Mortal Kombat- From The Arcade to the XBox

With fighting game giants like Street Fighter IV, Marvel vs Capcom III and Soul Calibur IV dominating today's market with 3D graphics and carefully moderated violence, it's easy for the new generation of gamers to forget the fighting series that pioneered surreal violence, innovative display techniques, and everyone's favorite fatalities.

The Mortal Kombat games, a series of unsung gems with incarnations on nearly every gaming platform from the SNES of old to today's PS3 and Xbox360, shocked the world with unrelenting violence, "realistic" blood spray, and unique approaches to the 2D fighting genre starting with the original's 1992 arcade release.

Originating from a humble crew of just four designers, what would one day become one of the hottest selling series to date launched itself into the forefront of market sales ridding a wave of controversy that only served to amp up sales.

With a ferocity unlike any game to precede it on the market, Mortal Kombat games introduced the arcade scene (and later several consoles) to the "toasty" excitement of a fast paced blood-splattering combination of digitized actors, Karefully Koncealed in-jokes, and unhampered brutality culminating in a bone-crunchingly satisfying fatality.

Just one year after Mortal Kombat's hotly contested release, Midway did it again with Mortal Kombat 2 and again with Mortal Kombat 3, released in 1995, which addressed concerns of the original two titles' defensive play style, adding a run button and chain combos that would lend Mortal kombat 3 its infamously fast-paced play style. Mortal Kombat 4, released to arcades in 1997, signified the tenuous transition of Mortal Kombat games from the retro-styled, comical 2D fighters of yonder, to the serious 3D combat that splits the series' player-base to this day.

 

 

The move from 2D to 3D brought on a slew of changes to the familiar mechanics of the series, including revamped move sets and sophisticated sidestepping mechanics that took fighting into a new dimension. Gone were the animalities, babalities, brutalities and friendships, replaced instead with even more viscerally satisfying fatalities. These changes continued in Mortal Kombat 5 ("Deadly Alliance," or "Vengeance"), a 2002 release, introducing weapons and fighting styles in addition to streamlining the use of the third dimension. It eliminated the earlier introduced run mechanic and further simplified character moves.

Mortal Kombat 5 continued limiting fatalities, this time to one per character and, for the first time in any of the Mortal Kombat games, to the exclusion of stage fatalities.

The series would continue to advance with titles like Mortal Kombat 6: Deception and Mortal Kombat 7: Armageddon before leapfrogging into the vs genre with Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe with no end in sight. Many hardcore fans will never forget the easy-going, faced paced antics of the original series, and more and more those early games have fallen out of the limelight in favor of the simplified, flashy iterations that now reign. Despite it all, perhaps somewhere along the line, the old and the new will come to terms and form some kind of friendship. Friendship?!

Images from: iGN, Video Game Central

[box type="bio"]This was a guest post by John for HMV.com where the latest Mortal Kombat games for xbox 360 and Playstation 3 are available for pre-order and the Nintendo 3DS console is available now.[/box]

Related Articles

• Street Fighter X Tekken Preview - [phpbaysidebar title="Ending Soon!" keywords="Street Fighter X Tekken" num="3" siteid="4" customid="Street Fighter X Tekken" sort="EndTimeSoonest" maxprice="50" id="3"]Who would win in a fight to the death, Ryu from Street Fighter...


• Fighting Video Games: How to ruin a perfectly good game of Tekken 6 - [caption id="attachment_1810" align="alignright" width="274" caption="Tekken 6"][/caption] Both video games enthusiasts and the more “casual” gamer enjoy the occasional bash on fighting games from series’ like Tekken, Dead or Aliv...


• Nintendo 3DS VS PS Vita: Which Should You Buy? - The Nintendo 3DS is currently the only next generation handheld gaming system on the market, so there really is no competitor for it...yet. With the Sony Playstation Vita coming out February 23, it could add some healthy competiti...


• Final Fantasy XIII-2 Review - When Final Fantasy XIII was released, many gamers and reviewers had mixed reactions. In short, mostly everyone agreed that the storyline was immersive, the graphics were breathtaking, and the music was intense, but the gameplay it...


• Top 10 New Video Games Coming In Holiday Season 2011 - This holiday season looks to be filled with many long awaited sequels to popular games, and is sure to strain the wallet of any gift giver with a gamer in his or her life. Below is a list of the top 10 most anticipated games comin...