Dead or Alive Xtreme 2

Dead or Alive: Xtreme 2 (often abbreviated DOAX2) is the second beach volleyball spin-off of the Dead or Alive series, made exclusivly for the. Developed by Team Ninja, it is the direct sequel to Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball.

Like its predecessor, Xtreme 2 is heavily weighted towards building friendships through gift exchanges and the depiction of busty women in skimpy bikinis, both on and off the beach. The title expands upon the activities available in the original, supplementing beach volleyball with additional beach-related mini-games.

Story
Taking place after the events of Dead or Alive 4, Zack and Niki have resurrected "Zack Island" from the depths of the sea, where it was buried following a previous volcanic eruption. Re-dubbing it as "New Zack Island", Zack once again invites the girls for a holiday, with each girl coming to the island for diffirent reasons.

Characters
In Dead or Alive Xtreme 2, players are able to play as any of the nine female fighters currently present in the series. Each girl in the game has certain items and hobbies which she likes or dislikes, and these preferences influence her reaction upon receiving a gift. Characters also each have an individual favorite color, again affecting their like or dislike of a certain item (and the wrapping paper used to wrap it).

The playable characters are:
 * Ayane - Although her reasons why she is on the island is unclear, Ayane follows Kasumi to island. She might have followed Kasumi in order to attempt another assassination, or becasue they were friends again, or if she wished to see Hayate, following the rumour that he was staying on the island.
 * Christie - She went to the island to carry out an unknown mission for a client of hers but she takes the opportunity to indulge into this as time for a relaxation, and enjoys everything the island offers.
 * Helena Douglas - Helena goes to the island hoping that she and Zack can form an agreement to rebuild DOATEC after it was destroyed by the ninjas.
 * Hitomi - After hearing that the new Dead or Alive Tournament would be held at New Zack Island, Hitomi went to the island to make up for her previous loss, only to fall victim of Zack’s fiendish trickery. She was the only one who had falling for the ruse for a second time.
 * Kasumi - Kasumi traveled to the island upon hearing that Hayate was there, even though she wondered what he was doing on a tropical island.
 * Kokoro - It is unclear why Kokoro went tothe island, however it's known that she went without her mother's knowledge
 * Lei Fang - Lei Fang went to the island simpily for the vacation. She is the only girl to not have another reason to go.
 * Lisa - Lisa once again returns to run public relations for the island, performing much the same duties as she did on the previous island.
 * Tina Armstrong - Tina came to the island to escape her over-protective father for a while.

Gameplay
Much like the original, Xtreme 2 features a two-week vacation mode, where the player can indulge in a variety of activities. Each day is broken up into three segments - morning, afternoon, and evening - where players can perform a single activity during each.



Partnership & Friendship
The game puts a strong emphasis on friendship; players (playing as one of the women) must befriend the other girls by buying them gifts they enjoy from the various stores on the island. Doing so will increase the bond between the two characters. If the friendship between the two is at a sufficiently high level (represented by floating icons next to the girls portraits; the quicker they flow, the stronger the bond), the character can be convinced to become one's volleyball partner. After this is done, players must then ensure that the bond is kept strong to avoid the partner subsequently abandoning them. This can be done by giving additional gifts, spending time with the partner, and winning games.

When a new player starts the game for the very first time, they is given a tour of the island by Lisa, who automatically becomes the default partner. From that point forward, any new vacations which are taken (without making use of the optional tour) will begin with a random girl approaching and requesting to become partners, although the player can refuse them if desired.

Players can bestow swimsuits as gifts to other girls, regardless of whether they are the current partner or not. However, the more revealing a suit is, the harder it is to get a girl to accept the gift. Again, players must ensure that the friendship level between their character and the target girl is very strong to avoid having the gift returned. It is fair to say that the successful gifting of swimsuits is the main point of the game, as well as the most frustrating, as every achievement involves holding a certain complete collection (or several collections) of suits.



Volleyball
The former "main event" from Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball, beach volleyball is once again present in Xtreme 2. Similar to the original, players must have a partner in order to compete in a two-on-two, 7-point match. The gameplay has been modified from the previous game, to make the game slightly more difficult and to add variety. While there are still only two buttons necessary for gameplay (to pass/block and to bump/spike), greater manual control is required as, unlike the original, girls will not automatically maneuver themselves into the best formation. In the online mode, two players can compete against each other, each having a computer-controlled partner.

The offline, two player "Exhibition" mode from the previous game has been removed, forcing players who wish to play against other players to do so via. Lastly, the camera has been slightly modified to address the criticism that the one in the original game moved erratically or too frequently.



Marine Race
Marine Racing is all-new game mode which allows the girls to race on jet skis, either offline or on Xbox Live. The game has been compared to the  series. Players earn nitro boosts (which give them a substantial, but temporary, increase in speed) by navigating through seven consecutive gates. Players can earn in-game currency by winning the race and by doing tricks. The latter has led to an exploit where players can choose to lose the race, and simply navigate the track indefinitely without finishing, pulling off tricks to earn cash. Aside from the main beach volleyball mode, this is the only mini-game which supports multiplayer play via Xbox Live, making all others single-player only.



Pool Hopping
In Pool Hopping, players race another girl across the pool by hopping across multi-colored floating pads. To successfully hop to the next pad, players must conduct the correct jump; tapping any face button results in a short jump, holding it results in a long jump. Pressing the button that corresponds to the next pad's color results in bonus points being earned. The winner is the one who makes it to the other side of the pool first.



