Were fatalities pretty much the only reason Mortal Kombat ever became popular?

[NPham2005]

Without fatalities, do you think Mortal Kombat would have been a failure in 1992 (and thus, there would have been no further MK games)? Because it seems that fatalities were the only reason that people played it in the first place.

[goldenband]

I can't speak for anyone but myself, but as a teenager in the early 1990s I was drawn in by the overall violence, not the fatalities per se. I was a fan of the gritty, unsanitized aesthetic that was on the ascent in other media as well, e.g. movies like Reservoir Dogs. There was a real appeal to a fighting game that didn't wuss out with cartoon-style violence, where everyone is OK and no one ever suffers any lasting harm; there was a charm to a game where it felt like you were beating the shit out of someone, not just engaging in a fey, pretend pseudo-violent ballet.

I also think Mortal Kombat II is one hell of a game. The original MK, not so much, but it's got its charm.

[Aussie2B]

Nah, it was popular for a number of reasons. The digitized characters were a big selling point. If it was JUST about the fatalities or violence, then the console and handheld ports that toned it down wouldn't have garnered any interest, but those sold boatloads too.

[NightBlader]

Well, the violence certainly got the game free advertisements.....oops, I mean, news coverage.

[FieryReign]

Nah, it was popular for a number of reasons. The digitized characters were a big selling point. If it was JUST about the fatalities or violence, then the console and handheld ports that toned it down wouldn't have garnered any interest, but those sold boatloads too.

If that was the case then we'd still be seeing Pit Fighter sequels. It was all about the violence. The gameplay was severely limited, and block buttons are stupid in fighting games. The casual fan didn't know the Nintendo versions would be butchered the way they were. And they caught heat for it... I doubt the Gameboy version sold boatloads.

Humans are curious of the macabre and gruesome...

[mailman187666]

It was a big selling point, but I think it was more than just that. I think the characters played a big role in why it is so great, and has lasted this long. Sub Zero and Scorpion are iconic characters in the world of entertainment. Think of how sweet it was when you got to see them in action in the MK movie, especially seeing it as a kid when it was new. Once you see the fatalities a million times you aren't seeing anything new, but you continue playing the game right? There really isn't anything else like the dark atmosphere of the game and stages either. The living forest, the pit. Almost every other game company tried to make their own version of MK, but could never quite capture the same charm.

I will agree that maybe the first MK game had relied pretty heavily on fatalities as the selling point, and it's overall theme was more like a late 70's kung-fu movie. Once MKII hit, it took on it's own image all together.

[celerystalker]

Violence and mythos. It had an oddly compelling universe that drew people in, but the violence made it the giant hit that it was.

[Tanooki]

Mortal Monday
The Blood and Gore
Digitized real people in costume

There was nothing more than that, but other stuff fed off it like those idiotic politicians trying to find a way to screw with your rights to regulate it which failed but caused even more interest in the blood and guts of it all. No game before that had real people that looked that realistic or that kind of staged beatings and death.

[The Adventurer]

The violence was a good way to get eyeballs on the product. But I think its popularity both at the time, and to present was that it was one of two competent 2 player vs fighting games with wide availability at the time.

As for Block buttons, I don't care for it, but the arguments for it are pretty compelling. Tekken gets away with it just fine.

[Nebagram]

If it was just about fatalities, Eternal Champions would've had more than one sequel (and still should have had more than one sequel). It was one of those rare occasions where they caught lightning in a bottle and released the right product for the right audience at the right time. And have been exploiting it ever since.

[turboexpress]

No. Fatalities had nothing to do with it. MK was less "cartoony" and more "real life" looking graphics than SF. It became popular because it was the right alternative to SF at the right place and at the right time.

Personally MK is sloppy controls, slow, clumsy and awkward. I ran back to playing Street Fighter very fast I remember in those days.

[Gentlegamer]

It wasn't just fatalities, it was a perfect storm of elements in the early 90s, but the lack of depth is why it faded fast as a popular fighting series while the Street Fighter games did well for many years after, even against the newer 3D fighters.

[Satoshi_Matrix]

Like all fighting games of that period from Art of Fighting to Martial Combat, Mortal Kombat only became popular because of Street Fighter II. People played that, wanted more of the same, and were duped into checking out Mortal Kombat's simplistic gameplay and for the time, novel visuals. The fatality and digitlized sprites set Mortal Kombat apart from rivals, but because the gameplay was just so lame, there has been this divide between people who like it and people who like more gameplay centric fighters.

