Mortal Kombat: Entering a New Era of Violence
In 1991, arcades would get a shot in the arm that was needed with the release of Capcom’s Street Fighter II: The World Warrior. This became a game changer not just in arcades but in all of gaming. Street Fighter II could put human VS human at each other in a two player mode to see who the better player is. This in a sense was the seed that would blossom into the competitive gaming scene that we all know today. Street Fighter II inspired arcade tournaments and re-defined the fighting game genre. The game easily became one of the most influential video games not just in fighting games, but gaming entirely.
As Street Fighter II became a massive success not just in arcades, but also in home systems. Of course with that kind of success, there’s sure to be other gaming developers that want to put their own spin on the newly revamped fascinating fighting game craze.
Midway Games, a gaming company based in Chicago who was known in the 80s for their pinball games needed something as pinball was on the outs, and arcade video games were becoming the next big thing, Street Fighter II playing a major part in this. Midway needed to adapt to the revolutionary movement that was happening.
In 1992, Midway would unleash Mortal Kombat. Yes Kombat with a K because it sounds cooler… The 90 kids get it. Mortal Kombat is a game nearly every gamer knows about and back in the early 90s, was the biggest competitor to Capcom’s Street Fighter II.
The thing that makes Mortal Kombat stand out is the violence. That’s was what put the game on the map, for better and worse as far as the media goes. The truth is people have a thing for violence and realism. Our primal instincts kick in when we see blood on something. America’s fascination with violence on television and other media was apparent, so it was only a matter of time until that would go into video games. Street Fighter II was like country music. Everyone knows it, it’s a standard, everyone can listen to it from all ages. Mortal Kombat however was like rock and roll. Much grittier and more rebellious of the rules. Sega had the similar philosophy with the Sega Genesis in the case of “You can play kiddy Nintendo, or you can be with the cool kids and play Genesis”. I think the same idea applies here with Street Fighter II vs Mortal Kombat.
Mortal Kombat’s violence also got it along with video games entirely with it’s violence. Apparently parents don’t like it when their 4 year old Jimmy plays a game where they are ripping someone’s spine out of their body, who knew?! This reached all the way to the US congress with a final verdict of the video game better do something about the violence in gaming or they will. The end result was the creation of the ESRB rating system. You know when a game says it’s “E for Everyone” or “M for Mature?” Yeah you can thank Mortal Kombat for that. But this also gave the game a major publicity, after all some do day that any publicity is good publicity. Playing something a rebellious as Mortal Kombat sounded like the coolest thing to do as a kid or teenager in the 90s. That’s what it was all about, being rebellious of the old ways and having that different and loud attitude. Mortal Kombat was the right fighting game at the right time.
So how is Mortal Kombat as a game in itself? I can promise you there’s more to Mortal Kombat than just blood and guts. Mortal Kombat is a fighting game where one person can play VS a CPU and go into a gauntlet of matches, leading up to the game’s final boss. Or of course you can have a 2nd player and go head to head to see who the strongest is.
The first thing you will notice that’s different for Mortal Kombat is the graphics. Mortal Kombat used digital characters drawn from real actors. This gave the game a photorealistic look.
The next thing you may notice is the game’s theming and aesthetic. There’s no doubt a Enter The Dragon, Bloodsport martial arts tournament feel to it. It’s kind of a cool feeling and I feel like this theme only happens in the first game. Mortal Kombat 2 goes for a more dark fantasy setting and I think some of the charm that the first game has is lost in that. MK1 feels more realistic than the other games.
The game has 5 buttons. Low Punch, Low Lick, High Punch, High Kick and Block. Each fighter also has special moves they can do ala button combo, such as uppercuts that make for a great anti air, or one-two punches if the other player decides blocking is something not to do. The game is also a little faster than its apparent Street Fighter II.
The story starts as Goro, a half-human half-dragon with 4 arms is the grand champion of Mortal Kombat as the muscle to Shang Tsung, the game’s final boss. Shang’s plan is the use the tournament to take over our realm known as Earthrealm. However Raiden, the elder god of Earthrelm gets together a group of fighters in order to stop Shang’s evil plans. There are also other fighters from other realms that have their own beef and reasons to fight in the tournament. Who will become the Mortal Kombat champion and can Earthrealm be saved? Well that’s up to you.
