Itagaki: Dead or Alive was an Alternate to Overcoming Shame in an Adult Video Store

Ah, 1996. The PS1 was impressing everybody old and young with its absolutely untoppable graphical prowess and the world was yet to suffer the death of Aeri(s)/(th), the oddly named heroine who no longer constitutes a spoiler. 1996 also saw the release of Dead or Alive in arcades, a game that spawned a series that has been mocked by "proper" gamers ever since. The main complaint has always been regarding the way in which the developers portrayed women – I know what you're thinking when you look at the picture above, chaps: what jaggies!

In an interview with Gamasutra, the series creator, Tomonobu Itagaki, was asked the relevance of his "well-endowed" women.

"I think it's something important, yes, but the people who actually appreciate those sorts of things aren't there in the way they were when I began to get into that in 1996.

"There's the Internet now, so if you want to look at naked women, it's right there. In 1996, the net wasn't as ubiquitous, so you had this scene where you had to go to a video store and overcome your shame as you went up to the clerk. Dead or Alive, in part, allowed people to enjoy that sort of thing easily while also enjoying the game itself."

Anybody who has ever lied about their age in a Dead or Alive game should now feel ashamed – you should have been enjoying the GAME as well!