Fatalities had a role, but were not the primary reason why MK was played by much of anyone.

Another factor is the Midway brand itself, as they pumped out a lot of arcade games prior that people knew of. They weren't an unknown arcade developer to Americans.

[o.pwuaioc]

Mortal Monday
The Blood and Gore
Digitized real people in costume

There was nothing more than that, but other stuff fed off it like those idiotic politicians trying to find a way to screw with your rights to regulate it which failed but caused even more interest in the blood and guts of it all. No game before that had real people that looked that realistic or that kind of staged beatings and death.

I was pretty young when MK came came out, but no one my age cared about politicians. I first played MK on the SNES in 1993 (lucky friend had cool parents), and no one cared about digitized people, either. Maybe some of the reviewers did, maybe some tech-aware people found it cool, but to us, it was all gameplay and "cool factor". The rumors of easter eggs was another big factor. From 1994 til early 1996, Street Fighter II and Mortal Kombat were huge juggernauts, and we spent way more time figuring out moves, practicing moves, practicing fatalities, dreaming up new characters, and trying to beat each other. If Mortal Kombat was mere gimmicks, we wouldn't have spent nearly as much time with it as we did.

Lots of people write off Mortal Kombat's fighting system, but just because it's not Capcom doesn't mean it's not good in its own way. They were different, and though Capcom won the day in the end, everyone was super pumped for Mortal Kombat 3. It wasn't until MK4 that most of my friends had moved on. Actually, come to think about it, most of us weren't really thrilled by Alpha either, though that's probably because that one kid, whose name I can't remember now, showed us the SNES version.

[The 1 2 P]

At the time fatalities definitely made Mortal Kombat seem cooler than the competition but once I started playing it I enjoyed the characters and the game play more than Street Fighter II.

[Tanooki]

I was a teen when MK hit and some were worried the old farts would take our games away and ban MK and why would SNES alpha turn people off? You could do worse with the PS version

[Gatucaman]

why would SNES alpha turn people off?

The Lag, the Frame rate drop and the putrid sound perhaps?

As for MK, yeah, it was the blood, if anything the classic 2d MKs were an example of how NOT to program a fighting game AI CPU

[Tanooki]

There is no lag, just the load times (which aren't nice admittedly), the sound is fine, and the sound is pretty decent. What are you on about? I'm still surprised they pulled it off on the SNES and that the PS1 version somehow still ended up being worse. Saturn version and later system ports smoke the lot of them though.

[Cloud121]

How was the PSX version of Alpha 2 worse than the SFC version?

[FieryReign]

I was pretty young when MK came came out, but no one my age cared about politicians. I first played MK on the SNES in 1993 (lucky friend had cool parents), and no one cared about digitized people, either. Maybe some of the reviewers did, maybe some tech-aware people found it cool, but to us, it was all gameplay and "cool factor". The rumors of easter eggs was another big factor. From 1994 til early 1996, Street Fighter II and Mortal Kombat were huge juggernauts, and we spent way more time figuring out moves, practicing moves, practicing fatalities, dreaming up new characters, and trying to beat each other. If Mortal Kombat was mere gimmicks, we wouldn't have spent nearly as much time with it as we did.

Lots of people write off Mortal Kombat's fighting system, but just because it's not Capcom doesn't mean it's not good in its own way. They were different, and though Capcom won the day in the end, everyone was super pumped for Mortal Kombat 3. It wasn't until MK4 that most of my friends had moved on. Actually, come to think about it, most of us weren't really thrilled by Alpha either, though that's probably because that one kid, whose name I can't remember now, showed us the SNES version.

People write of MKs fighting system because it was stiff and lacked depth. You could just mash on punch buttons and achieve that stupid rapid jab combo or just play the overpowered uppercut game. People were pumped for MK3, yes. Too bad it sucked and pissed fans off. Removing almost everything people loved about MK, and adding cliche post-apocalyptic nonsense and corny robots. To be honest, most of the character designs in the MK universe are cornball.

Alpha 2 on SNES was a pretty impressive port. Weird loading times aside.

