Fatality is the name given to a gameplay feature in the Mortal Kombat series of fighting video games , in which the victor of the final round in a match inflicts a brutal and gruesome finishing move onto their defeated opponent. Prompted by the announcer saying "Finish Him/Her", players have a short time window to execute a Fatality by entering a specific button and joystick or D-Pad combination, while positioned at a specific distance from the opponent. The Fatality and its derivations are notable features of the Mortal Kombat series and have caused a large cultural impact and controversies .
174-550: Mortal Kombat X is a 2015 fighting game developed by NetherRealm Studios and published by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment for PlayStation 4 , Windows , and Xbox One . Versions for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 were also due to release, but both versions were cancelled. It is the tenth main installment in the Mortal Kombat series and a sequel to Mortal Kombat (2011), taking place 25 years later after
348-483: A 3rd Strike semi-final match held at Evolution Championship Series 2004 (Evo 2004) between Daigo Umehara and Justin Wong . During this match, Umehara made an unexpected comeback by parrying 15 consecutive hits of Wong's "Super Art" move using Chun-Li while Umehara had only one pixel on his health bar. Umehara subsequently won the match. "Evo Moment #37" is frequently described as the most iconic and memorable moment in
522-522: A Western -style gunfighter . A non-playable demonic form of Shinnok called "Corrupted Shinnok" appears as the final boss. Also, Tanya and Bo' Rai Cho , who later became downloadable characters, originally appeared in the story mode cutscenes, the former even being a non-playable opponent. Other notable characters that appear, but are not playable include Baraka , Sindel , Fujin , Rain , Sareena , Li Mei , Frost , Stryker , Kabal , Nightwolf and Smoke . NetherRealm Studios began publicly hiring for
696-478: A ring out . It was possible for some Death Traps to kill both fighters simultaneously, in which case the round went to the player who had taken the least damage, or Player 1 if both players had full life bars. Traditional Stage Fatalities, seen since the original MK game through MK4 , made a return in the 2011 Mortal Kombat . Button combinations are once again used to perform Stage Fatalities. Quitalities , first introduced in Mortal Kombat X , occurs when
870-402: A Fatality may require certain distances and quick button sequences in order to achieve the desired result. Usually, every character has their own special Fatality that must be performed at a certain distance from the opponent, the three distances being: close (the finishing move would not work unless the player is right next to the opponent), sweep (the player should stand a step or two away from
1044-571: A best-of-three matches format like later fighting games, and has training bonus stages . The Player vs Player edition of Karate Champ , released later that year, is also the first fighting game to allow two-player duel. It influenced Konami 's Yie Ar Kung Fu , released in October 1984. The game drew heavily from Bruce Lee films, with the main player character Oolong modelled after Lee (like in Bruceploitation films). In contrast to
1218-475: A boxing game featuring a behind-the-character perspective, maneuvers such as blocking and dodging, and stamina meters that are depleted or replenished by blows. Karate Champ was developed by Technōs Japan and released by Data East in May 1984, and is credited with establishing and popularizing the one-on-one fighting game genre. A variety of moves can be performed using the dual-joystick controls. It uses
1392-519: A brutal and gruesome finishing move onto the defeated opponent. Prompted by the announcer saying "Finish Him!", players have a short time window to execute a Fatality by entering a specific button and joystick combination while positioned at a specific distance from the opponent. The Fatality and its derivations are arguably the most notable features of the Mortal Kombat series with cultural impact and controversies . Fighting games often include
1566-455: A bug in the PC version. Matt Elliott of PC Gamer had mixed feelings about the online gameplay and said that " Mortal Kombat online simply isn't sturdy enough to remain competitive". In March 2019, Warner Bros. confirmed that Mortal Kombat X had sold more than 12 million copies worldwide by then. It was the fastest-selling game in the franchise and was the ninth-best-selling retail game of 2015 in
1740-411: A character's health, and the round continues until a fighter's health reaches zero. Hence, the main goal is to completely deplete the health bar of one's opponent, thus achieving a " knockout ". Games such as Virtua Fighter also allow a character to be defeated by forcing them outside of the arena, awarding a "ring-out" to the victor. The Super Smash Bros. series allows players to send fighters off
1914-487: A comeback, although different from the ones featured in Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 . Brutalities now take the form of certain moves that are triggered when said move is used as the final blow to win the final round in a fight, killing the opponent, provided certain conditions are met. In addition, the game features stage Brutalities, which are triggered when certain environment interactions are used to finish
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#17328021068542088-476: A different set of moves they can use during the fight: for example, the character Scorpion features a Ninjutsu variation which gives him specific moves utilizing dual swords, a Hellfire variation which incorporates fiery special moves, and an Inferno variation which allows him to summon hellspawn minions to aid him in the fight. Returning from the previous Mortal Kombat game is the Energy Meter, which
2262-470: A fixed-size arena along a two-dimensional plane , where characters navigate the plane horizontally by walking or dashing, and vertically by jumping. Some games allow limited movement in 3D space, such as Tekken , while some are set in fully three-dimensional environments without restricting characters' movement, such as Power Stone and Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm ; these are sometimes referred to as "3D arena" fighting games. The fighting game genre
2436-511: A game that featured unprecedentedly detailed pre-rendered 3D graphics and vastly improved on the core concept of combos, presenting a way faster gameplay than most other games of that era, specific combo-breaker maneuvers, and the "Ultra", a series of combined finishing moves surpassing the number of 20 hits. Many of the games of that period were low budget clones of the more popular games, and in some cases this led to controversy; in 1994, Capcom USA took unsuccessful legal action against Data East over
2610-417: A greater number of animations, but otherwise play like those rendered in two dimensions. Games that are fully three-dimensional without a 2D plane are sometimes referred to as "3D arena" fighting games. Aside from restricting movement space, fighting games confine the player's actions to offensive and defensive maneuvers. Players must learn each game's effective combinations of attacks and defenses. Blocking
2784-482: A hit when countering zoning. The opposite of turtling , rushdown refers to a number of specific aggressive strategies, philosophies, and play styles across all fighting games. The general goal of a rushdown play style is to overwhelm the opponent and force costly mistakes, either by using fast, confusing setups or by taking advantage of an impatient opponent as they are forced to play defense for prolonged periods of time. Rushdown players often favor attacking opponents in
2958-418: A later unspecified date) of Mortal Kombat X due to the inability to get the version for the last gen consoles to reach the quality standards set by the current generation. NetherRealm Studios community specialist Tyler Lansdown initially stated that Kombat Pack 2, Mortal Kombat XL , and the enhanced online netcode would not be available on the PC version. However, on August 25, 2016, an open beta test period of
3132-586: A lethal finishing move in any game, including the termed "Fatals" in the Killer Instinct series. In the game ClayFighter 63⅓ the Fatalities were parodied in the form of "Claytality." "Fatalities" expanded into the shooter genre, most notably in the Gears of War series as "Executions". In many games in the franchise there are different types of Fatalities and Finishers: This finisher allows
3306-476: A limited amount of time to perform one of several violent moves (such as ripping an organ out) attributed to a button and direction combination. The time then resets and the player can perform a second move, but the time bar decreases more rapidly after each move. It is also possible to "fail" the Fatality by running out of time before performing a final finishing move (such as ripping the opponent's head off). Once
