When Tecmo released the first Dead or Alive back in 1996, it was the first 3rd-party title to utilize Sega's Model 2 hardware. Tecmo's efforts suprised many including myself in which I expected that only a high quality fighting game could come from Sega, Namco, SNK, or Capcom. Even though many elements of Dead or Alive came from Sega's own Virtua Fighter 2, the introduction of the "hold" button and the use of "danger zones" were certainly innovative as a first in 3D fighting.
It seems like Tecmo is repeating history once again with Dead or Alive 2. Powered by the Sega's Naomi-based hardware, Tecmo has surpassed all of my expectations. The Naomi demo shown at E3 was just simply amazing with multi-tiered levels, smooth 60 fps animation, and upgraded visuals that just bumped up my hopes even further than it was for the potential of the Naomi/Dreamcast hardware. Dead or Alive 2's real-time demo even showed that Dreamcast-based Naomi hardware can easily match the quality of current PS2 demos. The 3D visuals and models were so detailed that many concluded that Dead or Alive 2 was using 2 Naomi boards. But Tecmo confirmed on their BBS that Dead or Alive 2 only uses one standard Naomi board and that a Dreamcast conversion should be pretty straight-forward.
With much of the gameplay reminiscing the first Dead or Alive, there are new gameplay modes such as tag-team battles. The same 3-button layout is still here for playability. And of course, the infamous "breast-bounce" is back, and in this time around, they're motion-captured by a real female staff member of Tecmo which is confirmed by Tomonubu Itagaki, programmer of Team Ninja.
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