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143-444: Frylock has been accepted into an exclusive golf course, and allows Shake and Meatwad to come as guests. In the end, Shake manages to win and acquire a trophy, although he angers the audience at the podium by insulting golf. He is then killed by Mega Ultra Chicken in a Mortal Kombat reference. The golf segment of the game features nine holes. The first few holes are located on Jersey Pines golf course and are based on locations within

286-430: A free-roaming action-adventure mode. Both games include distinct minigame modes such as "Chess Kombat", an action- strategy game . Two other bonus minigames, "Puzzle Kombat" inspired by Puzzle Fighter and "Motor Kombat" inspired by Mario Kart , feature super deformed versions of Mortal Kombat characters. The games contain various unlockable content and hidden cheats . I think [ Mortal Kombat ] represents

429-427: A stop motion model which was created by Curt Chiarelli. Shang Tsung , the game's main antagonist and final boss (who was played by two actors, Eric Kincade and Ho-Sung Pak , although only the latter is credited in the actual game) is a sorcerer who can transform into any playable character in the game at any time during a battle. He serves Emperor Shao Kahn, but secretly possesses ambitions of his own. Shang Tsung

572-406: A "Mirror Match" against a duplicate of the player's chosen character. The player must then fight in three endurance matches, each of which involves two opponents. As soon as the player defeats the first opponent, the second one enters the arena and the timer resets; however, the player's health meter doesn't regenerate. After the third endurance match, the player fights the sub-boss Goro, followed by

715-502: A budget of well under $ 100 million (projected at between $ 40–50 million ) and a release date of 2013, but was ultimately delayed due to budget constraints. Tancharoen quit the production in October 2013. A reboot , Mortal Kombat (2021), was released on April 23, 2021, to mixed reviews, grossing over $ 84 million worldwide from theaters while also releasing simultaneously on the streaming service HBO Max . Production restarted on

858-634: A co-production between Warner Bros. Animation and either Studio Mir or Digital eMation . The first, Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpion's Revenge , was released in April 2020, as the first R-rated Mortal Kombat film. The second film, Mortal Kombat Legends: Battle of the Realms , was released in August 2021. The third film, Mortal Kombat Legends: Snow Blind , was released on October 11, 2022. A fourth film, Mortal Kombat Legends: Cage Match ,

1001-513: A combination of attacks while the enemy is still airborne and defenseless. The idea became so popular that it has spread to many other games. Another of the game's innovations was the Fatality , a finishing move performed against a defeated opponent to execute them in a gruesome fashion. In the single-player game, the player faces each of the seven playable characters in a series of one-on-one matches against computer-controlled opponents, ending in

1144-525: A different array of punches, kicks and blocks. Mortal Kombat 4 was the first Mortal Kombat game in which the characters could move in three dimensions and the first to use 3D computer graphics . From Deadly Alliance to Mortal Kombat: Deception , characters had three fighting styles per character: two unarmed styles, and one weapon style. While most of the styles used in the series are based on real martial arts , some are fictitious. Goro's fighting styles, for example, are designed to take advantage of

1287-462: A display of friendship towards the enemy instead of slaughter, and Babalities, which turn the opponent into a baby. The series takes place in a fictional universe consisting of numerous realms which, according to in-game backstories, were created by the Elder Gods, an ancient, ethereal pantheon of almightest, eternal preternatural beings. The Mortal Kombat: Deception manual described six of

1430-567: A feature that allows players to perform their own Fatalities by conducting a series of violent moves chosen from a pool that is common to all characters. Other finishing moves in the various Mortal Kombat games include Animalities (introduced in Mortal Kombat 3 ), in which the victor turns into an animal to violently finish off the opponent; Brutality (introduced in Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 ) which consists of bashing

1573-566: A fighting game featuring a digitized version of Van Damme. Intending to make a game "a lot more hard edge, a little bit more serious, a little bit more like Enter the Dragon or Bloodsport " than contemporary cartoonish fighting games, Tobias and Boon decided to continue their project even after the deal to use the Bloodsport license fell through. The first of Mortal Kombat characters, Johnny Cage (Daniel Pesina), became "a spoof on

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1716-401: A final match against Shang Tsung . Between certain levels, players can compete in a minigame called "Test Your Might" for bonus points, breaking blocks of various materials by filling a meter past a certain point through rapid button presses. The first material the player must break is wood, followed by stone, steel, ruby, and finally diamond, with each successive material requiring more of

1859-480: A move on the Game Boy. The unresponsive two-button controls are almost impossible to master. The game play is also abysmally slow, and the fighters don't always connect, even when they're close to an opponent." Additionally bemoaning the difficult-to-discern graphics, weak animation, and minimal sound, they deemed it the worst version of the game. Reviewing the Game Boy version of the game, Nintendo Power stated that

2002-488: A name for the game. Ed Boon has stated that for six months during development "nobody could come up with a name nobody didn't hate." Some of the names suggested were Kumite , Dragon Attack , Death Blow , and Fatality . One day, someone had written down "combat" on the drawing board for the names in Boon's office and someone wrote a K over the C , according to Boon, "just to be kind of weird." Pinball designer Steve Ritchie

2145-580: A new generation of warriors must challenge Goro. According to the Mortal Kombat series' canon, Liu Kang wins this tournament under Raiden's guidance, defeating Goro and Shang Tsung and freeing the many souls that Tsung had imprisoned over the centuries. Scorpion pursues Sub-Zero and finally faces him after the end of the tournament, killing him and avenging his own death. Sonya rescues her special forces squad whom had been held hostage by Shang Tsung. She fails to apprehend Kano, however, who escapes

2288-961: A player-decided champion defeat him and erase his timeline from existence. Through its iterations, the series has featured scores of player characters , some of them becoming mainstays, such as Baraka , Cassie Cage , Cyrax , Ermac , Fujin , Goro , Jade , Jax , Johnny Cage , Kabal , Kano , Kenshi , Kintaro , Kitana , Kung Lao , Li Mei, Liu Kang , Mileena , Motaro , Nightwolf , Noob Saibot , Quan Chi , Raiden , Rain , Reptile , Scorpion , Sektor , Shang Tsung , Shao Kahn , Sheeva , Shinnok , Sindel , Skarlet , Smoke , Sonya Blade , Stryker , Sub-Zero and Tanya . Among them are Earth's humans and cyborgs, good and evil deities, and denizens of Outworld and other realms. Starting with Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe , which featured several DC Universe heroes and villains, all subsequent games have included guest characters such as Freddy Krueger from A Nightmare on Elm Street franchise, Kratos from

2431-596: A pool of acid). Mortal Kombat: Deception added the Hara-Kiri , a move that allows the loser to perform a suicidal finishing move, giving way to a potential race between both players to see if the winner can finish off their opponent before they can kill themselves. There are two non-violent finishing moves in the series, which were introduced in Mortal Kombat II as a satire to controversies surrounding Mortal Kombat : Friendship moves, which result in

