Mortal Kombat

This article concerns the fighting game series and media tie-ins. For the first entry in the series, see Mortal Kombat (arcade game). For the movie based on the series, see Mortal Kombat (film).

The Mortal Kombat logo

Mortal Kombat (commonly abbreviated MK) is a popular series of fighting games created originally by the Midway Games company. Mortal Kombat began as a series of arcade games, which were picked up by Acclaim Games for the home console versions. Now Midway exclusively creates home versions of Mortal Kombat. It is especially noted for its digitized sprites (which differentiated it from its contemporaries' hand-drawn sprites), and its high levels of blood and gore, including, most notably, its graphic fatality killing moves. These were so extreme that they, in part, led to the founding of the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB).

Overview

Brief history

A young person named Alex Bressington (Brezzy) inspired a fighting game series thanks to his lust for violence. The original Mortal Kombat was developed as a reaction to the popular Capcom fighting game Street Fighter II, with digitized graphics of real game actors as opposed to animated cartoon graphics. The Mortal Kombat storyline and gameplay were conceived in 1989 , but not released into arcades until 1992^[1]. Critics said the game's graphic violence was gratuitous and was only included in order to generate a public outcry and controversy that would garner publicity for the game. Although highly controversial, the mix of realism and violence propelled Mortal Kombat to widespread and historic renown.

Throughout the series, the game was known for its over-the-top violence which included fatalities, uppercuts that sprayed blood and launched players into the air, its exotic special moves, as well as a tendency to replace instances of the hard c sound with the letter "K" in its written lexicon.

Legacy

Midway has created six direct sequels for the arcade and home systems. Mortal Kombat 4 brought the series into 3D, replacing the digitized fighters of the previous games with polygon models, while Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance was the first in the series to skip arcades altogether and go directly to consoles, a symptom of U.S. arcade market's dramatic decline. The second-to-last installment in the series, Mortal Kombat: Deception, was released for the Xbox and PlayStation 2 platforms in October 2004 (with a Nintendo GameCube version released in February 2005 with two exclusive characters: Shao Kahn and Goro). Following a gameplay style very similar to the one found on Deadly Alliance, Deception also features several new gaming modes, such as a Puzzle Fighter-like puzzle game, an Archon-like chess game, and an RPG-style quest mode, as well as a suicidal finishing move (Hara-Kiri) for each character, usually performed to prevent the opponent from doing a fatality. A Sony PSP version of Deception (named Mortal Kombat: Unchained) has also been announced, while the latest release, Mortal Kombat: Armageddon, wraps up the current story continuity and features almost all the characters that have appeared in the series.

Finishing moves in later games included the Animality (turning into an animal to violently finish off the opponent), the Brutality (decimating an opponent into pieces with a long combination of hits or combo), the Friendship (offering one's opponent a token of friendship), and the Babality (transforming the opponent into a baby). The Babality and Friendship moves were created as a jokey non-violent finishing move, a swipe at the U.S. Congressional Investigation for Violence in Videogames who came down harshly on the Mortal Kombat games. Purists, fonder of the earlier style, were upset by the introduction of such finishing moves, yet Mortal Kombat's "purely explicit" and dark gameplay was once again implemented after the release of Mortal Kombat 4.

Palette swapping and character depth

More-so than other fighting games at the time, Mortal Kombat was notorious for re-coloring certain sprites to appear as different characters. This was most prominent with the series' various ninja/assassin characters. Although many of the more popular characters were spawned from these palette swaps, the sheer over-saturation of the roster with them, as well as the fighting game genre's gradual demand for unique looks for all their characters, lead to many fans growing sick of the re-colors, and joking about their overuse in the series. Hence, "ninja syndrome" is a typical complaint among fans to describe any fighting game that has similar-looking or palette swapped characters.

However, unlike palette swapped characters such as Ryu, Ken, Akuma, Sean et al. which featured different heads and thus looked more different, Mortal Kombat's characters featured totally different special moves, making each more unique from a gameplay perspective.

The palette-swapped characters consisted of eight male ninjas (Scorpion, Sub-Zero, Ermac, Smoke, Reptile, Noob Saibot, Rain, and Chameleon), four female ninjas (Kitana, Mileena, Jade, and Khameleon), and three cyberninjas (Sektor, Cyrax, and an automated version of Smoke), making a total of 15 repaints, or roughly one-quarter the series' total roster. However, when the series made the transition into 3D, all the ninjas were given more unique looks.