[Tanooki]

Well this is a mix of memory and fast google search so I'm not totally wrong on this. But as least with those who played the arcade enough to know better/competed even with it really the PS1 version was the worst because of it (between PS1, Saturn, SNES) had the most and worst load times, and also they omitted the music on the character select screen. Gameplay wise there's a lot of missing frames of animation, and of the frames there it had even less 'special effect's (sparks and junk) off the attacks of characters making impacts/blocked impacts (SNES had them, but reduced.) The timing and speed is off in this version of the game (not in the other two.) They screwed with the balancing of the fighters which good players noticed, hated. Tweaked the rules of the game engine (not sure what this is exactly as I said I looked some of it up as I don't play competitively.) They reduced the time you're invincible after taking a VC level impact. 3 hidden characters the Saturn/Arcade has are also not included too.

A good bit of it your casual to average player will not realize is there other than the cut out visuals, choppy character frame animation, lack of music on that screen. You'd have to be a little familiar to feel the problems otherwise listed with the arcade and have some failing fun trying to time moves to a badly mistimed port. I always found it amusing as I did play with the PS1 version before how that one had worse frames, less fluff details, and even more lag and load times than the SNES using that decompression routine and limited storage.

Oddly also they removed the entire arcade introduction animation from the PS1 version of the game (which even SNES had) and just made a crummy FMV video of it instead for the PS1 to load up in its place.

[Gatucaman]

Well this is a mix of memory and fast google search so I'm not totally wrong on this. But as least with those who played the arcade enough to know better/competed even with it really the PS1 version was the worst because of it (between PS1, Saturn, SNES) had the most and worst load times, and also they omitted the music on the character select screen. Gameplay wise there's a lot of missing frames of animation, and of the frames there it had even less 'special effect's (sparks and junk) off the attacks of characters making impacts/blocked impacts (SNES had them, but reduced.) The timing and speed is off in this version of the game (not in the other two.) They screwed with the balancing of the fighters which good players noticed, hated. Tweaked the rules of the game engine (not sure what this is exactly as I said I looked some of it up as I don't play competitively.) They reduced the time you're invincible after taking a VC level impact. 3 hidden characters the Saturn/Arcade has are also not included too.

A good bit of it your casual to average player will not realize is there other than the cut out visuals, choppy character frame animation, lack of music on that screen. You'd have to be a little familiar to feel the problems otherwise listed with the arcade and have some failing fun trying to time moves to a badly mistimed port. I always found it amusing as I did play with the PS1 version before how that one had worse frames, less fluff details, and even more lag and load times than the SNES using that decompression routine and limited storage.

Oddly also they removed the entire arcade introduction animation from the PS1 version of the game (which even SNES had) and just made a crummy FMV video of it instead for the PS1 to load up in its place.

Man, i have no idea the PSX port sucked balls, what turned me off the SNES port is the bad music and the lag, yes, there's lag, no i am not talking about the loading times, i am talking about that certain times the game plays at 50 fps (as if you were playing an uncoverted PAL game on a PAL console) and depends of which stage you are playing and which characters are on screen, this was a problem the third Ranma 1/2 fighting game for the SFC had, but that one was just becuase of colossal imcopetent programming, SNES SFA2 at least has an excuse, it's a HUGE game compressed on 4 MB.

[celerystalker]

SNES Street Fighter Alpha 2 is mighty. I mean, Saturn is easily better, but compared to most fighters on SNES, Alpha 2 is killer. Street Fighter II Turbo and Super Variable Geo play great, too, but Alpha 2 has aged better for me over the years than I would have ever expected.

[homerhomer]

Nope, Mortal Kombat was amazing looking and sounding even without fatalities. It was very unique with the edgey digitized graphics and mature theme. Walking into an arcade back in and seeing this game was pretty cool.

[Dashopepper]

100% it is because of the fatalities and overall violence. It's not a bad thing. It is what it is.

[Tanooki]

Gatucaman, no doubt. It's a shame, and it really surprised the hell out of me too. I've actually played all 3 versions back in 01/02 when I worked at Midway as people would not surprisingly enough bring in their own games(and systems since TVs were at every desk) to mess with their own stuff on lunch/dinner breaks. The PS1 really was that bad, I wasn't even aware that bad but I wasn't into the nitpicky stuff, just the obvious ones you'd find on that list. I never owned that one, but I did have it on Saturn and do have the SNES cart still as well. Saturn spanked both rightly so, but it was always amazing that the SNES came in the middle between Saturn and another CD based system of all things as there really was no excuse.



