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DEAD OR ALIVE 2: HARDCORE (PS2)
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A fighting fan's dream come true?
By WILLIAM BARKER
 When
the original Dead or Alive game first appeared at my local arcade, there
was only one reason I played it - the bouncing bazoombas!
The strange thing
was, the game actually played well and, before long, the bouncy boobs
were completely forgotten in favour of fast-paced fisticuffs. When news
of Dead or Alive 2 surfaced, the sun shone - life was good. Until my local
arcade decided not to get the game. But, as fate would have it, Temco
decided to port the game to the PS2.
The game looks good, real good. Making use of PS2's rather impressive
'Emotion Engine' DOA2 has some of the coolest graphics around. They aren't
the best, because in terms of clarity and anti-aliasing, they are a little
lacking. But they are the coolest.
For one, the levels are multi-layered. A good example is when two fighters
are going head-to-head inside the huge clock tower - think Big Ben. If
you throw someone through the pane-glass window, they will fall down about
10 storeys to the pavement below. Of course, this is a fighting game,
so they simply get up and resume fighting - after all, such an insignificant
100-foot fall means little to those wanting to win a fighting championship.
But don't worry, they all wear safety gear - sun-dried brown leather jackets,
bad 80s sunglasses and metre-long ribbons. Indeed, the folks at Temco
have a rather, um, individual fashion sense.
The characters must have 1000s of polygons each, as the detail is readily
apparent. You can make out calf-muscles on legs, mono-brows on foreheads
and, of course, wobbly bosoms aplenty. These notorious anti-gravity boobs
are what made the first game famous and are likely to do the same here.
If you can overlook this silly trait, you will, despite first impressions,
find a solid fighting game within.
Combine the visual acuity with a solid 30fps framerate, with very little
slowdown, and you have one very tasty fighting game. Without such fluidity,
the gameplay wouldn't be as addictive either. What starts out as an awkward
punch-kick-block routine quickly progresses into a dizzying array of combos
strung together with lithe simplicity. The fighting model doesn't quite
match the coolness of Soul Calibur or Tekken, but it comes close.
There are four main actions - punch, kick, block and catch. The latter
is a dandy addition and allows players to counter almost any move, assuming
the timing is spot-on. It also acts as the throw/grapple button. Combos
are very important to the flow of the game too. If you can't pull off
good strings, then not even a good blocking style can save you.
While this isn't a Capcom or a Namco fighter, it is still an in-depth
game with months worth of replay value. The tag-team games, akin to Tekken
Tag Tournament, add much to the game, as do the other gameplay options,
such as story mode, versus and heaps more. It's all very comprehensive.
In finishing up, it must be said that time spent with DOA2 isn't time
wasted, though it doesn't quite measure up to the hugeness of Tekken Tag
Tournament, which has more moves, more characters and a tightly honed
fighting engine. That said, how many Tekken games have there been? Give
this series another three evolutionary steps and chances are, we'll be
looking at a damn fine future title.
ORIGINALITY 70%
SOUND/GRAPHICS 85%
PLAYABILITY 85%
ADDICTION 75%
ENJOYMENT 90%
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