3480-426: A negative point of the game. For Mortal Kombat: Armageddon , the Fatality concept was completely revised. In all previous games, finishing moves were in the form of a button combo, activating a scripted animation sequence. For Armageddon , the old system was replaced with a new Kreate-A-Fatality, or "Kustom-Chain-Fatality" system. After defeating an opponent in two rounds (with default settings), players are given
3654-606: A number of games that sparked another surge in fighting game popularity. Super Smash Bros. Brawl was released in early March 2008 to universal acclaim and went on to set a new record in sales, at one point selling at 120 units per minute. Another game was Street Fighter IV , the series' first mainline title since Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike in 1999, which was released in early 2009 also to critical acclaim, having garnered praise since its debut at Japanese arcades in July 2008. The console versions of Street Fighter IV , as well as
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#17328021068543828-542: A player disconnects in the middle of an online match. This results in their character instantly dying, and their opponent is awarded with a win. Examples of quitalities include the loser's head simultaneously exploding or the loser swiftly snapping their own neck. Like the Hara-Kiri, the Quitality is a finisher that requires the defeated player to commit instead of the winner, although it can be done at any point during
4002-431: A player at any time. The game also introduced pressure-sensitive controls that determine the strength of an attack, though due to causing damaged arcade cabinets, Capcom replaced it soon after with a six-button control scheme offering light, medium, and hard punches and kicks, which became another staple of the genre. In 1988, Home Data released Reikai Dōshi: Chinese Exorcist , also known as Last Apostle Puppet Show ,
4176-615: A popular genre for amateur and doujin developers in Japan. The 2002 title Melty Blood was developed by then-amateur developer French Bread and achieved cult success on the PC . It became highly popular in arcades following its 2005 release, and a version was released for the PlayStation 2 the following year. The late 1990s and early 2000s saw the rise in online gaming . In 2004, Mortal Kombat: Deception , Dead or Alive Ultimate , and
4350-581: A portal to Raiden's Sky Temple and head to the Jinsei Chamber, the source of Earthrealm's life force, where Raiden and Fujin are seen battling Shinnok and his Netherrealm forces. When Shinnok tries to kill Sonya, Johnny rushes to defend her, inadvertently awakening ancient superhuman powers within himself. Using his newfound powers, Johnny holds Shinnok at bay long enough for Raiden to steal Shinnok's amulet and imprison him inside it, but Quan Chi escapes. Johnny, Raiden, and Sonya track him to his lair in
4524-441: A realistic fighting engine that features three-dimensional environments while abandoning time limits and health bars in favor of an innovative Body Damage System, where a sword strike to a certain body part can amputate a limb or decapitate the head. Video game enthusiasts took an interest in fictional crossovers , which feature characters from multiple franchises in a particular game. An early example of this type of fighting game
4698-524: A response to hackers of the original Street Fighter II game to add new features. However, criticism of these updates grew as players demanded a true sequel. By 1995, the dominant franchises were the Mortal Kombat series in America and the Virtua Fighter series in Japan, with Street Fighter Alpha unable to match the popularity of Street Fighter II . Throughout this period, the fighting game
4872-412: A score of 8.4. He claimed that Mortal Kombat X was the best Mortal Kombat game in the franchise's history, lauding it as deeper, mechanically richer and more fully featured than the previous Mortal Kombat games. He also praised the presence of the new characters as the major roster shakeup made the game feel new and exciting to longtime series fans and casual fans. Michael McWhertor of Polygon called
5046-631: A season final on July 11, 2015, worth at least $ 100,000. The ESL Pro League Season 1 Finals were won by Critical Reaction's Dominique "Sonic Fox" McLean using Kitana with Erron Black as a secondary. McLean earned a grand total of $ 60,000 from the Season 1 Finals. Season Two of the ESL Pro League for Mortal Kombat X began on October 18, 2015, and concluded in early 2016. Mortal Kombat X was released worldwide (except Germany) for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One on April 14, 2015. For reasons relating to
5220-613: A series of bosses , and Enter the Dragon (1973), about an international martial arts tournament. Other inspiration is Japanese martial arts works, including the manga and anime series Karate Master (1971–1977), and Sonny Chiba 's The Street Fighter (1974). Before martial arts games, the earliest video games with fist-fighting are boxing games , featuring battles between characters with fantastic abilities and complex special maneuvers. Sega 's black-and-white boxing game Heavyweight Champ , released for arcades in 1976,
5394-487: A set number of lives (called stocks) for each player (usually three), and if the score is tied between two or more fighters when time runs out, then a " sudden death " match will take place by delivering a single hit to an opponent with 300% damage. Fighting games widely feature health bars , introduced in Yie Ar Kung-Fu in 1984, which are depleted as characters sustain blows. Each successful attack will deplete
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5568-493: A set number of rounds (typically three ), beginning with the announcer's signal. If the score is tied after an even number of rounds (such as 1-1), then the winner is decided in the final round. Round decisions can also be determined by time over, which judge players based on remaining health to declare a winner. In the Super Smash Bros. series, the rules are different. Instead of rounds, the games usually give players
5742-519: A single player to play against the CPU. The energy meter, first introduced in Mortal Kombat (2011) , allows players to perform techniques such as "X-Ray" special moves. Similarly to NetherRealm Studios ' previous title, Injustice: Gods Among Us , fighters are able to interact with the environment, using parts of the scenery to reposition themselves or using available objects as weapons. In addition, each fighter has three different variations, each featuring
5916-473: A single-player campaign or tournament, where the player must defeat a sequence of several computer-controlled opponents. Winning the tournament often reveals a special story-ending cutscene , and some games also grant access to hidden characters or special features upon victory. Tekken introduced the concept of story modes in 1994 with the first arcade full motion video cutscenes for each character's victory. In most fighting games, players may select from
6090-453: A skin for Jax with the likeness and voice of actor Carl Weathers from the first Predator film. On March 13, 2015, Jason Voorhees from the Friday the 13th franchise was announced as the first downloadable bonus character in the downloadable Kombat Pack season-pass bundle. One week later, Predator , from the eponymous franchise , was revealed as the second DLC guest character after he
6264-422: A story mode, which mainly takes place twenty-five years after the previous Mortal Kombat game, several 'Tower' modes, which feature dynamically changing challenges, numerous online modes, and the 'Krypt', a mode played in a first person perspective, where players explore the areas unlocking a variety of in-game items. The console versions of Mortal Kombat X received critical acclaim upon release. Most praise
6438-498: A symbiotic pairing consisting of a young armored female warrior and a giant masked brute; and Kotal Kahn, an Aztec -inspired "blood god" who is the new emperor of Outworld. With the game's story mode spanning 20 years, the game also introduces the offspring of several characters, such as Cassie Cage, the daughter of Johnny Cage and Sonya Blade; Takeda, son of Kenshi; and Jacqui Briggs, daughter of Jax. Other series newcomers include Kung Jin, an archer, cousin of Kung Lao; and Erron Black ,
6612-547: A training exercise with Sub-Zero, they are deployed to Outworld to resolve a civil war between former empress Mileena , who has obtained Shinnok's amulet from Kano , and Outworld's current emperor Kotal Kahn , with whom Earthrealm has a fragile peace treaty. Meanwhile, in an Outworld refugee camp in Earthrealm, Sonya captures Kano and forces him to reveal Mileena's location. Using this information, Cassie's team aids Kotal in recovering Shinnok's amulet and capturing Mileena, who
6786-465: A type of action game where two (in one-on-one fighting games) or more (in platform fighters ) on-screen characters fight each other. These games typically feature special moves that are triggered using rapid sequences of carefully timed button presses and joystick movements. Games traditionally show fighters from a side view, even as the genre has progressed from two-dimensional (2D) to three-dimensional (3D) graphics. Street Fighter II , though not