2574-509: A powerful laser beam. Carlos Pesina plays Raiden (spelled "Rayden" in the MS-DOS and console ports), a thunder god and guardian of Earthrealm who competes in the tournament as a mortal, and seeks to guide Liu Kang and the other Earthrealmers to victory. Daniel Pesina , Carlos' brother, plays the Hollywood movie star Johnny Cage . Cage's acting career has faltered and he seeks victory in

2717-691: A prototype was made, development was halted in order to fully focus on the SNES port of Mortal Kombat II . In the United States, RePlay reported Mortal Kombat to be the second most-popular upright arcade cabinet in September 1992. It then topped the RePlay upright arcade cabinet charts from October to November 1992, then from February to March 1993, and then in November 1993. It also topped

2860-404: A reboot in 2015 when James Wan joined to produce and director Simon McQuoid joined the following year. The script was written by Greg Russo and David Callaham with Lewis Tan , Jessica McNamee , Josh Lawson , Tadanobu Asano , and Hiroyuki Sanada starring. A sequel is in development with McQuoid returning as director and with a screenplay written by Jeremy Slater . * Cole Young

3003-487: A single 2D fighting plane, although characters are rendered in 3D ; unlike previous Mortal Kombat games, each of the controller's four attack buttons corresponds to one of the character's limbs, the buttons thus becoming front punch, back punch, front kick and back kick ("front" indicates the limb that is closer to the opponent, and "back" indicates the limb that is farther away from the opponent). Mortal Kombat: Deception and Mortal Kombat: Armageddon feature "Konquest",

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3146-399: A small amount of damage from regular moves while blocking. However, the dedicated block button allows users to defend against attacks without retreating and blocking characters lose very little ground when struck, thus making counterattacks much easier after a successful block. Mortal Kombat further introduced the concept of "juggling", knocking an opponent into the air and following up with

3289-472: A special set of conditions. Reptile is given no backstory in-game, but later games establish him as a humanoid reptilian . Reptile believes himself to be the last living member of his species and although he personally opposes the conquest of Earthrealm, Reptile serves Shang Tsung, having been falsely promised by Tsung that he would revive his species if Outworld wins the tournament. Goro, Shang Tsung, and Reptile were non-playable characters. The Masked Guard in

3432-529: A team composed of the next generation of Earthrealm's heroes in defeating him. With Shinnok and Quan Chi defeated, Liu Kang and Kitana's revenants assume control of the Netherrealm while Raiden taps into Shinnok's amulet. Mortal Kombat 11 and its expansion, Aftermath, sees the architect of time and Shinnok's mother, Kronika, working to alter the timeline following her son's defeat and Raiden's tampering with her work. In doing so, she brings past versions of

3575-625: A test version seeing limited release halfway through the development cycle. As a demo version of the game, which featured only six characters (all male), became internally popular within Midway offices, the team was given more time to work on it, resulting in the addition of Sonya to the roster. Footage for the game's digitized characters was filmed with Tobias' personal Hi-8 camcorder. The final arcade game used eight megabytes of graphics data, with each character having 64 colors and around 300 frames of animation. The team had difficulty settling on

3718-615: A tournament is being held on Shang Tsung's Island, on which seven of its locations serve as stages in the game. The introduction to Mortal Kombat explains that Shang Tsung was banished to Earthrealm 500 years ago and, with the help of the monstrous Goro, can seize control of the Mortal Kombat tournament in an attempt to doom the realm. For 500 years straight, Goro has been undefeated in the tournament, and won nine consecutive tournaments. If Goro wins again, Shao Kahn, Emperor of Outworld, will be allowed to take Earthrealm. To prevent this,

3861-483: Is a film-exclusive character who has not appeared in any of the games. Midway published official one-shot issues based on Mortal Kombat and Mortal Kombat II , which were written and illustrated by Tobias and set prior to the storylines of both games. From 1994 to 1995, Malibu Comics published a licensed series consisting of two six-issue miniseries in addition to one-shot specials and miniseries dedicated to specific characters. Special tie-in issues were packaged with

4004-414: Is an American media franchise centered on a series of fighting video games originally developed by Midway Games in 1992. The original Mortal Kombat arcade game spawned a franchise consisting of action-adventure games , a comic book series, a card game, films, an animated TV series, and a live-action tour. Mortal Kombat has become the best-selling fighting game franchise worldwide and one of

4147-530: Is centuries old, having stolen the souls of slain warriors to prolong his own life. Shao Kahn , Emperor of Outworld, is unseen in-game but is mentioned in story text. Kahn is a cruel and merciless conqueror, and will be allowed to take Earthrealm if he wins this final tournament. When fighting on the Pit stage, the player could qualify to fight the secret character Reptile , a green-clad palette swap of Scorpion and Sub-Zero who uses both characters' moves, by meeting

4290-440: Is considered by critics to be one of the greatest video games ever made . It spawned numerous sequels and spin-offs, beginning with Mortal Kombat II in 1993. Both games were the subject of a film adaptation in 1995. However, it also sparked much controversy for its depiction of extreme violence and gore using realistic digitized graphics and, along with the home releases of Night Trap and Lethal Enforcers , prompted

4433-537: Is described as a Caucasian man orphaned as a child in Japan , and his vicious nature led him to be raised in the Japanese underworld. In later games his origin was retconned , establishing him as having an Australian background. Kano cares little for the tournament and seeks to steal Shang Tsung's treasures. He is also a cyborg , having one of his eyes and part of his face replaced with cybernetic implants which can emit

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4576-647: Is focused on the first incarnation character of Sub-Zero and is focused in the timeline before the first Mortal Kombat game. The next action game was Mortal Kombat: Special Forces , released in 2000 for the PlayStation, starring Major Jackson Briggs in his mission to destroy the Black Dragon. Both games were critically panned (although the reception of Mythologies was more mediocre). Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks , developed by Midway Studios Los Angeles ,

4719-486: Is the result. — Street Fighter producer Yoshinori Ono One of the most notable features of the Mortal Kombat series is its brutal and gruesome finishing moves, known as " Fatalities ". The basic Fatalities are finishing moves that allow the victorious characters to end a match by murdering their defeated, defenseless opponent. Usually Fatalities are exclusive to each character, the exception being Mortal Kombat: Armageddon , which instead features Kreate-A-Fatality,

4862-478: Is ultimately defeated by Liu Kang once more. After the Kahn's defeat, Edenia was freed from his grasp and returned to a peaceful realm, ruled by Princess Kitana. The following game, Mortal Kombat 4 , features the fallen elder god Shinnok attempting to conquer the realms and kill Raiden. He is defeated by Liu Kang. In Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance , the evil sorcerers Quan Chi and Shang Tsung join forces to conquer

