Dead or Alive 2: Hardcore

Overview

Dead or Alive 2 is a 1999 fighting game developed by Team Ninja and published by Tecmo for arcades. Initially only released in Japan, it was later released worldwide and was ported to the Dreamcast and PlayStation 2 home systems in 2000. It is the second main entry in the Dead or Alive fighting series following the original Dead or Alive (1996). Several enhanced editions of the game were released, including the updates Dead or Alive 2 Millennium for arcades and Dead or Alive 2 Hardcore or Dead or Alive 2 Hard*Core for the PS2.

The game's plot focuses on the evil tengu, Gohyakumine Bankotsubo, who escaped from the tengu world into the human world, and the Dead or Alive tournament's change in purpose and significance after the murder of DOATEC's founder and CEO, Fame Douglas. The game improved upon the gameplay system by including many new features; it improved upon and popularized the concept of multi-tiered environments and improved upon the graphics engine of its predecessor by utilizing the Sega NAOMI hardware.

Dead or Alive 2 received universal acclaim, strong sales, and is considered one of the greatest fighting games of all time. By 2001, all versions of Dead or Alive 2 combined totaled over 1.5 million units sold worldwide. In 2004, Dead or Alive 2 was remade for the Xbox as part of Dead or Alive Ultimate. In 2012, DOA2: Hard*Core was released on the PlayStation Network platform in Japan, followed by North America in 2015. Dead or Alive 2 was followed by its sequel Dead or Alive 3 in 2001.

Screenshots

Game details

Genres

Fighting, Arcade

Developer

Team NINJA

Publisher

Tecmo

Series

Dead or Alive

Platforms

PlayStation 2

Age rating

ESRB T

Modes

Single player

Yes

Local multiplayer

No

Online multiplayer

Yes

Co op

No

Age ratings

ESRB

T

Release dates

Editions

Check out the store

Playable today

Credits

Publisher

Tecmo

Developer

Team NINJA

Released

2000-10-25

Age rating

ESRB T

Region

US

Time to beat

about 0.9 hours