Dead or Alive 2 Hardcore

by Tecmo / Sony

Product Features

• 1-4 Players
• Analog Control
• Vibration Function
• English and Japanese voice options
• Special Battle Record Mode

Product Details

• ASIN: B00004YRVW
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 5.3 x 0.6 inches ; 5 ounces
• Media: Video Game
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (81 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #16,994 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)

Product Description

GameSpot Review

Not content with the wide acclaim that the Dreamcast version received when it was released earlier this year, Tecmo has added even more new features to its flagship fighting game, Dead or Alive 2. The game, now titled Dead or Alive 2: Hardcore, adds new costumes, stages, and voices to the mix, and for the most part the game has retained its extremely smooth look.

The original Dead or Alive was powered by Sega's Model 2 arcade hardware, and it played quite a bit like Virtua Fighter 2 with the addition of special danger zones that delivered various new effects. DOA2 breaks out of the Virtua Fighter mold: It has full 3-D movement, a rather necessary countering system, and overall it's a more interesting game.

DOA2 offers a variety of mostly standard modes, from the regular story mode, to versus, tag-team-battle, training, and survival. The tag-team-battle mode is pretty exciting, because DOA2's tags occur almost instantaneously. This makes it easy to start a juggle combo and keep the juggle going. Unlike Tekken Tag Tournament, DOA2's tag-team battles are down to the last man, so one-on-two fights can and do occur. The story mode consists of one-round fights and hilariously meaningless prefight exchanges between characters. The horrific English voice work only amplifies the humor.

While DOA2's fighting leans toward the button-mashing side of things, there's plenty of depth to be found, thanks in part to the countering system, which makes countering moves as easy as hitting back, and to the "free" button, which lets you walk around the stage in full 3-D. This occasionally leads to counter syndrome, where both players run at each other and immediately counter over and over again, hoping to catch the other player off guard. It looks incredibly silly. Still, regardless of your methods, DOA2 is a fun multiplayer game, and the four-player option in tag-team-battle mode is especially exciting.

DOA2: Hardcore looks simply amazing. The animation is smooth, but the character models are what really stand out. The fighters all look extremely smooth. Little things like clothes, hair, and tassels move appropriately, almost never clipping into the characters' bodies. And, of course, the series' trademark gimmick--large, bouncing breasts--is as prevalent as ever. The soundtrack is a little annoying. While the fighting sounds are great, the music--mostly a collection of fairly generic and slightly annoying guitar tracks--fails to impress. The other piece of audio, newly added for this "hardcore" edition, is English speech. While you can reset the speech to Japanese and turn on subtitles, the game defaults to some of the worst voice work in recent memory. The delivery is off, the script is absolutely lame, and overall it makes the game laughable.

Dead or Alive 2: Hardcore is a pretty good fighting game. The fighting system is fast and fun, though not the deepest system in town. Still, the pretty graphics make it a good showpiece (though, to be honest, it doesn't look that much different from the Dreamcast release), and the game has enough options to make it a worthwhile purchase for fight-hungry PS2 owners.
--Jeff Gerstmann--Copyright © 2000 GameSpot Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission of GameSpot is prohibited.

Product Description

Sit down, Shut Up, and Play! This is real fighting action - Sexy and Edgy. Just don't get too close to these beauties. Special Cinema Modes. Awesome graphics.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars One of the better launch PSX2 titles, October 27, 2000

By 

"sky_pig" (Berkeley, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dead or Alive 2 Hardcore (Video Game)

DOA2:Hardcore is overall a very nicely done game. The PS2 version shines in its background graphics and the beauty of the characters, personally I prefer the lighting of this version over the DC version, but that's a more subjective view. Gameplay is simply just plain fun. The good balance of characters offers the perfect solution to the fighting style of your choice. Multiplayer gaming is great, as tag (2vs2)battle, team (3-5 vs 3-5), and vs. modes should keep at most 4 people occupied for a while.

What this game seems to fail gracefully is its single player story mode. Although we all know that there will never be a good story plot in arcade fighting games, Namco could at least put some more rewards and depth into single player challenges. To me, simply getting cosmetic changes to my characters and etc. just doesn't motivate me that much to spend my time into it. This game in its single player story mode could never be on par with DC's Soul Calibur, which offers a much richer and in depth single player gaming experience. The other single player modes of this game is interesting, but as I mentioned, the depth is just not there (sorry DOA fans).

The control of this game is very good (thanks to the PSX controller), but not great. The full analog support on the Dual Shock 2 has its ups in the ease of use with the joypad section and higher sensitivity in the buttons(which makes making combos A LOT easier), but its downs is evident in the direction pads (u will rarely get a chance to use them, except for jump, crouch, and defend) where the users have to get used to switching back and forth. Learning curve of this game's controls should be around 60~90 minutes for casual gamers and shorter for hardcore experts.

DOA2:Hardcore is a better presented game over its Japanese counterpart, as improvements in gaming is evident. This game is FUN and great to play with friends, but be forewarned, the single player experience MIGHT let you down if u have played DC's Soul Calibur. But, it should be YOU who should decide the fun value of the single player modes. This game is definitely worth your $$, and is definitely the better PS2 launch title on the market.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Tekken Tag vs. DOA2, February 8, 2001

By 

Steven J Shaw (NJ) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dead or Alive 2 Hardcore (Video Game)

This game is most definately superior to Tekken Tag. Eever since the first Tekken I have been a faithful consumer. I own every Tekken game out there, but even I must say DOA:2 blows it away. The fighting style is looser and more customizable, the combos are what I'm talking about if you don't know. Graphics are much better, environment are multi-leveled and excellent looking (the electrified walls were an excellent idea, bravo man). I don't know what to say, Tekken Tag was exactly like Tekken 3, the tagging is just in and out no tag combos so it gets boring and you go back to 1 vs. 1 and leave 2 vs. 2 alone. I played Tekken Tag at my friends house and rented it before buying it, both times around i found myself complaining and bored wondering why there werent any improvements over #3 other than the graphics. At one point I even put in Tekken 3 because it plays faster. DOA:2 is amazing, fast paced, loose styles, nice characters, hot women, counters are excellent... the story mode does ... though, it may as well just be practice for 2 player (who plays a fighting game all by themselves?!). Buy it, GREAT GAME! Would have been 5 stars but I have to boo the story mode, i found reading the back of the booklet more in depth and that was a FAQ not even a story.

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Great One, November 15, 2000

By 

"emperorrob" (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dead or Alive 2 Hardcore (Video Game)

I have played every fighting game ever made on every system and I am the Hardest of Hardcore and this is the best I have ever played. The graphics and the combat system, which is its heart and is unique from every other fighter in the world, make this game the great one.

If you own a PS2 and don't even like fighting games you should buy this, especially if you are a guy because the women rock!