Mortal Kombat (1992)

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This article is about the original 1992 Arcade game. You may be looking for the 2011 reboot, or the 2023 reboot with the same names.

Mortal Kombat
"TEST YOUR MIGHT!"
Genre(s): Fighting Platform(s): Arcade Amiga Game Boy Game Gear Master System MS-DOS Sega CD Sega Genesis Super Nintendo Entertainment System Release: August 1992 Arcade August 1992 SNES, Genesis, Game Gear, Game Boy, Master System NA/EU: September 13, 1993 EU: October 28, 1993 (SNES) JP: December 24, 1993 (SNES) EU: February 1, 1994 (Game Boy) MS-DOS NA: May 25, 1994 Sega CD NA: April 1994 EU: July 1994 Amiga EU: 1994 Developer(s): Midway Games Sculptured Software (SNES) Probe Entertainment (other versions) Publisher(s): Midway Games Acclaim Entertainment (PC/Consoles) Virgin Interactive Entertainment (DOS/Amiga) Country: United States United Kingdom Series: Mortal Kombat Successor: Mortal Kombat II

Mortal Kombat is a fighting game developed and released by Midway games on August 1992 for Arcades and then ported into various platforms in 1993-1994. It is the very first installment in the Mortal Kombat series.

Plot

The game takes place on a fictional island in Earthrealm, where a tournament is being held at Shang Tsung's Island, on which seven of its locations serve as stages in the game. The introduction to Mortal Kombat II explains that Shang Tsung was banished to Earthrealm 500 years ago and, with the help of the monstrous Goro, is able to seize control of the Mortal Kombat tournament in an attempt to doom the realm. For 500 years straight, Goro has been undefeated in the tournament, and now a new generation of warriors must challenge him.

According to the series' canon line, Liu Kang won the tournament by defeating both Goro and Shang Tsung.

Why It's a Flawless Victory

1. Compared to most fighting games, where the characters are usually characters that use custom-drawn sprites, the game uses real-life actors that had their moves captured via a camera and then thrown into the game after the developers programmed them, which itself is a very cool idea since not many games used real-life actors for characters. In fact, it could even look like some bloody sitcom as a fighting game.
   • Interestingly, Goro, the penultimate boss in the game, is not played by an actor, but via an actual figure, being unique among the characters in the game.
2. The graphics are very great for a 1992 Arcade game; the characters were very well digitized, the backgrounds have a nice design, and the portraits on the character selection screen look very nice.
3. Amazing soundtrack, with some memorable themes, such as the music in the throne room (which is also Shang Tsung's theme), the music in the Pit stage, or the ending theme. The music is so good, you might even wanna play the match for longer just to listen to it.
4. Tight and great controls, which contain their own buttons to perform moves, such as the punch buttons performing an uppercut when you crouch, or some command inputs performing a special move, being either a projectile or something else. Some of the inputs can be also very easy to remember, so there's no need to worry if you forget them that easily.
5. When you defeat your opponent in the second round, instead of being K.O.'d like most fighting games, you have an option of performing a finishing move on them called "Fatality". Finishing your opponent off with the fatality will earn you bonus points, though you can also end the match without performing a finishing move on them.
   • Liu Kang notably has an unique finishing move where he doesn't murder his opponent, but performs some hits on them and finishes with the uppercut, which still counts as a fatality but doesn't kill his opponents. This is because of his status as a Shaolin Monk.
6. There's a secret boss that rewards a million points if you defeat him. This boss' name is Reptile, a secret boss who is fought below the Pit. To fight him, you have to be in the Pit stage, and in the final round, you have to defeat your opponent without pressing any of the block buttons, having full HP and finishing the match with the fatality, which will allow you to fight Reptile, who is a green combination of Scorpion and Sub-Zero but faster and stronger. Reptile would later appear in the Mortal Kombat series in Mortal Kombat II with his own moveset and fatalities.
7. The "Test Your Might" minigame is very fun; you have to mash a button to break materials to earn bonus points. You start with wood, the easiest, and the hardest one is diamond. Each harder material will earn you more points if you break them.
8. The game, along with games like Doom, allowed the rating organization that rate video games to be founded. The very first one was ESRB, founded in 1994, which gives the following ratings for video games:
   • EC (Early Childhood), games aimed at very young audiences and mainly have educational value. This rating was retired in 2018 due to not being used that much, however, and every game that could earn this rating were rated E for Everyone from 2018 onwards.
   • E (Everyone), games that are intended for everyone to enjoy.
   • E10+ (Everyone 10+), games that are intended for everyone to enjoy, but parental guidance is suggested for kids under the age of 10.
   • T (Teen), games that are recommended for those 13 or older and parental guidance is suggested for those under 13.
   • M (Mature), games that players under 17 are not allowed to play unless accompanied by a parent or adult guardian.
   • AO (Adults Only), the rarest rating in the ESRB's system, this rating only permits adults (18+) to play them. Most of the games with this rating are made for the PC, as Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft will generally not allow any AO games on their systems due to their adult nature, and would result in some AO rated games to be censored (notably Manhunt 2).
   • RP (Rating Pending), where video games were not fully rated by the ESRB before their official release, which will later allow them to be rated either as E, E10+ or T. Since 2021, a different version of this rating was introduced titled "RP (Likely Mature 17+)", a rating where video games were not rated but might be rated M just before the final release.
9. Just like Street Fighter II, the game revolutionized the popularity of fighting games, which caused more and more fighting games to be released for many consoles, computers, and even Arcades. This can give Street Fighter II and Mortal Kombat credit for such reason.