5005-759: The God of War franchise (exclusively for PlayStation 3), Jason Voorhees from the Friday the 13th franchise, the Xenomorph from Alien , Leatherface from the Texas Chainsaw Massacre franchise, the titular character of Predator , the titular character of the Terminator franchise, the titular character of RoboCop , Spawn of Image Comics, Omni-Man from Image Comics 's Invincible , John Rambo , Homelander from The Boys , and

5148-517: The Play Meter arcade chart in December 1992. It was the second top-grossing arcade game of Summer 1993, below NBA Jam , according to RePlay . It was one of America's top two highest-grossing arcade games of 1993 (along with NBA Jam ), exceeding the $ 300,000,000 (equivalent to $ 630,000,000 in 2023) domestic box office gross of the film Jurassic Park the same year. It also topped

5291-664: The Joker , who was previously in Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe , Peacemaker (more specifically: the character from the DC Extended Universe and DC Universe ), both from DC Comics , and Ghostface from the Scream franchise. Mortal Kombat started development in 1991 with four people: Ed Boon (programming), John Tobias (art and story), John Vogel (graphics), and Dan Forden (sound design). According to Mortal Kombat actors Richard Divizio and Daniel Pesina ,

5434-415: The Mortal Kombat and DC Universes begin to merge. This brings the warriors and heroes into conflicts after suffering bouts of uncontrollable rage. The heroes and villains of both universes repeatedly battle each other, believing each other to be responsible for the catastrophe, until only Raiden and Superman remain. The two confront Dark Kahn and team up to defeat their common foe. After Dark Kahn's defeat,

5577-484: The Mortal Kombat commercial for home systems, was released in 1993 as a single and was used as a theme music for the Mortal Kombat film series. Each film had their own soundtracks (including the hit and award-winning compilation album Mortal Kombat: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack ), as had the second video game ( Mortal Kombat II: Music from the Arcade Game Soundtrack ). The 2011 video game saw

5720-479: The Mortal Monday commercial. This port didn't require a code to be entered to access the uncensored content and thus was given an MA-17 rating. While this port was technologically inferior to the better-looking SNES port and had loading times, it resembled the arcade version more faithfully in actual gameplay. It also featured the authentic CD-DA soundtrack, taken directly from the arcade version, but some of

5863-562: The Rebirth short, titled Mortal Kombat: Legacy and also directed by Kevin Tancharoen. The series' first season was released for free on YouTube starting in April 2011, promoted by Machinima.com , and the second season arrived in 2013. In 2014, Blue Ribbon Content had been developing a live-action series that was to tie in with Mortal Kombat X for a planned 2016 release, titled Mortal Kombat: Generations . The series, however,

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6006-695: The Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) and Sega Genesis , and handheld console ports for the Game Boy and Game Gear . While the SNES version's visuals and audio were more arcade accurate than those of the Genesis version, it has less precise controls and due to Nintendo 's "family friendly" policies, replaces the blood with sweat and most of the Fatalities with less violent "finishing moves". The sweat effect, which

6149-527: The Wii . Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe , a non-canonical crossover fighting game between the Mortal Kombat franchise and DC Comics , was released in 2008 for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. A ninth game in the series, a reboot titled Mortal Kombat , was developed by the former Midway Games, now known as NetherRealm Studios . It was released for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in 2011, and

6292-505: The highest-grossing media franchises of all time . The series has a reputation for high levels of graphic violence, including, most notably, its fatalities , which are finishing moves that kill defeated opponents instead of knocking them out. Controversies surrounding Mortal Kombat , in part, led to the creation of the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) video game rating system. Early games in

6435-437: The "dizzied" mechanic, but that it was fun to have one's opponent get dizzied and get in a free hit. Boon and Tobias decided they could eliminate the aggravation of getting dizzied by having it occur at the end of the fight, after the outcome had already been decided. An early version of the game used two more buttons for middle punch and kick attacks. Mortal Kombat was reportedly developed in 10 months from 1991 to 1992, with

6578-490: The Aftermath expansion, it is revealed that Liu Kang inadvertently destroyed Kronika's crown, the item needed to restart the timeline. Her defeat also revives Shang Tsung, who was absent in the base game due to his imprisonment by Kronika. To recover the crown, Liu Kang sends Shang Tsung and other Earthrealm heroes back in time to obtain it before Kronika, though Shang Tsung manipulates events so that he comes into possession of

6721-473: The Courtyard stage was portrayed by Mortal Kombat developer John Vogel. Rumors were spread of two characters, Ermac and Nimbus Terrafaux, who were also supposedly secret fighters in the game. However, the name Ermac was the result of a text glitch and the character didn't really exist, while Nimbus was a prank started by Electronic Gaming Monthly . The developers liked the idea of Ermac so much that he

6864-579: The Genesis version accounting for the majority of sales. An additional million cartridges of the Game Boy version were sold. As of 2002 , the original arcade version has sold 24,000 arcade units and grossed an estimated $ 570 million . The game also generated licensing fees from films and TV shows, bringing total game and licensing revenue to $ 1.5 billion as of 2002 . The arcade game received mixed reviews upon release from Computer and Video Games and Sinclair User . The digitized sprite graphics were praised and compared favorably with Pit-Fighter , but

7007-458: The Nintendo version's widely reported censorship of blood and dismemberments affected sales, and was widely criticized by gaming media for censorship issues into the following decades. In 2006, IGN named it as the eighth worst arcade-to-console conversion. Nintendo's decision to make the game more family-friendly was also included on GameSpy 's list of the dumbest moments in gaming. Reviewing

7150-468: The PC release of Mortal Kombat 4 and for Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe , respectively. A Mortal Kombat X series by DC Comics , set before the game's events, ran from January to September 2015 with three miniseries of twelve issues that were released weekly in 36 chapter installments. A novel titled Mortal Kombat was written by Jeff Rovin and published in 1995, and featured an original plot that preceded

7293-465: The Realm of Order, whose inhabitants prize structure and order above all else; the Realm of Chaos, whose inhabitants do not abide by any rules whatsoever, and where constant turmoil and change are worshiped; and Edenia, which is known for its beauty, artistic expression, and the longevity of its inhabitants." The Elder Gods decreed that the denizens of one realm could only conquer another realm by defeating

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7436-574: The Sega CD sales chart in June 1994. In November 1993, Acclaim announced that they had shipped more than three million copies of Mortal Kombat for home systems, counting the SNES, Genesis, Game Boy and Game Gear versions combined. The game sold 3 million copies worldwide in its first three weeks of release. In the United States, it was the top-selling Sega Genesis and SNES game in January 1994. In

7579-533: The Special Forces agent Sonya Blade , who enters in pursuit of the dangerous Black Dragon organization. Her team is captured and held hostage by Shang Tsung, forcing Sonya to participate in the tournament. Sonya was inspired by actress Cynthia Rothrock . Richard Divizio portrays Kano , a savage criminal and mercenary. Kano is a member of the Black Dragons, a powerful organized crime syndicate. He