6960-482: A variety of playable characters with unique fighting styles, special moves, and personalities. This became a strong convention for the genre with the release of Street Fighter II (1991), and these character choices have led to deeper game strategy and replay value. Custom character creation, or "create–a–fighter", is a feature of some fighting games that allows a player to customize the appearance and move set of their own character. Super Fire Pro Wrestling X Premium
7134-426: A variety of computer-controlled fighters, Street Fighter II allowed players to play against each other. The popularity of Street Fighter II surprised the gaming industry, as arcade owners bought more machines to keep up with demand. Street Fighter II was also responsible for popularizing the combo mechanic, which came about when skilled players learned that they could combine several attacks that left no time for
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7308-523: Is a basic defense against basic attacks. Some games feature more advanced blocking techniques; for example, Capcom's Street Fighter III features a move termed " parrying ", which can be immediately followed by counter-attack, skipping the temporary stun a block would have put them in. A similar stun state is termed "just defended" in SNK 's Garou: Mark of the Wolves . An integral feature of fighting games
7482-451: Is a common element of gameplay . Fighting games emphasize the height of blows, ranging from low to jumping attacks. Thus, strategy requires predicting adversarial moves, similar to rock–paper–scissors . In addition to blows, players can utilize throwing or grappling to circumvent blocks. Most fighting games allow a grapple move by pressing two or more buttons together, or simply by pressing punch or kick while being directly adjacent to
7656-466: Is considered the first video game with fist fighting. Vectorbeam 's arcade video game Warrior (1979) is sometimes credited as one of the first fighting games; in contrast to Heavyweight Champ and most later games, Warrior is based on sword fighting duels and uses a bird's-eye view . Sega 's jidaigeki -themed arcade action game Samurai , released in March 1980, features a boss battle where
7830-502: Is considered to be the "Dark Age" of fighting games. The two most prolific developers of 2D fighting games, Capcom and SNK, combined intellectual property to produce SNK vs. Capcom games. SNK released the first game of this type, SNK vs. Capcom: The Match of the Millennium , for its Neo Geo Pocket Color handheld at the end of 1999. GameSpot regarded the game as "perhaps the most highly anticipated fighter ever" and called it
8004-458: Is distinctly related to the beat 'em up genre, which pits many computer-controlled enemies against one or more player characters. The first video game to feature fist fighting is Heavyweight Champ (1976), but Karate Champ (1984) actually features the one-on-one fighting game genre instead of a sports game in arcades . Yie Ar Kung-Fu was released later that year with various fighting styles and introduced health meters , and The Way of
8178-496: Is divided in three sections, and provides access to enhanced special moves (costing one section), breaking combos (costing two sections) and performing X-ray moves (costing all three sections of the bar). Additionally, a Stamina Meter has been added under the health bar, which consists of two sections, and is consumed whenever the player runs, performs a back dash, a combo breaker, a stage interaction, or certain special techniques, such as cancelling Scorpion's teleports. In addition to
8352-476: Is mitigated by technology such as GGPO , which synchronizes players by quickly rolling back to the most recent accurate game state, correcting errors, and then jumping back to the current frame. Such games include Skullgirls and Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike Online Edition . The first fighting games were fundamentally inspired by martial arts films , especially Bruce Lee 's Hong Kong action cinema . Films include Game of Death (1972), where Lee fights
8526-404: Is no longer required, as the opponent only needs to be either standing or hit in a particular spot on the stage. Unlike previous Stage Fatalities, Death Traps can be initiated anytime during a round and only require the opponent be hit into them, meaning an instant victory. However, if they are not executed in the decisive round, the fight does not end, going on to the next round. This action acts as
8700-606: Is not a port , but a separately produced game based on the same premise. Capcom released Street Fighter III in 1997 which features improved 2D visuals, but is also unable to match the impact of earlier games. Excitement stirred in Japan over Virtua Fighter 3 in arcades, and Sega eventually ported the game to its Dreamcast console. Meanwhile, SNK released several fighting games on its Neo Geo platform, including Samurai Shodown II in 1994, Real Bout Fatal Fury in 1995, The Last Blade in 1997, and annual updates to its The King of Fighters franchise. Garou: Mark of
8874-569: Is subsequently executed on Kotal's orders. No longer believing Earthrealm capable of keeping the amulet safe, Kotal decides to keep it in Outworld's hands and takes Cassie and her friends hostage as leverage against Raiden. Kotal's insectoid second-in-command D'Vorah , who had killed Baraka when Kotal started his rule, is revealed as a double agent for Quan Chi and steals the amulet. Cassie and her team escape captivity and inform Earthrealm of D'Vorah's intentions. Hoping to stop Quan Chi from getting
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#17328021068549048-729: Is the 1996 arcade release X-Men vs. Street Fighter (which later became the Marvel vs. Capcom series), featuring comic book superheroes and characters from other Capcom games. In 1999, Nintendo released the first game in the Super Smash Bros. series, which allowed match-ups from various franchises, such as Pikachu vs. Mario . In the early 2000s, the fighting genre boom turned to bust. In retrospect, multiple developers attribute its decline to its increasing complexity and specialization, and to other factors such as over-saturation . This complexity shut out casual players, and
9222-459: Is the final boss in the arcade mode. The mist steps also allow combos to be performed as a manner of "crouch dashing," or when the Mishima player could run to the opponent while crouching since regular running prevented executing easy combos. Polygonal fighters became trendy and many developers started to make them. Further all-new titles were released in 1995: Zero Divide on the PlayStation,
9396-584: Is the only series installment to feature this finisher. Heroic Brutalities are finishing moves exclusive to the 2008 crossover game Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe . In addition to the MK characters' Fatalities being toned down therein to accommodate the game's "Teen" rating, the Heroic Brutalities represented the DC characters' moral code against killing. The censored finishers from both sides were considered
9570-511: Is the use of "special attacks", also called "secret moves", that employ combinations of directional inputs and button presses to perform a particular move beyond basic punching and kicking. Some special moves, which play an animation portraying an aspect of the character's personality, are referred to as taunts . Originated by Japanese company SNK in Art of Fighting (1992), these add humor, and they effect gameplay in certain games, such as improving
9744-430: Is to force an opponent to take significant risks to approach the zoning player's character, or to stall out the in-game timer, which causes the player with more health (typically the one doing the zoning) to win. The effectiveness of the latter strategy varies from game to game, based on the effectiveness of zoning tools as well as the length of the in-game timer and the rewards characters can receive for successfully landing
9918-451: Is unlocked to the player if their faction wins at the end of any given week). Two years after the defeat of Outworld's ruler , Shao Kahn , Shinnok attacks Earthrealm with his army of Netherrealm demons, as well as Earthrealm warriors who were killed during Kahn's invasion and are now resurrected as revenants under Quan Chi 's control. After fighting their fallen comrades, a strike team led by Johnny Cage , Sonya Blade , and Kenshi open
10092-499: The Gundam: Battle Assault series. This genre is distinctly related to beat 'em ups, another action genre involving combat, where the player character must fight many enemies at the same time. Beat 'em ups, like traditional fighting games, display player and enemy health in a bar, generally located at the top of the screen. However, beat 'em ups generally do not feature combat divided into separate "rounds". During
