Mortal Kombat: The Most Controversial Fighting Game from the ’90s

Was there anything more satisfying than when “Finish Him!” flashed on screen during an epic Mortal Kombat battle? Scratch that — was there anything more satisfying than actually completing the right combo of buttons to actually do your finishing Fatality move? Because while it was great to best your opponent, the real accomplishment was actually following through with your character’s special Fatality — it wasn’t easy hitting that right combo of buttons!

Today, you might expect a Fatality-type move in almost every fighting game — Mortal Kombat has definitely left a lasting impact. But back in the early ’90s, Midway, the game developer, was really just looking for a way to compete with the 1991 release of Street Fighter II. Did Midway manage to make a better game than Street Fighter? That’s a battle for another day.

The creators of Mortal Kombat, Ed Boon and John Tobias, sought to create a ninja-themed fighting game, but Midway said no way, they wanted an action game based on Jean-Claude Van Damme’s Universal Soldier. But, because Van Damme was already in talks with another company to create a video game, they had to scrap that idea and go back to their original ninja plan. Still, the character of Johnny Cage is pretty clearly based on Van Damme, so they got him in there, in a way. The real kicker, though? They had to get the game developed and released in less than a year — no easy feat!

Mortal Kombat was originally released as an arcade game in 1992 — you could either play by yourself against the computer in a one-on-one match, or you could play against a friend — your friend could even join you partway through a match if you had already started one. The game became so popular that it was quickly ported over to home consoles on September 13, 1993, a date that was dubbed “Mortal Monday.” In North America, four official ports were released on that day — for the Super Nintendo, Sega Genesis, Game Boy, and Game Gear. Of course, they weren’t quite the same as the gory, ultra-violent version that was available in arcades (the blood was made to look like sweat instead), but at least on the Genesis, there was a cheat code that would get you the gore factor if you wanted it.

In the original game, you had a choice from seven playable characters, each with their own Fatality: Liu Kang, Johnny Cage, Sonya Blade, Raiden, Kano, Scorpion, and Sub-Zero. Though the main game was fighting in matches against the other playable characters, eventually you would make it to a sub-boss called Goro, and then finally the main boss Shang Tsung (he was cool because he could transform into any character in the game at any moment when you were fighting him) — and, if you completed super special conditions, you’d get to fight a secret character, Reptile. Apparently, it was the first game to ever introduce the concept of finding a secret fighter, which is pretty much standard these days.

The game has spawned many sequels and spin-offs over the years, and even had a movie adaptation in 1995 that told the story going on behind of all of your epic video game battles (it’s… something about Earthrealm and Outworld and Liu Kang winning this special tournament between worlds to, like, save Earthrealm?). The first Mortal Kombat movie was number one at the box office in its opening weekend, grossing $23 million, and eventually went on to make $122 million total worldwide.

Today, you can still get in on the action with the eleventh main installment of Mortal Kombat available on all major gaming consoles, though it will never quite compare to the original. But, at least there are more female characters to choose from these days. We all loved Sonya, but a 1 in 7 ratio wasn’t great.

Did you play Mortal Kombat? Who was your go-to character? Let us know in the comments!

The Mortal Kombat film in 1995 was directed by Paul W.S. Anderson — his first mainstream movie. He went on to do a little series called Resident Evil.
A new movie produced by James Wan was filmed in 2019 — it was supposed to release in early 2021, however its release date is now up in the air thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic.
People were so concerned about the violent nature of the original game that several court cases ensued — ultimately it all led to the creation of the ESRB (Entertainment Software Rating Board) game rating system in 1994.
Mortal Kombat has been one of the most successful fighting game franchises in video game history, trailing only Tekken and Street Fighter. As of 2020, the franchise had sold over 54 million units.
Since the 2008 release of Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe, every Mortal Kombat game has featured crossover guest characters, including Freddy Krueger, The Joker, the T-800 Terminator, RoboCop, the Predator, and more.

The Mortal Kombat film in 1995 was directed by Paul W.S. Anderson — his first mainstream movie. He went on to do a little series called Resident Evil.
A new movie produced by James Wan was filmed in 2019 — it was supposed to release in early 2021, however its release date is now up in the air thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic.
People were so concerned about the violent nature of the original game that several court cases ensued — ultimately it all led to the creation of the ESRB (Entertainment Software Rating Board) game rating system in 1994.
Mortal Kombat has been one of the most successful fighting game franchises in video game history, trailing only Tekken and Street Fighter. As of 2020, the franchise had sold over 54 million units.
Since the 2008 release of Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe, every Mortal Kombat game has featured crossover guest characters, including Freddy Krueger, The Joker, the T-800 Terminator, RoboCop, the Predator, and more.