We’ve all heard the hype about different companies interested in buying up Midway, buying up Mortal Kombat, and possibly splitting everything to pieces as Midway goes down in flames. It’s true that there will probably be more Mortal Kombat games in the future, but will it ever feel the same again? What if the MK team that we know today doesn’t work on the future titles? The MK that we know today may never exist again, and it’s left me daydreaming about the gaming days of old.
The first time I saw Mortal Kombat was in a 7-11 sometime in 1992. I remember seeing two older teenagers jamming on the buttons, looking at a video game magazine for the moves, and shouting back and forth at each other in sheer excitement. I didn’t even know the name of the game, but hell, it was obviously exciting. The first thing I thought about when I looked over at the screen is that the guy in the hat reminded me of that guy from Big Trouble in Little China. Little did I know that my full blown obsession would take hold of me soon enough.
The home port of the game was heavily advertised in the X-Men and Spider-Man comics that I picked up over that year’s summer, so I aware that it was coming. But, at that point, I really didn’t care. It wasn’t until I was with my friend, Danny, that I noticed a Sega Genesis copy of the game in the rental store. I told him about the kids that were going nuts over it at the 7-11, so he decided to pick it up. We didn’t know about the Blood Code or anything, so I suppose you could say that it was an okay experience. The original Mortal Kombat without any knowledge of special moves, Fatalities, or blood is a pretty lackluster experience.
Later on, I decided to rent the SNES version of the game, and some people who had previously rented my copy wrote most of the “Finishers” and special moves in the back of the manual – yeah, this was actually common back in those days, kids. I had a lot more fun kicking the hell out of people, burning my opponents alive with Scorpion, and smashing Reptile’s face in. It probably also helped that this version was far superior to the Genesis version. My grandma hated the game because she had heard about the Genesis’ Blood Code and thought that my SNES version could do the same thing, but that just made the game that much cooler. The older people thought it was bad news.
Easter of ’93 rolled around, and, as weird as it sounds, my mom always gave me a gift along with my Easter basket. I woke up that morning ready to find my basket and, hopefully, my copy of Super Mario Kart. I was surprised and maybe even a little disappointed to find a copy of Mortal Kombat sitting in the basket instead. Like the brat that I was, I complained to my mom and reminded her that I had wanted Super Mario Kart. Always ready to make me appreciate what I had, Mom reminded me that not everyone got a gift on Easter and that I should appreciate what I got. After that, I was determined to love that game even if it was a disappointment.
It took a while, but I had become a Mortal Kombat fiend. I knew how to pull off every move, every Fatality, and how to beat Goro with ease. My friends had given up on ever winning and would refuse to play me. Not only did I start loving the game, but I also started mastering it.
One of my mom’s friends told me that he saw a new Mortal Kombat game at a Wal-Mart the last time he was shopping, and I felt a rush of excitement. I was excited mainly because he told me that Reptile was playable in the new game, and I was really curious about how he would play. I went with my aunt and grandma to Wally World just to check out the new Mortal Kombat game, and it was definitely worth my time.
The only thing I really didn’t like about Mortal Kombat II was that, In my young opinion, the computer-controlled players were too damned hard. They had no qualms with breaking your face both rounds and sending your ass into the Deadpool for a swim. Damn, Midway! I’m just trying to learn the game, and my quarters are limited! Some older guy, who would probably be arrested and dragged off in today’s America, stopped by and helped me with a lot of the moves and whatnot. The advice helped me enjoy the game a little bit more, but it was still a tough ass
It wasn’t until the home version of the game that I really learned to love MK II. I mastered Baraka, learned how to square off against smoke, Noob Saibot, and Jade, and beat the hell out of Kintaro. I was proud of how much ass I learned to kick in that game, and, again, most of my friends didn’t like to play against me.
The thing that aggravated me the most about Mortal Kombat II was the press it was drawing. Everywhere you turned, there was some second-rate news source trying to convince parents that Mortal Kombat would turn their kids into cold-blooded killers. All I knew is that I played the game enough, and I hadn’t killed anyone yet. It was beyond stupid that the news had some kid playing the game and dear, retarded mom in the background sniffling up because she was so sure that her son would turn into Jason Voorhees at any given moment – but of course that wouldn’t be her fault! I guess I just accepted that my favorite game series caused the ESRB and moved on.
I got to try Mortal Kombat 3 for the first time at a local mini-golf place. It was fun enough, but it was kinda hard to get into when you didn’t know any of the combos. That run button was also hard as hell to get used to. And what the hell happened to the roster in this installment? No Raiden? No Scorpion or Reptile? I remember thinking, “Wow. Screw this…” I later read an issue of GamePro that pretty much called MK3 a failure and said something that I still laugh at to this day, “Mortal Kombat 4, please.” That one didn’t exactly turn out to be peaches, but we’ll cover that later.