Bad Qualities

1. While the controls are tight, they aren't always responsive, compared to other games in the series.
2. Cheap AI. Many of the computer opponents can easily dodge your attacks and avoid certain moves the player might make, and they also block and defend themselves from damage, and can easily outsmart the player very easily. The worst offenders are both Goro and Shang Tsung, who are known to be very cheap and frustrating fights because of how fast they are in general.
3. The quality of console ports is rather mixed, making it quite tricky to pick the best one if you don't wanna see the flaws in these ports:
   • The SNES version is notorious for removing blood and replacing it with "sweat", making it a censored version, due to Nintendo's politics. Other issues it has are the controls that aren't always responsive (more than in the Arcade version) and some odd stuff, such as being hit by an opponent's projectiles cancels your own.
   • The Genesis version has mediocre graphics and the blood is censored if you don't type a code that is "ABACABB" by hitting A, B, A, C, A, B, B, respectively, although it is perhaps the best console version as it has more responsive controls.
   • The Game Gear and Master System versions run a bit too slow and don't have Kano as a playable character, although they are playable.
   • The Game Boy version is the worst version of the game as it runs very slow, has controls that feel like they barely work and slow movements of the characters.
   • The Tiger Electronics versions are just as bad as the Game Boy version as they don't play fluid at all.

Reception

Mortal Kombat received mixed-to-positive reviews for the Arcade version, although the ports were more well-received. The game was praised for the graphics, the digitized actors being represented as fighters, the soundtrack, and its charm. As mentioned, before Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter II are often credited for revolutionizing the popularity of fighting games, resulting in many more fighting games being produced.

Trivia

• With the release of the series' second reboot, Mortal Kombat 1 in 2023, the original Arcade Mortal Kombat earned a nickname of Mortal Kombat '92, very likely to avoid the confusion, although the 2023 Mortal Kombat 1 reboot is also known by some as Mortal Kombat 12.
• Before the game was named as Mortal Kombat, some earlier names for the game were Kumite, Dragon Attack, Death Blow, and Fatality. Ironically, the fatality became a finishing move in Mortal Kombat, as mentioned before.
• Scorpion's "COME HERE!" and "GET OVER HERE!" lines became huge memes.

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