Speaking of the fighters, Mortal Kombat has a small cast of fighters to pick from. Johnny Cage, a Hollywood actor who’s inspired by the real actor Jean-Claude Van Damme. Kano, an assassin that’s a rival of the game’s only female fighter in Sonya Blade who hopes to put Kano to justice. Liu Kang, a kung-fu shaolin monk who would become the series hero, manly because this might have been players first fighter they played as with his easy to use move set. Then we got the iconic 2 ninjas of the game, Sub-Zero and Scorpion. Sub-Zero can of course use ice moves to freeze his opponents and get an advantage, and Scorpion who might be the most iconic fighter of the series, with his harpoon rope that captures the opponent and pulls them in for an attack, while saying his iconic “GET OVER HERE” phrase. The final boss of the game of course being Shang Tsung, who with his magic can shapshift into all the other fighters at will for a limited time, making him a worthy final boss.
How can I talk about Mortal Kombat and not talk about one of the most notable thing people think about when it comes to Moral Kombat, the fatalities. When you win a match, you get a prompt that says to finish your opponent. This is where you can get one last big hit on them and win the round. A chance to rub it in that you won and they (it be either another player or CUP) lost. Nothing like the joy of victory and the agony of defeat. However, if you know the right button combination, the winning fighter can pull a fatality, where you pretty much murder the opponent for the ultimate disrespect. Each fighter of course has their own fatality, such as Scorpion taking off his mask to show a skeleton face and shoots fire, burning the opponent alive. Some of them in the first game are kind of lame like a big kick to the head and nothing more. That’s cool and all but there’s nothing like ripping someone’s head out of their body. If you were a 90s kid or teenager and seeing a cool fatality, there was no going back to something as simple as well… Street Fighter.
Mortal Kombat between a few fights will have your “Test Your Might” mini-game, where you have to mash buttons in order to break the element in front of you in half. It starts easy with wood but then gets much harder as you go, with it ending with diamond. A fun little thing to add on to take a break from all the Kombat.
Another thing that made Mortal Kombat stand out and what might be my most loved thing about the series is the secrets it holds. Keep in mind this is the early 90s and the internet is not a household thing at this time. Most things about video games were word of mouth and Mortal Kombat was full of secrets. For example, at very rare times, a green ninja known as Reptile who’s not playable will show up with a hint. It was rare enough to see him you would get kids and teens going “Reptile is real” as others would not believe it. Reptile in himself became like this gaming urban myth. A teenager’s Big Foot or Loch Ness Monster. If you fulfill all the insane requirements, you would get a shot to fight Reptile. He is a mix of Scorpion and Sub-Zero’s moves with double health. The only way to find out about this was by word of mouth and you didn’t know if that was the truth or not. Nowadays people would just look it up online or data-mine the game to find the game’s secrets. Back then there was much more mystic and wonder, but maybe that’s just me reminiscing about the old days. Reptile would be playable in Mortal Kombat 2 with his own move set.
Overall it’s easy to see in a history standpoint how Mortal Kombat was a game changer, with it’s realistic graphics and over the top violence. Not to mention the violent nature of the game and the secrets it holds. Mortal Kombat was a big enough deal that the home release was titled “Mortal Monday”, with every kid yelling “MORTAL KOMBAT!” at the playground. The Mortal Kombat movie that would come out a few years later with that awesome techno song that also yelled Mortal Kombat also helped contribute into that. If I ever jump into the world of other media reviews besides video games, that would be a fun one to do. The first movie is kind of a fun cheesy kung-fu movie despite the disappointment of it only being PG-13, meaning the blood and guts would not be on full display. Still a decent movie, heck I’d say it’s kind of good, but I digress.
Mortal Kombat would be released on about every home systems you could think of at the time, but with the Super Nintendo version, the blood was re-colored from red to gray and was told it was sweat from the fighters. Keep in mind Nintendo was still trying to keep a clean face when it came to video games, and with the controversies that came with Mortal Kombat, I can fully understand why Nintendo wanted nothing to do with that. However with a code for the Genesis version, you can turn the blood on to get that authentic brutal Mortal Kombat experience at home. Because of this, the Genesis version of the game outsold the SNES version by a lot. Sex and violence sells.
In the end, MK1 has not aged the best as there are better games in the series, but it is still fun to play the first game to see how such an iconic series got its start. Mortal Kombat would become one of the most iconic fighting games of all time, thanks to it’s over the top brutal violence and simple but fun addicting gameplay. This game is hard VS the CPU but is very fun with a second player. No doubt if you’re into older fighting games that this is a must play for both a great game in itself and the historical value the game has brought into the gaming industry.