Furthermore, the 2D Mortal Kombat games are notable when compared to their contemporaries in the terms of character differentiation. The Mortal Kombat characters played virtually identical to one another (with the exception of unplayable boss and hidden characters). Whereas other fighting games had characters with differences in speed, range, height, normal moves, strength of normal moves, walking speeds, jumping heights and distances, and so on and so forth, characters in Mortal Kombat differed only in their special moves and finishing moves. Essentially this led to increased importance placed on special moves, as they were the only unique part of any character. Compared to similar fighting games of its generation, Mortal Kombat had a wider variety of special moves. There were two schools of thought on this topic. Critics felt that the gameplay of Mortal Kombat was inferior due to having less complexity in the normal moves compared to Street Fighter and other series. Supporters however felt that normal move complexity mostly added to the game's learning curve without adding real strategic depth, and that greater strategic depth and fun factor was created by having more radically different special moves, and thus believe that Mortal Kombat had better gameplay. In any case, the games after Mortal Kombat 4 changed this by finally differentiating characters normal moves and even giving them multiple fighting styles.

Plot continuity

Up until the departure of John Tobias from the Mortal Kombat creative team, every single game in the Mortal Kombat series featured a different ending for every character. Because many endings in a single game will contradict each other, only one or a few per game are considered canon, and the true endings are never known until the next game is released. The result is that when a new Mortal Kombat game is released, fans speculate about which ending (or endings) are real.

Mortal Kombat is infamous for retconning the established story line, mainly with such characters such as Johnny Cage, Reiko, Smoke and Scorpion, among others. This is usually blamed on the paradoxical canon issue that runs in the endings of most characters. While it cannot be determined which endings are canon until the following game, certain events that occur biographically in the endings (such as Noob Saibot being Sub-Zero's brother) actually do affect the story.

For example, in the case of Scorpion, we are told for 2 consecutive games that he has sworn to protect the younger Sub-Zero, but we then discover in Mortal Kombat 4 that Scorpion has continuously believed the younger brother is actually the former Sub-Zero (now Noob Saibot), whom he is convinced murdered his family and slaughtered his entire clan throughout all of the games.

Similarly, in the arcade version of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, the robotic version of Smoke can transform into Human Smoke, and we are told in robotic Smoke's ending that he has reclaimed his soul, and that Human Smoke has broken free of his cybernetic confines. However, in Mortal Kombat Trilogy, his story is changed to say that his human form is only a memory.

Easter eggs and secrets

Mortal Kombat was among the first titles in the fighting game genre to include secret characters, secret games, and other Easter eggs. Mortal Kombat 3, for example, included a hidden game of Galaxian. Many extras in the series have only been accessible through very challenging, demanding, and sometimes coincidental requirements.

In the 1992 arcade original, when fighting on The Pit stage (the bridge), the player could qualify to fight the hidden character Reptile, a merge between the Sub-Zero and Scorpion characters, provided that he executed a Fatality, obtained a double flawless victory and never hit block during the winning round (due to Sonya's fatality combination including the block button, she was only allowed to face Reptile on the home ports); moreover, all of the above was useless (with the exception of the SNES version) if shadow figures didn't happen to fly over the background moon, an event decided solely by random logic in the game. In Mortal Kombat II, Reptile would be developed into a full character with his own special moves and would be available from the outset. The Sega Genesis games had some unique eggs: in Mortal Kombat, a headshot of President of Probe Software Fergus McGovern flew in front of the moon in Mortal Kombat's Pit stage, while in Mortal Kombat II, Raiden could perform a "Fergality" by pressing Back, Back, Back, Block during a fatality on the Armory stage. It was pioneering ideas like these that has made Mortal Kombat one of the most memorable of the genre.

