Dead or Alive 2 (Sony PlayStation 2, 2000)

Tecmos' bouncy fighting game series lands on the Sega Dreamcast with the second installment; Dead or Alive 2. This game plays like a cousin to the Tekken and Virtua Fighter series, as it is a hand to hand fighting game based on real martial arts. There is a punch button, a kick button, a throw button, and a counter button. Stringing together combos feels easy and responsive, but what sets this fighter apart from others are the counter attacks, which is key to getting any good at this game. The game also features huge, multi-tierd backgrounds where for instance, you can knock your opponent out of a window, and jump out the window following them to the outside ground where the fight continues. There are 12 selectable characters (half guys, half girls) each with alternate outfits. Aside from story mode, team battle, time attack, survival, and 1 0n 1 vs mode,there is also tag team play available, where 2 players can each control a team of 2, or up to 4 players can play each with an individual character. This game was ported from the Sega Naomi Arcade hardware and runs perfectly on the Sega Dreamcast. The visuals are absolutely gorgeous, the best on the dreamcast beating out even Soul Caliber. The gameplay is top-notch with tight responsive controls, and a well balanced roster of characters and fighting styles. While not as deep as Virtua Fighter, this game takes a more user friendly approach suiting both purists and begginers alike. While not necessarily shallow, there is a simplified control scheme employed here in comparison to other fighters, the gameplay is easy to learn with some depth to mastery. The only gripe I have with this game is the total lack of unlockable content. What you get is the arcade experience brought to your home, which is good, but there isn't much single player replayability aside from the arcade nostalgia. There is a PS2 version of this game which does have unlockable content, but it doesn't look as good, or play as smoothly as this or the arcade version. Overall I give this game a 4 out of 5. If you enjoy fighting games, and own a Sega Dreamcast, then this is the cream of the crop.

Well I decided to dust off my Dreamcast, and now I wonder why I even bothered. Dead or Alive 2 was good when it came out, but I just can't understand why anyone would choose to play this over Soul Calibur. The combat is easy enough to pick up but seems to lack enough depth for this to be a truly great fighter. Also, unlike the Xbox version, there is so little to this game to keep you from coming back again and again. You have story mode, vs. mode, team battle, tag mode, and survival mode. There is nothing to unlock, which would have added a little replay value, which is much needed in this short game.
On the other hand the graphics are really good, even by todays standards, and the fighters move very fluidly.
The music is bad, sounding like 80's rock with a little electronic flare, which detracts from the feel of the game quite a bit, and the sound effects are fairly standard for a fighter, nothing special.
So the question is, is the Dreamcast version of Dead or Alive 2 worth picking up? My answer would be that unless you're a huge fan of fighters and you only own a Dreamcast then it's worth picking up, if not get Soul Calibur, but if you own a PS2 or Xbox and like this game you may as well pick up the later incarnations. Fighters are definitely not my first choice of game to play so I'd hesitate to reccomend DOA2 when there's better fighters out there.

I love this game! The graphics and colors are great. You can play in story mode against the computer or versus mode with other players. Each character in the game has several costumes to choose from and they locations that you fight in have many surprises. I really recommend this game.

The game's graphics is among the best in today's game title. Cool moves and effects. The story mode was not so in-dept. It's pretty short and you don get to unlock more characters.. But the other modes were pretty cool

Crazy sweet martial arts combos, nice variety in characters and character traits, some amazing multi-tier levels. Not to mention plenty of different game modes to keep you busy.