The Dead or Alive series is known – unfortunately – more for its amazingly inaccurate boob-jiggling physics than its fighting mechanics. Truth is it’s a pretty deep and surprisingly complex fighter, but most people don’t get to see that because they’re too busy mashing buttons and watching female ninjas’ bits wobble. The series has even traditionally included cheat codes to increase the size of the female fighters’ already ample bosoms.

It even spawned a tacky spin-off centered around the series’ femme fatales doing beach activities in their underwear. Classy! Team Ninja now wants to dial back the overt, forced sexiness – making Dead or Alive’s women more realistically proportioned.

That’s going to go down well.

Speaking to Gamasutra, Team Ninja boss Yosuke Hayashi says its time to move away from the series’ seedy past.

“In the series up to now we focused on some kind of… Sports Illustrated [aesthetic]. Like a magazine for high school kids, with women portrayed in that sense,” he said. “We’ve always had the sex factor in the game; in the past, the female characters had to have big breasts, they had to have scanty dress.”

Team Ninja wants to focus on a more realistic future, one that isn’t just designed to make teenage boys’ jeans tighter.

“We’re trying to focus on the real women that surround us; the voice of a female, the mannerisms. We are being realistic about it,” he said. “We want to show something that’s more high class, that adult males of our generation could look at a woman [character] and be impressed with her as a woman, not just as a pin-up.”

It seems like Itagaki, previously Team Ninja’s leader, really was the perverted, sadistic person everyone’s made him out to be. Personally, I like the over-the-top sex and violence in DOA; it’s something that makes the series stand out.

Also, boobs!