Beach Flags
Beach Flags is a mini-game which is simple in nature, but can be quite difficult and frustrating. It requires the player to repeatedly press a button as fast as possible in order to reach a flag at the end of the beach before their opponent does. To successfully grab the flag, the player must not only be fast, but also correctly judge the distance before pressing the "dive" button. If the player is too slow, falls short, or overshoots the flag, they lose. False starts also result in an instant loss.

Butt Battle
Also dubbed the "Hip Battle", Butt Battle challenges the player to knock their opponent off a floating pad before the same can be done to them.

It involves feigns, dodges, normal attacks and strong attacks, which the girls carry out using only their rear-ends. It is played in a similar fashion to "Rock, Paper, Scissors", in which one must correctly guess or deduce the opponent's next action and respond appropriately.



Tug-of-War
Tug-of-War is very similar to the Butt Battle in the manner in which it is played, by correctly guessing the countering move of the other girl. The player must attempt to make their opponent fall off of their floating pad by pulling on the rope the girls are holding between them. Victory can be achieved either by pulling the opponent into the water, or by tricking the competition (using a feint) into accidentally throwing themselves in.



Water Slide
Water Slide involves successfully sliding down a water slide at high speeds. The basic gameplay revolves around keeping the player-character from falling out of the slide as it twists and turns. Pushing forward on the left joystick speeds the character up, and pulling back slows them down. Left and right are used to prevent the character from falling out of the slide.

Casino Games
Similar to the original, the game features a casino which players can visit during the evenings. Once there, one can partake in several games, including poker, blackjack, roulette and a variety of slot machines (each themed after after one of the women).

By betting the maximum amount and hitting the jackpot when playing Christie's slot machine, the player unlocks sequences of her performing a pole-dance in the casino. After nine jackpots in a row, the player is gifted with a "Secret Ticket" the next night, allowing their chosen character to perform this dance in a swimsuit of their choice.

Development
Developed exclusively for the Xbox 360, the title runs on a heavily-modified version of the engine used in Dead or Alive 4, allowing for new inclusions such as self-shadowing and new cloth simulation techniques. The Marine Race mini-game, however, uses a completely new physics engine, although with similar graphics.

Instead of relying on a single game mode, Dead or Alive Xtreme 2 contains a number of different sub-games. Starting with an initial pool of 42 different mini-game ideas, a total of 7 games (counting beach volleyball) actually made the final cut. During the development process, creator Tomonobu Itagaki stated that he would not be adding activities like trampoline games and Wet T-shirt contests to the series, indicating that he felt that this would come off as vulgar and "show the women in a negative light". Ironically, the game still includes pole-dancing.

As well as the gameplay tweaks from the original, various cosmetic modifications were made. For example, the female characters' individual breasts now have their own "physics." This allows each breast to behave differently, although this has been criticized for making the breasts move in an exaggerated fashion (i.e., they often continue moving for an unnaturally long time after a character has stopped moving;and sometimes one or both breasts will freeze in mid-bounce.) Additionally, the game adds a new "tan line system" in which swimsuits realistically block tanning. Changing swimsuits frequently will prevent tan lines from appearing.

Gamertag Glitch
There was a glitch in the game whereby players could abuse the sign-in/sign-out system to "undo" undesirable event outcomes. Because the game state information is stored with the Gamertag, signing out prevents data from being stored. In this way, players could exploit the delay between when an event happened and when the system recorded it.

Primarily this was used with roulette, where players would place a large bet, and in the event of a loss, simply sign-out to revert the bet. This could also be used with gift giving, where a gift would be offered to another girl, and in the result of a rejection, one could quickly undo the attempt.

Tecmo released a patch for the title through Xbox Live on December 14, 2006. Other than fixing the Gamertag glitch, the patch makes several changes, including increasing the winnings on several events, fixing a character interaction problem with one of the in-game locations, and adding access to an online store, the "Crystal Boutique".

Reception
After its release, Xtreme 2 received a Metacritic score of 53 based on 46 reviews, most of which where mixed in opinion. In its online review of the game, TeamXbox.com stressed that while Xtreme 2 has impressive graphics, multiple activities to choose from and nice artistry, the game is simply not fun to play. On a scale of 1 to 10, the reviewer gave it a score of 6.7; TeamXbox.com gave its predecessor a much higher score of 9.2.

Other online reviews like IGN and 1UP.com share similar opinions. Reviewer thought that the game has not improved from the original Xtreme, stating that they are too similar for most people's likings; some pointed out that a large amount of the girls’ animations were taken from the original title and just simply tweaked to fit the new game engine.

Reviews also suggest that the added mini-games, including the Butt Battle and Tug-of-War, are based highly on luck, relying on an arbitrary button press to counteract what one thinks one's opponent is going to do next. The changes to the volleyball portion, that where meant to fix problems from the original, have apparently made it significantly more difficult then before.

Certain reviews criticize the new breast physics; often breasts bounce independently when running or moving and continue to bounce even when the character is still, resulting in awkward sequences. One reviewer at IGN indicated that watching the breasts made them "seasick". A reviewer on Game Informer criticized how the female characters were portrayed, thinking that they didn't act like real, mature women at all, stating that "there’s something disappointing about the way these hypersexualized characters are portrayed as childish, vacant, silly, and vain."

The review from GameSpot summarizes the sentiment of most reviewers with its conclusion; "while the sheer yardage of well-produced virtual skin will make it an appropriately guilty pleasure for some, anyone actually interested in playing the game will no doubt be disappointed."