Mortal Kombat

It was in 1993 when I got my first taste of gratuitous bloodshed and dazzling martial arts action in the form of the greatest 2-D fighting game ever created: "Mortal Kombat." "Kombat," as envisioned by creator/programmers Ed Boon and John Tobias, revolutionized martial arts video gaming with this awesome fighter. It also sparked an unprecedented controversy for its violence, something that would only help to further ensure its success, not defer it.

In "Mortal Kombat," we're introduced to the fighters, who include monk Liu Kang, martial arts movie star Johnny Cage, Special Forces agent Sonya Blade, Lord Rayden the god of thunder, shape-shifting sorcerer Shang Tsung, terrorist Kano, rival ninjas Sub-Zero and Scorpion, Shang Tsung's guardian Reptile, and the four-armed Goro.

"Kombat" received the big screen treatment in 1995 with British director Paul W.S. Anderson behind the camera; that movie was plain awesome, but unfortunately suffers from a bad reputation because of a horrible, disjointed sequel, "Mortal Kombat: Annihilation" (1997).

The series of games have gotten a better reputation over the years, especially with the release of two new advanced "Kombat" games, "Deadly Alliance" and "Deception," and a third - the upcoming "Shaolin Monks" - each of which takes full advantage of a revamped fighting engine.

The violence is shocking, the fights are brutal, and the blood flies but the martial arts action suffices over all of it. Though it's progressed significantly since 1992, the original hasn't lost any flare. The game that started it all, "Mortal Kombat."

10/10

Mortal Kombat and its sequels are some of the greatest games ever created! It has a good story, incredible action, great music, awesome characters, very fun, really interesting looking stages, and more! Below is a brief In-depth review of the game called Mortal Kombat!

Story: Many fighters around the world enter this deadly tournament. Since now the contest is in Shang Tsung's hands it will become much more difficult for the Kombatants to win!

The Kombatants!

Liu Kang - This Chinese warrior is a fearless fighter who is bent on getting revenge!

Johnny Cage - An action movie star, Cage enters Mortal Kombat!

Sonya Blade - A beautiful Texan who is a Lt. in the United States Army. The skilled fighter enters the tournament but why? Is it because a certain red eyed individual is Kompeteing?

Lord Rayden - Is it true Lord Rayden is the God of thunder?

Shang Tsung - This old shapeshifting fighter is one of the greatest fighters ever in the history of the world! He has the power to take a living being's soul!

Kano - A member of the Black Dragon Organization, Kano fights with no fear in the tournament!

Scorpion - A poor soul, when he was a live his wife and child were murdered by Sub Zero and the Lin Kuei clan of ninjas. Scorpion with his trusty spear is seeking revenge on the cold one.

Sub Zero - The murderer of Scorpion's family is in the tournament. Now it will be a big showdown like never seen before!

Reptile - Not much is known about this fighter except he wears the same exact ninja uniforms as Scorpion and Sub Zero but only green and can mimic other fighters maneuvers! Though it is thought that he is the last of an ancient reptilian humanoid specie, he protects Shang Tsung from enemies.

Goro - A huge half-human dragon from Kuatan, the 4th Astrial Plane of Shokan in the Realm of Outworld. This giant has been undefeated for half of a millennium. He defeated Liu Kang's ancestor the Shaolin Monk Kung Lao. Now the tournament begins!

Game Play: The game play is very good. The basic movies are easy to perform but the fatalities are very hard to do but with the help of cheats it can be much easier.

Graphics: The graphics are wonderful. Most of the game is digitalized!

Difficulty: The game can be very easy or it can be very hard depending on what you set the difficulty level.

Music: The music is great! Just awesome catchy tunes through out the game! In My opinion its some of the best music ever in a video game!

Sound: The sound is great. The real voices sound clear and the punching and kicking does as well.

Overall: I have always loved Mortal Kombat. If you like excellent fighting games then I strongly recommend you play Mortal Kombat today!

To purchase this video game on many game formats check out Amazon.com!

This was one of the few games that gave the then-very-popular Street Fighter II video game some competition, and it tried to better that classic by not only including real digitised martial arts fighters, but by putting in some really gory bits.

Just punching someone's head in repeatedly causes liquid crimson to spurt from their face in ridiculously high amounts, and when you had one two bouts out of three against your opponent you had the option (if you knew how) to perform a fatality that would actually kill your opponent in some rather horrible way.

As usual with this kind of game, every single character has a special move (the best ones were Scorpion's harpoon and Sub-Zero's freezing move that froze his opponent rigid for a short time, leaving him/her open to an attack); otherwise, all characters had much the same set of punches and kicks.

While the graphic violence (which probably started the video game rating system) is amusing for a little while, it hides a less-euphoric truth; there's not really much to all of this, and once you've seen the fatalities a few times it's doubtful you'll bother much with them (or even the game) anymore.

"Mortal Kombat"("MK") and "Street Fighter"("SF") were the two biggest games on the arena of fighting-games back in the early 1990`s. Most people preferred the SF-series, but I always preferred MK because of the graphics, gameplay and not to mention the extreme violence. The first MK remains playable today and a classic, but it has been bettered by superb sequels.

8/10

As a young kid, mortal kombat was just about the most incredible game in the history of the world ever ! Nothing could touch it !The digitised graphics , while done before were executed well and the characters were so dark, menacing and vivid that they made other video game characters look like wimps.

And in addition to the then amazing look of the game there were moves that allowed you to actually kill your opponent ! Streetfighter never went that far ! It was all too exciting. "Greatest game ever!" i squealed at the time.

Now I'm old and wise , mortal kombat doesn't do it for me no more- time has revealed its mediocre nature.The characters are still inspired, but the game play is jerky, and the difficulty level can get insanely hard . The music is bland and quickly gets annoying while the combos and moves never come out as smooth as streetfighter 2 , MKs one time rival.

Its funny how time can change things.