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Mortal Kombat (series)
Encyclopedia
Mortal Kombat, commonly abbreviated MK, is a science fantasy
series of fighting game
s created by Ed Boon
and John Tobias
. The first four renditions and their updates were developed by Midway Games
and initially released on arcade machines. The arcade titles were later picked up by Acclaim Entertainment
for the home console
conversions. Beginning with Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance
, Midway Games exclusively created home versions of Mortal Kombat up until Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe
. Following Midway's bankruptcy, the franchise was picked up by Warner Bros.
in July 2009 and became a part of the Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment Branch.
The series began originally as a game based on the popular actor martial artist Jean-Claude Van Damme
. The idea fell through and Mortal Kombat
was born instead. As a result of its success, Mortal Kombat has spawned many sequels and has been spun off into several adventure games, films (animated and live-action
with its own sequel
), and television series (animated
and live-action
). Other spin-offs include various comic book series, a card game
and a live-action tour
.
The original three games and their updates, Mortal Kombat
, Mortal Kombat II
, Mortal Kombat 3
, Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3
, and Mortal Kombat Trilogy
, were styled in a 2-D fighting fashion with gameplay consisting of five buttons that were high punch, low punch, high kick, low kick, and block. Reviewers have stated that because of this the characters are only differentiated by their special moves. In fact, some reviewers have criticized that the "bewildering array" of special moves in comparison to other fighting games has resulted in too little focus on regular moves.
The series is especially noted for its realistic digitized sprites
(which differentiated it from its contemporaries' hand-drawn sprites), and its high levels of bloody graphic violence
, including, most notably, its Fatalities
—finishing moves, requiring a sequence of buttons to perform, which, in part, led to the creation of the ESRB
. The series name itself is also known for using the letter "K" in place of "C"
for the hard C
sound, thus intentionally misspelling
the word "combat," as well as other words with the hard C sound within later games in the series. Early games in the series were infamous for the prominent use of palette swapping to create new character sprites
.
, "[...] since the beginning, one of the things that's separated us from other fighting games is the crazy moves we've put in it, like fireballs and all the magic moves, so to speak." When asked if Street Fighter
and Mortal Kombat would do a crossover, Street Fighter producer, Yoshinori Ono, called Mortal Kombat a very different game from Street Fighter. Capcom's senior director of communications compared Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat by asking if the interviewer preferred the "precision and depth" of Street Fighter or the "gore and comedy" of Mortal Kombat; he also stated that the Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat rivalry was considered similar to the Coke
and Pepsi
rivalry in the 1990s. Senior producer of Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe, Hans Lo, called Street Fighter a little more technical fighter in comparison to Mortal Kombat.
Midway would keep their single styled fighting moves with four attack buttons which were a different array of punches and kicks and block until they changed this in Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance by differentiating characters normal moves and even giving them multiple fighting styles. Beginning in Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance and until Mortal Kombat: Deception, the characters would have three fighting styles per character: two unarmed styles, and one weapon style. Few exceptions to this arose in Mortal Kombat: Armageddon, such as monster-like boss characters like Moloch
and Onaga who would have only one fighting style. Most of the fighting styles featured are based on real martial arts
, though a few of them are not. Goro's fighting styles, for example, are designed to take advantage of the fact that he has four arms. For Mortal Kombat: Armageddon, fighting styles were reduced to a maximum of two per character (generally one hand-to-hand combat style and one weapon style) due to the sheer number of playable characters.
Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe dropped the multiple fighting style trend altogether in favor of giving each character a much wider variety of special moves, however some characters still had multiple fighting styles Baraka, utilizing the retractable blades in his arms (called the "Blade Stance"), and Deathstroke
who also possessed the ability to use another fighting style in the form of a sword (called the "Sword Stance").
The Friendship moves were made as a comical response to the attention the series gathered due to its violent content.
The original Mortal Kombat
was developed with digitized sprites based on actors, as opposed to animated cartoon graphics. Mortal Kombat 4
brought the series into 3D, replacing the digitized fighters of previous games with polygon models.
More so than other fighting games at the time, Mortal Kombat was famous for re-coloring certain sprites to appear as different characters. This was most prominent with the series' various ninja/assassin characters. Many of the more popular characters were spawned from these palette swap
s. In the very first game, Scorpion
, Sub-Zero
, and Reptile
were essentially the same character. The colors of their attire, fighting stance, and special techniques indicated the difference. Sub-Zero wore blue attire, Scorpion wore yellow, and Reptile wore green. Later games added other ninjas based on the same model, as well as several female ninja color swap characters initially also using just one base model (since Mortal Kombat II
). All of them gradually became very different characters in the following installments of the series.
, John Tobias
, John Vogel, and Dan Forden
. As Ed Boon stated in an interview with Major Nelson "The first Mortal Kombat game was 4 guys, literally, one programmer, myself (Boon), two graphics guys (Tobias and Vogel), and a sound guy (Forden) was the entire team, literally" Originally, Boon and Tobias wanted to create a video game starring Jean-Claude Van Damme
, with a digitized version of the action star fighting villains. Ed Boon stated for six out of the eight months while they were in production of Mortal Kombat, "...nobody could come up with a name nobody didn't hate." Some of the names suggested were "Kumite
", "Dragon Attack", "Death Blow", and even at one point, "Fatality". Someone had written down "combat" on the drawing board for the names in Ed Boon's office and someone wrote a K over the C, according to Ed Boon, "...just to be kind of weird..." Steve Ritchie, a pinball
designer at that time, was sitting in Ed Boon's office and saw the word "Kombat" and said to Ed Boon,'Why don't you name it Mortal Kombat?' and according to Ed Boon, that name "just stuck." The series itself commonly uses the letter "K" in place of "C"
for words containing the hard C
sound, thus misspelling them. According to Ed Boon, during game development they usually spell the words correctly and change them later when the developers recognize an opportunity.
The team switched from digitized actors to motion capture technology (the quote is incorrectly referring to Midway as Acclaim): "To make the characters in video games more realistic, actors are being recruited to serve as models. Acclaim, the video-game company that made Mortal Kombat, has created a special'motion capture studio' for this purpose. A martial-arts expert with as many as 100 electronic sensors taped to his body sends precise readings to a camera as he goes through his moves—running, jumping, kicking, punching. The action is captured, digitized and synthesized into a 'naked' wire-frame model stored in a computer. Those models can then be 'dressed' with clothing, facial expressions and other characteristics by means of a computer technique called texture mapping
."
s, secret games, and other Easter eggs
. Mortal Kombat 3, for example, included a hidden game of Galaga
as well as a hidden game of Pong
in Mortal Kombat II. Many extras in the series have only been accessible through very challenging, demanding, and sometimes coincidental requirements. The Sega Mega Drive/Genesis versions had some unique eggs: in Mortal Kombat, a head shot of the President of Probe Software, Fergus McGovern, flew in front of the moon in the Pit stage, while in Mortal Kombat II, Raiden could perform a "Fergality" on the Armory stage. The Sega Mega CD version also contained an additional code (known as the "Dad's Code"), which changed the names of the fighters to that of characters from the classic BBC
comedy series Dad's Army
. In the 1992 arcade original
when fighting on The Pit stage, the player can qualify for a fight at the bottom of The Pit with the hidden character Reptile
, who has the powers of Scorpion and Sub-Zero.
Some Easter eggs originated from in-joke
s between members of the development team. One example is "Toasty", which 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 (after performing an uppercut) and yell the word "Toasty". This egg was also the key to unlocking the hidden character Smoke when it happened in the Portal stage. Another note of interest is in Mortal Kombat 4, Forden would say "Toasty! 3D!" after Scorpion did his burn fatality, a reference to the fact that it is the first 3D game of the series. "Toasty" is also found in Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks, appearing randomly after the character pulls off a chain of hits, though the picture of Forden was removed for that version. Yet another private joke was the hidden character "Noob Saibot
", who appeared in various versions of the game. The character's name derived from two of the series' creators' surnames, Ed Boon
and John Tobias
, spelled backward. In addition, the character Ermac's name came from the first Mortal Kombat, which had "ERMAC5" (Error Macro 5) on its diagnostics screen; players presumed this dealt with some secret character. The development team decided to turn this rumor into an actual character, who was introduced in Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. The character Mokap is based upon Carlos Pesina
who leads the motion capture team for modern MK games (and previously played Raiden in the first and second games).
title was released for Arcade
during October 1992, having since been ported to over ten consoles. The sequel, Mortal Kombat II
was released for arcades in 1993, featuring an increased roster and improved graphics; it was rereleased in 2007 for the PlayStation 3
. Mortal Kombat 3
followed in 1995 in both arcade and console versions, later getting two updates which expanded the number of characters and other features from the game: Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3
, published in the same year, and Mortal Kombat Trilogy
the next one. The following game, Mortal Kombat 4
, was released in 1997, and ported to the PlayStation
, Nintendo 64
and PC
, while an update named Mortal Kombat Gold was released exclusively for the Dreamcast in 1999.
While to this point, Mortal Kombat games were only titled with their installment number, starting with Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance
, the series' naming scheme changed to favor the use of sub-titles instead of the previously usual numbering. It was also at this point that the series started being targeted at consoles only, with Mortal Kombat 4 being the last Mortal Kombat game to ever be released for the arcades and PC. Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance was thus released in 2002 for the Xbox
, PlayStation 2
(PS2), and GameCube
. Two ports for the Game Boy Advance
were also released under the name of Mortal Kombat: Tournament Edition and another port called Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance during 2003. The sequel from Deadly Alliance is Mortal Kombat: Deception
developed in 2004 for the PS2, Xbox and GameCube. A port for the PlayStation Portable
, Mortal Kombat: Unchained, was released in 2006 by Just Games Interactive
. Mortal Kombat: Armageddon
was published in the same year for the PS2, Xbox, and in 2007 on the Wii
. On September 29, 2008, Midway released the Mortal Kombat Kollection, an anthology of the 3 most recent titles to the main franchise: Mortal Kombat: Deception, Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks, and Mortal Kombat: Armageddon. The eighth MK fighting game is Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe
, a crossover between the MK franchise and DC Universe
released in 2008 for the PlayStation 3
and Xbox 360
.
A ninth main game in the series, a reboot known as simply Mortal Kombat was released on April 19, 2011 by Warner Bros. Games' Chicago studio, formerly Midway Games
Chicago, now known as NetherRealm Studios.
Besides the fighting games, there are three action titles that work as spin-offs from the MK storyline. Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero
was released in 1997 for the PlayStation and Nintendo 64. The story is focused on the first incarnation character of Sub-Zero
and is focused in the timeline of before the first Mortal Kombat game. The next action game is Mortal Kombat: Special Forces
released in 2000 for the PlayStation. It is an action game
starring Major Jackson Briggs in his mission to destroy the Black Dragon. Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks
was released in 2005 for the PS2 and the Xbox. The game stars Liu Kang
and Kung Lao
. It tells an alternate version of the events between the first and second Mortal Kombat tournaments.
, a techno album based on the first game was created by the Immortals in 1994. Its theme Techno Syndrome was adapted for the 1995 movie soundtrack, and incorporated the familiar Mortal Kombat yell first shown in the MK commercial for home systems. Each movie to follow would also have their own soundtracks. In addition, samples from the video games have occurred in music, most notably music by KMFDM
(also included in the movie soundtrack). The 2011 video game saw the release of Mortal Kombat: Songs Inspired By The Warriors
, a new soundtrack album featuring electronic music inspired by a different warrior.
