Dead or Alive 2

Dead or Alive 2 hit arcades in 1999, the work of Team Ninja and publisher Tecmo. It had a worldwide arcade release before going global, with home ports arriving on the Dreamcast and PlayStation 2 in 2000. As the second main game in the Dead or Alive series—following the 1996 original—it’s widely hailed as one of the best fighting games ever made. By 2001, all versions together had sold more than 1.5 million copies worldwide.

The story kicks off after the murder of DOATEC’s founder and CEO, Fame Douglas. An evil tengu named Gohyakumine Bankotsubo escapes from the tengu world into the human world, and the Dead or Alive tournament’s purpose shifts in the wake of Douglas’s death. The gameplay got a major overhaul, with new features that built on the original’s speed and reaction-based combat. Multi-tiered environments became a bigger focus, and the graphics engine got a boost by running on Sega NAOMI hardware. The two hold types—Offensive and Defensive—returned, with Defensive Holds triggered by holding back or forward on the directional pad plus the guard button to push an opponent away or counter their damage. The original’s “danger zones” were swapped out for more interactive areas. A standout addition: fights can now happen on water or ice, where any non-knockdown, non-launching hit stuns the opponent. Walls and ledges are everywhere, with some walls electrified or booby-trapped, dealing extra damage when a fighter is slammed into them by a knockdown, throw, or hold. Many stages have multiple floors; knocking an opponent off a ledge sends them falling to the next area, dealing heavy damage (but not enough to finish them). Tag Battle Mode was introduced, letting players pick two fighters to switch between for combo attacks or even attack at the same time with proper timing. Only certain character pairs have special Tag Throws that do big damage, with no restrictions on fighter choices. The game also features computer-animated cutscenes, lets players juggle opponents into walls, and propels characters off landmarks for extra damage. Completing the game gives each character an ambiguous ending rendered in the standard game engine.

The roster includes 15 fighters: 14 playable and one unplayable, Kasumi Alpha. Two are unlockable and can’t be used in story mode or the arcade version.