First off this is a pretty damn good-looking game. The stages and character models all are pretty great-looking (and yes, they're hotter than ever). The character cinematics too also look pretty decent still today for the most part and still have a lot of charm in the places that they don't age the best.

Unfortunately I think the overkill on some of these visual are what also tanks the framerate in about half of the stages, making some of them just outright unenjoyable to fight in. X Octagon was by far the worst offender though, fighting there was like fighting in a pit of molasses, just awful. DOATEC HK as well would chug like crazy if you knocked your opponent through/got knocked through to the basement or the street area. I am willing to concede that this may be some kind of weird quirk of playing this on Xbox 360 instead of original hardware or emulation though.

One thing I KNOW isn't the fault of playing on 360 though is the Omega boss fight. Like yeah, he's SUPER fucking easy, but that's kind of my problem. Also I despise the weird perspective thing they did for his fight/stage. I do not like it at all.

All of that mess aside though, pretty much everything I enjoyed from DOA2 on Dreamcast is here though, so that's pretty nice! Survival Mode and Time Attack were still really fun to do, and I enjoyed playing through the Arcade mode as Kasumi, Tina, and Lei Fang once again. And even though I didn't hate my time with this game, I definitely still enjoyed DOA2 on Dreamcast more overall.

This was my second time playing this game, and while I have enjoyed it a fair bit more this second go around, I still just find myself continually losing interest in it. It just doesn't give my me that same shot of goopy gamer brain feel good juice that Doom, Blood, and more recent boomer shooters like Dusk and Hrot have.

I respect that this is a legendary/historic game and what it'd go on to inspire and how much would be innovated from this, but the gameplay just doesn't satisfy like I wish it did.

Killer atmosphere for sure though.

So much soul here. I ADORE the music and visual style, as well as the gameplay with it's timed attack combo presses and mixing & matching Normal, Heavy, and Extra attacks or pelting enemies with Techniques. I made a FOnewearl and had a blast with her.

I played through up to the Cave boss and I don't think I can progress anymore alone, at least it doesn't FEEL like I can. My damage output + capping out on Monofluid plus some Difluid I found; I just can't seem to finish the boss off; it took so long just to break its skull mask. It's quite lonely playing it Offline too, to the point that it's begun to actively bum me out.

I just know I would've loved the hell out of this game as a kid if I'd ever known what a Dreamcast was at the time, but I'm gonna have to move along.

Far from perfect, but it's still quite fun to play casually alone or with a friend in casual matches. I had a lot of fun playing as Cammy/Zangief, Cammy/Kuma and Lili/Zangief tag-teams. I also really liked having Tekken characters in the SFIV visual style as well, they all look pretty great! Their moves being translated to 2D felt a little funky but I think it worked out pretty well.

Despite all that though, all I have are really have are gripes:
- Limited Specials & Supers: EVERY character only gets one super attack and I swear some of them lost a special or two as well. Everyone's command lists are super short, and it's probably due to the following:

- Absurd Roster Size: Proof that there really can be "too much of a good thing." There's a total of FIFTY-FIVE characters! I think it would've been much better if they'd just picked maybe 12 or 13 characters from each side instead of...well THIS. Also I think they should've made Mega Man cartoony like they did PAC-MAN and Kuro & Toro instead of trying to make a joke out of his inclusion because "silly old American Mega Man box arts."

- Custom Color Editor: I liked the idea but the execution was awful being a touch-only screen for some fucking reason on top of the fact that many colors had to be bought (though I didn't buy any)

- Gem System: Kinda sucked. I don't hate the idea on paper, but again, it was executed pretty horribly. Never mind the fact that there are DLC/Paid Gems that are legitimately better than most of what you get in-game.

- Touch Screen-Only Menus: I will NEVER understand why SOME menus are touch-screen only and some aren't! This is so stupid and irritating. Make them all touch or make them all go by D-Pad + Face Buttons. It was really annoying to be arrowing through the main menu and then have to switch to tapping on small text lines/boxes.

Despite all my gripes, I'll still probably hop into this again every so often to play casually with a friend or just to mess around with more tag-team matchups.