Several comic books were based on Mortal Kombat. There were official MK and MKII comic books, the latter of which was created by Tobias, advertised in the attract mode
s on early versions of the first two MK games. 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. Two more comics were also made for Mortal Kombat 4 and the DC Universe crossover game.
Mortal Kombat was adapted into two major motion pictures, Mortal Kombat
(1995), and Mortal Kombat: Annihilation
(1997), both released by New Line Cinema
(eventual corporate sibling, and later label, of Mortal Kombat rights holder Warner Bros.). Neither film was screened for critics prior to theatrical release. The first movie was released on August 18, 1995 and grossed $23 million dollars on its first weekend. Mortal Kombat, despite mixed reviews from critics when it was first released, gained a huge cult following from fans of the series and became a financial success, eventually grossing $70 million in the U.S. (and over $122 million worldwide) while jump starting the Hollywood careers of Paul W. S. Anderson
and Robin Shou
, among others. That momentum did not carry over into Annihilation, however, which suffered from a poor reception by critics and fans alike, grossing only $36 million in the U.S. and $51 million worldwide, compared to the first movie's worldwide intake of $122 million. Even though it did not do as well as the first, Annihilation was not a failure or flop, but had much smaller profits.
Jeff Rovin penned a novelization of the first Mortal Kombat game, which was published in June 1995 in order to coincide with the release of the movie. An animated prequel to the first movie, titled Mortal Kombat: The Journey Begins, was released straight to home video in 1995.
The stage show Mortal Kombat: Live Tour
was also launched at the end of 1995. The tour expanded to 1996, and featured Mortal Kombat characters in a theatrical display on stage.
Brady Games produced a collectible card game
based on Mortal Kombat called Mortal Kombat Kard Game
in 1996. The 2005 CCG Epic Battles
also used some of the Mortal Kombat characters.
The franchise sparked two television series
, the 1996 animated series Mortal Kombat: Defenders of the Realm
and the 1998-1999 live-action Mortal Kombat: Konquest
. Neither series ran for more than one season (despite the popularity of Konquest) due to budget constraints.
In 2010, director Kevin Tancharoen
released an eight-minute Mortal Kombat film, choreographed by Larnell Stovall called Mortal Kombat: Rebirth
, showcasing Michael Jai White
as Jax, Jeri Ryan
as Sonya Blade, Matt Mullins
as Johnny Cage, Ian Anthony Dale
as Scorpion and Lateef Crowder
as Baraka. Ryan said later that the short was made as a proof of concept
for Tancharoen's pitch of a reboot movie franchise to Warner Brothers. Tancharoen later confirmed that while the short is entirely unofficial, it does feature the writing of Oren Uziel, who was rumored to be writing the screenplay for the third MK movie. Warner Premiere
then ordered a 10-episode web series based on the short titled Mortal Kombat: Legacy
. The first episode was released on YouTube
in April 2011, promoted by Machinima.com
. On September 29, 2011 New Line Cinema
and Warner Bros announced that Kevin Tancharoen has signed on to direct a new big-screen adaptation of Mortal Kombat from a screenplay written by Oren Uziel..
that consists of six surviving realms which, according to in-game backstories, were created by the Elder Gods. The Mortal Kombat: Deception manual described the six realms as: "Earthrealm, home to such legendary heroes as Liu Kang, Kung Lao, Sonya Blade, Johnny Cage, and Jax, and also under the protection of the Thunder God Raiden; Netherrealm, which fiery depths are inhospitable to but the most vile, a realm of demons and shadowy warriors; Outworld, a realm of constant strife and where Emperor Shao Kahn claims this realm as his own; Seido, The Realm of Order, whose inhabitants prize structure and order above all else; The Realm of Chaos, whose inhabitants do not abide by any rules whatsoever, where constant turmoil and change are worshipped here; and Edenia, which is known for its beauty, artistic expression, and longevity of its inhabitants." The Elder Gods decreed that the denizens of one realm could only conquer another realm by defeating the defending realm's greatest warriors in ten consecutive Mortal Kombat tournaments.
The first Mortal Kombat game
takes place in Earthrealm where seven different warriors with their own reasons for entering participated in the tournament with the eventual prize being the continued freedom of Earthrealm. Among the established warriors were Liu Kang
, Johnny Cage
, and Sonya Blade
With the help of the Thunder God Raiden
, the Earthrealm warriors were victorious and Liu Kang
becomes the new champion of Mortal Kombat. In Mortal Kombat II
, unable to deal with Shang Tsung
's failure, Outworld Emperor Shao Kahn
lures the Earthrealm warriors to the Outworld where the Earthrealm warriors eventually defeat Shao Kahn. By Mortal Kombat 3
, Shao Kahn revives Edenia's (now a part of his Outworld domain) former queen Sindel in Earthrealm, combining it with Outworld as well. He then attempts to invade Earthrealm but is ultimately defeated by the Earthrealm warriors again. After Kahn's defeat, Edenia was freed from Kahn's grasp and returned to a peaceful realm, ruled by Princess Kitana
. The following game, Mortal Kombat 4
, features the former elder god Shinnok attempting to conquer the realms and attempting to kill the thundergod Raiden. However, he is also defeated by the Earthrealm warriors.
In Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance
, the sorcerers Quan Chi and Shang Tsung join forces to conquer the realms and subsequently become the antagonists. By Mortal Kombat: Deception
, after several fights, the sorcerers emerge victorious having killed most of Earthrealms' warriors until Raiden steps forth to oppose them. The Dragon King Onaga, who had been freed by Reptile at the end of Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance, had deceived Shujinko, the protagonist of Mortal Kombat: Deception, into searching for six pieces of Kamidogu, the source of Onaga's power. Onaga then confronted the alliance of Raiden, Shang Tsung, and Quan Chi and thus obtained Quan Chi's amulet, the final piece of his power, becoming the antagonist. Only a few warriors remained to combat against the Dragon King and his forces. Shujinko eventually triumphed over the Dragon King and removed his threat to the Mortal Kombat universe.
In Mortal Kombat: Armageddon
the catastrophe known as Armageddon starts. Centuries before the first Mortal Kombat, Queen Delia foretold the realms would be destroyed in an event known as Armageddon. King Argus had his sons, Taven, the protagonist of the game, and Daegon, put into incubation who would one day be awakened to save the realms from Armageddon. In the end, however, because Blaze's design has been corrupted by Onaga's holy men, Taven's victory over Blaze does not destroy the combatants or strip them of their powers, instead increasing the powers of the fighters, potentially exacerbating the onset of Armageddon. As a result, Taven will make it his duty as a new god to delay Armageddon until a solution can be found.
In Mortal Kombat (2011), it is revealed that the battle between the warriors of the six realms culminated into only two survivors: Shao Kahn and Raiden. Badly beaten, Raiden had only one last move he could make to prevent Shao Kahn from claiming the power of Blaze. He sends visions of the entire course of the Mortal Kombat timeline to himself in the past right before the tenth Mortal Kombat tournament (first game). This transfer of information to his former self causes a rift in time causing the Armageddon timeline to be erased and a new "reboot" timeline to be introduced, with a new outcome of Mortal Kombat history to be written. But this story leads to even worse unforeseen events. It ends with many of the main game characters dying at the hands of Queen Sindel and eventually Raiden accidentally kills Liu Kang in a fit of rage. But eventually the Elder Gods aid Raiden in killing Shao Kahn and saving Earthrealm. But as the scene goes on it is later revealed that this was all a plan by Lord Shinnok and Quan Chi.
sold one million units, becoming the fastest-selling game in Midway's history. In a 2007 listing of the 52 most important games of all time by GamePro
, Mortal Kombat II
ranked as number 38 because it was, "Arguably the best Western fighting game to date, and certainly the title that defined Mortal Kombat as a brand, this game launched a thousand imitators en route to becoming one of the most famous -- and infamous -- video games ever made. Its technical and artistic mastery is only matched by its gushing gore." In article by Examiner.com
, the Mortal Kombat series was ranked number 2, second only to God of War III
, on the most beautiful deaths in gaming, stating, "You have to give the game that got the whole world interested in video games a mention. Besides featuring awesome death sequences, this was also the title that got the American government to take a stand against the gaming industry. Thanks to Mortal Kombat, we have the ESRB now to tell us if a game is safe for children, teens, or if only adults should play. Cheers to you, Mortal Kombat." In a ranking by CraveOnline
, Mortal Kombat was ranked one of the "Goriest, Bloodiest, Nastiest Video Games of all time" stating that it was responsible for three things,"1.Mainstream games would now follow MK’s lead and start including fountains of blood, gruesome executions and de-bonings like they were going out of style. 2.A rating scale would now be necessary for home console games going forward. 3.Nintendo would embarrass themselves with their... non-violent port and finally have to sack up and start making games for adults for once." However, it condescended on the series by stating, "Not too bad for a game in which the same two or three palette swapped ninjas do the same goddamn moves over and over to each other before one of them gets bored and rips the other one’s head off!" In another ranking by CraveOnline, it was ranked #2 of the "Top ten 2-D Fighters of all time".
In a GamePro.com
poll, as of November 2009, 21% of voters rated Mortal Kombat as their favorite fighting game series, ranking third behind Street Fighter
and Tekken. GameTrailers
ranked Mortal Kombat 9th in the Top Ten Fighting Games Franchises, while Mortal Kombat II was 5th in Top 10 Arcade Games. GameTrailers also ranked Mortal Kombat as the 7th bloodiest series of all time. The fatalities finishing moves were featured in ScrewAttack
's "Top 10 OMGWTF Moments" due to the competition it gave to other games including Street Fighter II and how it popularized the arcades. Guinness World Records awarded the Mortal Kombat series with seven world records in the Guinness World Records: Gamer's Edition 2008. These records include "Most Successful Fighting Game Franchise", "Biggest Fighting Game Series", and "Most Successful Video Game Spin-Off Soundtrack Album".
Mortal Kombats commercials have also received some criticism. In the 1993 hearings on violent video games, Senator Joseph Lieberman criticized Sega
for one of its TV commercials saying that the commercial promoted violence. The commercial, as described by Current Events, a Weekly Reader
publication, "The TV commercial shows a boy gaining the respect of his friends after winning Mortal Kombat. At the end of the commercial, the boy angrily knocks over a tray of cookies given to him by friends now frightened by the boy's fighting ability. The boy roars,'I said I wanted chocolate chip!' " As well as an ad for Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks
titled, "Blood on the Carpet" which was created by the London-based "Maverick Media" was, as quoted from The Register
, "... slammed by the Advertising Standards Authority
as condoning and glorifying violence." The commercial, as described by The Register, "It features a boardroom scene in which a Mr Linn, the mysterious trouble-shooter at a sales meeting, instructs two men to fight. Punches lead to a pen being stabbed into an arm; then a water jug is smashed over an executive's head – before his heart is ripped from his chest. Mr Linn concludes proceedings by decapitating another executive with his hat." The result of the complaint was, as quoted from the ASA report, "We told Midway not to repeat the approach and told them to consult CAP Copy Advice before producing future ads."
sued Midway Games
, Williams Electronics Games, Inc, Acclaim
, Nintendo
, and Sega
, alleging "that all defendants used his persona, name, and likeness without authorization in the home version of Mortal Kombat and Mortal Kombat II and the related products..." The conclusion of Daniel Pesina v. Midway Manufacturing Co. was that "alleged use of martial artist's name, likeness or persona in a martial arts video game did not violate his common-law right of publicity."