Another Easter egg actually came about from a rumored glitch. In the original arcade version of the first Mortal Kombat, a rumor stated that the game would sometimes present problems due to a bug and mix two characters together. This would usually be two of the ninja characters, resulting in a ninja in a semi-red suit. The computer would display his name as "ERMAC", short for "error macro." As word spread, people thought they had found a secret character. In the game audits, ERMACS will appear on one of the pages, possibly being a stat to either show how many times a player encountered a secret character or a glitch. That wasn't the case, yet in Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, it was decided to make an actual Ermac character. Also, glitch characters occurred should the player accomplish the very difficult feat of reaching Reptile in Endurance mode in the first Mortal Kombat. Once Reptile was defeated, the second character would jump down. As Reptile used a special green colour palette, the following fighter (a normal fighter) would be a jumble of the character's original colors plus Reptile's green colors.

However, one of the most fascinating elements of Mortal Kombat was completely unplanned and out of the programmers' hands. Following the release of Mortal Kombat II, a myth culture was created around the game. The most famous one is the Goro myth. In the first game, Goro was a four-armed monster that acted as a miniboss to the game's main boss, Shang Tsung. Many fans were convinced that Goro was hidden somewhere in Mortal Kombat II and many were obsessed with finding him. Alas, these rumors were later confirmed as untrue.

Some Easter eggs originated from private jokes between members of the Mortal Kombat development team. The best-known example is "Toasty," which began in Mortal Kombat II. Developers fell into the habit of yelling the victory cry "Toasted!" (and later, "Toasty!") during the testing phase of development. This joke found its way into the game in the form of a small image of sound designer Dan Forden, who would appear in the corner of the screen during gameplay and sing the word "toasty." Later games included other jokes that originated in similar fashion; Mortal Kombat 4 had characters quickly uttering unintelligible battle cries in a similar fashion to Raiden's utterances in the first two games. "Toasty" is also found in Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks after pulling off a chain of hits and will appear randomly, but the picture of Dan Forden will not appear. Pressing the start button during the "Toasty" will also result in the player receiving a 1000 experience points bonus. On rare occasions, in Deception's chess mode, when a player puts a death spell on another, one can hear "Toasty" as well. Also in Deception, if you want to aquire the Kamidogu in Earthrealm without knowing the password, Shujinko will try "Toasty" as password to gain access.

Tournament

Concept

The Mortal Kombat tournament was originally thought to be a solely human conception, until later retcons revealed it to be universal among the series' featured Realms, created by the Elder Gods as a way for other realms to defend themselves against Outworld after it grew too powerful.

A realm may declare Mortal Kombat on another realm, if they wish to invade it and conquer it. Once one party declares Mortal Kombat, the other party may not refuse. A tournament ensues, where the combatants will be knocked out until the reigning champion does battle with the challenger. Once defeated, a single Tournament victory is added for the realm. Once that realm earns ten Tournament victories in a row, they earn the right to invade the losing realm. This is the only 'legal' way for a realm to invade another, and any violation of this rule is seen as treason against the Elder Gods. The reigning champion will have their aging suspended by the Elder Gods until the next tournament.

Notable tournaments

1000-500 years before Mortal Kombat: The first known Mortal Kombat tournament, created when sorcerer Shang Tsung, under orders by Outworld emperor Shao Kahn, took control of an Earthrealm Shaolin tournament in a bid to upset the furies and invade Earth. In this time span, Shang Tsung held a 9-tournament winning streak, but was cut short in the tenth tournament by the Great Kung Lao.

500-0 years before Mortal Kombat: The Great Kung Lao held his position as Grand Champion for only one generation, after which his title - and his life - was taken by Shang Tsung's newest warrior, Goro, who held the title for another nine victories.

Mortal Kombat: Liu Kang, who is a young monk, defeats Goro, thus breaking his winning streak and preventing Outworld's invasion of Earth. Shang Tsung challenges Liu Kang to a battle, trying to salvage something from his champion's loss, but is defeated, as well. As such, he is forced to relinquish his hold on the tournament and flee back to Outworld.

Mortal Kombat II: A false tournament proposed by Shang Tsung to Shao Kahn, to lure Earth's warriors to Outworld by kidnapping Sonya, where Kahn's forces would have a distinct advantage. It also posed as a distraction away from Kahn's revival of his wife, Queen Sindel on Earth, which would force a merger of the realms regardless of the false tournament's outcome. Liu Kang gains victory. After this, no official Mortal Kombat tournament is held, with all future storylines following all-out war between the realms.

Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance: Although the main storyline doesn't involve a tournament for the main characters, at this time, there was a tournament going on; one set up by Shang Tsung and his partner, the necromancer Quan Chi to give the Outworld native Li Mei a chance to free her people, who were currently enslaved by the two sorceres in order to build a temple over a soulnado, a means of which they could achieve their goals of ultimate power and immortality. This tournament has not been expressly stated as a Mortal Kombat tournament, and it is highly debatable among fans whether or not it can be called such, but regardless, it was as fake as the one set up by the Deadly Alliance in Outworld, with the sorcerers having no intention of keeping their word, regardless of the outcome.

Games in series

Fighting games

*Mortal Kombat: Armageddon* (2006) is the most recent major fighting game of the series

Non-fighting games

*Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks* (2005) is the latest non-fighting game in the series

Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero: The first in a planned series of MK spinoff games featuring popular characters from the fighting games. MKM:SZ, a platform game, focused on the original Sub-Zero and his missions just prior to the first Mortal Kombat.

Mortal Kombat: Special Forces: An action game also set prior to the first Mortal Kombat, featuring Jax's pursuit of Kano. Originally Sonya was to have starred as well, though she was cut after Tobias left Midway. This is the only Mortal Kombat game which does not feature some incarnation of Sub-Zero.

Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks: An action game (with a versus-fighting mode as well), starring Liu Kang and Kung Lao, telling an alternate version of the events between the first and second Mortal Kombat. Players could also control Scorpion and Sub-Zero as bonus content.

Other media

Mortal Kombat was adapted into two major motion pictures, Mortal Kombat (1995), and Mortal Kombat: Annihilation (1997). Both films were not screened for critics prior to theatrical release, and had a poor critical reception at the time they were released, but the first movie was a major financial success, eventually grossing $70 million in the U.S. (and over $125 million worldwide) while jumpstarting the Hollywood careers of Paul W. S. Anderson and Robin Shou, among others. That momentum did not carry over into Annihilation, however, which received a colder reception from critics and viewers alike, and took in only $30 million in the U.S. Although it is very unlikely, a third movie, Mortal Kombat: Devastation, is said to be in production as confirmed officially, and with rumors of its release going back to late 2005, may finally be released by the end of 2007.

The franchise also sparked two TV series, the 1996 animated series Mortal Kombat: Defenders of the Realm and the 1998-1999 live-action Mortal Kombat: Conquest. Neither series ran for more than one season (despite the popularity of Conquest). In 1995, an animated prequel to the first movie, titled Mortal Kombat: The Journey Begins, was released straight to home video. Coinciding with the popularity of TV media, the Mortal Kombat: Live Tour was launched at the end of 1995. The tour expanded to 1996 featuring MK characters in a theatrical display on stage.

There have been several graphic novels based on Mortal Kombat. There were official MK and MKII comic books, the latter of which was written by Tobias. Both were advertised in the attract modes on early versions of the first two MK games. Meanwhile, in 1994, Malibu Comics launched an official MK comic book series, spawning two six-issue series ("Blood and Thunder" and "Battlewave"), along with several miniseries, and one-shot character issues, until production ended in August 1995.

Brady Games also produced a trading card game based off Mortal Kombat called Mortal Kombat Kard Game in 1996.

Jeff Rovin penned a non-canon Mortal Kombat novel, which was published in June 1995 in order to coincide with the release of the movie.

An official MK techno album based on the first game was created by the Immortals in 1994. It featured two themes for the game, Techno Syndrome and Hypnotic House. Techno Syndrome was adapted for the 1995 movie soundtrack, and incorporated the familiar Mortal Kombat yell first shown in the MK1 commercial for home systems.[1] Each movie to follow would also have their own soundtracks.