10266-542: The Halloween franchise were considered at one point. On September 2, 2015, Ed Boon teased a Kombat Pack 2 DLC, which would include four new characters. On December 3, 2015, the characters for Kombat Pack 2 were revealed to be Bo' Rai Cho from Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance , a new character named Triborg (a cyborg character that features Cyrax , Sektor , Smoke and Cyber Sub-Zero as its variations), Leatherface from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre franchise, and
10440-568: The Alien from the eponymous franchise . Kombat Pack 2 also makes Goro playable for those who did not have him as a pre-order bonus, and includes Kold War Scorpion, Kold War Pack, Apocalypse Pack and Klassic Fatalities #1 and #2. Kombat Pack 2 was ultimately announced for release on March 1, 2016, only on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, marking the beginning of a period where the Windows port was left aside for any updates and new DLC releases. Eventually it
10614-523: The Super NES and Genesis versions of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 , this finisher allowed players to perform a combo which would cause the opponent to explode. Brutalities were not very popular, as they were extremely difficult to accomplish, requiring the player to memorize and perform a special 11-hit combo. This finisher did not appear in another game until Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks , in which it
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#173280210685410788-455: The Tekken , Soul and Dead or Alive franchises continued to release installments. Classic Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat games were re-released on PlayStation Network and Xbox Live Arcade , allowing internet play, and in some cases, HD graphics. The early part of the decade had seen the rise of competitive video gaming, referred to by the term Esports . The rise in esports saw
10962-656: The Xbox version of Street Fighter Anniversary Collection became the first fighting games to offer online multiplayer and have received positive reception from critics. While the genre became generally far less popular than it once was, arcades and their attendant fighting games remained reasonably popular in Japan during this time period, and remain so even today. Virtua Fighter 5 lacked an online mode, but still achieved success both on home consoles and in arcades; players practiced at home and went to arcades to compete face-to-face with opponents. In addition to Virtua Fighter ,
11136-541: The eighth generation development in April 2012. In July 2013, it was confirmed that a new Mortal Kombat game was in development and was said to be released alongside the film series' reboot in September 2011. In February 2014, actor Kiefer Sutherland claimed he was participating in this "huge game" in an unidentified role. The following June, Sutherland's involvement was denied by series co-creator Ed Boon . According to
11310-462: The samurai player character confronts a boss samurai in one-on-one sword-fighting combat. One-on-one boxing games appeared on consoles with Activision 's Atari VCS game Boxing , released in July 1980, and Sega's SG-1000 game Champion Boxing (1983), which is Yu Suzuki 's debut at Sega. Nintendo 's arcade game Punch-Out was developed in 1983 and released in February 1984, as
11484-470: The 1980s to 1990s, publications used the terms "fighting game" and "beat 'em up" interchangeably, along with other terms such as " martial arts simulation" (or more specific terms such as " judo simulator") and "punch-kick" games. Fighting games were still being called "beat 'em up" games in video game magazines up until the end of the 1990s. With hindsight, critics have argued that the two types of game gradually became dichotomous as they evolved, though
11658-466: The 1993 arcade game Fighter's History , which supposedly plagiarized Street Fighter 2 . Data East's largest objection in court was that their 1984 arcade game Karate Champ was the true originator of the competitive fighting game genre, which predated the original Street Fighter by three years, but the reason the case was decided against Capcom was that the copied elements were scènes à faire and thus excluded from copyright. Sega AM2 debuted in
11832-712: The Cage family reunites. Sometime later, Raiden, now in possession of Shinnok's amulet and corrupted in the process of purifying the Jinsei, issues a warning to the revenants Liu Kang and Kitana , now rulers of the Netherrealm, that they will face "fates worse than death" if they threaten Earthrealm. Raiden leaves behind Shinnok's severed, but still living head as a final warning before departing. The game had 24 playable characters at launch, with 8 additional characters added via DLC . The playable characters in bold are new to
12006-649: The Exploding Fist (1985) further popularized the genre on home systems. In 1987, Capcom 's Street Fighter introduced special attacks , and in 1991, its highly successful sequel Street Fighter II refined and popularized many genre conventions, including combos. Fighting games subsequently became the preeminent genre for video gaming in the early to mid-1990s, particularly in arcades. This period spawned dozens of other popular fighting games, including franchises like Street Fighter , Mortal Kombat , Super Smash Bros. , and Tekken . Fighting games are
12180-939: The Exploding Fist borrowed heavily from Karate Champ , but nevertheless achieved critical success and afforded the burgeoning genre further popularity on home computers in PAL regions, becoming the UK's best-selling computer game of 1985 . In North America, Data East ported Karate Champ to home computers in October 1985, becoming one of the best-selling computer games of the late 1980s. Other game developers also imitated Karate Champ , notably System 3 's computer game International Karate , released in Europe in November 1985; after Epyx released it in North America in April 1986, Data East took unsuccessful legal action against Epyx over
12354-538: The Japanese shōnen manga and anime series Fist of the North Star , the protagonist Kenshiro performs gory fatalities in the form of finishing moves which consist of attacking pressure points that cause heads and bodies to explode. The Japanese seinen manga and anime series Riki-Oh (1988 debut), along with its Hong Kong martial arts film adaptation Story of Ricky (1991), featured gory fatalities in
12528-503: The Krypt, and the Tower system. Tan also liked the overall presentation and the story's concept, but missed Stage Fatalities and tag-team matches, disliked the story's ending, and felt that the game was purposefully "truncated". Michael Huber of GameTrailers called it a "superb entry in the franchise", noting the gameplay, story mode and new online components. Vince Ingenito of IGN gave it
12702-463: The Netherrealm and defeat him, successfully restoring Scorpion , Sub-Zero , and Jax to human form in the process after Quan Chi's failed attempt to turn Cage into a revenant, though the former escapes again. In the years that follow, Johnny and Sonya marry and have a daughter, Cassie , though they later divorced. Scorpion, now using his original name, Hanzo Hasashi, rebuilds his Shirai Ryu clan while mentoring Kenshi's son Takeda , and Sub-Zero becomes
12876-499: The Outworld forces. At the Sky Temple, Jacqui and Takeda occupy the revenants, while Cassie and Jin enter the Jinsei chamber. When D'Vorah begins torturing Johnny, Cassie manifests powers similar to her father's, which she uses to defeat Shinnok. A grievously wounded Raiden then purifies the Jinsei, stripping Shinnok of his powers and forcing the revenants to withdraw. Sonya and her soldiers arrive to take Shinnok and D'Vorah away, and
13050-427: The PC port back to parity with its console counterparts. As revealed by the game's updated intro credits, the porting of XL to the PC was handled by QLOC, in opposition to the previous problematic releases, by High Voltage Software. Coinciding with the release of XL for PC, an XL Pack was announced for existing owners of the game, which provides all of the previously existing DLC in a single package. Also coinciding with
13224-518: The PlayStation 4 version 83/100 based on 81 reviews, and the Windows version 76/100 based on 10 reviews. It became the fastest selling game in the history of the Mortal Kombat series and topped the US and UK PlayStation 4 sales charts in the month of release. Brian Shea of Game Informer called Mortal Kombat X "more than the continuation of NetherRealm's successful vision for the franchise; it's one of
13398-612: The Twitter clues left by Boon teasing this title was the image of a Lincoln MKX emblem posted with the comment, "I wonder what the X stands for?" On June 2, 2014, the title was indeed officially revealed as Mortal Kombat X , alongside an official reveal trailer featuring a fight between the iconic characters Scorpion and Sub-Zero, and an original song called "Can't Be Stopped" performed by artist Wiz Khalifa . The game made its first public appearance at E3 2014 , starting on June 10, 2014, where four new characters were revealed, apart from
