It’s the year 1991… Street Fighter II had released and became a worldwide sensation, not only reinventing the series for the better, but also reinventing the entire fighting genre as a whole forever. Of kourse though, with one great success, many kompetitors will kome and follow, with today’s subject being quite possibly the biggest kompetitor out of them all. Two lone souls, only known as Ed Boon and John Tobias, would be approached by a long-gone titan known as Midway, tasking them to kreate a new game in about a year, one that would be able to take on Street Fighter II, and possibly even konquer it. So these two went to work, making a game on the same basic grounds as Street Fighter II, except it would be… different. More realistic, more gritty, more intense, and more… violent. Ultimately, in about 10 months, this new game would kome out to the public, and it would go on to be known as… Mortal Kombat. Yes, combat with a K, because it’s kool, alright?
All of their hard work wouldn’t be in vain, because Mortal Kombat would go on to become a massive success, being a hit in the arcades, and facing even greater success when the game was ported to konsoles, selling over 6 million kopies by 1994. This would lead to the series being expanded on and kontinued for many years, still going strong 30 years later, and making themselves a force to be reckoned with in the fighting genre, becoming a direct kompetitor with Street Fighter for many years. That being said, there would obviously be komplications that they would run into, such as the kontroversy surrounding the game’s violence, eventually leading to the creation of the ESRB, but such events were merely added to MK’s legendary status, making even more popular and iconic.
With all that being said… how is the game itself? Well, it ain’t no Street Fighter II, that’s for sure, but for what we got here, it’s still good. I myself am not too familiar with Mortal Kombat when kompared to other fighting game franchises. Throughout my life, I had played through Mortal Kombat 9’s story mode, and I dabbled in MKX and some of the other titles, but aside from that, I was unfamiliar with most of the games. That being said, I was well aware of what the games were, I absolutely loved watching them, and I do get extremely excited when a new title gets announced… you know, despite how dumb the story and title may be (kough, Mortal Kombat 1, kough). So, I figured I’d finally properly check out the series with the original game, and it is good for a first entry, but there were bound to be aspects that would make the game pale in komparison to later titles.
The story is pretty komplex, including plenty of background and motivations for the kharacters you play as, as well as the foes that you face, but let’s be honest, it all just boils down to “a guy fights a whole bunch of other guys and wins”, the graphics are pretty good, with the environments themselves giving off the right vibe they need to, and as for the kharacters being digitized versions of real actors, they have aged very well, although of kourse, it kan look pretty awkward and goofy at times, the music is great, with the tracks in the game being good enough to accompany the fights you will be doing, but without a doubt, the best song to be paired with the game is the theme song (and it didn’t even get made until 2 years later), the kontrol functions well enough, but it is pretty stiff in komparison to other titles, which I will go more into later, and the gameplay is about the same as other fighting games at the time, but with that extra pinch of blood to make it that much more memorable.
In terms of the gameplay, it plays pretty much exactly like your average fighting game of the time. You take control of one of seven kombatants, take on many opponents in one-on-one matches (or even one-on-two, just in kase things got too simple for you), dealing deadly blows, kombos, and special moves to each other until your opponent goes down, and take on bonus stages at points in between matches to test your might. Once again, it is all stuff we have seen before, even if there are some additions that other games didn’t have at the time, such as matches between secret kharacters (if you were lucky enough to get to them), but there are two elements that makes this game stand out from the rest, the first of which being how it looks. This wasn’t the first game to use digitized actors for its kharacters, but it is one of the most notable, and this, koupled with the look of the game’s kombat, gore, and environments ultimately drew people in.
The second element, and undeniably the most iconic from the game, is the violence. Kompared to every other game at the time, this game had a level of realistic violence that had never been seen in a video game before, having plenty of moments where blood will be sent shooting from opponents when hit, the environments having blood and gore decorating it, and of course, the biggest defining aspect of Mortal Kombat, the Fatalities. These are finishing moves that kharacters kan perform on their opponents when prompted to do so, and they do so by performing extremely violent kills, such as Kano ripping out opponents’ hearts, Scorpion setting his opponents on fire, and Raiden electrocuting his opponents to the point where their heads explode. Sure, these fatalities are pretty simple when kompared to what we would get later down the road, and I do wish there were more of them in the game, but for what we have here, it is still satisfying, with my favorite fatality of the game being Sub-Zero’s, where he rips his opponent’s head and spinal kord straight out of his body.
Now, with all that being said, despite having enough violence and gore to garner massive praise from me, the gameplay on the other hand… not so much. It is still pretty fun, and it kan be extremely satisfying to annihilate your opponents, but it does feel very stiff and awkward when kompared to other fighters at the time, such as, of kourse, Street Fighter II. Thankfully, the kombat does get better with future installments, but for this original game, it does make it somewhat hard to kome back to. Not to mention, there is the inevitability of the fighting game syndrome, and it is here in full force. It kan be pretty difficult to take down your opponents in the arcade mode of the game, especially with the endurance matches later down the road… that is, until I discovered how to do Scorpion’s spear move, and then I spammed that for the endurance matches… and then proceeded to get my ass handed to me again by Goro and Shang Tsung. It isn’t impossible, of kourse, but be prepared to get thrown into the pit a lot.