Right out the gate, DOA2 absolutely crushes its predecessor. It's much smoother and considerably more fun to play. It looks, sounds, and feels so much better than the first game ever could. I also really appreciate this is where they updated and generally solidified all character designs; because they ALL look so much better from the first game's (overall) very bland designs.

The general gameplay feels SO much more balanced. Using holds feel so smooth now; you don't need to worry about "offensive hold" or "defensive hold" anymore. Being able to just press Hold and 7, 4, or 1 (numpad rotation) depending on the High, Mid, or Low hits felts super natural. Throws are also a lot smoother and the input-timing on some combo throws isn't nearly as whack anymore.

The difficulty too, also feels overwhelmingly more fair. Though every once and a while, it still felt like the CPU would randomly decide you've had enough fun and just obliterate you in back-to-back-to-back rounds out of nowhere. I mostly felt this happening in Time Attack than anywhere else though (but it was still fun). The Survival Mode took me a bit to get used to and it's still not my favorite, but I appreciate that it lets just jump right into the action and just keep going until you can't anymore. I also appreciate we get actual tid-bits of story that doesn't just exist inside the manual; I like how the in-engine cutscenes play out during Story Mode and I kind of wish there were more scenes like the Kasumi vs Ryu bit where there's a small fight before the actual fight starts.

Overall, this is a pretty fantastic entry. I had a pretty fun time with this despite some quibbles. Once again as well, Tina and Kasumi (with a bit of Leifang) ended up being my mains. I could honestly see myself putting more time into this entry to unlock more costumes and Tengu, but for now, there's other DOA titles to play.

Not gonna sugar coat it, this REALLY kind of sucks. This is kind of harsh judgement I guess considering it's from such an early era of 3D fighting game history, but damn does it sure does show its age.

The Danger Zone system that's in all the stages is kind interesting but man does it really bites when the CPU is styling on you when you're struggling to get even a 2 or 3 hit combo out. I also just outright don't understand what I do wrong sometimes; such as my 6H (forward Hold) getting counter-Held by the CPU. How the hell does that even work? And even with the manual to look at the moves list, the input timing for some of them felt super scuffed. This game, just in general, is also quite difficult. The character designs area also quite plain too, even for the era.

It's certainly neat to go back to this and see how the series started, but I could never recommend spending more than two hours with this.

Pretty dang fun! I hate that I put this game off for so long because it was pretty stupendous. The Typhon are super cool enemies and Mimics had me haphazardly whacking objects in rooms for almost the entire play time. I also really appreciate that you can fulfil requirements for the two endings and not have to actually commit to one of them until the VERY end, making it quite simple to see both endings. I saved everyone I could and it turned out I didn't miss anyone! It felt pretty nice. I also basically ignored Typhon powers during my playthrough. I did pick up the Telepath lvl.1 power, but I barely even used that. I also really enjoyed rummaging around and reading notes, listening to audio logs, and all that stuff. The setting is really immersive and well-crafted! I never got tired of sneaking up on Typhon's and blasting them into smithereens with the shotgun. The only enemies I really hated were the Cystoids (and by extension, Weavers). Also the VERY, very ending (post-credits) I will not spoil, but I absolutely was not a fan of it.

If I do another playthrough in the future, I'll have to go all-in on Typhon powers instead though because some of them seem pretty cool.

I had this at some point when I was a teenager and it faded from memory. But I decided to pick it up again recently on a whim and I'm really glad I did! It's genuinely a ton of fun to play. I love how the Chronicle mode drip-feeds you all the game mechanics and ways to play while you're getting a crash-course on all the story of the first four games. The cutscenes in Chronicle mode range from fully-animated to 3D character models just standing or posed in place and "talking" without even their mouths moving. The inconsistency is a bit jarring at time, but the fully-animated cutscenes look fantastic. Unfortunately, the Tag battles are fucking dreadful, and sometimes you're forced to do them in Chronicle mode. But after finishing Chronicle mode, it's easy to ignore the existence of Tag battles thanks to the Arcade and Survival modes. I had a blast playing as Tina, Leifang, and Kasumi. If you have a 3DS and enjoy fighting games at all, you really owe it to yourself to give this one a shot!

Enjoying this so much has me really wanting to go back and play some of the older DOA titles as well.