13572-632: The United States. The first-month sales of the game is higher than the first-month sales of every game released in April 2016. Fighting game The fighting game genre of video games involves combat between multiple characters, often (but not limited to) one-on-one battles. Fighting game combat often features mechanics such as blocking , grappling , counter-attacking, and chaining attacks together into " combos ". Characters generally engage hand-to-hand combat , often with martial arts , but some may include weaponry. Battles are usually set in
13746-566: The Western-developed FX Fighter on PC and Criticom on console, and Sega's arcade Fighting Vipers - on top of Tekken 2 , an updated Battle Arena Toshinden 2 , and console ports of Tekken and Virtua Fighter 2 . A multitude of new polygonal releases arrived in 1996 from both prime and smaller developers, major games being Virtua Fighter 3 , Soul Edge , Dead or Alive , Last Bronx (in Japan), and
13920-531: The Wolves from 1999 (part of the Fatal Fury series) was considered one of SNK's last great games; the company announced that it would close its doors in late 2001. Electronic Gaming Monthly reported that in 1996, U.S. gamers spent nearly $ 150 million on current generation fighting games, and in Japan, fighting games accounted for over 80% of video game sales. The fighting game genre continued to evolve, with several strong 3D fighting games emerging in
14094-589: The act which revives the opponent in lieu of delivering a final blow or performing a Fatality by restoring a small amount of health. Should the opponent be defeated again, an Animality may be performed. Introduced in Mortal Kombat II , Babalities turn a defeated opponent into an infant version of the character. They returned in Mortal Kombat (2011) with distinct animations for each character. Introduced in Mortal Kombat Trilogy and
14268-447: The amulet, Jax and Kenshi, aided by a Netherrealm local named Sareena , lead an assault on the Netherrealm. After fighting his way through the revenants of his former allies, Jax captures a weakened Quan Chi, who is brought to Earthrealm and held at an Outworld refugee camp. Hasashi infiltrates the refugee camp alongside his clan with the intent of assassinating Quan Chi as revenge for ruining his life, defeating Kenshi, Johnny, and Sonya in
14442-437: The arcades in 1996, porting it for the PlayStation in 1998. It spawned a long-running franchise , known for its fast-paced control system, innovative counterattacks , and environmental hazards . The series again included games important to the success of their respective consoles, such as Dead or Alive 3 for the Xbox and Dead or Alive 4 for the Xbox 360 . In 1998, Bushido Blade , published by Square , introduced
14616-498: The basis for his fighting game Street Fighter . Nintendo's boxing sequel Super Punch-Out was released for arcades in late 1984 and ported by Elite to home computers as Frank Bruno's Boxing in 1985, features martial arts elements, high and low guarding, ducking, lateral dodging, and a KO meter. This meter is built up with successful attacks and, when full, enables a special, more powerful punch to be thrown. Broderbund 's Karateka , designed by Jordan Mechner and released at
14790-583: The best fighting game ever to be released for a handheld console. Capcom released Capcom vs. SNK: Millennium Fight 2000 for arcades and the Dreamcast in 2000, followed by sequels in subsequent years. Though none matched the critical success of the handheld version, Capcom vs. SNK 2 EO was noted as the first game of the genre to successfully utilize internet competition. Other crossovers from 2008 included Tatsunoko vs. Capcom and Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe . The most successful crossover, however,
14964-492: The best fighting games in years", adding that the core gameplay was complex and varied while he enjoyed the multiplayer options. GameSpot 's Peter Brown enjoyed the overall gameplay, saying it had "the best fighting mechanics of any game in the series" but was critical of the downloadable content as "there's so much to love about the new Mortal Kombat that it's a shame to see such blatant monetization practices overlap with your experience". Lucas Sullivan of GamesRadar described
15138-403: The best-selling fighting arcade video game franchises that have sold at least 10,000 arcade units . The prices of fighting game arcade units ranged from $ 1,300 (equivalent to $ 2,800 in 2023) for Street Fighter II Dash ( Champion Edition ) in 1992, up to $ 21,000 (equivalent to $ 44,000 in 2023) for Virtua Fighter (1993). In addition to unit sales, arcade games typically earned
15312-408: The character each player is currently using. As a result of this, a concept called "footsies" has emerged, frequently defined as players jockeying for position and using low-commitment moves at distances where neither character has a particular advantage. Depending on the game, character, and move used, a player may be rewarded for a decisive blow with a strong positional advantage, strong enough that
15486-401: The competition it gave to other games including Street Fighter II and how it popularized the arcades, as well as in machinima.com 's list of top ten gaming memes. The 2012 film Wreck-It Ralph shows a cyborg resembling Mortal Kombat' s Kano performing his signature heart-ripping Fatality move on a zombie. By 1996, Mortal Kombat ' s creation had become a generic gaming term for
15660-519: The console version of the game by playing the mobile version (and vice versa). The iOS version was released worldwide on April 7, 2015, while the Android version was soft launched on April 21, 2015, in select Asian countries and was officially launched worldwide on May 4, 2015. With the 1.11 update version of the mobile game released on December 6, 2016, Freddy Krueger who appeared as a DLC character in MK9
15834-478: The corner of a stage or as they get up from a knockdown; both situations severely limit the options of the opponent and often allow the attacking player to force high-risk guessing scenarios. Spacing is the act of positioning a character at a range where their attacks and movement tools carry the lowest risk and the highest reward. The concept is somewhat akin to that of footwork in martial arts. The desired position for play varies based on what tools are available to
16008-440: The critically acclaimed Virtua Fighter 5 was released to very little acclaim in 2007, its update Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown received much more attention due to renewed interest in the genre. Numerous indie fighting games have also been crowdfunded on websites such as Kickstarter and Indiegogo , the most notable success being the tag team fighting game Skullgirls in 2012. Later, in 2019, Ubisoft reported that
16182-556: The end of 1984, is a one-on-one fighting game for home computers that successfully added plot to its fighting action, like the beat 'em up Kung-Fu Master . By early 1985, martial arts games had become popular in arcades. On home computers, the Japanese MSX version of Yie Ar Kung-Fu was released in January 1985, and Beam Software 's The Way of the Exploding Fist was released for PAL regions in May 1985; The Way of
16356-477: The events of its predecessor. High Voltage Software developed the Windows version of the game, with Polish studio QLOC taking over the work on it shortly after the release of Kombat Pack 1. Like previous Mortal Kombat games, Mortal Kombat X ' s gameplay consists of two players, or one player and the CPU, fighting against each other with their selected character, using a large, varied array of character-specific attacks. The game contains several modes, such as
16530-610: The fast motions of a joystick, and so players had difficulty executing special moves with any accuracy. The release of Street Fighter II in 1991 is considered a revolutionary moment in the fighting game genre. Yoshiki Okamoto 's team developed the most accurate joystick and button scanning routine in the genre thus far. This allowed players to reliably execute multi-button special moves, which had previously required an element of luck. The graphics took advantage of Capcom's CPS arcade chipset , with highly detailed characters and stages . Whereas previous games allowed players to combat
16704-525: The fighter sparing their defeated opponent after a match by performing an act of kindness toward them. Developers described their inclusion as "a counter to all the blood and gore". In MKII , Shao Kahn would announce "Friendship... Friendship?", while in MK3 and MKT he would say "Friendship... Friendship, Again?" in a clearly disappointed or confused tone. While largely left out since MK3 , and only alluded to in some characters' fatalities, it returned upon
16878-504: The finishing blow in the decisive round of a fight. They again appeared in 2019's Mortal Kombat 11 and in 2023's Mortal Kombat 1 in which every character shares the Brutality "The Klassic" (which consists of decapitating the opponent with a rising uppercut while their spine is still attached to their head. This was very similar to Sub-Zero's "Spine Rip" Fatality in Mortal Kombat (1992) ). Appearing only in Mortal Kombat X ,