On May 28, 1997, Philip Ahn (Shang Tsung
), Elizabeth Malecki
(Sonya
), and Katalin Zamiar
(Kitana
, Mileena, Jade
) jointly sued Midway Games, Williams Electronics Games, Acclaim, Nintendo, and Sega, for using their likenesses in an unauthorized way. "[They sought] a constructive trust on all monies defendants received and continued to receive from their alleged breach of their duties to [the] plaintiffs." Ahn, Zamiar, and Melecki alleged "...that they were only modeling for the coin-operated video game, not the subsequent home video, home computer, and hand-held versions of the game." The conclusion of Philip Ahn v. Midway Manufacturing, et al. was "The plaintiffs lost on all counts because they had all consented to the videotaping and because the choreography and choice of movements used in the game were not jointly 'authored' by the individuals."
On November 22, 1997, 13-year-old Noah Wilson died when his friend Yancy stabbed him in the chest with a kitchen knife. The mother of Noah, Andrea Wilson, alleges that her son was stabbed to death because of his obsession with the Midway game Mortal Kombat. She alleges that Yancy S. was so obsessed with the game, that the child thought he was actually the character Cyrax. This character, Cyrax, used a finishing move
in which the character grabs the opponent in a headlock and stabs the character's opponent in the chest. Wilson alleges that this is the maneuver in which Yancy S., killed her son. However, despite the character's other varieties of finishing moves, the character Cyrax does not actually perform this move at all. The conclusion of Wilson v. Midway games, Inc. was, according to the court case report, "Wilson's complaint fails to state a claim upon which relief can be granted. The product liability counts fail because Mortal Kombat is not a "product" within the purview-of the CPLA [...]"
In 2006, attorney Jack Thompson ordered a cease and desist to Mortal Kombat: Armageddon stating, "It has today come to my attention that the newly recently Mortal Kombat: Armageddon contains an unauthorized commercial exploitation of my name, photograph, image, and likeness within the game." In fact, what Thompson thought was an actual character put by the developer into the game, was actually created by a player, who used the game's "kreate-a-fighter" mode to construct a likeness of Thompson and demonstrated it in a film on YouTube
. Thompson had the video successfully removed.
Science fantasy
Science fantasy is a mixed genre within speculative fiction drawing elements from both science fiction and fantasy. Although in some terms of its portrayal in recent media products it can be defined as instead of being a mixed genre of science fiction and fantasy it is instead a mixing of the...
series of fighting game
Fighting game
Fighting game is a video game genre where the player controls an on-screen character and engages in close combat with an opponent. These characters tend to be of equal power and fight matches consisting of several rounds, which take place in an arena. Players must master techniques such as...
s created by Ed Boon
Ed Boon
Edward J. Boon is an American video game programmer who had been employed for over 15 years at Midway. He now works for Warner Bros...
and John Tobias
John Tobias
John Tobias is an American comic book artist, graphic designer and video game designer. Along with Ed Boon he is one of the creators of the groundbreaking Mortal Kombat fighting game series....
. The first four renditions and their updates were developed by Midway Games
Midway Games
Midway Games, Inc. is an American company that was formerly a major video game publisher. Following a bankruptcy filing in 2009, it is no longer active and is in the process of liquidating all of its assets. Midway's titles included Mortal Kombat, Ms.Pac-Man, Spy Hunter, Tron, Rampage, the...
and initially released on arcade machines. The arcade titles were later picked up by Acclaim Entertainment
Acclaim Entertainment
Acclaim Entertainment was an American video game developer and publisher. It developed, published, marketed and distributed interactive entertainment software for a variety of hardware platforms, including Sega's Mega Drive/Genesis, Saturn, Dreamcast, and Game Gear, Nintendo's NES, SNES, Nintendo...
for the home console
Video game console
A video game console is an interactive entertainment computer or customized computer system that produces a video display signal which can be used with a display device to display a video game...
conversions. Beginning with Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance
Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance
Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance, originally known as Mortal Kombat V: Vengeance or simply Mortal Kombat 5, is a fighting game developed and published by Midway for the Xbox, PlayStation 2, Microsoft Windows, Nintendo GameCube, and Game Boy Advance...
, Midway Games exclusively created home versions of Mortal Kombat up until Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe
Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe
Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe is a crossover fighting game from Midway Games and Warner Bros. Games. The eighth game in the Mortal Kombat series, MK vs. DC was released on November 16, . MK vs. DC contains characters from both the Mortal Kombat franchise and the DC Universe...
. Following Midway's bankruptcy, the franchise was picked up by Warner Bros.
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...
in July 2009 and became a part of the Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment Branch.
The series began originally as a game based on the popular actor martial artist Jean-Claude Van Damme
Jean-Claude Van Damme
Jean-Claude Camille François Van Varenberg , professionally known as Jean-Claude Van Damme, is a Belgian martial artist and actor, best known for his martial arts action films, the most successful of which include Bloodsport , Kickboxer , Double Impact , Universal Soldier , Hard Target , Timecop ,...
. The idea fell through and Mortal Kombat
Mortal Kombat (video game)
Mortal Kombat is a 1992 fighting-game developed and published by Midway for arcades. In 1993, home versions were released by Acclaim Entertainment. Released in the Fall of 1994, the Microsoft Windows 3.1x version was released by Activision Interactive. It is the first title in the Mortal Kombat...
was born instead. As a result of its success, Mortal Kombat has spawned many sequels and has been spun off into several adventure games, films (animated and live-action
Mortal Kombat (film)
Mortal Kombat is a 1995 American action and adventure film directed by Paul Anderson. Based on the Mortal Kombat series of fighting games, the film was the first part of the Mortal Kombat film series...
with its own sequel
Mortal Kombat: Annihilation
Mortal Kombat: Annihilation is a 1997 American martial arts action film that was the sequel to 1995's Mortal Kombat, and was directed by John R. Leonetti, who had served as the cinematographer for the previous film...
), and television series (animated
Mortal Kombat: Defenders of the Realm
Mortal Kombat: Defenders of the Realm, also known as Mortal Kombat: The Animated Series, is a cartoon series based on the popular Mortal Kombat video game series...
and live-action
Mortal Kombat: Konquest
Mortal Kombat: Konquest is an American martial arts television series that aired for one season from 1998 to 1999, and was based on the popular Mortal Kombat fighting game series. The program was filmed at Disney's Hollywood Studios in Orlando, Florida.-Storyline:"In each of us there burns a soul...
). Other spin-offs include various comic book series, a card game
Mortal Kombat Kard Game
Mortal Kombat Kard Game is a collectible card game released in 1995 by BradyGames in cooperation with Midway Games. It is based on the Mortal Kombat video game series, it however did not contain excessive violence like its video game counterparts.-Game:...
and a live-action tour
Mortal Kombat: Live Tour
Mortal Kombat: Live Tour was a martial art theatrical stage show featuring Mortal Kombat characters, sound, and laser light effects on stage...
.
The original three games and their updates, Mortal Kombat
Mortal Kombat (video game)
Mortal Kombat is a 1992 fighting-game developed and published by Midway for arcades. In 1993, home versions were released by Acclaim Entertainment. Released in the Fall of 1994, the Microsoft Windows 3.1x version was released by Activision Interactive. It is the first title in the Mortal Kombat...
, Mortal Kombat II
Mortal Kombat II
Mortal Kombat II is a competitive fighting game originally produced by Midway Games for the arcades in . It is the second game in the Mortal Kombat series. Like its predecessor, various home versions were produced...
, Mortal Kombat 3
Mortal Kombat 3
Mortal Kombat 3 is a fighting game developed by Midway and released in 1995, first as an arcade game. It is the third game in the Mortal Kombat series...
, Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3
Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3
Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 is a fighting game in the Mortal Kombat series, released in arcades in 1995. It is an update of Mortal Kombat 3 and was later updated again into Mortal Kombat Trilogy...
, and Mortal Kombat Trilogy
Mortal Kombat Trilogy
Mortal Kombat Trilogy is a fighting game developed and published by Midway in 1996. It is a compilation of content from the previous Mortal Kombat titles, based primarily upon the gameplay mechanics of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3...
, were styled in a 2-D fighting fashion with gameplay consisting of five buttons that were high punch, low punch, high kick, low kick, and block. Reviewers have stated that because of this the characters are only differentiated by their special moves. In fact, some reviewers have criticized that the "bewildering array" of special moves in comparison to other fighting games has resulted in too little focus on regular moves.
The series is especially noted for its realistic digitized sprites
Sprite (computer graphics)
In computer graphics, a sprite is a two-dimensional image or animation that is integrated into a larger scene...
(which differentiated it from its contemporaries' hand-drawn sprites), and its high levels of bloody graphic violence
Graphic violence
Graphic violence is the depiction of especially vivid, brutal and realistic acts of violence in visual media such as literature, film, television, and video games...
, including, most notably, its Fatalities
Fatality (Mortal Kombat)
In the Mortal Kombat series of fighting games, a Fatality is a finishing move that can be used against one's defeated opponent at the end of the final match, after the boss character says "Finish Him/Her." The Fatalities are usually lethal, featuring a brutal and morbid execution of the defenseless...
—finishing moves, requiring a sequence of buttons to perform, which, in part, led to the creation of the ESRB
Entertainment Software Rating Board
The Entertainment Software Rating Board is a self-regulatory organization that assigns age and content ratings, enforces industry-adopted advertising guidelines, and ensures responsible online privacy principles for computer and video games as well as entertainment software in Canada, Mexico and...
. The series name itself is also known for using the letter "K" in place of "C"
Hard and soft C
In the Latin-based orthographies of many European languages , a distinction between hard and soft ⟨c⟩ occurs in which ⟨c⟩ represents two distinct phonemes...
for the hard C
Voiceless velar plosive
The voiceless velar stop or voiceless velar plosive is a type of consonantal sound used in many spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is k....
sound, thus intentionally misspelling
Sensational spelling
Sensational spelling is the deliberate spelling of a word in an incorrect or non-standard way for special effect.-Branding:Sensational spellings are common in advertising and product placement...
the word "combat," as well as other words with the hard C sound within later games in the series. Early games in the series were infamous for the prominent use of palette swapping to create new character sprites
Sprite (computer graphics)
In computer graphics, a sprite is a two-dimensional image or animation that is integrated into a larger scene...
.
Gameplay
The early Mortal Kombat characters played virtually identical to one another with the only major differences being special moves. According to Ed BoonEd Boon
Edward J. Boon is an American video game programmer who had been employed for over 15 years at Midway. He now works for Warner Bros...
