Dead or Alive 2

This article is about the video game. For the Japanese film, see Dead or Alive 2: Birds.

Dead or Alive 2
Developer(s)	Team Ninja
Publisher(s)	Tecmo
Designer(s)	Tomonobu Itagaki
Series	Dead or Alive
Platform(s)	Arcade, Dreamcast, PlayStation 2
Release date(s)	Arcade JP October 16, 1999 Dreamcast JP September 28, 2000 NA February 29, 2000 EU July 14, 2000 PlayStation 2 JP March 30, 2000 NA October 25, 2000 (Hardcore) JP December 14, 2000 (Hardcore) EU December 15, 2000 (Hardcore)
Genre(s)	Versus fighting
Mode(s)	Up to 2 players simultaneously (arcade), up to 4 players simultaneously (Dreamcast/PlayStation 2)
Rating(s)	ESRB: Teen (T)
Media/distribution	ROM, GD-ROM, DVD
Cabinet	Upright
Arcade system	Sega NAOMI
CPU	Hitachi SH-4 @ 200 MHz
Sound	Yamaha AICA @ 45 MHz
Display	Raster, horizontal orientation, 24 bit colour

Dead or Alive 2 (DOA2) (デッドオアアライブ2 Deddo oa Araibu 2) is a fighting game in the Dead or Alive series. It debuted in arcades in October 1999 and was released on February 29, 2000 for the Dreamcast.

The graphics and gameplay were enhanced and based on a better game engine, which allowed the characters and stages to appear less angular and more detailed. The story involved a narrative continuation of the first game. A popular and commonly discussed feature, one credited to Itagaki, was the level of graphical detail Tecmo put into the animated breasts of the female characters, as Tecmo went so far as to create a physics engine dedicated entirely to the animation of the female characters' breasts.

Story

A great leader was killed at the end of the 20th century. His name was Fame Douglas, and he was renowned as the sponsor of the legendary Dead or Alive World Combat Championship. Since his death, and in the absence of his charisma and leadership, the world has become chaotic. Yet something appears to be transpiring. Amid this chaos, it is announced that the Dead or Alive Championship 2 will be held. However, Douglas's passing has taken with it the purpose and significance of the tournament. Even worse, the promoter of Dead or Alive Championship 2, who is fond of conflicts and jealous of the string, is responsible for Douglas's death. The new promoter is more than a corrupt mastermind, but a man of pure evil. His involvement in the tournament has brought a sense of terror to the world, resulting in the infamous Tengu disaster that occurred at the end of the 20th century. The climax of the disaster is about to begin with a roaring battle.

Character roster

• Ayane
• Bass Armstrong
• Bayman (unlockable, cannot be used in Story mode and the arcade version)
• Ein
• Gen Fu
• Tengu (boss character, unlockable, cannot be used in Story mode and the arcade version)
• Helena
• Jann Lee
• Kasumi
• Lei Fang
• Leon
• Ryu Hayabusa
• Tina Armstrong
• Zack
• Hitomi(unlockable in Dead or Alive Ultimate, cannot be used in Story mode)

Gameplay

The gameplay of DOA2, and all subsequent Dead or Alive games, borrows heavily from the Virtua Fighter series, but makes some key changes that drastically changes the way Dead or Alive is played in comparison to Virtua Fighter.

In DOA2, the basis of the entire fighting system is the circular relationship between three types of moves: holds, throws, and blows.

The other defining feature of DOA2, aside from holds/throws/blows, is its stun system. In DOA2 many attacks upon hitting will inflict a stun on the opponent. While stunned, the opponent cannot attack, and cannot guard, but they can hold. If the attacker lands a non-knockdown, non-launching attack while the opponent is stunned, the opponent will be re-stunned in a new way, depending on what attack was landed.

A major difference between DOA2 and other fighters is in the safety and non-punishability of attacks, both upon hitting and upon being blocked. Most blows in DOA2 can be punished on hit and block by each character's faster throws, making blow-based offense very risky.

In DOA2, sometimes battles will occur on either water or ice. When a character is on such a surface, all non-knockdown, non-launching attacks will induce a stun on any successful hit. Walls and falls in the middle of stages are everywhere in DOA2. Many stages are also multi-tiered. To get to other areas of the stage, one character must be knocked off a ledge and fall into the next area. These falls deal usually fairly high damage, but cannot knock the opponent out.

In addition to the normal rules of juggling, each character also fits into a specific weight category, which affects how the character responds to being launched and being juggled.

The arcade version of DOA2, doesn't include Bayman and Tengu. But in Story Mode of the arcade version has only few lives, but the home versions has only one life.

Music

Dead or Alive 2 made popular the song Exciter by Bomb Factory in its opening sequence. Also used as a background track was Deadly Silence Beach. Both tracks can be found on the self-titled mini-album Bomb Factory and on the Dead or Alive 2 Soundtrack.