17052-472: The first fighting game to use digitized sprites and motion capture animation. Meanwhile, home game consoles largely ignored the genre. Budokan: The Martial Spirit was one of the few releases for the Sega Genesis , but was not as popular as games in other genres. Technical challenges limited the popularity of early fighting games. Programmers had difficulty producing a game that could recognize
17226-451: The first fighting game, is considered to have standardized the genre, and similar games released prior to Street Fighter II have since been more explicitly classified as fighting games. Fighting games typically involve hand-to-hand combat, though many games also feature characters with melee weapons. Fighting characters are usually based on humans, but there are also games that are entirely based around mecha robot characters, for example
17400-472: The first ones we work on." By July 2015, due to heavy criticism for the porting issues that plagued the PC release of the game, almost all references to Mortal Kombat X had been removed from High Voltage Software's Facebook page. It was later revealed that work on the PC port had been handed over to Polish developers QLOC. On August 28, 2015, Warner Bros. announced the cancellation of the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 ports (originally scheduled for release at
17574-402: The form of finishing moves similar to those that later appeared in Mortal Kombat . While creating Mortal Kombat , Ed Boon and John Tobias started with the idea of a Street Fighter II style system and retained many of its conventions but tweaked others. The most notable additions were graphic blood effects, more brutal fighting techniques, and especially the fatal finishing moves (this
17748-548: The free-to-play platform fighting game Brawlhalla reached 20 million players, with it climbing to 80 million by 2022. In 2018, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate for the Nintendo Switch was released. It became the best-selling fighting game of all time, topping its Wii predecessor Super Smash Bros. Brawl and introduced nearly 90 characters through its default mode and through downloadable content or DLC, having sold 34.22 million copies worldwide. Later in
17922-466: The game "one of the best fighting games in the series", praising the gameplay in addition to the newer systems in place and overall presentation. Stephen Kleckner of VentureBeat was more critical of the game, citing in his opinion confusing move animations, a system favoring close range mid-to-high combos, having to use the block button to execute a run, poor online play, and easy Fatality DLC. He also mentioned an issue where save data would be erased due to
18096-410: The game controls, which created a sense of mystique and invited players to practice the game. Following Street Fighter's lead, the use of command-based hidden moves began to pervade other games in the rising fighting game genre. Street Fighter also introduced other staples of the genre, including the blocking technique, as well as the ability for a challenger to jump in and initiate a match against
18270-424: The game outside Japan because it felt that "unrestrained" 3D fighting games were unenjoyable. Sega also attempted to introduce holographic 3D technology to the genre with Holosseum in 1992, though it was unsuccessful. Several fighting games achieved commercial success, including SNK's Art of Fighting and Samurai Shodown as well as Sega's Eternal Champions . Nevertheless, Street Fighter II remained
18444-480: The game was renamed Mortal Kombat Mobile with its 2.0 update with a vast overhaul of new features for Mortal Kombat 11 . Furthermore, the 2.0 update upgraded its graphics engine from Unreal Engine 3 to Unreal Engine 4 . The app has 50 million downloads on Android. Mortal Kombat X received largely positive reviews. Aggregating review website Metacritic gave the Xbox One version 86/100 based on 21 reviews,
18618-465: The game was the fastest-selling game in the franchise and the ninth best-selling retail game of 2015 in United States. An upgraded version of Mortal Kombat X , titled Mortal Kombat XL , was released on March 1, 2016, for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One , including all downloadable content characters from the two released Kombat Packs, almost all bonus alternate costumes available at the time of release, improved gameplay, and improved netcode. This edition
18792-496: The game were directed by System of a Down member Shavo Odadjian and featured the band's 2001 track " Chop Suey! ". The Mortal Kombat X logo was featured on NASCAR driver Erik Jones ' #20 Xfinity Series car (sponsored by GameStop ) that won the O'Reilly Auto Parts 300 on April 10, 2015. Mortal Kombat X has been used in eSports competitions, with international tournaments in Europe, Asia, and North America with $ 1,000 weekly tournament prizes starting on April 19, 2015, with
18966-399: The game will get better over time. VideoGamer.com 's Brett Phipps gave the game an 8/10 and called it "absurd, gruesome ridiculous fun". Phipps mostly praised the story, character gameplay variety, and gore, but was annoyed by online "hiccups". Nick Tan from Game Revolution commended the gameplay, particularly complimenting the character variations, environmental attacks, Brutalities ,
19140-626: The game's launch, Goro was offered as a pre-order bonus. Later on, upon the game's release, he was also made available for purchase. The game has also received numerous downloadable content (DLC) packages, containing skin packs and occasionally new characters, such as the Ultimate Horror Pack, which includes Jason and horror-themed skins for Ermac, Reptile and Mileena; or the Predator/Prey Pack, which includes Predator and Predator-themed skins for Johnny Cage, Scorpion and
19314-528: The game. Yie Ar Kung-Fu went on to become the UK's best-selling computer game of 1986 , the second year in a row for fighting games. The same year, Martech 's Uchi Mata for home computers featured novel controller motions for grappling maneuvers, but they were deemed too difficult. In the late 1980s, side-scrolling beat 'em ups became considerably more popular than one-on-one fighting games, with many arcade game developers focused more on producing beat 'em ups and shoot 'em ups. Takashi Nishiyama used
19488-573: The genre into "true 3D" due to its introduction of the sidestep maneuver, which IGN described as "one little move" that "changed the fighter forever". The "sidestep" in the game, however, consisted of shoulder rolls instead of actual sidesteps. That year, Namco released Tekken 2 , which introduced actual sidestepping or "mist steps" as first released in arcade games and in the international fighting game community. These moves are only exclusive to its two protagonists, Heihachi Mishima and his son, Kazuya Mishima , and his counterpart transformation which
19662-400: The genre with the 1993 arcade game Burning Rival , but they gained renown with the release of Virtua Fighter for the same platform the same year. It is the first fighting game with 3D polygon graphics and a viewpoint that zoomed and rotated with the action. Despite the graphics, players were confined to back and forth motion as seen in other fighting games. With only three buttons, it
19836-467: The grounded realism of Karate Champ , Yie Ar Kung-Fu moved the genre towards more fantastical, fast-paced action with a variety of special moves and high jumps, establishing the template for subsequent fighting games. It expanded on Karate Champ by pitting the player against a variety of opponents, each with a unique appearance and fighting style. The player could also perform up to sixteen different moves, including projectile attacks, and it replaced
20010-488: The history of competitive video gaming, compared to sports moments such as Babe Ruth's called shot and the Ice Hockey Miracle on Ice . It inspired many to start playing 3rd Strike, which brought new life into the fighting game community (FGC) during a time when the community was in a state of stagnation. Dead or Alive 4 became the first fighting game to have a televised competitive esport scene as it
20184-435: The home port of Tekken 2 , cementing 3D as the future of the genre. In 1994, SNK released The King of Fighters '94 in arcades, where players choose from teams of three characters to eliminate each other one by one. Eventually, Capcom released further updates to Street Fighter II , including Super Street Fighter II and Super Street Fighter II Turbo . These games feature more characters and new moves, some of which are
20358-676: The initial refusal by the German USK to issue the game with an age rating, the official German release of Mortal Kombat X was delayed until September 1, 2015. The game's Kollector's Edition includes a figurine of Scorpion and the Gold Scorpion skin, as well as future access to Kombat Pack 1. Simultaneously with the release of Kombat Pack 2 and Mortal Kombat XL , the game received a free major update that introduced balance changes, one new stage ("The Pit"), several stage brutalities, and rollback-based netcode similar to GGPO . Before