7722-458: The Super NES release, Nintendo Power praised the games graphics, animation and sound as "excellent" while noting that four of the finishing moves are unidentical to the arcade game. The review criticized the game as "pretty easy unless you set the difficulty to hard." GamePro ' s review of the Genesis port echoed the comparisons mentioned in their SNES review, but noted that while all

7865-522: The U.S. and over $ 122 million worldwide; the film gained a cult following amongst fans of the video game series with Robin Shou , Linden Ashby , Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa , Bridgette Wilson , Talisa Soto and Christopher Lambert starring, and its success launched the Hollywood career of its director, Paul W. S. Anderson . Mortal Kombat Annihilation was directed by John R. Leonetti with Shou and Soto as

8008-545: The United Kingdom, it was the top-selling home video game in October 1993, the top-selling Sega Master System game for four months in 1994 (from May to August), and the top-selling Mega CD game in June 1994. By July 1994, the home cartridge versions had sold more than 6 million units worldwide and grossed over $ 300,000,000 (equivalent to $ 630,000,000 in 2023) in sales revenue. As of 2000 , it has sold 6.5 million cartridges across all home consoles, with

8151-484: The arcade version fatalities are included in "Mode A", they are noticeably cruder in appearance. They also criticized the fact that the port was developed for the three-button controller , saying this makes some moves awkward to pull off, but concluded, "Great graphics, sound, and control in combination with the special Mode A setting make the Genesis Mortal Kombat a beat-em-up force." Highly praising

8294-428: The arenas feature the wrong music (such as Courtyard playing the Pit's theme). Several remixes of the Mortal Kombat theme music were included as bonus features, including the remix used later for the film adaptation. Some copies of this version are incompatible with model 1.1 of the Sega CD; Acclaim offered to replace any such discs that were mailed to their Oyster Bay headquarters with working copies. Mortal Kombat

8437-448: The beginning, one of the things that's separated us from other fighting games is the crazy moves we've put in it, like fireballs and all the magic moves, so to speak." According to Tobias, the game's ultraviolent content hadn't been originally intended and was only implemented gradually as the development progressed. The concept of Fatalities in particular evolved from the "dizzied" mechanic in earlier fighting games. Boon said that he hated

8580-412: The brothers Daniel and Carlos Pesina planned to create a ninja-themed fighting game, however this idea was rejected by Midway's management. Instead, Midway sought to make an action game based on the upcoming movie Universal Soldier and featuring a digitized version of martial arts film star Jean-Claude Van Damme , but he was already in negotiations with another company for a video game that ultimately

8723-573: The brownie monsters, Turkatron, and the Mooninites. When the Aqua Teens reach the green they must defeat that hole's boss before they can putt. In the golf segment's racing levels, the trio race their golf cart through the course they just played, shooting Frat Aliens with a bazooka, collecting speed boosts, and passing check points toward the goal of completing three laps to move on to the next level. There are Easter eggs on each level for both

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8866-477: The console. This version was given an MA-13 rating by the Videogame Rating Council . The Game Boy version was largely cut down from its arcade counterpart. It had laggy controls and a limited button layout. It also omitted Johnny Cage, Reptile and the bloodier Fatality moves. However, players could play as Goro via a code. Johnny Cage was apparently intended to be a playable character, but

9009-436: The costume, and while doing that we create the storyline and how s/he fits into the universe. Then we'll find an actor that kinda resembles our character." Tobias' writing and artistic input on the series ended around 2000 following the release of Mortal Kombat 4 . In 2012, he said: "I knew exactly what I was going to do with a future story. A few years ago, I [wrote] a sort of sequel to the first MK film and an advancement to

9152-642: The crown. At the end, either Liu Kang or Shang Tsung becomes the Keeper of Time, depending on the player's choice (who they want to fight with in the final battle) and the outcome of the battle. Mortal Kombat 1 , the second reboot on the series' timeline, sees Lord Liu Kang has created his New Era and strives to maintain peace between all the realms. However, his plans begin to unravel when Shang Tsung and Quan Chi , despite his attempts to have them de-powered and unable to cause trouble, ally with General Shao in order to conquer Earthrealm and Outworld. Investigating

9295-495: The defending realm's greatest warriors in ten consecutive martial arts tournaments, called Mortal Kombat. The first Mortal Kombat game takes place in Earthrealm (Earth) where seven different warriors with their own reasons for entering the tournament with the prize being the continued freedom of their realm under threat of a takeover by Outworld. Among the established warriors were Liu Kang, Johnny Cage, and Sonya Blade. With

9438-517: The difference in philosophy. [....] So in Street Fighter when you're playing it's the moment to moment gameplay that should be the best, whether you win or lose doesn't really matter. Whereas in Mortal Kombat the fighting and playing is just a pathway to get to the result – it's the Fatality you want to see and you almost want to skip the fighting bit and get to the Fatality because that

9581-450: The difficulty in pulling off the moves in the game, finding that some players will "be frustrated by the awkwardness of the commands" and that "those unfamiliar with the game will frequently find themselves accidentally discharging specialty moves while attempting a simple spin kick or other stunt." Reviewing the Game Boy version, GamePro commented, "If you think the moves on the other systems are hard to execute, wait until you try to pull

9724-417: The ensuing battle, Shinnok is imprisoned within his amulet and various warriors are resurrected and freed from his control, though Quan Chi escapes. Twenty-five years later, the sorcerer resurfaces alongside the insectoid D'Vorah to facilitate Shinnok's return. A vengeful Scorpion kills Quan Chi, but fails to stop him from freeing Shinnok. To combat him, Cassie Cage, daughter of Johnny Cage and Sonya Blade, leads

9867-539: The events of the first game. Novelizations of both Mortal Kombat feature films were written by Martin Delrio and Jerome Preisler, respectively. Mortal Kombat: The Album , a techno album based on the first game, was created for Virgin America by Lords of Acid members Praga Khan and Oliver Adams as The Immortals in 1994. Its iconic theme "Techno Syndrome", incorporating the "Mortal Kombat!" yell first shown in

10010-417: The fact that he has four arms. For Armageddon , fighting styles were reduced to a maximum of two per character (generally one hand-to-hand combat style and one weapon style) due to the sheer number of playable characters. Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe dropped multiple fighting styles for most characters in favor of giving each character a wider variety of special moves 2011's Mortal Kombat returned to

10153-451: The first entry in the Mortal Kombat series and was subsequently released by Acclaim Entertainment for nearly every home platform at that time. The game focuses on several characters of various intentions who enter a martial arts tournament with worldly consequences. It introduced many key aspects of the Mortal Kombat series, including the unique five-button control scheme and gory finishing moves called Fatalities . Mortal Kombat