The release of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 was pretty sweet considering how turned off I was by the lack of Scorpion and Reptile in the previous installment. It was definitely a step in the right direction except for a few things. I still wanted Raiden back because he was a badass character. Plus that damned Cyborg Smoke was the bane of my existence then and still is to this day. Seriously, I think that Cyborg Smoke could easily make top four in a list of the cheapest fighting game characters of all time – hey now…blog idea. Don’t steal it! I’m watching you!
The release of MK Trilogy for Playstation and N64 pretty much solidified how I felt about Mortal Kombat 3 to begin with: it was a lackluster festival. Why else would it need to be updated twice? Don’t get me wrong. I believe that Trilogy is truly a masterpiece of a video game, but why would Mortal Kombat 3 need so much extra attention if it wasn’t a bad game? Welcome to downloadable content before the Internet ever took off.
Mortal Kombat 4 was mostly a disaster out of the box. I had a blast with it the first time I popped it into my N64, but I knew something was all sorts of funky about a few things. Why in the hell did Jarek have lasers coming out of his eyes for a Fatality? How in the hell did Goro come back? Why is there yet again a bunch of new characters that I could care less about? I also thought the combos were pretty poor compared to MK3/Trilogy. There was also the wonderful Noob Saibot incident after I learned about after gaining a few cheats(read Mortal Monday – Solving Noob Saibot).
Fortunately, there was a story that explained Goro’s appearance, Mortal Kombat Gold was able to bring in a few more cool characters, and the game grew on me over time. All in all, it wasn’t the best that the series ever did, but it wasn’t exactly crap. I’m proud to have a copy of it.
You’re probably wondering where I talk about Mythologies and Special Forces in this article, but in all honestly they suck too much to get their own space. They were god awful, and they’re going to get separate editions of Mortal Monday so I can properly hate the hell out of them.
I didn’t hear much about MK for years after Four, and I had pretty much given up all hope on a new one ever seeing the light of day. But all that changed during my senior year of high school when I was browsing through a few random video game sites and saw a screenshot of what would be MK: Deadly Alliance’s Sub-Zero. The obsession returned instantly – seriously! I was browsing all over the place to find more information, I did a Powerpoint project on MK for my Computers class, and a MK wallpaper got slapped onto my desktop at home. I was hooked again like an addict having a relapse.
The relapse was justified too. Deadly Alliance was full of kickass. I liked the roster, I liked the gameplay, and I like the new Krypt system for unlockables. The only thing that really held it down for me was some of the random, retarded Fatalities such as Quan Chi’s neck stretch garbage. Overall, it was a game that I knew I had to own. It was just too good – especially compared to the previous fiascos that Midway and the MK team gave us.
Deception was pretty uh…deceptive in some ways. I thought the new Trap system would be kinda cool considering how Ed Boon was drumming it up, but it turned out to be one of the worst damned features to ever be introduced in a fighting series. I was also tricked into believing that Mortal Kombat online would be awesome. Too bad the online mode was buggy as crap and couldn’t hold connection half the time.
There were also some cool things about the game such as the first ever team character: Noob Saibot and Smoke. Noob-Smoke turned out to be a bit overpowered, but who didn’t see that one coming? Puzzle Kombat and Chess Kombat were also fun.
I was pumped as hell for Armageddon. As soon as we heard that it would feature every character in the Mortal Kombat franchise, the fans over at MortalKombatOnline.com and I thought that we were going to get the next Trilogy. Unfortunately, the game was ass. The fighting system was junked to hell, the characters were pretty lame, and the Kreated Fighters were ungodly awful. But there’s a Mortal Monday on that subject as well.
Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe, as you guys can remember, was something that I was strongly against for the first half of the game’s creation. I was certain that the series was doomed thanks to the crapfest I knew would happen. Even if it was kinda good, Street Fighter IV would still eat it alive. Well, Street Fighter IV did win that battle, but MK vs DCU honestly wasn’t that bad. I still play it and love the hell out of it. I’m not trying to sound redundant, but there’s also a pretty recent Mortal Monday on this as well.
I think the biggest Mortal Kombat experience I’ve had over the last few years was the addition of Ultimate MK3 onto Xbox Live Arcade. Ever since I grabbed it up, I have made it a point to be as good as I possibly can be. In that persuit, I’ve played over 2,000 matches and have become insanely good compared to how I was when I started. Hit me up sometime if you want to play: Debased to This.
I’m not certain what the future holds for Mortal Kombat. I’m sure that someone is going to get the rights to the series and do something with it, but I’m not sure if the end product will resemble anything like the older games. It may be good, or it may be bad. Either way, I can hold onto these old memories and remember how much fun I had with my favorite series.
