Do you guys remember when Mortal Kombat and NBA Jame were coming out?

[Manga4life]

I was thinking about this the other day and I remember there being a huge buzz between late 1993 until early 1994 when Mortal Kombat was about to hit the SNES and Genesis during the back to school through holiday season of 1993 and how anyone and everyone was talking about it. I remember magazines were publishing stories about it, I would see commercials on television, the lunch room in school was filled with kids talking about the game, and there was just a huge buzz about it and which system people were getting it on as well as the blood, characters, codes, and other factors that were brewing among the gaming crowd. I remember when it did launch sometime in September that some kids had already received it while others were waiting until Christmas but the end result was the same: EVERYONE was excited about it.

Same thing was going on some time after Christmas when NBA Jam was about to be released onto home consoles, everyone had played it in arcades and absolutely loved the game and the buzz was strong for NBA Jam to come to the SNES and Genesis. When it came out the same thing happened, everyone was talking about it and trying to figure out codes to make the players heads big, or to look like chickens, or other such fun stuff and the game was all magazines were talking about, it was quite a fun time then and I don't get that feeling anymore when discussing video games with people.

Any which way, that September-March was a really fun time for video games for me and I don't think I played any other game for almost a year aside for Mortal Kombat and NBA Jam, the hype and the fun of it all kept me well satisfied and glued to my SNES.

[Cloud121]

Yep! I know exactly what you mean. I was 7 years old at the time, and still remember all the hype and everything.


The first time I ever played NBA Jam though was father's day (June) 1994, at my grandfather's house. My favorite cousin had bought the game for Super Famicom, and we played it in the bedroom. I remember only shooting from half court simply because I could. Also being a huge basketball junkie back then certainly helped too, long before gaming and collecting took over my life some five years later.


Go Magic!

[densho]

I remember when first discovered to get Smoke out and this was done by mistake, it was a colossal joy. I love Mortal Kombat 2 and I still play it from time to time. Back in my childhood I would know the fatalities and the special moves of all the characters involved and my favorite one was SubZero.

[buzz_n64]

I remember when both came out. I especially remember watching the first Mortal Kombat commercial. I was shouting "MORTAL KOMBAT!!!" on the playground.

[tom]

Hell yeah, and I remember all those poor people who were dissapointed with the SNES version.
Lucky i bought the 'right' version at the time
http://www.videogamecollectors.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=267474&g2_serialNumber=1

[Manga4life]

Hell yeah, and I remember all those poor people who were dissapointed with the SNES version.
Lucky i bought the 'right' version at the time
http://www.videogamecollectors.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=267474&g2_serialNumber=1

Actually, I knew more people who were turned off by the Genesis version more so than the SNES version. The SNES version looked closer to the arcade version than the Genesis did and the audio was leagues better than the Sega version too. For Instance: When the word "Fight!" came on the screen to begin the fight the SNES version had a voice that actually said "Fight!", same when you won a match it would actually say "____ Wins!", the Genesis version had no speech and you were just left with a little theme that played when you won or lost a fight. Sure, the Genesis had blood and the cooler fatalities if you knew the code, but I (and many) would gladly give that up in favor of a better audio/video experience.

Either which way the time surrounding the release of Mortal Kombat and NBA Jam circa September of 1993 through March of 1994 will always live on as one of the funnest times in gaming history for me, it'll only be contended by being an NES owner during the Super Mario 3 time period and by a couple of other instances for me.

[treismac]

I remember the hype quite well. The kids these days will never know what its like to anticipate a favorite arcade game making its way to their living room. Those days are definitely gone- apart from Fighter Games, I think. What was the last Mortal Kombat to hit the arcades anyway? Four? Wikipedia, evidently, has my back on this one. I think the Street Fighter and Tekken series still have arcade games precede their home releases.

[kedawa]

I remember getting some kind of promo kit that came with a coupon, a pin, some cards or something, and I think a booklet, all in a box. It was the last one the store had, and they just gave it to me because it was a for display and had been opened.

Actually, I knew more people who were turned off by the Genesis version more so than the SNES version. The SNES version looked closer to the arcade version than the Genesis did and the audio was leagues better than the Sega version too. For Instance: When the word "Fight!" came on the screen to begin the fight the SNES version had a voice that actually said "Fight!", same when you won a match it would actually say "____ Wins!", the Genesis version had no speech and you were just left with a little theme that played when you won or lost a fight. Sure, the Genesis had blood and the cooler fatalities if you knew the code, but I (and many) would gladly give that up in favor of a better audio/video experience.

That seems to be atypical. In fact, I don't think I've ever heard of someone preferring the SNES version over the Genesis version before. The gameplay in the SNES version was just so unresponsive and sloppy, while the Genesis version was actually really fast and fun, despite being a bit wonky and having poor graphics. The SNES version also has way too much screenspace below the characters for some reason.

[Bloodreign]

MK1 on the Genesis did indeed have speech. Scorpion said "Get over here" Tsung would say the word fight, and finish him/her as well as excellent now and again. It just didn't have as much speech as the arcade one, but the SNES version didn't say Flawless Victory if you had one (just printed it on screen, arcade version did both announce and print), and the obvious lack of fatalities had them not use the word fatality.

[Streetball 21]

I remember getting some kind of promo kit that came with a coupon, a pin, some cards or something, and I think a booklet, all in a box. It was the last one the store had, and they just gave it to me because it was a for display and had been opened.


That seems to be atypical. In fact, I don't think I've ever heard of someone preferring the SNES version over the Genesis version before. The gameplay in the SNES version was just so unresponsive and sloppy, while the Genesis version was actually really fast and fun, despite being a bit wonky and having poor graphics. The SNES version also has way too much screenspace below the characters for some reason.