, "[...] since the beginning, one of the things that's separated us from other fighting games is the crazy moves we've put in it, like fireballs and all the magic moves, so to speak." When asked if Street Fighter
Street Fighter
, commonly abbreviated as SF, is a series of Fighting Games developed in Japan in which the players pit the video games' competitive fighters from around the world, each with his or her own unique fighting style, against one another...
and Mortal Kombat would do a crossover, Street Fighter producer, Yoshinori Ono, called Mortal Kombat a very different game from Street Fighter. Capcom's senior director of communications compared Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat by asking if the interviewer preferred the "precision and depth" of Street Fighter or the "gore and comedy" of Mortal Kombat; he also stated that the Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat rivalry was considered similar to the Coke
Coca-Cola
Coca-Cola is a carbonated soft drink sold in stores, restaurants, and vending machines in more than 200 countries. It is produced by The Coca-Cola Company of Atlanta, Georgia, and is often referred to simply as Coke...
and Pepsi
Pepsi
Pepsi is a carbonated soft drink that is produced and manufactured by PepsiCo...
rivalry in the 1990s. Senior producer of Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe, Hans Lo, called Street Fighter a little more technical fighter in comparison to Mortal Kombat.
Midway would keep their single styled fighting moves with four attack buttons which were a different array of punches and kicks and block until they changed this in Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance by differentiating characters normal moves and even giving them multiple fighting styles. Beginning in Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance and until Mortal Kombat: Deception, the characters would have three fighting styles per character: two unarmed styles, and one weapon style. Few exceptions to this arose in Mortal Kombat: Armageddon, such as monster-like boss characters like Moloch
Moloch
Moloch — also rendered as Molech, Molekh, Molok, Molek, Molock, or Moloc — is the name of an ancient Semitic god...
and Onaga who would have only one fighting style. Most of the fighting styles featured are based on real martial arts
Martial arts
Martial arts are extensive systems of codified practices and traditions of combat, practiced for a variety of reasons, including self-defense, competition, physical health and fitness, as well as mental and spiritual development....
, though a few of them are not. Goro's fighting styles, for example, are designed to take advantage of the fact that he has four arms. For Mortal Kombat: Armageddon, fighting styles were reduced to a maximum of two per character (generally one hand-to-hand combat style and one weapon style) due to the sheer number of playable characters.
Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe dropped the multiple fighting style trend altogether in favor of giving each character a much wider variety of special moves, however some characters still had multiple fighting styles Baraka, utilizing the retractable blades in his arms (called the "Blade Stance"), and Deathstroke
Deathstroke
Deathstroke the Terminator , originally simply the Terminator, and known by the Teen Titans as Slade, is a fictional character, a supervillain and sometimes antihero in the DC Comics Universe. He is a mercenary and assassin who first appeared in The New Teen Titans #2...
who also possessed the ability to use another fighting style in the form of a sword (called the "Sword Stance").
Finishing moves
Mortal Kombat introduced 'Fatalities'-- finishing moves that allow players to end a match up by exterminating their opponent in a gruesome manner. It was developed in order to give gamers a free hit at the end of the fight. Finishing moves in later games included:- Friendship, in Mortal Kombat IIMortal Kombat IIMortal Kombat II is a competitive fighting game originally produced by Midway Games for the arcades in . It is the second game in the Mortal Kombat series. Like its predecessor, various home versions were produced...
, "[which] include[s] giving opponents a present or a bouquet of flowers, instead of killing them" - Animality, in Mortal Kombat 3Mortal Kombat 3Mortal Kombat 3 is a fighting game developed by Midway and released in 1995, first as an arcade game. It is the third game in the Mortal Kombat series...
: turning into an animal to violently finish off the opponent - Mercy, where the victor gives a little health to the opponent
- Brutality, in Mortal Kombat TrilogyMortal Kombat TrilogyMortal Kombat Trilogy is a fighting game developed and published by Midway in 1996. It is a compilation of content from the previous Mortal Kombat titles, based primarily upon the gameplay mechanics of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3...
: bashing an opponent into pieces with a long combination of hits (comboCombo (computer and video games)In video games, a combo is a term that designates a set of actions performed in sequence, usually with strict timing limitations, that yield a significant benefit or advantage. The 1st combo was done in the Street Fighter II series. The term originates from fighting games where it is based upon...
) - Babality, turning the opponent into a baby
- Deception added the Hara-Kiri (as described by GameSpotGameSpotGameSpot is a video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information. The site was launched in May 1, 1996 by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady and Jon Epstein. It was purchased by ZDNet, a brand which was later purchased by CNET Networks. CBS Interactive, which...
, "[...] the hara-kiri, or self-fatality. Basically, players who have lost a match have the ability to punch in a command to perform a self-fatality"), to allow the losers to engage in a suicideSuicideSuicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...
-based finishing move, creating a race between both players to see if the winning player can finish off the losing player before the losing player can kill himself.
The Friendship moves were made as a comical response to the attention the series gathered due to its violent content.
Graphics
Mortal Kombat (video game)
Mortal Kombat is a 1992 fighting-game developed and published by Midway for arcades. In 1993, home versions were released by Acclaim Entertainment. Released in the Fall of 1994, the Microsoft Windows 3.1x version was released by Activision Interactive. It is the first title in the Mortal Kombat...
was developed with digitized sprites based on actors, as opposed to animated cartoon graphics. Mortal Kombat 4
Mortal Kombat 4
Mortal Kombat 4 is the fourth main game in the Mortal Kombat series of fighting video games developed by Midway Games. Released to arcades in 1997, Mortal Kombat 4 is the first title from the series to use 3D computer graphics as well as one of the first games that Midway made in 3D. Eurocom later...
brought the series into 3D, replacing the digitized fighters of previous games with polygon models.
More so than other fighting games at the time, Mortal Kombat was famous for re-coloring certain sprites to appear as different characters. This was most prominent with the series' various ninja/assassin characters. Many of the more popular characters were spawned from these palette swap
Palette swap
A palette swap is a practice used in video games, whereby a graphic that is already used for one element is given a different palette, so it can be reused as other elements. The different palette gives the new graphic a unique set of colors, which make it recognizably distinct from the original...
s. In the very first game, Scorpion
Scorpion (Mortal Kombat)
Scorpion is a recurring player and boss character in the Mortal Kombat fighting game series. He has been a playable character in all the games, with the exception of the original version of Mortal Kombat 3.-In video games:...
, Sub-Zero
Sub-Zero (Mortal Kombat)
Sub-Zero is the name given to two video game characters from the Mortal Kombat series. The older Sub-Zero first appeared in the first Mortal Kombat game, being replaced by his younger brother in Mortal Kombat II and the subsequent games...
, and Reptile
Reptile (Mortal Kombat)
Reptile is a fictional character in the Mortal Kombat series of video games. Created for Midway Games by John Tobias and Ed Boon, Reptile debuted in Mortal Kombat as a hidden boss and appeared in subsequent titles as a playable character. The character has also appeared on various merchandise,...
were essentially the same character. The colors of their attire, fighting stance, and special techniques indicated the difference. Sub-Zero wore blue attire, Scorpion wore yellow, and Reptile wore green. Later games added other ninjas based on the same model, as well as several female ninja color swap characters initially also using just one base model (since Mortal Kombat II
Mortal Kombat II
Mortal Kombat II is a competitive fighting game originally produced by Midway Games for the arcades in . It is the second game in the Mortal Kombat series. Like its predecessor, various home versions were produced...
). All of them gradually became very different characters in the following installments of the series.
Development
Mortal Kombat started development in 1991 with only four people: Ed BoonEd Boon
Edward J. Boon is an American video game programmer who had been employed for over 15 years at Midway. He now works for Warner Bros...
, John Tobias
John Tobias
John Tobias is an American comic book artist, graphic designer and video game designer. Along with Ed Boon he is one of the creators of the groundbreaking Mortal Kombat fighting game series....
, John Vogel, and Dan Forden
Dan Forden
Daniel "Dan" Warner "Toasty" Forden is an American sound programmer and music composer, and was the lead programmer on several high-profile arcade and pinball games...
. As Ed Boon stated in an interview with Major Nelson "The first Mortal Kombat game was 4 guys, literally, one programmer, myself (Boon), two graphics guys (Tobias and Vogel), and a sound guy (Forden) was the entire team, literally" Originally, Boon and Tobias wanted to create a video game starring Jean-Claude Van Damme
Jean-Claude Van Damme
Jean-Claude Camille François Van Varenberg , professionally known as Jean-Claude Van Damme, is a Belgian martial artist and actor, best known for his martial arts action films, the most successful of which include Bloodsport , Kickboxer , Double Impact , Universal Soldier , Hard Target , Timecop ,...
, with a digitized version of the action star fighting villains. Ed Boon stated for six out of the eight months while they were in production of Mortal Kombat, "...nobody could come up with a name nobody didn't hate." Some of the names suggested were "Kumite
Kumite
Kumite means sparring, and is one of the three main sections of karate training, along with kata and kihon. Kumite is the part of karate in which you train against an adversary, using the techniques learned from the kihon and kata....
", "Dragon Attack", "Death Blow", and even at one point, "Fatality". Someone had written down "combat" on the drawing board for the names in Ed Boon's office and someone wrote a K over the C, according to Ed Boon, "...just to be kind of weird..." Steve Ritchie, a pinball
Pinball
Pinball is a type of arcade game, usually coin-operated, where a player attempts to score points by manipulating one or more metal balls on a playfield inside a glass-covered case called a pinball machine. The primary objective of the game is to score as many points as possible...
designer at that time, was sitting in Ed Boon's office and saw the word "Kombat" and said to Ed Boon,
Hard and soft C
In the Latin-based orthographies of many European languages , a distinction between hard and soft ⟨c⟩ occurs in which ⟨c⟩ represents two distinct phonemes...
for words containing the hard C
Voiceless velar plosive
The voiceless velar stop or voiceless velar plosive is a type of consonantal sound used in many spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is k....
sound, thus misspelling them. According to Ed Boon, during game development they usually spell the words correctly and change them later when the developers recognize an opportunity.
The team switched from digitized actors to motion capture technology (the quote is incorrectly referring to Midway as Acclaim): "To make the characters in video games more realistic, actors are being recruited to serve as models. Acclaim, the video-game company that made Mortal Kombat, has created a special
Texture mapping
Texture mapping is a method for adding detail, surface texture , or color to a computer-generated graphic or 3D model. Its application to 3D graphics was pioneered by Dr Edwin Catmull in his Ph.D. thesis of 1974.-Texture mapping:...
."
Easter eggs and secrets
Mortal Kombat included secret characterSecret character
A secret character can be a player character or a non-player character in a video game that must be unlocked by completing a goal within the game...
s, secret games, and other Easter eggs
Easter egg (media)
Image:Carl Oswald Rostosky - Zwei Kaninchen und ein Igel 1861.jpg|250px|thumb|right|Example of Easter egg hidden within imagerect 467 383 539 434 desc none...
. Mortal Kombat 3, for example, included a hidden game of Galaga
Galaga
is a fixed shooter arcade game developed and published by Namco in Japan and published by Midway in North America in 1981. It is the sequel to Galaxian, released in 1979. The gameplay of Galaga puts the player in control of a space ship which is situated on the bottom of the screen...
as well as a hidden game of Pong
Pong
Pong is one of the earliest arcade video games, and is a tennis sports game featuring simple two-dimensional graphics. While other arcade video games such as Computer Space came before it, Pong was one of the first video games to reach mainstream popularity...
in Mortal Kombat II. Many extras in the series have only been accessible through very challenging, demanding, and sometimes coincidental requirements. The Sega Mega Drive/Genesis versions had some unique eggs: in Mortal Kombat, a head shot of the President of Probe Software, Fergus McGovern, flew in front of the moon in the Pit stage, while in Mortal Kombat II, Raiden could perform a "Fergality" on the Armory stage. The Sega Mega CD version also contained an additional code (known as the "Dad's Code"), which changed the names of the fighters to that of characters from the classic BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
comedy series Dad's Army
Dad's Army
Dad's Army is a British sitcom about the Home Guard during the Second World War. It was written by Jimmy Perry and David Croft and broadcast on BBC television between 1968 and 1977. The series ran for 9 series and 80 episodes in total, plus a radio series, a feature film and a stage show...