Song title	Where it is heard
Exciter	Opening sequence
D.O.A.	Menu
B-Boy no "B" ~evolved from ++~	Zack's Theme
The Shooted	Hayabusa's Theme
Grand Style	Lei-Fang's Theme
Natural High	Jann Lee's Theme
Break the Age	Gen-Fu's Theme
You Are Under My Control	Tina Armstrong's Theme
YES or YES	Bass Armstrong's Theme
Blazed Up Melpomene	Helena's Theme
Ultimate Weapon	Leon's Theme
Tehu Tehu	Ayane's Theme
Vigaku	Ein's Theme
Hitohira ~Reminiscent of Ketsui no Toki~	Kasumi's Theme
Jintsuriki	Gohyakumine Bankotsu-bo's Theme
What's My Name?	Achieving a high score in Survival Mode or Time Attack Mode
Excelsior	Sparring Mode
Last Jam	Theme played in the credits when successfully completing Time Attack Mode
You Make Me Feel So Good!	Successfully completing Tag Team Mode
Father's Blues	Played in some of Bass's and Tina's cutscenes in Story Mode
Memoir	Played in one of Helena's cutscenes in Story Mode
Tengu-mai	Played in one of Ein's cutscenes in Story Mode featuring Gohyakumine Bankotsu-bo
Perfume of Forest	Played in the end cutscene of Story Mode with Helena, Lei-Fang, and Kasumi
Achoism	Played in the end cutscene of Story Mode with Jann Lee
Rhyme Star	Played in the end cutscene of Story Mode with Zack
Agitated by Emotion	Played in Part of the end cutscene of Story Mode with Tina
Glorious Victory	Theme played in the credits when successfully completing Story Mode
Deadly Silence Beach	Theme played in the CG Gallery (Hardcore Version)
Transcendence	Opening Sequence (Dead Or Alive Ultimate)
Type-XXX	???
Act of Universe	An opening sequence showing Gen-Fu, Helena, and Lei-Fang performing fighting moves

Versions

Dead or Alive 2: Hardcore

Two PS2 versions of Dead or Alive 2 exist, one released only in Japan called Dead or Alive 2 and an updated version called Dead or Alive Hardcore. Itigaki and his team were only given two month's initially to produce the first PS2 port. At the end of this one of his managers asked to borrow a copy to play, but instead sent in to a production factory. Itigaki was upset by not being able to finish the game on his own terms and fell into a depression during which he briefly considered quitting the industry

Itagaki and Team Ninja were still dissatisfied with the release versions of DOA2, and continued enhancing it on both Dreamcast and PlayStation 2 on each market as they worked towards their vision of the ultimate fighting game. On October 25, 2000, Tecmo released a last major update called DOA2: Hardcore for the PlayStation 2 which was based on the Japanese and second update of DOA2 for Dreamcast, this "Limited Edition" was featuring new playable characters, new stages, extra costumes and introduced the "Gallery" option.

The Hardcore release was finally the complete game Itagaki had envisioned at the time, featuring many changes compared to its predecessor:

• Characters, pictures and moves were altered to appear more realistic, lessening the anime look.
• Some fighting animations were elaborated upon and some were cut.
• New stages were added (8 more than the Dreamcast update)
• More character outfits were added.
• Survival mode now only took place in the "Danger Zone" arena.
• Overall gameplay speed was increased. The entire game, including cut scenes, now runs at a full 60 frames-per-second (In the Dreamcast version, the game ran at 60 frame/s while the cut scenes ran at 30).
• A special "Items Collection" feature and menu section was added to appeal to video game collectors. New artworks were added compared to the first update.
• A CG Gallery section, featuring renders of the female characters, was added.
• The player history files were enhanced and now included statistics on how often the player used each character and tag battle pairing.
• Several special moves were added, but left undocumented.
• English voiceovers were added in the U.S. and European PlayStation 2 versions, in addition to the original Japanese voiceovers.

The new release extended the success of DOA2 in North America and Western Europe, and Dead or Alive became Tecmo's flagship series.

Tecmo also followed up on the release of DOA2: Hardcore in the USA and Europe with the release of DOA2: Hard*Core in Japan. This last version saw some minor updates, including new cut scenes, a few new costumes, and a new turbo speed option.

As a result, eleven different versions of DOA2 were released, the first two were for the arcade market and the others were home versions. The Dreamcast version has been updated two times, first for the European market with new stages, costumes and cut scenes, and the second time was for the Japanese market with a "Limited Edition" featuring two new playable characters, two new stages, stage multipart extensions, new costumes, new cut scenes and the "Gallery" option was introduced. This edition was later updated with eight new stages, some new costumes and extra Gallery artworks and released as "Hardcore" edition on the PlayStation 2. The first PlayStation 2 versions for America, Europe and Japan were updates of the Dreamcast editions, with a few new cut scenes, costumes and stages added on each localization. Comparing the first and the last home versions of DOA2, namely the Dreamcast American edition and the Japanese Hardcore edition, would show a lot of improvements including an enhanced gameplay and a doubled number of stages and costumes. Unfortunately, even with all the changes, Itagaki was still not happy with Hardcore. He is quoted as saying in the DOA 3 booster disc video, "They wanted a launch title in 3 months. I needed 4."

Dead or Alive 2 Ultimate

Main article: Dead or Alive Ultimate

Dead or Alive Ultimate 2 is a remake of DOA2 for Xbox with a greatly improved graphics engine. As it was created after the debut of DOA3, it takes elements and mechanics from both its original iteration and successor. The action of 3D-axis movement is as free-formatted as DOA3, and Hitomi, as well as Gohyakumine Bankotsu-bo are now playable characters (albeit outside story mode), but other elements have been kept intact from DOA2. The biggest set of changes instituted in Dead or Alive Ultimate are online play over Xbox Live and the inclusion of slopes, which are a type of environmental hazard.

Reception

In 2010, the game was included in the list of "Top 25 Fighting Games of All Time" by UGO.

External links

• Dead or Alive 2 at MobyGames