10296-401: The first game began as a ninja-themed project by John Tobias (a young new employee of Midway Games at the time) and them as well as Carlos Pesina, however their pitch to Tobias' boss Ed Boon was rejected by the management of Midway. Midway was approached to create a video game adaptation of the then-upcoming 1992 film Universal Soldier , starring Jean-Claude Van Damme , and Tobias imagined

10439-411: The first game, the male ninja fighters were essentially the same character; only the colors of their attire, fighting stance, and special techniques mark a difference. Later games added further ninjas based on the same model, as well as several female ninja color swap characters initially also using just one base model. All of them gradually became very different characters in the following installments of

10582-447: The first two used a joystick and five buttons: high punch, low punch, high kick, low kick, and block; Mortal Kombat 3 and its updates added a sixth "run" button. Characters in the early Mortal Kombat games play virtually identically to one another, with the only major differences being their special moves. Through the 1990s, the developer and publisher Midway Games kept their single-styled fighting moves with four attack buttons for

10725-414: The following year. The following game, Mortal Kombat 4 , was released in 1997, and marked the jump of the series to 3D rendered graphics instead of the digitized 2D graphics used in previous games. Mortal Kombat 4 was ported to the PlayStation , Nintendo 64 and Microsoft Windows . Mortal Kombat 4 was the last Mortal Kombat game released for arcades. Its updated version titled Mortal Kombat Gold

10868-573: The form of an image of sound designer Dan Forden that randomly appeared in a lower corner of the screen after a player landed an uppercut . Hidden games of Pong and Galaga were included in Mortal Kombat II and Mortal Kombat 3 , respectively. The original Mortal Kombat game was released by Midway in arcades during October 1992, and has been ported to several console and home computer systems, with early ports released by Acclaim Entertainment . The sequel, Mortal Kombat II ,

11011-453: The formation of the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB), a U.S. government-backed organization that set descriptor ratings for video games. Mortal Kombat is a fighting game in which players battle opponents in one-on-one matches. The fighter that drains the opponent's health bar first wins the round, and the first to win two rounds wins the match. Each round is timed; if both fighters still have health remaining when time runs out,

11154-416: The game a score of 5 out of 10, writing: "It can be a hilarious waste of time (Meatwad's caddy pep talk was brilliant), but a waste none the less." Alex Navarro of GameSpot gave it a score of 3.5 out of 10, writing: "Just because a game seemingly aims to be bad on purpose doesn't make it any less of a bad game." However, even among negative reviews, the game's inclusion of ESPN sportscaster Scott Van Pelt

11297-464: The game being developed by Iguana Entertainment was scheduled to be published on the Atari Jaguar , but it was never released. In 2004, Jakks Pacific released the game as one of its Plug It in & Play TV Games , developed by Digital Eclipse . It is a unique port made directly from the arcade code by Chris Burke, who was the sole programmer on the port. Due to hardware limitations from

11440-416: The game's audits screen was additionally interpreted by players as referring to a second hidden character named Ermac . Midway denied the character's existence in the series before adding him to Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 in response to the player rumors and feedback. Some Easter eggs originated from in-jokes among the series developers. One example is "Toasty", which was included in Mortal Kombat II in

11583-436: The game's mythological roots." The title Mortal Kombat was the idea of pinball designer Steve Ritchie , following difficulties trademarking the original title of Mortal Combat . Since then, the series often intentionally misspells various words with the letter "K" in place of "C" for the hard C sound. According to Boon, during the Mortal Kombat games' development they usually spell such words correctly, only making

11726-443: The game, SNES , Genesis , Game Boy , and Game Gear , on September 13, 1993, a date dubbed "Mortal Monday". In the same year, a comic book, Mortal Kombat Collector's Edition , was written and illustrated by the game's designer artist John Tobias and made available through mail order , describing the backstory of the game in greater detail. The comic was advertised during the game's attract mode and would later be sold, although it

11869-473: The gameplay had stayed in a 2D plane; this trend would continue for the following two games. The next sequel was 2004's Mortal Kombat: Deception , released for the PlayStation 2 , Xbox , and GameCube . Its port for the PlayStation Portable , Mortal Kombat: Unchained , was released in 2006. Mortal Kombat: Armageddon was published in 2006 for the PlayStation 2, Xbox, and in 2007 for

12012-416: The gameplay was compared unfavorably with Street Fighter II and Fatal Fury 2 . Upon release on home systems, the game received generally positive reviews. GamePro hailed the SNES port of Mortal Kombat as having graphics closer to the arcade version than the other three initial home ports, with cleaner definition and a better color palette, and said that while four of the fatalities had been cut,

12155-456: The golf and racing sections. The Aqua Teens can collect cameos and pieces of the Broodwich to unlock a special Broodwich battle video. Several cutscenes of the game were made available as a special feature on the volume 6 DVD. The game was met with negative reception upon release; GameRankings gave it a score of 42.06%, while Metacritic gave it 37 out of 100. Sam Bishop of IGN gave

12298-510: The graphical detail and sharpness, as well as the bloody action when the violence code is enabled, GamePro declared the Game Gear version to be "everything its 16-bit big brother is, plus it's portable." They noted that the audio is fairly basic and, as with all four initial home ports, it has issues with the controls, but considered it an overall impressive achievement for a portable system. It later won GamePro ' s 1993 hand-held game of

12441-569: The help of the thunder god Raiden, the Earthrealm warriors were victorious, and Liu Kang became the new champion of Mortal Kombat. In Mortal Kombat II , unable to deal with his minion Shang Tsung's failure, Outworld Emperor Shao Kahn lures the Earthrealm warriors to Outworld for a do-over, winner-take-all tournament, where Liu Kang eventually defeats Shao Kahn. By the time of Mortal Kombat 3 , Shao Kahn merged Edenia with his empire and revived its former queen Sindel in Earthrealm, combining it with Outworld as well. He attempts to invade Earthrealm, but

12584-576: The interviewer preferred the "precision and depth" of Street Fighter or the "gore and comedy" of Mortal Kombat and also stated that the Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat rivalry was considered similar to the Coke and Pepsi rivalry in the 1990s. Mortal Kombat didn't rely on just good looks and gore for its success. Although the intense gore was a great way to attract attention, Mortal Kombat offered another side – an often-overlooked side – that kept people coming back for more: its storyline, including

12727-403: The island on a boat. Reptile, unsure of his fate, flees to Outworld. Raiden then teleports the surviving Earthrealmers to safety as Shang Tsung's island crumbles into the sea. Returning to Hollywood, Johnny Cage uses the experience to revive his failing acting career and develops a highly popular film franchise called Mortal Kombat. In Outworld, an outraged Shao Kahn refuses to accept the outcome of

12870-446: The letter C when it has the hard C sound. While the arcade version of Mortal Kombat was unlocalized for Japan, it had an official release there in 1992 by Taito , who published imports of Midway's games in the Japanese market. The launch of Mortal Kombat for home consoles by Acclaim Entertainment was one of the largest video game launches of the time. TV commercials heralded the simultaneous release of all four home versions of