As far as MK goes there are a lot of reasons, and they're all good ones. Blood, gore, fatalities (and other alities in later games), the digitized people, the stigma of people trying to shut it down, Mortal Monday, and the rest. It all played a part and the hype machine by fans, Mortal Monday, and douchey politicians attacking it (DOOM, and others) all had their part.

[evildead2099]

MK1 may not have not made quite as much money if it never featured fatalities, but it definitely would not have been a 'failure' in terms of market performance. Before I even knew MK had fatalities, I was drawn to the game's digitized actors, the intriguing costumes, backgrounds, characters, back-stories, unique control setup, and mythology surrounding MK. The first game in the series was an okay 2D fighter in its own right, but the series really took gameplay to an all-time high with MK2.

If the only thing MK had going for it was blood and fatalities, audiences would have considered the first MK movie a massive failure, as it was a squeaky clean contrast to the arcade game. MK is universally hailed as one of the very few examples of a well done film based on a video game. (The other example is Silent Hill.)

[Emperor Megas]

MK is universally hailed as one of the very few examples of a well done film based on a video game. (The other example is Silent Hill.)Who thinks this?

[FieryReign]

Who thinks this?

I'm curious myself. Both of them were awful.

[Tanooki]

It got some decent reviews when it came out, it also sat as the #1 spot in the box office for at least the first two weeks it was out. It actually did well and was fairly well received all things considered.

Check this out: http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?page=weekend&id=mortalkombat.htm

It made $122M too in theaters worldwide. The only video game movies that topped it in order were the first Tomb Raider, Prince of Persia, then for #3 the first Pokemon movie, and rounding out #5 with the other Tomb Raider. Review wise among paid reviewers around 40% like it and movie goers who reviewed it (on rotten tomatoes) came in around 60% which considering the subject matter isn't bad.

[FieryReign]

I'm talking about the Silent Hill films. Who likes those?

[Emperor Megas]

Yeah, that's why I highlighted that part. I'm also wondering who the hell liked the Silent Hill films. They were fucking HORRIBLE.

[CDiablo]

The reason many played it in the first place was because there was a bunch of controversy over the game and it made the news and gave it more exposure than 99% of games at the time. There was a store near me when I was growing up with an MK arcade that always had kids around it. Obviously it was in part due to the over the top violence. The series got better and more absurd with each iteration for a while. 3 Ultimate is still fun to break out now and again.

[sfchakan]

Seeing as how the first Mortal Kombat plays almost as clunky as Pit Fighter while Street Fighter II is still as smooth as a post-Taco Bell shit to this day.. Yes, I'd definitely say the fatalities were the big draw. Without them, I don't know if the game would have been any more notable than something like Kasumi Ninja.

[evildead2099]

Yeah, that's why I highlighted that part. I'm also wondering who the hell liked the Silent Hill films. They were fucking HORRIBLE.

Myself, my friends, and everyone else I talked to who knew of the films.

I have not seen the second SH film, but the first one is pretty close to the original game, other than the main character being changed from a man to a woman and Pyramid Head's inclusion. Just what exactly did you think was so 'fucking horrible' about it?

[Tanooki]

I also heard King of the Fighters or Dead of Alive movie were awful too, fighting and a pretty girl or two in it but that only goes so far.

[CDiablo]

I also heard King of the Fighters or Dead of Alive movie were awful too, fighting and a pretty girl or two in it but that only goes so far.

I like martial arts movies and bought Dead or Alive on a recommendation. If there was anything of note in the movie I would remember. Forgettable plot and sub par martial arts choreography.

[evildead2099]

I also heard King of the Fighters or Dead of Alive movie were awful too, fighting and a pretty girl or two in it but that only goes so far.

Um, as I (and many others) have said before, the only two good live action movies based on video games are the first Mortal Kombat movie and the first Silent Hill movie. Price of Persia may actually be worth a damn, but I haven't seen it, nor do I know how critics and audiences received it.

[celerystalker]

I liked the first Resident Evil movie. That's why Mortal Kombat's success was partially based on violent fatalities.