. In the 1992 arcade original
Mortal Kombat (video game)
Mortal Kombat is a 1992 fighting-game developed and published by Midway for arcades. In 1993, home versions were released by Acclaim Entertainment. Released in the Fall of 1994, the Microsoft Windows 3.1x version was released by Activision Interactive. It is the first title in the Mortal Kombat...
when fighting on The Pit stage, the player can qualify for a fight at the bottom of The Pit with the hidden character Reptile
Reptile (Mortal Kombat)
Reptile is a fictional character in the Mortal Kombat series of video games. Created for Midway Games by John Tobias and Ed Boon, Reptile debuted in Mortal Kombat as a hidden boss and appeared in subsequent titles as a playable character. The character has also appeared on various merchandise,...
, who has the powers of Scorpion and Sub-Zero.
Some Easter eggs originated from in-joke
In-joke
An in-joke, also known as an inside joke or in joke, is a joke whose humour is clear only to people who are in a particular social group, occupation, or other community of common understanding...
s between members of the development team. One example is "Toasty", which found its way into the game in the form of a small image of sound designer Dan Forden
Dan Forden
Daniel "Dan" Warner "Toasty" Forden is an American sound programmer and music composer, and was the lead programmer on several high-profile arcade and pinball games...
, who would appear in the corner of the screen during gameplay (after performing an uppercut) and yell the word "Toasty". This egg was also the key to unlocking the hidden character Smoke when it happened in the Portal stage. Another note of interest is in Mortal Kombat 4, Forden would say "Toasty! 3D!" after Scorpion did his burn fatality, a reference to the fact that it is the first 3D game of the series. "Toasty" is also found in Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks, appearing randomly after the character pulls off a chain of hits, though the picture of Forden was removed for that version. Yet another private joke was the hidden character "Noob Saibot
Noob Saibot
Noob Saibot is a video game character from the Mortal Kombat fighting game series. He debuted as a hidden character in Mortal Kombat II , although the later game Mortal Kombat: Deception established his true identity as that of the original Sub-Zero, who was killed by his nemesis Scorpion after...
", who appeared in various versions of the game. The character's name derived from two of the series' creators' surnames, Ed Boon
Ed Boon
Edward J. Boon is an American video game programmer who had been employed for over 15 years at Midway. He now works for Warner Bros...
and John Tobias
John Tobias
John Tobias is an American comic book artist, graphic designer and video game designer. Along with Ed Boon he is one of the creators of the groundbreaking Mortal Kombat fighting game series....
, spelled backward. In addition, the character Ermac's name came from the first Mortal Kombat, which had "ERMAC5" (Error Macro 5) on its diagnostics screen; players presumed this dealt with some secret character. The development team decided to turn this rumor into an actual character, who was introduced in Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. The character Mokap is based upon Carlos Pesina
Carlos Pesina
Carlos Pesina is a skilled martial artist and employee of NetherRealm Studios. He is most recognized as the actor who played Raiden in Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat II, and Mortal Kombat Trilogy...
who leads the motion capture team for modern MK games (and previously played Raiden in the first and second games).
Video games
Mortal KombatMortal Kombat (video game)
Mortal Kombat is a 1992 fighting-game developed and published by Midway for arcades. In 1993, home versions were released by Acclaim Entertainment. Released in the Fall of 1994, the Microsoft Windows 3.1x version was released by Activision Interactive. It is the first title in the Mortal Kombat...
title was released for Arcade
Arcade game
An arcade game is a coin-operated entertainment machine, usually installed in public businesses such as restaurants, bars, and amusement arcades. Most arcade games are video games, pinball machines, electro-mechanical games, redemption games, and merchandisers...
during October 1992, having since been ported to over ten consoles. The sequel, Mortal Kombat II
Mortal Kombat II
Mortal Kombat II is a competitive fighting game originally produced by Midway Games for the arcades in . It is the second game in the Mortal Kombat series. Like its predecessor, various home versions were produced...
was released for arcades in 1993, featuring an increased roster and improved graphics; it was rereleased in 2007 for the PlayStation 3
PlayStation 3
The is the third home video game console produced by Sony Computer Entertainment and the successor to the PlayStation 2 as part of the PlayStation series. The PlayStation 3 competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...
. Mortal Kombat 3
Mortal Kombat 3
Mortal Kombat 3 is a fighting game developed by Midway and released in 1995, first as an arcade game. It is the third game in the Mortal Kombat series...
followed in 1995 in both arcade and console versions, later getting two updates which expanded the number of characters and other features from the game: Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3
Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3
Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 is a fighting game in the Mortal Kombat series, released in arcades in 1995. It is an update of Mortal Kombat 3 and was later updated again into Mortal Kombat Trilogy...
, published in the same year, and Mortal Kombat Trilogy
Mortal Kombat Trilogy
Mortal Kombat Trilogy is a fighting game developed and published by Midway in 1996. It is a compilation of content from the previous Mortal Kombat titles, based primarily upon the gameplay mechanics of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3...
the next one. The following game, Mortal Kombat 4
Mortal Kombat 4
Mortal Kombat 4 is the fourth main game in the Mortal Kombat series of fighting video games developed by Midway Games. Released to arcades in 1997, Mortal Kombat 4 is the first title from the series to use 3D computer graphics as well as one of the first games that Midway made in 3D. Eurocom later...
, was released in 1997, and ported to the PlayStation
PlayStation
The is a 32-bit fifth-generation video game console first released by Sony Computer Entertainment in Japan on December 3, .The PlayStation was the first of the PlayStation series of consoles and handheld game devices. The PlayStation 2 was the console's successor in 2000...
, Nintendo 64
Nintendo 64
The , often referred to as N64, was Nintendo′s third home video game console for the international market. Named for its 64-bit CPU, it was released in June 1996 in Japan, September 1996 in North America, March 1997 in Europe and Australia, September 1997 in France and December 1997 in Brazil...
and PC
Personal computer
A personal computer is any general-purpose computer whose size, capabilities, and original sales price make it useful for individuals, and which is intended to be operated directly by an end-user with no intervening computer operator...
, while an update named Mortal Kombat Gold was released exclusively for the Dreamcast in 1999.
While to this point, Mortal Kombat games were only titled with their installment number, starting with Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance
Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance
Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance, originally known as Mortal Kombat V: Vengeance or simply Mortal Kombat 5, is a fighting game developed and published by Midway for the Xbox, PlayStation 2, Microsoft Windows, Nintendo GameCube, and Game Boy Advance...
, the series' naming scheme changed to favor the use of sub-titles instead of the previously usual numbering. It was also at this point that the series started being targeted at consoles only, with Mortal Kombat 4 being the last Mortal Kombat game to ever be released for the arcades and PC. Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance was thus released in 2002 for the Xbox
Xbox
The Xbox is a sixth-generation video game console manufactured by Microsoft. It was released on November 15, 2001 in North America, February 22, 2002 in Japan, and March 14, 2002 in Australia and Europe and is the predecessor to the Xbox 360. It was Microsoft's first foray into the gaming console...
, PlayStation 2
PlayStation 2
The PlayStation 2 is a sixth-generation video game console manufactured by Sony as part of the PlayStation series. Its development was announced in March 1999 and it was first released on March 4, 2000, in Japan...
(PS2), and GameCube
Nintendo GameCube
The , officially abbreviated to NGC in Japan and GCN in other regions, is a sixth generation video game console released by Nintendo on September 15, 2001 in Japan, November 18, 2001 in North America, May 3, 2002 in Europe, and May 17, 2002 in Australia...
. Two ports for the Game Boy Advance
Game Boy Advance
The is a 32-bit handheld video game console developed, manufactured, and marketed by Nintendo. It is the successor to the Game Boy Color. It was released in Japan on March 21, 2001; in North America on June 11, 2001; in Australia and Europe on June 22, 2001; and in the People's Republic of China...
were also released under the name of Mortal Kombat: Tournament Edition and another port called Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance during 2003. The sequel from Deadly Alliance is Mortal Kombat: Deception
Mortal Kombat: Deception
Mortal Kombat: Deception is a fighting game developed and published by Midway as the sixth installment for the Mortal Kombat series. It was released for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox in October 2004, while a Nintendo GameCube version was published in March 2005. Mortal Kombat: Deception follows the...
developed in 2004 for the PS2, Xbox and GameCube. A port for the PlayStation Portable
PlayStation Portable
The is a handheld game console manufactured and marketed by Sony Corporation Development of the console was announced during E3 2003, and it was unveiled on , 2004, at a Sony press conference before E3 2004...
, Mortal Kombat: Unchained, was released in 2006 by Just Games Interactive
Just Games Interactive
Just Games Interactive is an American video game developer located in Los Angeles, California in the United States. The company was founded in 2006 by the developers at Midway Games. The company is currently owned by Midway Games.-Games:...
. Mortal Kombat: Armageddon
Mortal Kombat: Armageddon
Mortal Kombat: Armageddon is the seventh game in the Mortal Kombat fighting game series. The PlayStation 2 version was released in stores on October 11, 2006 while the Xbox version was released on the October 16, with a Wii version released on May 29, 2007 in North America.The game was not released...
was published in the same year for the PS2, Xbox, and in 2007 on the Wii
Wii
The Wii is a home video game console released by Nintendo on November 19, 2006. As a seventh-generation console, the Wii primarily competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3. Nintendo states that its console targets a broader demographic than that of the two others...
. On September 29, 2008, Midway released the Mortal Kombat Kollection, an anthology of the 3 most recent titles to the main franchise: Mortal Kombat: Deception, Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks, and Mortal Kombat: Armageddon. The eighth MK fighting game is Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe
Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe
Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe is a crossover fighting game from Midway Games and Warner Bros. Games. The eighth game in the Mortal Kombat series, MK vs. DC was released on November 16, . MK vs. DC contains characters from both the Mortal Kombat franchise and the DC Universe...
, a crossover between the MK franchise and DC Universe
DC Universe
The DC Universe is the shared universe where most of the comic stories published by DC Comics take place. The fictional characters Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman are well-known superheroes from this universe. Note that in context, "DC Universe" is usually used to refer to the main DC continuity...
released in 2008 for the PlayStation 3
PlayStation 3
The is the third home video game console produced by Sony Computer Entertainment and the successor to the PlayStation 2 as part of the PlayStation series. The PlayStation 3 competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...
and Xbox 360
Xbox 360
The Xbox 360 is the second video game console produced by Microsoft and the successor to the Xbox. The Xbox 360 competes with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...
.
A ninth main game in the series, a reboot known as simply Mortal Kombat was released on April 19, 2011 by Warner Bros. Games' Chicago studio, formerly Midway Games
Midway Games
Midway Games, Inc. is an American company that was formerly a major video game publisher. Following a bankruptcy filing in 2009, it is no longer active and is in the process of liquidating all of its assets. Midway's titles included Mortal Kombat, Ms.Pac-Man, Spy Hunter, Tron, Rampage, the...
