Uploaded October 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago

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With the sudden, and shocking news of Tomonobu Itagaki's death, I immediately wanted to play one of his games. Of course, my first thought was Ninja Gaiden II, but I won't have enough time to give it the attention it needs until November. So I went digging through my closet, found my copies of Dead or Alive 2 Ultimate and 3, and went back to the series that made him famous.

It's probably fair to say that Dead or Alive 2 was Itagaki's first masterpiece, and it was the game that really put Team Ninja on the map - at least, worldwide. The original was never released outside of Japan until the Dead or Alive Ultimate collection came out on Xbox, so I think most fans of the series nowadays have never even played it. Admittedly, I've played it very little myself. But it was a very important game that saved Tecmo from going under. With the original being such a big success, Team Ninja was able to go all out with DOA2, refining the mechanical foundation that the original laid while simultaneously making it one of the best looking games in existence for its time. Even playing it now, more than 20 years since this port came out, the game is incredibly beautiful. It scales wonderfully with the 4K resolution bump from the Xbox Series X, which really brings out all the detail they put into the game.

DOA2 Hardcore for the PS2 is the game that introduced me to Itagaki's work when I was a kid, and I was immediately hooked on it. I still remember playing it on my uncle's console, going through the story to see all of the endings, and playing lots of survival mode. To this day, DOA's survival mode is still the most fun single player content I've ever played in a fighting game. I played 4's the most, in order to get the 100 win achievements in the solo & tag modes, but going back to it in this game was just as fun as I remembered. That's where I've spent most of my free time over the last couple days, re-familiarizing myself with the gameplay and characters.

This is a playthrough of Hayabusa's story mode, on default settings. Unfortunately, each fight is only one round, and you're unable to change that. I wish you could do a best of three, just to let the fights play out a bit more, and hopefully reduce the luck it takes to win some of them... (if the AI decide they're going to counter spam you, you're cooked). But it does make each playthrough pretty short, with only 7 battles total.

I included the CG intro as well, since this game doesn't have CG endings like DOA3 and 4 did. This was the first time I've seen the intro in over 20 years, and damn, it's still incredibly good. It really sets the stage for DOA's worldview, and it has that old school ninja anime vibe to it. Absolute cinema.

Tomonobu Itagaki had a tremendous impact on my life. DOA3 was what made me get an Xbox at launch, DOA4 was one of the reasons why I got a 360 at launch, and of course, the first two Ninja Gaiden games are timeless masterpieces that I'll play for the rest of my life. And yes, even Devil's Third, despite its troubled development and tech issues, is a very fun, and underrated action game.
I don't think there will ever be another game that's as good as Ninja Gaiden II, and the only other one in history that I'd put on the same level is Dodonpachi Daioujou. So thank you Mr. Itagaki, and everyone at Team Ninja for leaving us with so many timeless classics. As a creator, there can't be anything more satisfying than seeing all of the passionate fans you've made all across the world. Especially as someone who always stayed true to his vision and beliefs, like Itagaki. Rest in peace.

0:00 Intro
5:50 Stage 1
11:20 Ending & Credits
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Beat 'em Ups (e.g. Final Fight): youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfI6IYca_kvMhpG1GR9sk8OYiWQMZZTgl
2D Action (e.g. Metal Slug): youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfI6IYca_kvNFjpnJ59Th6N0IU1PSpD3d
STG/Shmups (e.g. Dodonpachi): youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFE6B3779BE759F71