone, electric fence or even explosives coincidentally lined up around the walls. Once backed in, get ready to keep throwing them right into it for major damage. Some arenas also have multiple layers of floor to knock your opponent down into. It's really cool to start flexing your muscles right near a waterfall only to be tossed right off the edge and find yourself in a quaint pool of water ready to be thrashed about by two mighty warriors.

Thankfully Team Ninja packed away a nice little stash of gameplay modes to keep me playing this wonderful fighter. First in Story Mode you find yourself playing through a variety of one round match-ups with sometimes cool yet sometimes completely awkward real-time story scenes. For example take Hayabusa's story. At one point we see young Hayabasa hard at work honing his skills with his blade. In the small bamboo thicket illuminated by the pale moonlight, Hayabusa quick cuts several stocks of the tough vegetation in front of him. But then later we find him randomly grabbing karate-kid Jan Lee's arm in some city and saying something along the lines of, “This is not for commoners!” What the hell was that all about? Next there's Time Attack mode, which has more of the arcade feel that fighting fans would probably enjoy playing. Here you're timed as you play through a series of two round matches with no silly story to break up the pain train. There's also a Tag Battle mode like those dreadful Capcom Versus games, but Dead Or Alive 2's less chaotic fighting style prevents the entire thing from becoming one big headache. I just love picking two of my favorite fighters and having them double team the competition or quickly switching between the two. Lei-Fang a little banged up? Just bring in Ayane to take care of these buffoons with her strong legs of steel! HWAH! There's also an array of already-established self-explanatory modes like Team Battle, Practice, Versus and so on.

While playing through all these modes, you'll surely come across some of the Hardcore exclusive unlockables. Each characters has up to eight different costumes including their two default ones. It took me quite awhile to complete everyone's wardrobes, but man was it worth it. I mean seriously, when you've been playing the game for as long as I have, you need some new threads to look at. The clothes from your favorite fighters surely won't disappoint such as Kasumi's school girl uniform, Lei-Fang's tight leather number, or Ein's shirtless costume complete with chains and shackles.

While checking out those great outfits, you'll find yourself immersed in the amazing atmosphere of Dead or Alive 2. Unlike those flashy games like Soul Calibur, this game doesn't suck but still delivers its own unique brand of drool-inducing visuals. You'll need a napkin for your chin as soon as you set your gaze upon the smooth polygonal models of all the fighters. Watch as Kasumi tosses her opponent like a rag doll and then executes a flurry of punches before landing a roundhouse to the chest. Her opponent gets up and tosses their bulk into Kasumi, but she counters and sends her foe flying in the air with a mere kick. In celebration, Kasumi unsheathes her blade and swings her weapon allowing her large, luscious breasts currently squished together by her tight ninja garb to give a little bounce to the mix. The backgrounds are also equally exquisite with stain-glass windows that shine with the rays of light, arenas of contorted metal and grinding gears sitting under the red hot sun, or chilly mountains with white snow that's kicked up with battle. The only downside to the visuals are the moving articles of clothing. Every so often you'll spot a jacket blowing in the breeze, belt-like ropes swaying off a hulking body, or skirts flown up to reveal a pure 100% sweet panty shot. While this may sound cool, the actual movement of the cloth is very stiff and not fluid like the character's motions. The results look highly unrealistic and downright ridiculous. But that's not enough to mar this unmatched beauty of the PlayStation 2.

Each round is accompanied by music as well as some real bone-crushing sound effects to get you into the fighting spirit. The music on the whole is certainly not at all that bad, but at the same time the tracks aren't memorable. I truly can't recall many of the fighter's themes from memory, but still their fast-paced tempos fit the game well. The array of smacks, bashes, and spine-splitting sounds really help bring the intense fights to life. I mean, who wants to hear pathetic swishing noises as some loser attacks with a big stick or an ugly tramp wields a weird whip-sword hybrid? Not me; I'd rather see a big, meaty wrestler really throw all his weight into one fierce punch and allow the thunderous “WHAM” to echo throughout the room and shock me, baby. Of course, I'll win the match and then hear an awesome voice-over like, “WRESTLING IS THE BADDEST!” Unfortunately whether its awesome or not depends on what language track you choose. The original Japanese is top-notch, while the English causes your ears to bleed at the horrendously unemotional acting. If you're going to be screaming, “You're too immature!” at the top of your lungs, you need to at least make me believe you're one pissed off 400 pound wrestler and not some chubby guy wearing a Hawaiian shirt and swim trunks sitting in a studio ready to pounce at Tina's Texan voice-actress.

But with all these psychedelic rays of intense action, how could anyone claim Dead or Alive 2 is nothing but one awesome 3D fighter!? I've even put in like 30 something hours according to the in-game timer, and that doesn't include those countless hours I spent without the memory card saving progress like a quick playthrough of story mode or time attack. The mix of awe-inspiring combos, AI, and mechanics coupled with the wonderful atmosphere make this a must play. You have to believe me because my contributor name is that of a Samurai Shodown character. If you can't trust a fan of the legendary franchise, then who can you trust? Also, many of you may now be in the midst of muttering in rage that Virtua Fighter 4 is the best 3D fighter out there because it's so deep and tough to master. Yeah, that's all well and good, but sometimes people would rather not spend six hours each day trying to be halfway decent with some shriveled up drunken monkey has-been. At the end of the day, I'd much rather take control of a kunoichi with lavender hair, dangerous curves and one hot ninja tube-top. Hands down, Dead or Alive 2: Hardcore is my favorite 3D fighter . . . . well, until I get my hands on an XBox and Dead or Alive 3.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 08/08/04