Chicago, now known as NetherRealm Studios.
Besides the fighting games, there are three action titles that work as spin-offs from the MK storyline. Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero
Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero
Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero is a 1997 action-adventure game spin-off of the fighting game series Mortal Kombat. It is the first Mortal Kombat game to feature side-scrolling gameplay. It was released for the PlayStation and Nintendo 64...
was released in 1997 for the PlayStation and Nintendo 64. The story is focused on the first incarnation character of Sub-Zero
Sub-Zero (Mortal Kombat)
Sub-Zero is the name given to two video game characters from the Mortal Kombat series. The older Sub-Zero first appeared in the first Mortal Kombat game, being replaced by his younger brother in Mortal Kombat II and the subsequent games...
and is focused in the timeline of before the first Mortal Kombat game. The next action game is Mortal Kombat: Special Forces
Mortal Kombat: Special Forces
Mortal Kombat: Special Forces is a 3D action game for the PlayStation. It was released in North America on July 30, 2000, and in Europe on September 29, 2000...
released in 2000 for the PlayStation. It is an action game
Action game
Action game is a video game genre that emphasizes physical challenges, including hand–eye coordination and reaction-time. The genre includes diverse subgenres such as fighting games, shooter games, and platform games, which are widely considered the most important action games, though some...
starring Major Jackson Briggs in his mission to destroy the Black Dragon. Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks
Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks
Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks is an action/beat-em-up video game based on the Mortal Kombat series of fighting games. Shaolin Monks was developed by Midway LA and published by Midway for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox...
was released in 2005 for the PS2 and the Xbox. The game stars Liu Kang
Liu Kang
Liu Kang is a video game character in the Mortal Kombat fighting game series. First appearing in the series' first title, Liu Kang is portrayed as a Shaolin monk who enters the Mortal Kombat tournament to save his world, Earthrealm, from being destroyed due to having lost nine consecutive...
and Kung Lao
Kung Lao
Kung Lao is a player character in the Mortal Kombat fighting game series.Kung Lao is a former Shaolin monk and a former member of the White Lotus Society. He stands in the shadow of his great ancestor, the Great Kung Lao, but unlike his great ancestor he has no desire to be champion and would...
. It tells an alternate version of the events between the first and second Mortal Kombat tournaments.
Other media
Mortal Kombat: The AlbumMortal Kombat: The Album
Mortal Kombat: The Album is an album by The Immortals , released in 1994 to accompany the home versions of the video game Mortal Kombat.-Album information:The album featured a techno song for each of the 7 playable characters, as well as Goro, along with two...
, a techno album based on the first game was created by the Immortals in 1994. Its theme Techno Syndrome was adapted for the 1995 movie soundtrack, and incorporated the familiar Mortal Kombat yell first shown in the MK commercial for home systems. Each movie to follow would also have their own soundtracks. In addition, samples from the video games have occurred in music, most notably music by KMFDM
KMFDM
KMFDM is an industrial band led by German multi-instrumentalist Sascha Konietzko, who founded the group in 1984 as a performance art project...
(also included in the movie soundtrack). The 2011 video game saw the release of Mortal Kombat: Songs Inspired By The Warriors
Mortal Kombat: Songs Inspired By The Warriors
Mortal Kombat: Songs Inspired By The Warriors is a compilation album featuring songs inspired by the iconic warriors from the Mortal Kombat game series. The soundtrack coincides with the release of the latest installment in the video game series, Mortal Kombat...
, a new soundtrack album featuring electronic music inspired by a different warrior.
Several comic books were based on Mortal Kombat. There were official MK and MKII comic books, the latter of which was created by Tobias, advertised in the attract mode
Attract mode
Attract mode is an arcade game's screen display shown when no one is playing the game. The main purpose of the attract mode is to attract passers-by to play the game, although it might also have the side effect to act like a screensaver.-Summary:...
s on early versions of the first two MK games. In 1994, Malibu Comics
Malibu Comics
Malibu Comics was an American comic book publisher active in the late 1980s and early 1990s, best known for its Ultraverse line of superhero titles. The company's headquarters was in Calabasas, California. Malibu imprints included Aircel Comics and Eternity 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. Two more comics were also made for Mortal Kombat 4 and the DC Universe crossover game.
Mortal Kombat was adapted into two major motion pictures, Mortal Kombat
Mortal Kombat (film)
Mortal Kombat is a 1995 American action and adventure film directed by Paul Anderson. Based on the Mortal Kombat series of fighting games, the film was the first part of the Mortal Kombat film series...
(1995), and Mortal Kombat: Annihilation
Mortal Kombat: Annihilation
Mortal Kombat: Annihilation is a 1997 American martial arts action film that was the sequel to 1995's Mortal Kombat, and was directed by John R. Leonetti, who had served as the cinematographer for the previous film...
(1997), both released by New Line Cinema
New Line Cinema
New Line Cinema, often simply referred to as New Line, is an American film studio. It was founded in 1967 by Robert Shaye and Michael Lynne as a film distributor, later becoming an independent film studio. It became a subsidiary of Time Warner in 1996 and was merged with larger sister studio Warner...
(eventual corporate sibling, and later label, of Mortal Kombat rights holder Warner Bros.). Neither film was screened for critics prior to theatrical release. The first movie was released on August 18, 1995 and grossed $23 million dollars on its first weekend. Mortal Kombat, despite mixed reviews from critics when it was first released, gained a huge cult following from fans of the series and became a financial success, eventually grossing $70 million in the U.S. (and over $122 million worldwide) while jump starting the Hollywood careers of Paul W. S. Anderson
Paul W. S. Anderson
Paul William Scott Anderson , also known as Paul W. S. Anderson or Paul Anderson, is an English film director who regularly works in science fiction movies and video game adaptations.-Life and career:...
and Robin Shou
Robin Shou
Shou Wan Por , known professionally as Robin Shou, is a Hong Kong martial artist and actor. Frequently appearing in numerous martial arts films, Shou was most successful for playing the role of Liu Kang in Mortal Kombat & Gobei with the late Chris Farley in Beverly Hills Ninja.-Career:Shou's first...
, among others. That momentum did not carry over into Annihilation, however, which suffered from a poor reception by critics and fans alike, grossing only $36 million in the U.S. and $51 million worldwide, compared to the first movie's worldwide intake of $122 million. Even though it did not do as well as the first, Annihilation was not a failure or flop, but had much smaller profits.
Jeff Rovin penned a novelization of the first Mortal Kombat game, which was published in June 1995 in order to coincide with the release of the movie. An animated prequel to the first movie, titled Mortal Kombat: The Journey Begins, was released straight to home video in 1995.
The stage show Mortal Kombat: Live Tour
Mortal Kombat: Live Tour
Mortal Kombat: Live Tour was a martial art theatrical stage show featuring Mortal Kombat characters, sound, and laser light effects on stage...
was also launched at the end of 1995. The tour expanded to 1996, and featured Mortal Kombat characters in a theatrical display on stage.
Brady Games produced a collectible card game
Collectible card game
thumb|Players and their decksA collectible card game , also called a trading card game or customizable card game, is a game played using specially designed sets of playing cards...
based on Mortal Kombat called Mortal Kombat Kard Game
Mortal Kombat Kard Game
Mortal Kombat Kard Game is a collectible card game released in 1995 by BradyGames in cooperation with Midway Games. It is based on the Mortal Kombat video game series, it however did not contain excessive violence like its video game counterparts.-Game:...
in 1996. The 2005 CCG Epic Battles
Epic Battles
Epic Battles is a collectible card game by Score Entertainment released in September 2005. Gameplay attempts to emulate a traditional fighting game experience and features characters and attacks from several different franchises....
also used some of the Mortal Kombat characters.
The franchise sparked two television series
Television program
A television program , also called television show, is a segment of content which is intended to be broadcast on television. It may be a one-time production or part of a periodically recurring series...
, the 1996 animated series Mortal Kombat: Defenders of the Realm
Mortal Kombat: Defenders of the Realm
Mortal Kombat: Defenders of the Realm, also known as Mortal Kombat: The Animated Series, is a cartoon series based on the popular Mortal Kombat video game series...
and the 1998-1999 live-action Mortal Kombat: Konquest
Mortal Kombat: Konquest
Mortal Kombat: Konquest is an American martial arts television series that aired for one season from 1998 to 1999, and was based on the popular Mortal Kombat fighting game series. The program was filmed at Disney's Hollywood Studios in Orlando, Florida.-Storyline:"In each of us there burns a soul...
. Neither series ran for more than one season (despite the popularity of Konquest) due to budget constraints.
In 2010, director Kevin Tancharoen
Kevin Tancharoen
Kevin Harwick Tancharoen is an American dancer, choreographer, television producer and film director. On September 29, 2011 New Line/Warner Bros have announced that Kevin Tancharoen, will helm a big-screen adaptation of Mortal Kombat to be released sometime in 2013.-Life and career:Tancharoen was...
released an eight-minute Mortal Kombat film, choreographed by Larnell Stovall called Mortal Kombat: Rebirth
Mortal Kombat: Rebirth
Mortal Kombat: Rebirth is a 2010 action short film directed by Kevin Tancharoen with fight choreography by Larnell Stovall who also choreographed Undisputed III: Redemption. Based on the Mortal Kombat series of fighting games, the short-film "actually was made by the director to sell Warner Bros...
, showcasing Michael Jai White
Michael Jai White
Michael Jai White is an American actor and martial artist who has appeared in numerous films and television series. He is the first African American to portray a major comic book superhero in a major motion picture, having starred as Al Simmons, the protagonist in the 1997 film Spawn...
as Jax, Jeri Ryan
Jeri Ryan
Jeri Lynn Zimmermann Ryan is an American actress best known for her roles as the liberated Borg, Seven of Nine, on Star Trek: Voyager; Tara Cole on Leverage; and Veronica "Ronnie" Cooke on Boston Public. She was also a regular on the science fiction show Dark Skies and the legal drama series...
as Sonya Blade, Matt Mullins
Matt Mullins
Matthew "Matt" Mullins is a 5-time martial arts world champion. At the age of 16 in 1997 he had won his first WKA title in Dublin, Ireland, this would be his first of 5 championships in the next 3 years in his career...
as Johnny Cage, Ian Anthony Dale
Ian Anthony Dale
Ian Anthony Dale is an American actor.Born in Saint Paul, Minnesota, he attended school in Madison, Wisconsin. He is of Japanese, French and English descent. Dale currently stars as Simon Lee on The Event, and was previously known for playing Davis Lee on Surface and his recurring role on Charmed...
as Scorpion and Lateef Crowder
Lateef Crowder
Lateef Crowder Dos Santos is a Brazilian-born American actor, stunt performer, and martial artist. As a member of the ZeroGravity stunt team since 2000, he has been featured in multiple internet short videos and demo reels, such as Inmate 451. He's a 26-year experienced practitioner in the art of...
as Baraka. Ryan said later that the short was made as a proof of concept
Proof of concept
A proof of concept or a proof of principle is a realization of a certain method or idea to demonstrate its feasibility, or a demonstration in principle, whose purpose is to verify that some concept or theory that has the potential of being used...
for Tancharoen's pitch of a reboot movie franchise to Warner Brothers. Tancharoen later confirmed that while the short is entirely unofficial, it does feature the writing of Oren Uziel, who was rumored to be writing the screenplay for the third MK movie. Warner Premiere
Warner Premiere
Warner Premiere is the direct-to-video label of Warner Home Video, itself the home video unit of Warner Bros.In 2006, Warner Home Video announced they would enter the market of releasing original direct-to-video films, a market that has proven lucrative for studios over the past few years...
then ordered a 10-episode web series based on the short titled Mortal Kombat: Legacy
Mortal Kombat: Legacy
Mortal Kombat: Legacy is an American web series anthology that debuted on Machinima.com's YouTube channel on April 11, 2011. The show is an adaptation of the fictional universe of the Mortal Kombat video game franchise...
