Dead or Alive (Japanese: デッドオアアライブ, Hepburn: Deddo oa Araibu, abbreviated as DOA) is a 1996 fighting game developed and published by Tecmo for arcades.

Dead or Alive was a commercial success, helping Tecmo overcome their financial problems and turn the series into a franchise, including several sequels and numerous spin-offs.

The game puts an emphasis on speed and relies more on simplistic commands and reaction time rather than long combo strings.

The outer edges of the fighting arena, called "danger zones", are set with explosives which deal a high amount of damage to any fighter who comes in contact with them.

A runaway kunoichi known as Kasumi, enters the Dead or Alive tournament to seek revenge against her uncle Raidou, who was responsible for crippling her older brother, Hayate.

Learning that her evil uncle was her brother's attacker, Kasumi tracks him down to the Dead or Alive tournament where she enters to defeat him.

Kasumi eventually defeats and kills Raidou, but her decision to leave her village without permission violates the strict laws of the ninja society and is punishable by death.

[7] Dead or Alive was unveiled alongside Jaleco's Super GT 24h at the February 1996 AOU show as part of Sega's announcement that they were licensing their Model 2 hardware to third-party companies.

[9] In comparison to other 3D fighters, such as Tekken (which gained a substantial market base in Japan and North America), DOA introduced a countering system unique to the genre and an added emphasis on speed, as well as a rich graphics engine that lacked many jaggies and incorporated very smooth surfaces.

[39] Although it was not widely distributed in U.S. arcades, Dead or Alive was a commercial success,[14] helping Tecmo pull in a profit of 9.2 million dollars in 1996 and saving the company from bankruptcy.

He identified the variety of characters and the danger zones as the game's standout features, and said the tough AI forces players to learn more complex moves and strategies.

[45] The "bouncing breast" feature was widely ridiculed for its exaggerated and prolonged animation, which critics regarded as comical and grotesque rather than appealing.

[12][26][32][33][31][37] Sega Saturn Magazine noted that the breasts "wobble up and down like jellies and seem to operate totally independently to the rest of the girl's body",[37] and Jeff Gerstmann similarly remarked in GameSpot that "They bounce around like gelatin for no apparent reason."

"[32] IGN was not as annoyed, but pointed out that the bouncing breasts "don't actually contribute to the gameplay except to add temporary novelty and libido frustration to the typical gamer.

"[31] Computer and Video Games found humor in how "The slightest movement is enough to set them off, swinging and bouncing around in a most comical fashion!"

[4] It featured smoother graphics, sound updated from stereo to surround, and adds Xbox Live online gaming.