20532-417: The late 1990s, traditional 2D fighting games began to decline in popularity, with specific franchises falling into difficulty due to 3D fighters. Although the release of Street Fighter EX introduced 3D graphics to the series, both it and Street Fighter: The Movie flopped in arcades. A home video game also titled Street Fighter: The Movie was released for the PlayStation and Sega Saturn , but it
20706-469: The late 1990s. Namco 's Tekken (released in arcades in 1994 and on the PlayStation in 1995) proved critical to the PlayStation's early success, with its sequels also becoming some of the console's most important games. The Soul series of weapon-based fighting games also achieved considerable critical success, beginning with 1995's Soul Edge (known as Soul Blade outside Japan) to Soulcalibur VI in 2018. Tecmo released Dead or Alive in
20880-425: The latest game Tekken 8 , which was released in January 2024 sold over 2 million copies in its first month alone. Thus, the 2020s have had a marked resurgence in fighting games that has been deemed a new golden age in fighting games. The following are the highest-grossing fighting game franchises, in terms of total gross revenue generated by arcade games , console games , and computer games . The following are
21054-416: The majority of their gross revenue from coin drop earnings. Fatality (Mortal Kombat) The origins of the Fatality concept has been traced back to several violent Asian martial arts media. In The Street Fighter (1974), a Japanese martial arts film, Sonny Chiba performs x-ray fatality finishing moves, which at the time was seen as a gimmick to distinguish it from other martial arts films. In
21228-419: The market for fighting games became smaller and more specialized. Even as far back as 1997, many in the industry said that the fighting game market's growing inaccessibility to newcomers was bringing an end to the genre's dominance. Furthermore, arcades gradually became less profitable throughout the late 1990s to early 2000s due to the increased technical power and popularity of home consoles. The early 2000s
21402-434: The mid-2020s, the genre achieved another renaissance with the arrival of Street Fighter 6 and its immediate success, together with Mortal Kombat 1 and Tekken 8 . Street Fighter 6 sold over 1 million copies within five days after its launch, and sold over 3 million copies by January 2024. Mortal Kombat 1 sold over 2 million copies in its first two months, and garnered over 3 million copies by January 2024, while
21576-709: The more interactive nature and freedom of the Kreate-a-Fatality system, and others missing the previous games' character-specific ending moves and alternatives to killing the opponent. Originally, there were individual character-specific Kreate-a-Fatality moves for each character, but this feature was dropped, reportedly due to such a feat's infeasibility (especially in regards to the Kreate-A-Character option, which individual moves would not translate to). This kind of Fatality has only been in this game. Stage Fatalities brought environment interaction within
21750-400: The most popular, spawning a Champion Edition that improved game balance and allowed players to use boss characters that were unselectable in the previous version. Chicago's Midway Games achieved unprecedented notoriety when they released Mortal Kombat in 1992. The game featured digital characters drawn from real actors, numerous secrets, and " Fatality " finishing maneuvers in which
21924-555: The new Grandmaster of the Lin Kuei after killing Sektor . Sub-Zero uses the data from Sektor's memory banks detailing Quan Chi's various manipulations of the Lin Kuei, including the truth about the deaths of Hasashi's wife and son, to help end his feud with Hasashi. Twenty years after Shinnok's defeat, Johnny assembles a new team of young fighters composed of Cassie, Takeda, Jax's daughter Jacqui , and Kung Lao 's younger cousin (later retconned as his nephew) Kung Jin . After undergoing
22098-434: The one-on-one boss battles of his earlier beat 'em up Kung-Fu Master as the template for Capcom 's fighting game Street Fighter , combined with elements of Karate Champ and Yie Ar Kung Fu . Street Fighter found its own niche in the gaming world, which was dominated by beat 'em ups and shoot 'em ups at the time. Part of the game's appeal was the use of special moves that could only be discovered by experimenting with
22272-428: The online functionality of XL was announced for the PC, and ultimately a release date was set for October 4, 2016. Prior to the game's release, DC Comics published a comic book series based on the game, with the first issue released on January 6, 2015. The debut trailer and opening cinematic features an original track by Wiz Khalifa titled "Can't Be Stopped". The official television commercial and launch trailer for
22446-439: The opponent to recover if they timed them correctly. Its success led to fighting games becoming the dominant genre in the arcade game industry of the early 1990s, which led to a resurgence of the arcade game industry. The popularity of Street Fighter II led it to be released for home game consoles and becoming the defining template for fighting games. SNK released Fatal Fury shortly after Street Fighter II in 1991. It
22620-406: The opponent, but still within the distance that a sweeping low kick should hit), and far (at least one jump's length away from the opponent). Each character has signature Fatalities. Traditionally for the main and important characters of the games their Fatalities are usually a reflection of either their storyline or their special abilities: e.g., Sub-Zero 's Fatalities have traditionally involved
22794-476: The opponent. Additionally, stage Fatalities were reinstated in Mortal Kombat XL , being available in three of the game's stages. For local single-player, the game offers Story mode, a plot-driven mode with cutscenes between fights; and Living Towers, an evolved form of Mortal Kombat' s Challenge Tower where the play conditions change. Also locally, player vs. player mode is available. Playing online,
22968-553: The opponent. Other fighting games, like Dead or Alive , have a unique button for throws and takedowns. Projectiles are primarily in 2D fighting games, like the Hadouken in Street Fighter . Projectiles can simply inflict damage, or can maneuver opponents into disadvantageous positions. Especially in 2D, zoning is defensive play that focuses on using relatively risk-free attacks to keep the opposing player away. The object
23142-500: The play modes include 1 vs. 1 (ranked or random), King of the Hill, Survivor, and Test Your Luck. Another new mode is Faction Wars, where players choose one from the five factions to align with, and join a persistent online cross-platform competition with others, winning points for their faction, contributing in the conflict between them, ranking up personally, and earning special rewards such as faction-specific finishing moves (one of which
23316-418: The player reaches 10 chains, he/she must use a finisher or else the Fatality sequence will stop and the player will not receive a rank or reward. If time runs out before the player can end the chain with a final fatal move, no rank or reward is given and the Fatality is not counted, regardless of how many moves were completed. This concept has been met with a mixed reaction, with some fans and critics preferring
23490-546: The player to morph into an animal and maul their opponent. This style of Fatality debuted in Mortal Kombat 3 . According to Boon, his team "listened to what the players said about MKII and the Animalities that they thought were in there but really were not. To answer all these rumors , we put Animalities in MKIII [ sic ]." In order to perform an Animality, the player must first grant their opponent Mercy,
23664-760: The player's character kills their opponent. The game earned a reputation for its gratuitous violence, and was adapted for home game consoles. The home version of Mortal Kombat was released on September 13, 1993, a day promoted as "Mortal Monday". The advertising resulted in line-ups to purchase the game and a subsequent backlash from politicians concerned about the game's violence. The Mortal Kombat franchise would achieve iconic status similar to that of Street Fighter with several sequels as well as movies, television series, and extensive merchandising. Numerous other game developers tried to imitate Street Fighter II and Mortal Kombat 's financial success with similar games, including Rare Software with Killer Instinct ,
23838-528: The point-scoring system of Karate Champ with a health meter system, becoming the standard for the genre. Irem 's Kung-Fu Master , designed by Takashi Nishiyama and released in November 1984, is a side-scrolling beat 'em up that, at the end of each level , featured one-on-one boss battles that resemble fighting games. It is based on Hong Kong martial arts films, specifically Jackie Chan 's Wheels on Meals (1984) and Bruce Lee's Game of Death . Nishiyama later used its one-on-one boss battles as