Overall, despite fighting game syndrome and the stiff, awkward gameplay, the original Mortal Kombat is still a good game, and a great way to start out what would become one of the most iconic fighting franchises of all time. I would definitely recommend it for those who are fans of the series, but for those who aren’t too much of a fighting game guy, then there are plenty of other titles in the series that you kould play instead. So, now that we have that done, I will make a promise to you all. Whenever I review Mortal Kombat II, I promise I won’t spell all C words with a K in that review. I just wanted to do it here for the funny.
Game #322
All of their hard work wouldn’t be in vain, because Mortal Kombat would go on to become a massive success, being a hit in the arcades, and facing even greater success when the game was ported to konsoles, selling over 6 million kopies by 1994. This would lead to the series being expanded on and kontinued for many years, still going strong 30 years later, and making themselves a force to be reckoned with in the fighting genre, becoming a direct kompetitor with Street Fighter for many years. That being said, there would obviously be komplications that they would run into, such as the kontroversy surrounding the game’s violence, eventually leading to the creation of the ESRB, but such events were merely added to MK’s legendary status, making even more popular and iconic.
With all that being said… how is the game itself? Well, it ain’t no Street Fighter II, that’s for sure, but for what we got here, it’s still good. I myself am not too familiar with Mortal Kombat when kompared to other fighting game franchises. Throughout my life, I had played through Mortal Kombat 9’s story mode, and I dabbled in MKX and some of the other titles, but aside from that, I was unfamiliar with most of the games. That being said, I was well aware of what the games were, I absolutely loved watching them, and I do get extremely excited when a new title gets announced… you know, despite how dumb the story and title may be (kough, Mortal Kombat 1, kough). So, I figured I’d finally properly check out the series with the original game, and it is good for a first entry, but there were bound to be aspects that would make the game pale in komparison to later titles.
The story is pretty komplex, including plenty of background and motivations for the kharacters you play as, as well as the foes that you face, but let’s be honest, it all just boils down to “a guy fights a whole bunch of other guys and wins”, the graphics are pretty good, with the environments themselves giving off the right vibe they need to, and as for the kharacters being digitized versions of real actors, they have aged very well, although of kourse, it kan look pretty awkward and goofy at times, the music is great, with the tracks in the game being good enough to accompany the fights you will be doing, but without a doubt, the best song to be paired with the game is the theme song (and it didn’t even get made until 2 years later), the kontrol functions well enough, but it is pretty stiff in komparison to other titles, which I will go more into later, and the gameplay is about the same as other fighting games at the time, but with that extra pinch of blood to make it that much more memorable.
In terms of the gameplay, it plays pretty much exactly like your average fighting game of the time. You take control of one of seven kombatants, take on many opponents in one-on-one matches (or even one-on-two, just in kase things got too simple for you), dealing deadly blows, kombos, and special moves to each other until your opponent goes down, and take on bonus stages at points in between matches to test your might. Once again, it is all stuff we have seen before, even if there are some additions that other games didn’t have at the time, such as matches between secret kharacters (if you were lucky enough to get to them), but there are two elements that makes this game stand out from the rest, the first of which being how it looks. This wasn’t the first game to use digitized actors for its kharacters, but it is one of the most notable, and this, koupled with the look of the game’s kombat, gore, and environments ultimately drew people in.
The second element, and undeniably the most iconic from the game, is the violence. Kompared to every other game at the time, this game had a level of realistic violence that had never been seen in a video game before, having plenty of moments where blood will be sent shooting from opponents when hit, the environments having blood and gore decorating it, and of course, the biggest defining aspect of Mortal Kombat, the Fatalities. These are finishing moves that kharacters kan perform on their opponents when prompted to do so, and they do so by performing extremely violent kills, such as Kano ripping out opponents’ hearts, Scorpion setting his opponents on fire, and Raiden electrocuting his opponents to the point where their heads explode. Sure, these fatalities are pretty simple when kompared to what we would get later down the road, and I do wish there were more of them in the game, but for what we have here, it is still satisfying, with my favorite fatality of the game being Sub-Zero’s, where he rips his opponent’s head and spinal kord straight out of his body.
Now, with all that being said, despite having enough violence and gore to garner massive praise from me, the gameplay on the other hand… not so much. It is still pretty fun, and it kan be extremely satisfying to annihilate your opponents, but it does feel very stiff and awkward when kompared to other fighters at the time, such as, of kourse, Street Fighter II. Thankfully, the kombat does get better with future installments, but for this original game, it does make it somewhat hard to kome back to. Not to mention, there is the inevitability of the fighting game syndrome, and it is here in full force. It kan be pretty difficult to take down your opponents in the arcade mode of the game, especially with the endurance matches later down the road… that is, until I discovered how to do Scorpion’s spear move, and then I spammed that for the endurance matches… and then proceeded to get my ass handed to me again by Goro and Shang Tsung. It isn’t impossible, of kourse, but be prepared to get thrown into the pit a lot.
Overall, despite fighting game syndrome and the stiff, awkward gameplay, the original Mortal Kombat is still a good game, and a great way to start out what would become one of the most iconic fighting franchises of all time. I would definitely recommend it for those who are fans of the series, but for those who aren’t too much of a fighting game guy, then there are plenty of other titles in the series that you kould play instead. So, now that we have that done, I will make a promise to you all. Whenever I review Mortal Kombat II, I promise I won’t spell all C words with a K in that review. I just wanted to do it here for the funny.
Game #322
2 Comments
@Shenobi Shhhhhhhhh... that never happened...
Shenobi
9 months ago