Dead or Alive: Code Chronos

The Dead or Alive series focuses on fast-paced gameplay in a three-dimensional playing field. Like other modern fighting games that attempt to emulate real life martial arts, DOA's input system is designed so controls correspond to the game character's actions; if the character moves forward with a punch, the controls most likely would include the punch input and pressing forward on the directional pad. In comparison to others in the fighting game genre, such as Virtua Fighter, the series places emphasis on striking characters quickly and efficiently. There is an emphasis on quick combos and air-juggles since the game's countering system and fast recovery times prevent slow, technical sets of moves in most instances.

The series controls also make the instances of speed and simplicity more congruent with the focus of timing and combos in mind, as the commands for basic attacks are widely considered more straightforward than most video games. There is only one button for punch, kick, throw and guard, with the player rarely having to combine more than two different input schemes together at a time.

The Dead or Alive series depicts a collection of skilled martial artists in a worldwide competition named the "Dead or Alive World Combat Championship", or simply "the Dead or Alive tournament". DOATEC (Dead or Alive Tournament Executive Committee), a massive corporation with unknown motives, holds the fighting competition in arenas ranging from the North Pole to the Amazon rainforest.

Dead or Alive, the first game in the series, introduces the initial characters and their reasons for entering the tournament. For example, Zack enters for profit, while Kasumi, a runaway female ninja of the Mugen Tenshin Ninja Clan and the series' main protagonist, enters the tournament to seek revenge against Raidou, who injured her brother, Hayate. Kasumi wins the first DOA tournament and kills Raidou; however, due to her status as a runaway, the strict laws of the ninja society prevents Kasumi from returning to her village and she becomes a hunted fugitive.

The series was created by its original director and producer Tomonobu Itagaki after he became a programmer for Tecmo in 1992. During the mid-1990s, Tecmo was in financial trouble and was in need of a hit to boost sagging game sales. In this vein, Itagaki made a wager with the management of company, including the vice president later turned president of the company, Junji Nakamura, assuring he would create a video game that would garner a fan base. Tomonobu Itagaki stated how he was dissatisfied with the way modern fighting games at the time were presented; he missed the old arcade-style of play and had another vision for the fighting game genre.

Following the initial working titles of "Ninja Fighter" and "Poligon Fighter", he named the series "Dead or Alive" to demonstrate both the company's and game's fail or succeed status, and proceeded to form a division in the company named Team Ninja. The first Dead or Alive game released in 1996 was a success in helping Tecmo overcome their financial problems, and in turn, helped Dead or Alive become a franchise. Itagaki's inspiration for the series derived from the Virtua Fighter series in Japan as the management asked Itagaki to create a game similar to Virtua Fighter. Inspiration also derived from the Fatal Fury series in Japan, and the Mortal Kombat series in America, with DOA's sexual appeal drawn from the former series, and the ability to knock opponents off landscapes from the latter.

The Dead or Alive games have been mostly well received. The fighting series have received positive reviews, with Dead or Alive 2 having the highest ratings out of the numbered games, and Dead or Alive 5 having the lowest except its Plus version for the Vita. Dead or Alive is considered one of the greatest fighting game franchises of all time. The franchise has received numerous awards and many nominations. Several games in the series have been considered as some of the best fighting games of all time and some of the best video games of all time.

The gameplay of the series was well praised for being fast-paced, fluid, aggressive, brutal, and strategic. Its Triangle system was notable for being innovative and unique to the fighting game genre, and it was the first video game series and first fighting game series with a multi-point counter system. Dead or Alive 2 was a turning point for the series, since it offered many new features and was notable for improving and popularizing the concept of multi-tiered environments. Dead or Alive 3 was notable for improving and expanding on what the previous games offered, it was a "killer app" notable for being one of the essential games in helping build the Xbox brand, it was the first fighting game for the said platform, the first fighting game to receive an award from the National Academy of Video Game Trade Reviewers (NAVGTR) during its year of inception, and the first fighting game to be included in the Xbox Championship tournaments.