13013-504: The lukewarm response to the SNES version of the game, developer Sculptured Software , who handled the Super Nintendo port, proposed releasing an updated version for the system titled Mortal Kombat Nitro , which would feature additional content such as new costumes, an expanded story mode with multiple endings, and Goro, Shang Tsung and Reptile made playable in addition to the restoration of the original fatalities and blood. Although

13156-652: The matter, Liu Kang discovers that the Shang Tsung from MK11: Aftermath is responsible, as Liu Kang's attempts to access the Hourglass' power resulted in a break where every character in Mortal Kombat ' s universe defeated Kronika and gained control of the Hourglass . In an attempt to stop the sorcerer from taking control of all of the multiple timelines, Liu Kang leads an army of good variations in an assault on Titan Shang Tsung's dimension, where, after an intense battle with all their evil counterparts, Liu Kang and

13299-618: The meter to be filled up and thus awarding more points. Two players can compete in the minigame at once and the last two materials are only accessible through two-player mode. The minigame returned in various forms in Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance , Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks , Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe , Mortal Kombat: Komplete Edition , Mortal Kombat X , and its DLC counterpart, Mortal Kombat XL . The game takes place in Earthrealm , where

13442-466: The new finishing moves which replace them "are pretty cool, though not as bloody." Comparing it to the Genesis version, they found that the controls are less responsive but the sound is better due to the higher quality and inclusion of the announcer's voice. They concluded, "Despite some control glitches and the altered Fatality Moves, Mortal Kombat for the SNES is a great representation of an arcade classic that will more than satisfy most gamers." However,

13585-466: The one with more health wins the round. Two players can start a game together, or a second player can join in during a single player's game to fight against them. If a game was in progress at the time, the winner continues it alone; if not, the winner begins a new game. Mortal Kombat uses an eight-directional joystick and five buttons, including two punch and two kick buttons, each further differentiated between high and low. Attacks can vary depending on

13728-400: The only two returning from the first film. The film received a poor reception by critics, grossing $ 36 million in the U.S. and $ 51 million worldwide. In 2010, director Kevin Tancharoen released an eight-minute short film titled Mortal Kombat: Rebirth , made as a proof of concept for Tancharoen's pitch of a reboot film franchise to Warner Bros. Pictures . Tancharoen later confirmed that

13871-410: The opponent into pieces with a long combo of hits; and Stage Fatalities/Death Traps (introduced in the original Mortal Kombat Pit Stage where the victor can uppercut their opponent off of the platform into a bed of spikes below, later made more difficult in Mortal Kombat II by requiring a character-specific button sequence) utilizing parts of certain stages to execute a lethal finishing move (such as

14014-456: The original arcade music and sound effects. An Amiga version was released in early 1994 in Europe only, with graphics based on the Genesis version, controls limited to either one or two action buttons, and a minimal soundtrack with music arranged by Allister Brimble . The DOS version was eventually released on GOG.com . The Sega CD version of the game was released featuring a video intro of

14157-803: The past Raiden attempts to alter the timeline to avert Armageddon amidst the tenth Mortal Kombat tournament, during the original game. His attempts to alter history mean that events play out differently to the original series. While he succeeds in preventing Shao Kahn's victory with help from the Elder Gods, he accidentally kills Liu Kang in self-defense and loses most of his allies to Queen Sindel, leaving Earthrealm vulnerable to Shinnok and Quan Chi's machinations. Mortal Kombat X sees Shinnok and Quan Chi enacting their plan, leading an army of undead revenants of those that were killed in Shao Kahn's invasion of Earthrealm. A team of warriors led by Raiden, Johnny Cage, Kenshi Takahashi, and Sonya Blade oppose them, and in

14300-560: The player's distance from the opponent. All player characters have a shared set of attacks performed by holding the joystick in various directions, such as a leg sweep and an uppercut. The latter attack knocks the enemy high into the air and causes a large amount of damage. Most special moves were performed by tapping the joystick, sometimes ending with a button press. Unlike previous one-on-one fighting games, few moves require circular joystick movement. The game's blocking system also distinguished itself from other fighting games, as characters take

14443-420: The realm's heroes to the present, aligning herself with some while the rest work to defeat her. After nearly killing Liu Kang a second time, Raiden discovers Kronika has manipulated them into fighting across multiple timelines as she fears their combined power. Despite her interference and attacks by her minions, Raiden gives Liu Kang his power, turning him into a god of fire and thunder so he can defeat Kronika. In

14586-503: The realms as: "Earthrealm, home to such legendary heroes as Liu Kang , Kung Lao , Sonya Blade , Johnny Cage , and Jax Briggs , and under the protection of the Thunder God Raiden ; Netherrealm, the fiery depths of which are inhospitable to all but the most vile, a realm of demons and shadowy warriors such as Quan Chi and Noob Saibot ; Outworld, a realm of constant strife which Emperor Shao Kahn claims as his own; Seido,

14729-482: The realms from Armageddon by defeating a firespawn known as Blaze . In the end, Shao Kahn is the one who defeats Blaze and wins the war, causing Armageddon. The crossover Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe does not share continuity with the other games. After the simultaneous defeats of both Shao Kahn and the alien warlord Darkseid in the DC Universe causes both villains to fuse into the entity "Dark Kahn", both

14872-431: The realms, killing series protagonist Liu Kang in the process. By Mortal Kombat: Deception , after several fights, the sorcerers emerge victorious, having killed most of Earthrealm's warriors until Raiden steps forth to oppose them. The Dragon King Onaga, former ruler of Outworld, returned to merge all realms back together, but was eventually defeated by the game's protagonist, Shujinko. In Mortal Kombat: Armageddon ,

15015-472: The release of Mortal Kombat: Songs Inspired by the Warriors , a new soundtrack album featuring electronic music by various artists. An animated series titled Mortal Kombat: Defenders of the Realm was released in 1996. It ran for one season and received negative reviews. In 1998, Mortal Kombat: Conquest was released. It lasted one season. In 2010, Warner Premiere ordered a web series inspired by

15158-440: The same day as all the aforementioned platforms. According to Phylene Riggs of Acclaim, an NES port was also planned at one point, but cancelled before it entered the programming stage. A port for DOS PCs was released in late 1993. The DOS version is the most accurate port of the arcade version in terms of graphics and gameplay. It was first released on floppy disk and later re-released on CD-ROM, with that release upgraded with

15301-554: The series were noted for their realistic digitized sprites and an extensive use of palette swapping to create new characters. Following Midway's bankruptcy, the Mortal Kombat development team was acquired by Warner Bros. Entertainment and re-established as NetherRealm Studios . The original three games and their updates, Mortal Kombat (1992), Mortal Kombat II (1993), Mortal Kombat 3 (1995), Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 (1995), and Mortal Kombat Trilogy (1996), are 2D fighting games . The arcade cabinet versions of