Contributing cultural material

The Mortal Kombat mythology borrows heavily from multiple sources, primarily (but not limited to) Asian cultures, religions, languages and martial arts. Examples include the following:

Many have speculated that the general art direction and theme of the first Mortal Kombat games, most noticibly in terms of gore and storyline, seem to be based off of Asian films popular in the US in the 1970s to the early 1990s^{[citation needed]}. More contemporary parallels can be made with films like Battle Royale and Kill Bill. Darrius is said to have been developed around the character Williams (played by Jim Kelly) in the legendary Kung Fu film Enter the Dragon.
Raiden, who is the God of Thunder in Mortal Kombat, takes his name from the Japanese Raiden (meaning "thunder and lightning"), which is the name of a demon-god in Japanese mythology. The shinto Raiden is usually depicted as a man-beast with red flesh, sharp teeth, long hair and a large drum for making thunder. His appearance is however almost similar to a Buddhist/Taoist god. The Mortal Kombat Raiden's trademark glowing eyes and straw hat, however, appear to have been inspired by the Three Storms in the film Big Trouble in Little China. In the early console releases and associated media, he was also named Rayden.
Fujin (Mortal Kombat 4) is named after the Japanese wind god Fūjin. The mythological Fujin is Raiden's brother and the two are two of the oldest Shinto gods.
Shujinko (Mortal Kombat: Deception) is from the Japanese shujinkou (meaning "protagonist").
Damashi (Mortal Kombat: Deception) is from the Japanese damashi (meaning "deception").
Hotaru (Mortal Kombat: Deception) is from the Japanese hotaru (meaning "firefly").
Kenshi (Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance and Mortal Kombat: Deception) is from the Japanese kenshi (meaning "swordsman").
The White Lotus Society to which Liu Kang belonged may have been named after the secret White Lotus Society which existed in China during the Yuan Dynasty and Ming Dynasty. A white lotus is traditionally symbolic of death.
The Lin Kuei ninja clan that Sub-Zero hails from is a secretive Chinese cult that was known for its espionage, thievery, and living in the wildernesses of China. They were called "Lin Kuei" or "forest demons" because they lived in the forests and were known to terrorize nearby villages in order to steal goods and items for the benefits of their clan. It was said that that they were one of the causes that helped developed the art of Ninjutsu in Japan. Some of the elements may have been used in Takeda's departure from the Lin Kuei to set up his own ninja clan in Japan, the Shirai Ryu.
Kano's Black Dragon clan may be based loosely on the historical Black Dragon Society.
Moloch shares his name with the ancient Middle Eastern deity Moloch.
Shang Tsung as a name is an actual expression for "temple elder". Deriving this from the fact that Chinese mysticism often entwined spirituality and magic, this may be a reference to Shang Tsung's actual call as a sorcerer.
Sheeva's name can be recognized, as based on the Hindu god, Shiva, both of which have four arms.
The name Bo' Rai Cho is a play on the Spanish word borracho, meaning "drunk".
The idea of reincarnation is taken from Buddhism and Hinduism.
Quan Chi's character is somewhat resembling one of the demons in The Monkey King movie.
Wu Shi Academy follows Theravada Buddhism.

Mortal Kombat crossovers

Characters from the Mortal Kombat series have sometimes appeared in other video games as secret characters, particularly other Midway games:
- Raiden had a cameo appearance in a pinball machine, Bally's 1994 World Cup Championship, in a bonus round.
- Raiden, Reptile, Scorpion and Sub-Zero appeared as playable characters in early versions of NBA Jam TE and the Sega Saturn conversion. [2]
- Raiden and Shinnok appeared as unlockable characters in the original NFL Blitz game.
- Raiden appeared as an unlockable character in Unreal Championship 2: The Liandri Conflict (which coincidentally also included a fatality system similar to MK's). Shao Kahn's voice is also an alternate to the default announcer.
- Sub-Zero and Scorpion both appear as secret characters in MLB Slugfest 20-04.
- Scorpion can be unlocked as a skin for the main character of the Midway game Psi Ops.

Mortal Kombat has also been the focus of several extremely popular game modifications, including hacks to the original Mortal Kombat PC games (MK2: Kintaro's Vulgar Version), and the integration of console artwork and audio into other game engines, including but not limited to the original Quake and Unreal engines (Mortal Kombat Quake TC).

A fanmade version of Pong based on the Mortal Kombat series called Pong Kombat was released in 1994.

MushroomKombat is a satirical take on Mortal Kombat featuring the eight-man metal band Mushroomhead as fighters.

The Mortal Kombat characters are also featured in the trading card game Epic Battles which pits them against characters from other fighting game series.