I'm another who preferred the SNES version. To me (again this is my opinion), it didnt look as sharp as the SNES version. Yes, I was missing out on the blood, but I had a blast with the SNES version, as I'm sure we all did with our console of choice lol.

[kedawa]

I don't disagree that the SNES version looked better, but since I owned both consoles at the time and played both versions before picking one, I went with the Genesis version.
MKII was a much harder choice for me. The SNES version felt slightly off but looked and sounded really nice, while the Genesis version felt closer to the arcade but had weird shadows, missing moves, and bland colours. Luckily the 32X version came out before I bought either of them and I went with that instead.

[o.pwuaioc]

This is definitely bringing back all the memories! Both NBA Jam and MK were hot stuff at the time. One friend had MK on the Genesis and another had NBA Jam on the Genesis, so that's what we played. Oh, and Super Street Fighter II! I don't think we played anything nearly as much as MKII and SSFII.

[BlastProcessing402]

I remember Mortal Monday, one of the first big "event" release dates.

I also remember actually renting NBA Jam despite not liking most sports (or sports games). Interestingly I had a prof in college who'd actually been best friends with the NBA Jam creator when they were kids.

[Compute]

My cousin used to KILL me at both of those games, since he owned both and was actually interested in them. I do remember quite vividly the hype. I think we ONLY played as easter egg characters in NBA Jam. We didn't know who Sal Davita (sp) was, so we wondered why Emilio Estevez was in the game.

How did the Sega CD version of MK fare against the cart or SNES version? I rented it once when I rented a Sega CD, and I feel like it was much cleaner. The music was definitely better, but is it really as good as I remember? It was also the first time I used a 6 button controller, so I was pretty amazed at the extra controls.

[Peonpiate]

I remember Mortal Monday pretty well! It was impossible to be in school at that time and not know about that game coming out on consoles soon, also I remember gaming magazines being as common as school textbooks in the study halls.

[kedawa]

My cousin used to KILL me at both of those games, since he owned both and was actually interested in them. I do remember quite vividly the hype. I think we ONLY played as easter egg characters in NBA Jam. We didn't know who Sal Davita (sp) was, so we wondered why Emilio Estevez was in the game.

How did the Sega CD version of MK fare against the cart or SNES version? I rented it once when I rented a Sega CD, and I feel like it was much cleaner. The music was definitely better, but is it really as good as I remember? It was also the first time I used a 6 button controller, so I was pretty amazed at the extra controls.

MK for Sega CD is just an enhanced version of the Genesis version. If you can live with the long load times, then maybe the better audio and expanded colour palette would make it worth playing, but I'd stick with the cart version personally.

[Orion Pimpdaddy]

I also remember there being SOME buzz when NBA Jam Tournament Edition was coming out. I arranged a four-player matchup at my house right when it was released.

Regarding Mortal Monday, I still have the items they gave away on that day. There was a poster, some cards, a button, and something else I can't quite remember. Yep, it was the talk of the video game world at the time, and the fact that four versions of it were coming out on four separate systems made things interesting.

I imagine a lot of the MK craziness can be attributed to the success of Street Fighter II, which made the fighting genre explode in popularity. People were clamoring for new fighting games (I know I was).

[Collector_Gaming]

You mean these games? I thought I had em kicking around :P

http://i226.photobucket.com/albums/dd158/car_show_fan/carshows2/IMG_0556.jpg
http://i226.photobucket.com/albums/dd158/car_show_fan/carshows2/IMG_0557.jpg
http://i226.photobucket.com/albums/dd158/car_show_fan/carshows2/IMG_0558.jpg

[FOnewearl]

The one thing I remember most about Mortal Kombat Monday was actually getting the game the Friday before Mortal Kombat Monday.

[kedawa]

I imagine a lot of the MK craziness can be attributed to the success of Street Fighter II, which made the fighting genre explode in popularity. People were clamoring for new fighting games (I know I was).

Me too, but I always ended up going back to Street Fighter II.
I think KoF '94 was the first non-SF fighting game that could really compare for me.

MKII was quite a phenomenon in my town, though. We had a cabinet in the convenience store by my house that got constant upgrades, so it was either a loketest, or the hand-me-downs from a loketest. Finding new features and glitches all the time only added to the games' appeal.

[Rickstilwell1]

I had only turned 6 so I didn't experience the hype. I had just gotten Sonic 1 with the Genesis bundle 3 months before so that game was still keeping me entertained. Can't expect a kindergartner to have played something like Mortal Kombat just yet. Haha I was getting Kirby's Adventure instead, and a few days after Christmas my mom's ex gave me some loose NES games making Renegade my first fighting game. My first 1 on 1 fighter ended up being Tuff E Nuff for SNES which was pretty fun.

[bazariah]

i remember the major hype surrounding MK
i remember all my friends buying it for like £45-£50 on snes/megadrive
then i remember playing it for a few games then going back to streetfighter 2 straight away after realising how overhyped and terribly choppy MK truly was


a lot of people i know today still bang on about how great MK was, but all those early renditions had choppy animation, cheap A.I, broken controls etc, the only thing early mortal kombat realy had going was the controversy surrounding the blood and fatalities which are sometimes insanley difficult to pull off due to the messed up combinations of buttons to press

[gamingpalooza]

5976

Nice NBA Jam flyer I found. I remember mostly when the games were already introduced and released, they became widely popular so quickly. You could go to any arcade and you will either see MK and NBA Jam, one or the other present in that arcade due to the popularity.