Seven fighters: Johnny Cage, Kano, Raiden, Liu Kang, Scorpion, Sub-Zero, and Sonya Blade have been invited to participate in the Mortal Kombat tournament. Which, at the time, interestingly took place right next door to the Street Fighter 2 cabinet.
First and foremost on everyone's mind: The violence -- Sub-Zero ripping Scorpion's head off. The humor -- Scorpion throwing his famous spear and screaming, "Get over here!" The secrets -- double flawless victory and a fatality, and there's a green ninja at the bottom of the pit! The digitized actors, and the blood, the blood, and the blood.
Perhaps forgotten by now, MK also offered the endurance matches where players faced off against two opponents. After which came the final battles with Goro, and then the shape-shifting Shang Tsung. These two, unlike the villains in most other fighting games, apparently played by a different set of rules than the other combatants. Not to mention they looked drastically different, bigger, than any of the playable combatants.
Mortal Kombat provided a different flavor of a fighting experience than its competition. Mostly in atmosphere due to the digitized actors, the darker themes, the blood. On a game mechanics note Mortal Kombat waged its battles at a leisurely pace, making it perhaps one of the slowest fighting games out there at the time. A fighting game on Thorazine, if you will. Just listen to the game's generally subdued music that treads the waters of ambient sound effects. Or even the announcer's voice as he says, "Finish Him!" Or perhaps even the noticeable pause between "Scorpion wins" and "Fatality."
Compounding the problem: MK lacked any sense of speed, rhythm, or escalation pressure in their fights. Each character had a full assortment of moves -- punches, kicks, uppercuts, sweeps (which all the combatants shared) along with their own handful of special attacks (which, along with the Fatalities, truly set the characters apart) -- however, most of these attacks stood alone. The creative player could string a handful of moves together for a quick combo (2 or 3 hits), but these maneuvers never truly flowed together or built up momentum. A character never found themselves trapped in the corner with an endless onslaught of attacks raining down upon them, chipping their life away even if they managed to block. (Well, okay, an infinite barrage of standing punches could be strung together, but anyone defeated by that deserves to have a Fatality done on them.) Mortal Kombat features a few surprisingly original moves. Or more accurately phrased: original twists to moves seen before. Raiden flies across the screen (a la E. Honda), and rather than just knock his opponent down, Raiden pushes them back until they slam into a a wall while screaming gibberish. Sub-Zero's projectile, unlike a traditional fireball, freezes his opponent in place for a limited time. Scorpion, in addition to his famous spear, jumps into one side of the screen and pops out the other to punch his opponent in the face.
That's not to say MK doesn't blatantly rip off special moves from other sources. Kano, for example, apparently took lessons from SF2's Blanka. Not to mention his knife throw has a similarity to Guile's sonic boom. Liu Kang, Raiden, Sonya, Johnny Cage all have a projectile move -- whether throwing Lightning, a green energy ball, purple rings, or a streak of fire, it's still a fireball with a few superficial changes. Then again, how many 2D fighting games had no projectile moves?
In fairness, Mortal Kombat was a quick, cheap, and easy Midway project with a clear, defined, sales gimmick -- digitized actors and the opportunity to "Finish him!" which none of the competition offered. Perhaps MK1 really did not deserve the attention it received, but fortunately it lead to better designed and better executed sequels.
First and foremost on everyone's mind: The violence -- Sub-Zero ripping Scorpion's head off. The humor -- Scorpion throwing his famous spear and screaming, "Get over here!" The secrets -- double flawless victory and a fatality, and there's a green ninja at the bottom of the pit! The digitized actors, and the blood, the blood, and the blood.
Perhaps forgotten by now, MK also offered the endurance matches where players faced off against two opponents. After which came the final battles with Goro, and then the shape-shifting Shang Tsung. These two, unlike the villains in most other fighting games, apparently played by a different set of rules than the other combatants. Not to mention they looked drastically different, bigger, than any of the playable combatants.
Mortal Kombat provided a different flavor of a fighting experience than its competition. Mostly in atmosphere due to the digitized actors, the darker themes, the blood. On a game mechanics note Mortal Kombat waged its battles at a leisurely pace, making it perhaps one of the slowest fighting games out there at the time. A fighting game on Thorazine, if you will. Just listen to the game's generally subdued music that treads the waters of ambient sound effects. Or even the announcer's voice as he says, "Finish Him!" Or perhaps even the noticeable pause between "Scorpion wins" and "Fatality."
Compounding the problem: MK lacked any sense of speed, rhythm, or escalation pressure in their fights. Each character had a full assortment of moves -- punches, kicks, uppercuts, sweeps (which all the combatants shared) along with their own handful of special attacks (which, along with the Fatalities, truly set the characters apart) -- however, most of these attacks stood alone. The creative player could string a handful of moves together for a quick combo (2 or 3 hits), but these maneuvers never truly flowed together or built up momentum. A character never found themselves trapped in the corner with an endless onslaught of attacks raining down upon them, chipping their life away even if they managed to block. (Well, okay, an infinite barrage of standing punches could be strung together, but anyone defeated by that deserves to have a Fatality done on them.) Mortal Kombat features a few surprisingly original moves. Or more accurately phrased: original twists to moves seen before. Raiden flies across the screen (a la E. Honda), and rather than just knock his opponent down, Raiden pushes them back until they slam into a a wall while screaming gibberish. Sub-Zero's projectile, unlike a traditional fireball, freezes his opponent in place for a limited time. Scorpion, in addition to his famous spear, jumps into one side of the screen and pops out the other to punch his opponent in the face.
That's not to say MK doesn't blatantly rip off special moves from other sources. Kano, for example, apparently took lessons from SF2's Blanka. Not to mention his knife throw has a similarity to Guile's sonic boom. Liu Kang, Raiden, Sonya, Johnny Cage all have a projectile move -- whether throwing Lightning, a green energy ball, purple rings, or a streak of fire, it's still a fireball with a few superficial changes. Then again, how many 2D fighting games had no projectile moves?
In fairness, Mortal Kombat was a quick, cheap, and easy Midway project with a clear, defined, sales gimmick -- digitized actors and the opportunity to "Finish him!" which none of the competition offered. Perhaps MK1 really did not deserve the attention it received, but fortunately it lead to better designed and better executed sequels.