Modal Kombat is a parody of the game Mortal Kombat, where gameplay is controlled by players performing live on guitars.

In the game NBA Ballers: Phenom, in the Training Academy stage, you will be able to see characters such as Sub-Zero, Raiden and Liu-Kang in the background watching streetball with the crowd.

Scorpion makes an appearance in the Comedy Central animated series Drawn Together.

The TV show ReBoot made a joke reference of Mortal Kombat with little Enzo as Scorpion and removes the mouth plate stating, "You just can't talk in these things."

Similar games

Pit-Fighter was an arcade game made by Atari and released in 1990. It is a historic game in the fact that it was the first to ever use digitized characters with real life actors. This way of gaming was later made hugely popular by the MK series. Crowd members in the game would actually interfere and try to stab you while fighting.
Primal Rage featured a battle system similar to that found in Mortal Kombat, including fatality-like finishing moves and blood depiction. The major difference was that all of Primal Rage's characters were digitized, stop-motion animated dinosaurs and prehistoric apes puppets instead of digitized humans (similar to how the MK team created Goro, Kintaro, Sheeva and Motaro).
Killer Instinct, Guilty Gear, and the later Samurai Shodown games included instant kill moves and/or finishing moves much similar to Mortal Kombat's.
OpenMortal is a parody of Mortal Kombat, released for Windows and Linux under the GNU General Public License (GPL). It has 18 playable characters, with the possibility of adding designed characters, and can be played in team mode and network.
Thrill Kill- A direct-to-console game for the Playstation that was much gorier and violent than Mortal Kombat. Never commercially released due to the objections of Electronic Arts.
Time Killers was an arcade fighting game created during the success of Mortal Kombat by the game company known as Strata, featuring warriors from different time periods armed with a particular weapon. Unlike MK, however, it introduced 'Instant Kills' which could be done at any time the player desired and would immediately end a match if they hit successfully. Arms could also be hacked off with more damage.
Eternal Champions was a fighting game released by Sega for the Sega Mega Drive, and re-released on the Sega Mega-CD. Like many of the Mortal Kombat klones, it included combos and incredibly gory fatalities.
BloodStorm was another game created by the same team who developed Time Killers and featured the same gameplay and features, but with the addition of even managing to hack off an opponent's lower body and completely incapacitating them, as well as over-the-top violence, among other things. Fans considered it little more than a ripoff, and it ultimately flopped in the arcades.
Acclaim produced 2 Mortal Kombat-styled games based on the World Wrestling Federation: "WWF Wrestlemania: The Arcade Game" & "WWF In Your House". Both featured Mortal Kombat-like sprites, moves, and finishers.
Way Of The Warrior: Way of the Warrrior was the tile of an ultra-violent fighting that featured digitized graphics of real fighters released for the 3DO CD-ROM system by Boston-based Naughty Dog.
Tattoo Assassins: Tattoo Assassins was a fighting game developed by Data East using the same digitized graphics style as Mortal Kombat. Most notable is that the game featured over 200 Fatalities, including Nudalities (only a rumor in Mortal Kombat) and Animalities (before they were featured in Mortal Kombat 3).
Street Fighter: The Movie (video game): The game used realistic, digitized graphics, trying to capitalize on the success of Mortal Kombat. Street Fighter: The Movie was co-developed by Capcom and Incredible Technologies and published by Capcom (in Japan) and Acclaim (in the US). It was poorly received by gamers and critics.
Blood Warrior: A Japanese fighting game featuring digitized graphics released in 1994 by Kaneko.[3]
Survival Arts: Yet another violent fighting game with digitized graphics and death finishing moves, this time created by Sammy. This video game was released in 1993 in order to cash in on the success of the Mortal Kombat series. [4]
Bonestorm: A fictional game used on The Simpsons.
MK Project: A recreation of UMK3 style Mortal Kombat using M.U.G.E.N.
Kasumi Ninja: Kasumi Ninja is a one-on-one fighting game developed by Hand Made Software and published by Atari for the Atari Jaguar and released in 1994. It sought to capitalize on the success of ultra violent fighting games such as Mortal Kombat.

References

^ GameFAQ's release date information

External links

Official websites

Other websites

[1] GameFAQ's release date information

[1]