. The first episode was released on YouTube
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
in April 2011, promoted by Machinima.com
Machinima.com
Machinima.com is a gaming and media streaming website, that aims to be a hub for machinima, the art of creating animated videos in real-time virtual 3-D environments. The site features machinima-related articles, and news. Machinima productions can be submitted for possible redistribution after...
. On September 29, 2011 New Line Cinema
New Line Cinema
New Line Cinema, often simply referred to as New Line, is an American film studio. It was founded in 1967 by Robert Shaye and Michael Lynne as a film distributor, later becoming an independent film studio. It became a subsidiary of Time Warner in 1996 and was merged with larger sister studio Warner...
and Warner Bros announced that Kevin Tancharoen has signed on to direct a new big-screen adaptation of Mortal Kombat from a screenplay written by Oren Uziel..
Storyline
The series takes place in a fictional universeFictional universe
A fictional universe is a self-consistent fictional setting with elements that differ from the real world. It may also be called an imagined, constructed or fictional realm ....
that consists of six surviving realms which, according to in-game backstories, were created by the Elder Gods. The Mortal Kombat: Deception manual described the six realms as: "Earthrealm, home to such legendary heroes as Liu Kang, Kung Lao, Sonya Blade, Johnny Cage, and Jax, and also under the protection of the Thunder God Raiden; Netherrealm, which fiery depths are inhospitable to but the most vile, a realm of demons and shadowy warriors; Outworld, a realm of constant strife and where Emperor Shao Kahn claims this realm as his own; Seido, The Realm of Order, whose inhabitants prize structure and order above all else; The Realm of Chaos, whose inhabitants do not abide by any rules whatsoever, where constant turmoil and change are worshipped here; and Edenia, which is known for its beauty, artistic expression, and longevity of its inhabitants." The Elder Gods decreed that the denizens of one realm could only conquer another realm by defeating the defending realm's greatest warriors in ten consecutive Mortal Kombat tournaments.
The first Mortal Kombat game
Mortal Kombat (video game)
Mortal Kombat is a 1992 fighting-game developed and published by Midway for arcades. In 1993, home versions were released by Acclaim Entertainment. Released in the Fall of 1994, the Microsoft Windows 3.1x version was released by Activision Interactive. It is the first title in the Mortal Kombat...
takes place in Earthrealm where seven different warriors with their own reasons for entering participated in the tournament with the eventual prize being the continued freedom of Earthrealm. Among the established warriors were Liu Kang
Liu Kang
Liu Kang is a video game character in the Mortal Kombat fighting game series. First appearing in the series' first title, Liu Kang is portrayed as a Shaolin monk who enters the Mortal Kombat tournament to save his world, Earthrealm, from being destroyed due to having lost nine consecutive...
, Johnny Cage
Johnny Cage
Johnny Cage, whose real name is John Carlton, is a video game character from the Mortal Kombat fighting game series. Cage is portrayed as a film actor who enters the game's tournament, and provides the comic relief of the franchise....
, and Sonya Blade
Sonya Blade
Sonya Blade is a player character from the Mortal Kombat series. She is portrayed in the games as an officer of the United States Special Forces.-In video games:...
With the help of the Thunder God Raiden
Raiden (Mortal Kombat)
Raiden is a player character in the Mortal Kombat fighting game series. Raiden, also known as Lord Raiden, is a thunder god of the Mortal Kombat universe and protector of Earthrealm. He commands many supernatural abilities such as the ability to teleport, control over lightning, and flight...
, the Earthrealm warriors were victorious and Liu Kang
Liu Kang
Liu Kang is a video game character in the Mortal Kombat fighting game series. First appearing in the series' first title, Liu Kang is portrayed as a Shaolin monk who enters the Mortal Kombat tournament to save his world, Earthrealm, from being destroyed due to having lost nine consecutive...
becomes the new champion of Mortal Kombat. In Mortal Kombat II
Mortal Kombat II
Mortal Kombat II is a competitive fighting game originally produced by Midway Games for the arcades in . It is the second game in the Mortal Kombat series. Like its predecessor, various home versions were produced...
, unable to deal with Shang Tsung
Shang Tsung
Shang Tsung is a boss and player character in the Mortal Kombat fighting game series. A powerful and deadly sorcerer and a primary antagonist in the Mortal Kombat series, Shang Tsung is a shapeshifter who absorbs the souls of those he slays in order to maintain his youth and power...
's failure, Outworld Emperor Shao Kahn
Shao Kahn
Shao Kahn is a boss, announcer and recurring playable character from the Mortal Kombat fighting game series. The main antagonist in the Mortal Kombat series, Shao Kahn is the Emperor of Outworld known for his godlike strength, extreme brutality and knowledge of black magic...
lures the Earthrealm warriors to the Outworld where the Earthrealm warriors eventually defeat Shao Kahn. By Mortal Kombat 3
Mortal Kombat 3
Mortal Kombat 3 is a fighting game developed by Midway and released in 1995, first as an arcade game. It is the third game in the Mortal Kombat series...
, Shao Kahn revives Edenia's (now a part of his Outworld domain) former queen Sindel in Earthrealm, combining it with Outworld as well. He then attempts to invade Earthrealm but is ultimately defeated by the Earthrealm warriors again. After Kahn's defeat, Edenia was freed from Kahn's grasp and returned to a peaceful realm, ruled by Princess Kitana
Kitana (Mortal Kombat)
Kitana is a recurring player and a one-time boss character in the Mortal Kombat fighting game series. One of the lead characters of the Mortal Kombat saga, Kitana is the princess of the otherdimensional realm of Edenia and the daughter of Queen Sindel...
. The following game, Mortal Kombat 4
Mortal Kombat 4
Mortal Kombat 4 is the fourth main game in the Mortal Kombat series of fighting video games developed by Midway Games. Released to arcades in 1997, Mortal Kombat 4 is the first title from the series to use 3D computer graphics as well as one of the first games that Midway made in 3D. Eurocom later...
, features the former elder god Shinnok attempting to conquer the realms and attempting to kill the thundergod Raiden. However, he is also defeated by the Earthrealm warriors.
In Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance
Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance
Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance, originally known as Mortal Kombat V: Vengeance or simply Mortal Kombat 5, is a fighting game developed and published by Midway for the Xbox, PlayStation 2, Microsoft Windows, Nintendo GameCube, and Game Boy Advance...
, the sorcerers Quan Chi and Shang Tsung join forces to conquer the realms and subsequently become the antagonists. By Mortal Kombat: Deception
Mortal Kombat: Deception
Mortal Kombat: Deception is a fighting game developed and published by Midway as the sixth installment for the Mortal Kombat series. It was released for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox in October 2004, while a Nintendo GameCube version was published in March 2005. Mortal Kombat: Deception follows the...
, after several fights, the sorcerers emerge victorious having killed most of Earthrealms' warriors until Raiden steps forth to oppose them. The Dragon King Onaga, who had been freed by Reptile at the end of Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance, had deceived Shujinko, the protagonist of Mortal Kombat: Deception, into searching for six pieces of Kamidogu, the source of Onaga's power. Onaga then confronted the alliance of Raiden, Shang Tsung, and Quan Chi and thus obtained Quan Chi's amulet, the final piece of his power, becoming the antagonist. Only a few warriors remained to combat against the Dragon King and his forces. Shujinko eventually triumphed over the Dragon King and removed his threat to the Mortal Kombat universe.
In Mortal Kombat: Armageddon
Mortal Kombat: Armageddon
Mortal Kombat: Armageddon is the seventh game in the Mortal Kombat fighting game series. The PlayStation 2 version was released in stores on October 11, 2006 while the Xbox version was released on the October 16, with a Wii version released on May 29, 2007 in North America.The game was not released...
the catastrophe known as Armageddon starts. Centuries before the first Mortal Kombat, Queen Delia foretold the realms would be destroyed in an event known as Armageddon. King Argus had his sons, Taven, the protagonist of the game, and Daegon, put into incubation who would one day be awakened to save the realms from Armageddon. In the end, however, because Blaze's design has been corrupted by Onaga's holy men, Taven's victory over Blaze does not destroy the combatants or strip them of their powers, instead increasing the powers of the fighters, potentially exacerbating the onset of Armageddon. As a result, Taven will make it his duty as a new god to delay Armageddon until a solution can be found.
In Mortal Kombat (2011), it is revealed that the battle between the warriors of the six realms culminated into only two survivors: Shao Kahn and Raiden. Badly beaten, Raiden had only one last move he could make to prevent Shao Kahn from claiming the power of Blaze. He sends visions of the entire course of the Mortal Kombat timeline to himself in the past right before the tenth Mortal Kombat tournament (first game). This transfer of information to his former self causes a rift in time causing the Armageddon timeline to be erased and a new "reboot" timeline to be introduced, with a new outcome of Mortal Kombat history to be written. But this story leads to even worse unforeseen events. It ends with many of the main game characters dying at the hands of Queen Sindel and eventually Raiden accidentally kills Liu Kang in a fit of rage. But eventually the Elder Gods aid Raiden in killing Shao Kahn and saving Earthrealm. But as the scene goes on it is later revealed that this was all a plan by Lord Shinnok and Quan Chi.
Reception
In 1995, the Daily News summed up the Mortal Kombat series like so, "The original Mortal Kombat video game debuted in 1992. Its combination of story line, character and mega-violence soon made it a hit worldwide. And the controversy engendered by its blood-gushing special effects only served to boost its popularity." During 2007, Ed Boon reported that the Mortal Kombat series have sold 26 million copies. During its release week, Mortal Kombat: DeceptionMortal Kombat: Deception
Mortal Kombat: Deception is a fighting game developed and published by Midway as the sixth installment for the Mortal Kombat series. It was released for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox in October 2004, while a Nintendo GameCube version was published in March 2005. Mortal Kombat: Deception follows the...
sold one million units, becoming the fastest-selling game in Midway's history. In a 2007 listing of the 52 most important games of all time by GamePro
GamePro
GamePro Media was a United States gaming media company publishing online and print content on the video game industry, video game hardware, and video game software developed for a video game console , a computer, and/or a mobile device . GamePro Media properties include GamePro magazine and...
, Mortal Kombat II
Mortal Kombat II
Mortal Kombat II is a competitive fighting game originally produced by Midway Games for the arcades in . It is the second game in the Mortal Kombat series. Like its predecessor, various home versions were produced...
ranked as number 38 because it was, "Arguably the best Western fighting game to date, and certainly the title that defined Mortal Kombat as a brand, this game launched a thousand imitators en route to becoming one of the most famous -- and infamous -- video games ever made. Its technical and artistic mastery is only matched by its gushing gore." In article by Examiner.com
Examiner.com
Examiner.com is a media company based in Denver, Colorado, that operates a network of local news websites, allowing "pro–am contributors" to share their city-based knowledge on a blog-like platform, in 238 markets throughout the United States and parts of Canada with two national editions, one for...
