Review

Back in 1996, Virtua Fighter 2 was widely considered to be the deepest, best-playing 3D fighter around. For the most part it was, although the learning curve was considerably steeper than, say, what a Tekken player would have to accomplish to master Tekken. Tekkens, Toshindens, and, er, Criticoms aside, Virtua Fighter 2 was the hard-core gamer's ultimate bastion, due to its endless layers of depth and extensive move list, which only the most erudite could master. So it came as a bit of a surprise when Tecmo, of all companies, licensed the same Model 2 hardware that Virtua Fighter 2 used. Until that point, no other third-party company had used the Model 2 board to create a game. That Tecmo was not only licensing it but apparently developing a Virtua Fighter clone brought, at the very least, smirks from the gaming community. Three factors separated the uncomfortably familiar Virtua Fighter-like characters from their well-respected brethren. The first was the addition of danger zones, which surrounded the perimeter of each arena and caused any character who stepped into the zone to explode skyward, causing significant damage in the process. The second gameplay twist was the addition of a hold button that lets the fighter use his opponent's attacks against him by way of reversals. The third and final "enhancement" was the implementation of an obnoxious "breast physics engine" that caused the female characters' chests to defy the common laws of gravity with a panache never quite seen before in a video game. It was only the danger zones that affected the gameplay, but the novelty of the third enhancement struck a nerve far and wide with young male gamers everywhere. The arcade experience was ported home (well, Japanese homes, anyway) to the Sega Saturn with remarkable accuracy, minus real-time shadows and a few background details. What was retained, however, was the slick 60fps rate, along with the modified Virtua Fighter combat engine. A wealth of replay value was stuffed into the Saturn port, with each character having a plethora of hidden costumes that were unlocked with each replay of the game. Dozens of new outfits were unlockable, with some of the female characters' outfits bordering on "racy." Sadly, despite desperate pleas from US gamers, the Saturn version never made it to the States, although the subsequent PlayStation version did. The PlayStation version, which took training-dummy Ayane and made her a playable character, also added a couple of outfits, although the gameplay wasn't as razor-sharp responsive as the Saturn version had been. Now a few years have gone by, and Dead or Alive 2 hasn't exactly been a secret. Using Sega arcade hardware, this time the Naomi board, Tecmo once again has raised the bar on its own expectations by adding not only multitiered levels, but lightning-quick tag-team action as well. While the arcade version, seen in little peeks over the last two years, evolved into something quite substantial, it was widely thought to be running on two Naomi boards. This was due to the huge multileveled environments, whooshing by at 60fps, with up to four characters onscreen at one time. Team Ninja, Tecmo's in-house development team, declared that it ran on one Naomi board and that the entire game would be ported to the Dreamcast, with little to no loss of quality. Well Tecmo has finally completed that daunting task, and Dead or Alive 2 has finally hit American (and strangely, not Japanese) shores. The Dreamcast has no shortage of fighting games, with Soul Calibur heading the list and Virtua Fighter 3tb, Power Stone, Tech Romancer, Star Gladiator 2, Psychic Force 2012, and Street Fighter III all having their merits. Does DOA2 bring enough to the table, to usurp Namco's Soul Calibur as best fighting game on a system replete with fighting games? In some ways, it most definitely does. Although the original DOA for the arcade, the Saturn, and the PlayStation all played well enough to hold their own against comparisons with Virtua Fighter 2, it still wasn't nearly as deep as Sega's flagship fighter. The combo system was limited, and the depth of moves wasn't nearly as limitless as in VF2. Another criticism was that the hold mechanism made the game too easy and caused inordinate turtling, especially in two-player games, due to the ease with which a frontal attack could be shut down. Dead or Alive 2 addresses that issue and raises the curve on the requirements needed to master the new system. While it seems simple, it basically triples the difficulty in trying to parry an opponent into leaving himself open. Instead of just letting the press of the hold button (Tecmo refers to it as the "free" button) do all the work, you must now determine whether an opponent's attack will arrive at a high, medium, or low level. Only if you've eyeballed the correct point of entry will you successfully deflect the attack. Timing is also crucial to the successful reversal of an incoming attack, as attempting to use the free button too early or too late will simply leave you open to attack. Luckily, proper use of the free button lets you launch a heavily damaging counterattack on your opponent. In fact, many battles are decided this way, as some characters are a little too good at reversing your attacks on you, forcing you to rethink your full-frontal assault. DOA2 has caught up with the Joneses and has integrated full 3D movement into the game. DOA2 allows movement into and out of the foreground by way of the analog pad, although the digital pad and a press of a trigger will achieve the same results for those who like the precise feeling only a D-pad can give you. The 3D movement doesn't factor into your success nearly as much as it does in Soul Calibur, but it most certainly helps. The environments in DOA2 also affect your strategies depending on whom you're playing against. Multitiered environments are certainly a big part of it, as your proximity to a ledge or stained-glass window can be the difference in about a sixth of your life bar should you take a hit that sends you flying over a ledge, five stories to the ground below. While some arenas can send you or your opponent plummeting three or four times, some levels offer uneven surfaces on which to fight. The final boss, Tengu, has a stage similar to Aoi's snow-stream stage in VF3. While there's no water running on Tengu's stage, it supplies dips and mounds that affect where your blows will land. It also affects when you need to use the free button, since an opponent standing slightly higher than you will require careful consideration as to where you'll want to parry. --James Mielke
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