15444-473: The series. Eventually, Mortal Kombat 4 brought the series into 3D, replacing the digitized fighters of previous games with polygon models animated using motion capture technology. Most series releases included secret characters , secret games, and other Easter eggs . The original game contained the hidden fighter Reptile , who could be fought by players if they fulfilled an exact set of requirements. A counter for ERMACS (short for er ror mac ros) on

15587-513: The show, such as the tar pits, the Moon, Hell, and a fantasy level that Meatwad creates with Osirus' t-shirt . There are also three levels where the Aqua Teens race against the Frat Aliens giving the segment a total of 12 levels. After teeing off, Master Shake or Frylock can be controlled as they fight their way to the balls' resting place. They face several foes, such as Carl's giant crabs,

15730-546: The sound and gameplay. The game was also a part of the 2005 compilation Midway Arcade Treasures: Extended Play . Like the Mortal Kombat: Deception release, it has sound issues. On August 31, 2011, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment released Mortal Kombat Arcade Kollection , consisting of Mortal Kombat , Mortal Kombat II and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 , as a downloadable title for Microsoft Windows , PlayStation 3 , and Xbox 360 . After

15873-431: The substitution when one of the developers suggests it. The characters of the original Mortal Kombat and its initial sequels were created using digitized sprites mostly based on filmed actors, as opposed to hand-drawn graphics. Mortal Kombat games were known for their extensive use of palette swapping , which was used for the ninja characters; many of the most popular characters have originated as palette swaps. In

16016-428: The success of Capcom 's Street Fighter II only helped them convince the management of their idea. Boon said the development team initially consisted of four people — himself as programmer, artists John Tobias and John Vogel, and Dan Forden as sound designer. The game's budget was around $ 1 million. According to Richard Divizio and Daniel Pesina, Mortal Kombat had actually begun when Tobias along with Divizio and

16159-429: The technique to create new characters. The four-armed warrior and a prince of Outworld, Goro serves as the sub-boss of the game; being a half-human, half-dragon beast, he is much stronger than the other characters and can be unaffected by throw attacks. Goro has won the last nine tournaments consecutively, and will allow Outworld to conquer Earthrealm if he wins the tenth tournament. The character's sprites are based on

16302-401: The titular catastrophe begins. Centuries before the first Mortal Kombat , Queen Delia foretold the realms would be destroyed because the power of all of the realms' warriors would rise to such greatness that it would overwhelm and destabilize the realms, triggering a destructive chain of events. King Argus had his sons, Taven and Daegon, put into incubation so one day they can be awakened to save

16445-441: The tournament as a way of reigniting his fame. He is loosely based on Jean-Claude Van Damme , particularly his performance in the film Bloodsport . Daniel Pesina also portrays the undead revenant Scorpion , a ninja who was murdered in cold blood by Sub-Zero some time prior to the events of the game and brought back to life to avenge his own death. Scorpion possesses fire-based abilities. The yellow color of Scorpion's outfit

16588-597: The tournament, setting up the events of the second game . The player receives information about the characters in biographies displayed during the attract mode . The bulk of the game's backstory and lore was only told in a comic book , but some additional information about the characters and their motivations for entering the tournament is received upon completion of the game with each character. Mortal Kombat includes seven playable characters, each with their own unique Fatality and all of whom would eventually become trademark characters and appear in several sequels. The game

16731-404: The two realms defuse, with Shao Kahn and Darkseid trapped in each other's universes to face eternal imprisonment. In the 2011 Mortal Kombat soft reboot, the battle of Armageddon culminated in only two survivors: Shao Kahn and Raiden. On the verge of death by the former's hand, the latter sent visions to his past self in a last-ditch attempt to prevent this outcome. Upon receiving the visions,

16874-462: The uncommon processor used by the Jakks Pacific units, the backgrounds are static and feature no parallax scrolling . Also in 2004, the premium edition of Mortal Kombat: Deception on the PlayStation 2 and original Xbox included the game as bonus content played via emulation of the original arcade code. While it was promoted as "arcade perfect", there were some emulation issues with

17017-567: The uniquely different kind of gameplay as far as the fighting system within itself. — GameSpot John Tobias said that his inspirations for the game's story and characters came from Chinese mythology and some of the stories and rumored events about the Shaolin monks . Regarding the film Big Trouble in Little China , Tobias wrote that although the film "kind of Americanized my obsession for supernatural kung fu films from China, it

17160-459: The unofficial short featured the writing of Oren Uziel , who at the time was rumored to be writing the screenplay for a third Mortal Kombat film. In September 2011, New Line and Warner Bros. announced that Tancharoen had signed on to direct a new feature-length film from a screenplay written by Uziel, with the intention of aiming for an R rating . Shooting was expected to begin in March 2012 with

17303-399: The whole Van Damme situation." Divizio credits himself with convincing Tobias to go back to the original idea and trying again. It was the success of Capcom 's Street Fighter II: The World Warrior that convinced Midway Games to let the team produce their own arcade fighting game, the genre chosen by Tobias for his game as to let him use as large digitized sprites as possible, but there

17446-605: The year award. Bill Kunkel wrote in Electronic Games that both Genesis and Super NES ports of the game as "superb, first-rate conversions" noting that the SNES edition graphically was better than the Sega Genesis version while noting that "the characters, while they don't move quite as quickly as their Genesis counterparts, are magnificently animated." Kunkel noted the exception of the character Goro who "suffers from comparatively crude animation". Kunkel noted

17589-538: Was a palette coloration added after Nintendo's decision to censor the game, could be reverted to the original red blood color via a Game Genie code input as "BDB4-DD07". On the Genesis version, the blood and uncensored Fatalities were available via a cheat code , spelled out "ABACABB", a nod to the 1981 album Abacab by the English rock band Genesis , who shared their name with the North American version of

17732-581: Was adapted for the 1995 movie soundtrack and incorporated the "Mortal Kombat!" yell from the Mortal Monday commercials. Jeff Rovin penned a novelization of Mortal Kombat , which was published in June 1995 in order to coincide with the release of the film. There were lines of action figures based on the game's characters. Four ports were released in North America and Europe as part of the "Mortal Monday" campaign in 1993: home console ports for

17875-448: Was announced; it is a role-playing game released in 2023 for Android and iOS. NetherRealm said it would be a cinematic experience and also it will be loyal to its core visceral nature. An animated prequel to 1995's Mortal Kombat film, titled Mortal Kombat: The Journey Begins , was released direct-to-video in the same year as the live-action film. A series of direct-to-video films titled Mortal Kombat Legends began in 2020 as

18018-477: Was changed to blue to create his rival and murderer Sub-Zero , a ruthless assassin and member of the Lin Kuei, a mysterious clan of "Chinese ninjas." Armed with ice-generating powers, Sub-Zero has entered the tournament specifically to assassinate Shang Tsung, having been offered an enormous bounty to do so. Mortal Kombat would become famous for such palette swaps that would continue to be used in later games as