, the Mortal Kombat series was ranked number 2, second only to God of War III
God of War III
God of War III is an action-adventure video game released by Sony Computer Entertainment's Santa Monica division for the PlayStation 3 in March 2010...
, on the most beautiful deaths in gaming, stating, "You have to give the game that got the whole world interested in video games a mention. Besides featuring awesome death sequences, this was also the title that got the American government to take a stand against the gaming industry. Thanks to Mortal Kombat, we have the ESRB now to tell us if a game is safe for children, teens, or if only adults should play. Cheers to you, Mortal Kombat." In a ranking by CraveOnline
CraveOnline
CraveOnline is a male lifestyle website based in Los Angeles with sales offices in New York, Chicago, and San Francisco. The site is owned by media company AtomicOnline, the publishing division of Evolve Media Corp.- History :...
, Mortal Kombat was ranked one of the "Goriest, Bloodiest, Nastiest Video Games of all time" stating that it was responsible for three things,"1.Mainstream games would now follow MK’s lead and start including fountains of blood, gruesome executions and de-bonings like they were going out of style. 2.A rating scale would now be necessary for home console games going forward. 3.Nintendo would embarrass themselves with their... non-violent port and finally have to sack up and start making games for adults for once." However, it condescended on the series by stating, "Not too bad for a game in which the same two or three palette swapped ninjas do the same goddamn moves over and over to each other before one of them gets bored and rips the other one’s head off!" In another ranking by CraveOnline, it was ranked #2 of the "Top ten 2-D Fighters of all time".
In a GamePro.com
GamePro
GamePro Media was a United States gaming media company publishing online and print content on the video game industry, video game hardware, and video game software developed for a video game console , a computer, and/or a mobile device . GamePro Media properties include GamePro magazine and...
poll, as of November 2009, 21% of voters rated Mortal Kombat as their favorite fighting game series, ranking third behind Street Fighter
Street Fighter
, commonly abbreviated as SF, is a series of Fighting Games developed in Japan in which the players pit the video games' competitive fighters from around the world, each with his or her own unique fighting style, against one another...
and Tekken. GameTrailers
GameTrailers
GameTrailers is a media website that specializes in video game related content. It provides free access to original programming , game trailers and recorded game play. Along with standard definition , many of the video clips are offered in a higher resolution .Users can upload videos, create...
ranked Mortal Kombat 9th in the Top Ten Fighting Games Franchises, while Mortal Kombat II was 5th in Top 10 Arcade Games. GameTrailers also ranked Mortal Kombat as the 7th bloodiest series of all time. The fatalities finishing moves were featured in ScrewAttack
ScrewAttack
ScrewAttack . is a video game-related website that showcases original entertainment for an audience of video game enthusiasts. Its content is also shown on GameTrailers and IGN...
's "Top 10 OMGWTF Moments" due to the competition it gave to other games including Street Fighter II and how it popularized the arcades. Guinness World Records awarded the Mortal Kombat series with seven world records in the Guinness World Records: Gamer's Edition 2008. These records include "Most Successful Fighting Game Franchise", "Biggest Fighting Game Series", and "Most Successful Video Game Spin-Off Soundtrack Album".
Mortal Kombats commercials have also received some criticism. In the 1993 hearings on violent video games, Senator Joseph Lieberman criticized Sega
Sega
, usually styled as SEGA, is a multinational video game software developer and an arcade software and hardware development company headquartered in Ōta, Tokyo, Japan, with various offices around the world...
for one of its TV commercials saying that the commercial promoted violence. The commercial, as described by Current Events, a Weekly Reader
Weekly Reader
Weekly Reader is a weekly educational classroom magazine designed for children in grades Pre-K–12. It began in 1928 as My Weekly Reader....
publication, "The TV commercial shows a boy gaining the respect of his friends after winning Mortal Kombat. At the end of the commercial, the boy angrily knocks over a tray of cookies given to him by friends now frightened by the boy's fighting ability. The boy roars,
Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks
Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks is an action/beat-em-up video game based on the Mortal Kombat series of fighting games. Shaolin Monks was developed by Midway LA and published by Midway for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox...
titled, "Blood on the Carpet" which was created by the London-based "Maverick Media" was, as quoted from The Register
The Register
The Register is a British technology news and opinion website. It was founded by John Lettice, Mike Magee and Ross Alderson in 1994 as a newsletter called "Chip Connection", initially as an email service...
, "... slammed by the Advertising Standards Authority
Advertising Standards Authority (United Kingdom)
The Advertising Standards Authority is the self-regulatory organisation of the advertising industry in the United Kingdom. The ASA is a non-statutory organisation and so cannot interpret or enforce legislation. However, its code of advertising practice broadly reflects legislation in many instances...
as condoning and glorifying violence." The commercial, as described by The Register, "It features a boardroom scene in which a Mr Linn, the mysterious trouble-shooter at a sales meeting, instructs two men to fight. Punches lead to a pen being stabbed into an arm; then a water jug is smashed over an executive's head – before his heart is ripped from his chest. Mr Linn concludes proceedings by decapitating another executive with his hat." The result of the complaint was, as quoted from the ASA report, "We told Midway not to repeat the approach and told them to consult CAP Copy Advice before producing future ads."
Court cases
On December 9, 1996, Daniel PesinaDaniel Pesina
Daniel Pesina is a martial arts expert and a former employee of Midway. He is most recognized as the actor who played Johnny Cage and ninjas Sub-Zero, Scorpion, Reptile, Smoke, and Noob Saibot in Mortal Kombat and Mortal Kombat II.Pesina was fired from Midway in 1994 for wearing Cage's costume in...
sued Midway Games
Midway Games
Midway Games, Inc. is an American company that was formerly a major video game publisher. Following a bankruptcy filing in 2009, it is no longer active and is in the process of liquidating all of its assets. Midway's titles included Mortal Kombat, Ms.Pac-Man, Spy Hunter, Tron, Rampage, the...
, Williams Electronics Games, Inc, Acclaim
Acclaim Entertainment
Acclaim Entertainment was an American video game developer and publisher. It developed, published, marketed and distributed interactive entertainment software for a variety of hardware platforms, including Sega's Mega Drive/Genesis, Saturn, Dreamcast, and Game Gear, Nintendo's NES, SNES, Nintendo...
, Nintendo
Nintendo
is a multinational corporation located in Kyoto, Japan. Founded on September 23, 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi, it produced handmade hanafuda cards. By 1963, the company had tried several small niche businesses, such as a cab company and a love hotel....
, and Sega
Sega
, usually styled as SEGA, is a multinational video game software developer and an arcade software and hardware development company headquartered in Ōta, Tokyo, Japan, with various offices around the world...
, alleging "that all defendants used his persona, name, and likeness without authorization in the home version of Mortal Kombat and Mortal Kombat II and the related products..." The conclusion of Daniel Pesina v. Midway Manufacturing Co. was that "alleged use of martial artist's name, likeness or persona in a martial arts video game did not violate his common-law right of publicity."
On May 28, 1997, Philip Ahn (Shang Tsung
Shang Tsung
Shang Tsung is a boss and player character in the Mortal Kombat fighting game series. A powerful and deadly sorcerer and a primary antagonist in the Mortal Kombat series, Shang Tsung is a shapeshifter who absorbs the souls of those he slays in order to maintain his youth and power...
), Elizabeth Malecki
Elizabeth Malecki
Elizabeth Malecki is a professional dancer, actress, and aerobics instructor, who is best known for her portrayal of Sonya Blade in the original Mortal Kombat arcade game....
(Sonya
Sonya Blade
Sonya Blade is a player character from the Mortal Kombat series. She is portrayed in the games as an officer of the United States Special Forces.-In video games:...
), and Katalin Zamiar
Katalin Zamiar
Katalin Rodriguez-Ogren is an American martial artist, sportswriter and actress.-Biography:...
(Kitana
Kitana (Mortal Kombat)
Kitana is a recurring player and a one-time boss character in the Mortal Kombat fighting game series. One of the lead characters of the Mortal Kombat saga, Kitana is the princess of the otherdimensional realm of Edenia and the daughter of Queen Sindel...
, Mileena, Jade
Jade (Mortal Kombat)
Jade is a fictional character from the Mortal Kombat fighting video game series. She debuted in Mortal Kombat II , at first as an unplayable secret character and became a player character in Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3...
) jointly sued Midway Games, Williams Electronics Games, Acclaim, Nintendo, and Sega, for using their likenesses in an unauthorized way. "[They sought] a constructive trust on all monies defendants received and continued to receive from their alleged breach of their duties to [the] plaintiffs." Ahn, Zamiar, and Melecki alleged "...that they were only modeling for the coin-operated video game, not the subsequent home video, home computer, and hand-held versions of the game." The conclusion of Philip Ahn v. Midway Manufacturing, et al. was "The plaintiffs lost on all counts because they had all consented to the videotaping and because the choreography and choice of movements used in the game were not jointly 'authored' by the individuals."
On November 22, 1997, 13-year-old Noah Wilson died when his friend Yancy stabbed him in the chest with a kitchen knife. The mother of Noah, Andrea Wilson, alleges that her son was stabbed to death because of his obsession with the Midway game Mortal Kombat. She alleges that Yancy S. was so obsessed with the game, that the child thought he was actually the character Cyrax. This character, Cyrax, used a finishing move
Fatality (Mortal Kombat)
In the Mortal Kombat series of fighting games, a Fatality is a finishing move that can be used against one's defeated opponent at the end of the final match, after the boss character says "Finish Him/Her." The Fatalities are usually lethal, featuring a brutal and morbid execution of the defenseless...
in which the character grabs the opponent in a headlock and stabs the character's opponent in the chest. Wilson alleges that this is the maneuver in which Yancy S., killed her son. However, despite the character's other varieties of finishing moves, the character Cyrax does not actually perform this move at all. The conclusion of Wilson v. Midway games, Inc. was, according to the court case report, "Wilson's complaint fails to state a claim upon which relief can be granted. The product liability counts fail because Mortal Kombat is not a "product" within the purview-of the CPLA [...]"
In 2006, attorney Jack Thompson ordered a cease and desist to Mortal Kombat: Armageddon stating, "It has today come to my attention that the newly recently Mortal Kombat: Armageddon contains an unauthorized commercial exploitation of my name, photograph, image, and likeness within the game." In fact, what Thompson thought was an actual character put by the developer into the game, was actually created by a player, who used the game's "kreate-a-fighter" mode to construct a likeness of Thompson and demonstrated it in a film on YouTube
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
. Thompson had the video successfully removed.
External links
- Official fansite and fan community
- Official NetherRealm Studios Website
- Mortal Kombat series at MobyGamesMobyGames-Platforms not yet included:- Further reading :* Rusel DeMaria, Johnny L. Wilson, High Score!: The Illustrated History of Electronic Games, McGraw-Hill/Osborne Media; 2 edition , ISBN 0-07-223172-6...
- The Mortal Kombat Wiki