[Greg2600]

Fatalities were the big draw

[FieryReign]

I like martial arts movies and bought Dead or Alive on a recommendation. If there was anything of note in the movie I would remember. Forgettable plot and sub par martial arts choreography.

Yeah, it's a shame what happened to Cory Yuen. The guy's a legend in HK. He's been reduced to trash like this and Man With the Iron Fists.... He really sucks now.

[Emperor Megas]

I like Dead or Alive. It's not good or anything, but it's cheesy fun.


Myself, my friends, and everyone else I talked to who knew of the films.

I have not seen the second SH film, but the first one is pretty close to the original game, other than the main character being changed from a man to a woman and Pyramid Head's inclusion. Just what exactly did you think was so 'fucking horrible' about it?OMG, practically everything about that movie was awful. I actually saw it in the theatre and I NEVER see movies in the theatre, but I'm such a Silent Hill fan that I said fuck it and went. As for what's "fucking horrible" about it, it made like zero sense. I'm not talking about inconsistencies between the game and the film, I don't care about those, I'm just talking about how pretty much everything in the film just didn't make any sense at all. I haven't watched it in forever, but some things I totally recalled were how:

You have a kid who chronically sleep walks (TO A CLIFF no less!) and you don't lock her indoors, or mind her at night!? Seriously?

On the brink of death she screams out "SILENT HILL!" repeatedly and you actually take her there (why!? it's clearly terrifying to her), and you don't tell her father/your husband about it. the place is toxic, dangerous, and illegal to enter, and you bring a child there?

You get stopped by a cop on the way to a dangerous, horrible place that you shouldn't be going AND YOU FLEE FOR NO REASON! Seriously? Why?

A child is probably being kidnapped by a crazy women and the cop doesn't call for back up? Isn't that some Amber alert type shit?

The people in the town killed a little girl for no reason than she's fatherless (was there another reason?). They say she was a witch, or something, but she never did anything 'witchy' that I recall. And why didn't they just kill her at birth if being a bastard is such a terrible thing?

The cop basically commits suicide for no reason. She could have escaped with the mother but she stays on the other side of the door in that scene where she gets overtaken and abducted by the miners. That was just really, REALLY annoyingly stupid to me.

The jump scares through out the movie were also trite, but that's just a knit pick. There were a bunch of other lame things that I just don't recall right off, but over all the film was awful. It would have been a lot better if they didn't try SO hard to include so much pointless shit. Really, less would have been more for a film like this. It just came across as really convoluted, and the story just didn't seem to make any sense.

The first film was a fucking MASTERPIECE compared to the second one though! My god! It's truly one of the worst big budget Hollywood films ever made! Do yourself a favor and watch that shit, but (if you drink or get high) make sure you're plenty tipsy when you do.

[Tanooki]

Prince of Persia actually was a very good movie, even if it was a mild stretch with it being based up on the old game.

Unless you're thinking of some Japanese Silent Hill movie I can't think of a good one, but the first MK movie I really enjoyed. I think taking a pot shot at either of the Tomb Raider games is a bit much, they're like Indiana Jones with tits and modern.

[Emperor Megas]

Unless you're thinking of some Japanese Silent Hill movie I can't think of a good oneRight!?

[Kwyjibo]

The violence helped its popularity immensely, but it was also a very easy fighter to pick up and play, and it had really unique and nice graphics. Killer Instinct came along a few years later with a similar approach and did extremely well, except with less violence. KI had its music going for it though.

[Tanooki]

KI was quite violent too, but the CGI visuals, the 3D/2D mix going off buildings and such, and then it's super combo strings of pain and death really carried it as well along with a lineup of pretty unique characters in the ever flooded world of fighters.

[jammajup]

The blood and death made it infamous and famous at the same time,the fatalities where just the cherry on the gore cake.I think it would of certainly flopped without any of that although some of the character like scorpian and Subzero do still seem popular even today.So maybe it would not of been a Rise Of The Robots / Pit Fighter style failiure

[BlastProcessing402]

The fatalities were a big part, no doubt, or else sales of the Genesis versions wouldn't have so ridiculously blown the SNES one away, but it also had cool character designs, an old school kungfu movie sort of storyline, and for its time the use of digitized actors was also a point in its favor, made it look a lot different than SF and people were ready for something like that.