18161-438: Was cut out. Bits of his character data remain in the data files . The Game Gear version was similar to the Game Boy version, but with major improvements (color, faster gameplay, and tighter controls). Like its 16-bit counterpart, the game was censored unless a cheat code (2, 1, 2, Down, Up) had been entered, but lacked Kano and Reptile. A Master System port based on the Game Gear version was released exclusively for PAL regions on

18304-450: Was developed with digitized sprites based on real actors. Ho-Sung Pak plays Liu Kang , a former member of the secret White Lotus Society who enters the tournament representing the Shaolin temples. He is tasked by Raiden to win the tournament and save Earthrealm. Originally envisioned as a monk, Pak refused to shave his head for the role, leading Kang's final design to more closely resemble actor Bruce Lee . Elizabeth Malecki plays

18447-739: Was later released in Japan for the Super Famicom, Game Boy, Mega Drive and Game Gear as Mortal Kombat: Legend of the Advent God Fist ( モータルコンバット 神拳降臨伝説 , Mōtaru Konbatto: Shinken Kōrin Densetsu ) and for the Mega-CD as Mortal Kombat: Legend of the Advent God Fist - Extended Edition ( モータルコンバット 神拳降臨伝説 完全版 , Mōtaru Konbatto: Shinken Kōrin Densetsu - Kanzenhan ) with no major changes from their western releases. A conversion of

18590-499: Was made into a real playable fighter in Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 . Mortal Kombat creators Ed Boon and John Tobias have stated that Midway Games tasked them with the project of developing a "combat game for release within a year", which the two believed was intended to compete with the popular Street Fighter II . According to Tobias, he and Boon had envisioned a fighting game similar to Data East 's Karate Champ but featuring large digitized characters even before that, and

18733-492: Was never released. Divizio then convinced Tobias to return to their original project. In the end, Van Damme was parodied in the game in the form of Johnny Cage (with whom he shares his name's initials, JC), a narcissistic Hollywood movie star who performs a split punch to the groin in a nod to a scene from Bloodsport . Tobias credited other inspirations as having come from the Asian martial arts cinema. Boon later said, "since

18876-504: Was not much influence by Street Fighter II on the project. According to Tobias, who cited 1984's Karate Champ as an inspiration, they intentionally worked on making a game different from Capcom's title in every way. Besides the digitized characters that differentiated it from its contemporaries' hand-drawn ones, one stark difference was in the very high amount of blood and violence. Capcom's senior director of communications later compared Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat by asking if

19019-489: Was not my biggest influence. My biggest influences came from Tsui Hark films -- Zu Warriors & The Swordsman . We had to get them from bootleggers in Chicago's Chinatown ." In 1995, he said about their general process of designing characters for the series: "First we figure out the type, like she or he and will she/he be big or small. Then we'll get the theme of the characters, like ninja or robot. Then we'll design

19162-400: Was not released. A stage show titled Mortal Kombat: Live Tour was launched at the end of 1995, expanded to 1996, and featured Mortal Kombat characters in a theatrical display on stage. Mortal Kombat (1992 video game) Mortal Kombat (written as Mortal Kombat I to avoid confusion with the 2023 reboot ) is a 1992 fighting game developed and published by Midway . It is

19305-519: Was ported to the PlayStation Vita in 2012 and Microsoft Windows in 2013. Downloadable content became a feature of games in the series at this time. Its first sequel, Mortal Kombat X , was released in 2015 on PlayStation 4 , Xbox One , and Microsoft Windows , and marked a return to numbered sequels. This was paired with the first Mortal Kombat game for tablet and smartphones, Mortal Kombat Mobile . A follow-up, Mortal Kombat 11 ,

19448-548: Was quite difficult to get a copy outside of the United States. The comic was later included as a series of unlockable bonuses in Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance . Mortal Kombat: The Album , an album by The Immortals featuring techno music, was released in May 1994. It features two themes for the game, "Techno Syndrome" and "Hypnotic House", as well as themes written for each character. "Techno Syndrome"

19591-492: Was released for arcades in 1993, featuring an increased roster and improved graphics and gameplay, then ported to the numerous home systems in 1993–1995, released again by Acclaim. Mortal Kombat 3 followed in 1995 in both arcade and home versions. Mortal Kombat 3 received two updates which expanded the number of characters and other features from the game: Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 , released that same year in arcades, and Mortal Kombat Trilogy , released for home consoles

19734-593: Was released for the Dreamcast in 1999. At this point that the series started being targeted at consoles only. Also the series' naming scheme changed to favor the use of sub-titles instead of numbered installments, beginning with Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance in 2002. Deadly Alliance was released initially for the Xbox , PlayStation 2 and GameCube . Deadly Alliance was also the first Mortal Kombat game to feature fully 3D gameplay, where up to Mortal Kombat 4

19877-541: Was released in 2005 for the PlayStation 2 and the Xbox, starring Liu Kang and Kung Lao and telling an alternate version of the events between the first and second Mortal Kombat games. A similar game entitled Mortal Kombat: Fire & Ice , which was to star Scorpion and again Sub-Zero, was canceled when the developers of Shaolin Monks "couldn't do it in time and under budget". On October 18, 2022, Mortal Kombat: Onslaught

20020-418: Was released in 2019 for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch , and Microsoft Windows. A sequel to Mortal Kombat 11 , Mortal Kombat 1 , released in September 2023. Besides the fighting games, there are three action-adventure titles that work as spin-offs from the Mortal Kombat storyline. Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero was released in 1997 for the PlayStation and Nintendo 64; its story

20163-410: Was released on October 17, 2023. Mortal Kombat was adapted into two major motion pictures, Mortal Kombat (1995) and Mortal Kombat Annihilation (1997), both released by New Line Cinema . The first film was released on August 18, 1995, grossing $ 23 million on its first weekend. Despite mixed reviews from critics, Mortal Kombat became a financial success, grossing approximately $ 70 million in

20306-499: Was singled out for praise. Nick Suttner of 1Up.com gave the game a C stating: "For $ 30, there's plenty of ATHF goodness to satiate fans looking for more of a good thing (that makes the most of its M rating, no less), but if you have no interest in the show or haven't seen it, educate yourself before even considering Pro-Am . It's not a good game, but it's still a fun way to expand the ATHF world. Mortal Kombat Mortal Kombat

20449-419: Was sitting in Boon's office, saw the word "Kombat" and said to him, "Why don't you name it Mortal Kombat ?", a name that Boon stated "just stuck." John Tobias recalled this a bit differently, saying it "came about during the trademark process in naming the game. We really liked Mortal Combat as a name, but it couldn't get past legal." Since then, the series has begun frequently using the letter K in place of

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