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The History of Mortal Kombat
Storyline
The Games
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The Games

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Sub-Zero's fatality.
Mortal Kombat
Released: 1992
Platforms: Arcade, SNES, Sega Genesis, Sega CD, PC, MAC, Game Boy, Game Gear

Mortal Kombat featured groundbreaking graphics and bone-crunching sound, which immersed you into its surroundings. MK's basic, yet complex, style of gameplay made it enjoyable for newcomers and rewarding for long-time players. Mortal Kombat featured five buttons, two punches and two kicks (both low and high), and the pivotal block button. The block button was special because a certain other fighting game series used a system for blocking that involved holding the joystick away from the attack. In Mortal Kombat, holding back on the joystick moved the character backwards, letting the seasoned MK player thoroughly put the smack down on the unsuspecting street-fighting weasel. This one button created a separation in these two game styles that would last into the next millennium and beyond.

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Scorpion's fatality.

Characters
Kano, Sonya, Liu Kang, Sub-Zero, Scorpion, Johnny Cage, Raiden, Reptile (hidden)

Bosses
Shang Tsung: An old man with long white hair and a blue robe, who could morph into any character. Upon defeat, characters would leave his body and disappear with an explosion while the announcer said their names. Goro: A four-armed 12-inch stop-motion model that shook the screen when he landed. You could not perform fatalities on Goro.

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Test your might.

Memorable Moments

  • The Pit stage allowed defeated opponents to be uppercutted onto the spikes below, which contained a few developers' heads.
  • Each character had one fatality.
  • Endurance rounds pitted you against two characters successively in one battle.
  • Mirror match had you face your own character in a duel.
  • Mortal Kombat was based on a points system, where points were assigned to hits and finishers.
  • Flawless victory points were awarded for winning rounds without losing any life.
  • In "test your might" bonus games you had to tap the low attack buttons rapidly while a power meter built up. Once you passed the break point, pressing block would destroy either a stack of boards, stones, steel, rubies, or diamonds.
  • Reptile would jump down before a match and give clues as to how to find him. "Look to La Luna."
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    Big, bad Goro.
  • If you could time it just right, you could decapitate someone three times in a row using Johnny Cage.
  • A rumored glitch sent into EGM, which showed a red ninja with the words ERMAC WINS center screen, created a wild stir. Midway later stated that it was a glitch that stood for "Error Macro."
  • The Buddha statue was flipping the bird.
  • At the far right of the palace gates, icons from Pac-Man lined the top of the left gate.
  • An attract screen showed that a limited-edition comic book could be bought if you sent a check or money order to Midway.

Secrets
Reptile was added as a secret character in revisions 3.0 and later to spark gamers' interest in the game. To fight against him at the bottom of the pit, you had to win with a double flawless and fatality in the pit when silhouettes passed by the moon, without using block at all during the battle.

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Liu Kang, winner of MK.

Home Versions
The SNES version was at the head of much controversy over the Mortal Kombat series. Nintendo changed the gory fatalities to tame ones and the blood to white sweat. Sega, on the other hand, kept the gore and blood by making it available via a code. Sega went on to sell a considerable number of copies - more than the SNES version. Nintendo learned its lesson. Copyright conflicts arose when Raiden's name was already taken in the home market. In order to work around the problem, the spelling of Raiden was changed to Rayden in every home version until MK4.
 

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