24012-470: The process. As Hasashi prepares to kill Quan Chi, D'Vorah arrives with the amulet. Quan Chi manages to finish his spell moments before being beheaded by Hasashi, releasing Shinnok from captivity. Weakened by the Shirai Ryu's previous attack, Johnny is taken hostage by Shinnok and D'Vorah. With the aid of Quan Chi's revenants, Shinnok and D'Vorah assault the Sky Temple, and subdue Raiden and Bo' Rai Cho in
24186-461: The process. Shinnok then enters the Jinsei and corrupts it, transforming himself into a powerful demon in the process. Cassie's team pursues Shinnok, only to be intercepted by Kotal Kahn and his army. They inform him of Shinnok's return and Kotal decides to kill them, hoping to appease Shinnok and buy time to bolster Outworld's defenses, but Sub-Zero and his Lin Kuei warriors appear just in time to repel
24360-405: The release of Mortal Kombat 11: Aftermath as part of a free update to the main game. The Hara-Kiri (Japanese for a certain type of ritual suicide literally meaning "belly cut"; Kenshi is the only character who uses it in this form) is a finishing move in which the losing player kills themselves at the end of a match, rather than be finished off by their opponent. Mortal Kombat: Deception
24534-435: The release of the PC port of Mortal Kombat XL was a balance patch affecting most of the 33 characters in the roster in all three of the game's platforms. On March 2, 2015, NetherRealm Studios announced that their mobile division would release an iOS / Android version of Mortal Kombat X in April 2015. The mobile game is described as a "free-to-play fighting/card-battler hybrid" and players would be able to unlock content in
24708-432: The resume of Karen Strassman , who voiced Kitana and Mileena in 2011's Mortal Kombat , the game's working title was Mortal Kombat 2 . The game's poster was leaked and an updated version of the series' iconic dragon logo was revealed on May 28, 2014. Boon posted daily riddles on his Twitter account that constituted a countdown suggesting a June 2 announcement date, hinting at the game's title being Mortal Kombat X . One of
24882-411: The rewarded player can minimize the number of viable moves available to the other player. Doing so, and then taking advantage of the opponent's limited options, is called pressure. Common forms of pressure include making a player guess whether they should block high or low, or keeping the opposing player trapped in the corner and punishing any attempts to escape. Fighting game matches generally consist of
25056-411: The rise of major international fighting game tournaments such as Tougeki – Super Battle Opera and Evolution Championship Series , and famous players such as Daigo Umehara . An important fighting game at the time was Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike , originally released in 1999. The game gained significant attention with " Evo Moment 37 ", also known as the "Daigo Parry", which refers to a portion of
25230-479: The series as the platform fighter subgenre due to its deviation from traditional fighting game rules and design. Several games such as Marvel vs. Capcom and Dead or Alive have featured teams where players form "tag teams" to fight duels, but a character may be swapped by a teammate. Some fighting games offer the endurance challenge of a series of opponents. Online games can suffer lag from slow data transmission , which can disrupt split-second timing. This
25404-578: The series, occurring when a player uses a part of the stage or map to execute a player. It is a finishing move that is not a standard character Fatality. Some examples of Stage Fatalities are having the victim fall into a pool of acid or a pit of spikes, or to be run over by a subway train; the stage then does not darken. Stage Fatalities are present in the series from the first Mortal Kombat , though are absent from Deadly Alliance . Deception features more Stage Fatalities, renamed Death Traps, than any previous Mortal Kombat game. A special button combination
25578-402: The series, while the italicized ones are guest characters. Goro was available either as a pre-order bonus, or with the purchase of Kombat Pack 2. Kombat Pack 1 Kombat Pack 2 Along with series staples such as Scorpion, Sub-Zero, Liu Kang, Kitana and Raiden, several new fighters are added to the series' roster: D'Vorah, an insectoid humanoid who controls other insects; Ferra/Torr ,
25752-655: The sports game genre. Fighting games involve combat between pairs of fighters using highly exaggerated martial arts moves. They typically revolve primarily around brawling or combat sport , though some variations feature weaponry. Games usually display on-screen fighters from a side view, and even 3D fighting games play largely within a 2D plane of motion. Games usually confine characters to moving left and right and jumping, although some games such as Fatal Fury: King of Fighters allow players to move between parallel planes of movement. Recent games tend to be rendered in three dimensions, making it easier for developers to add
25926-406: The stage when a character reaches a high percentage of damage; however, the gameplay objective differs from that of traditional fighting games in that the aim is to increase damage counters and knock opponents off the stage instead of depleting life bars. Beginning with Midway's Mortal Kombat released in 1992, the Mortal Kombat series introduced "Fatalities", where the match victor inflicts
26100-422: The story mode as "ceaselessly entertaining", having "great voice-acting and a surprisingly enjoyable script", and "a pretty tough act to follow", criticizing the other single-player modes outside of the main story, and "sparse" tutorial options. Destructoid 's Chris Carter scored the game an 8 out of 10 and called it "one of the biggest fighting games of 2015". Carter felt that as more characters are added via DLC,
26274-545: The strength of other attacks. Some characters have unusual taunts, like Dan Hibiki from Street Fighter Alpha . Combos that chain several attacks are fundamental to the genre since Street Fighter II (1991). Most fighting games display a "combo meter" of progress through a combo. The effectiveness of such moves often relates to the difficulty of execution and the degree of risk. These moves are often challenging, requiring excellent memory and timing. Predicting opponents' moves and counter-attacking, known as "countering",
26448-549: The two already revealed by the trailer. With over eleven million views, it was the third-highest viewed trailer on YouTube in the second quarter of 2014. NetherRealm Studios said they are only working on the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions of the game. The game, which runs at 1080p screen resolution and 60 FPS , has been said to feature the most brutal finishing moves in the series. Boon said: "We have these meetings and everyone comes up with ideas for Fatalities . The ones that people say 'there's no way we can do that'—they're
26622-604: The two terms may still be conflated. Sports-based combat games are games that feature boxing , mixed martial arts (MMA), or wrestling . Serious boxing games belong more to the sports game genre than the action game genre, as they aim for a more realistic model of boxing techniques, whereas moves in fighting games tend to be either highly exaggerated or outright fantastical models of Asian martial arts techniques. As such, boxing games, mixed martial arts games, and wrestling games are often described as distinct genres, without comparison to fighting games, and belong more in
26796-404: The updated Super Street Fighter IV , sold more than 6 million copies over the next few years. The success of these two games, among others, sparked a renaissance for the genre, introducing new players to the genre and with the increased audience allowing other fighting game franchises to achieve successful revivals of their own, as well as increasing tournament participation. Tekken 6
26970-608: The use of his powers of ice, whereas Scorpion 's storyline of a hellspawn ninja spectre involves the use of setting someone ablaze or using his famous spear. The number of individual Fatalities varies depending upon the game; while characters in Mortal Kombat and Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance had only one, Mortal Kombat II and Mortal Kombat 3 and its updates ( Mortal Kombat Trilogy and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 ) featured as many as four. The Fatalities were featured in ScrewAttack 's " Top 10 OMGWTF Moments " due to
27144-427: The usual Fatalities , Mortal Kombat X features two new types of finishing moves: Quitality, which instantly kills the player's character if they rage quit during a multiplayer match; and Faction Kills, a set of finishing moves available to players based on the selection of one of the game's five factions (Black Dragon, Brotherhood of Shadow, Lin Kuei, Special Forces, and White Lotus). Brutality finishing moves make
27318-419: The winning player performs a unique fatality pertaining to which faction that player is part of in the game. Each faction has a set of five completely unique faction kills, however the player has to play continuously for one single faction to reveal every faction kill available to that particular faction, including one that is unlocked by a Faction War victory. Debuting in Mortal Kombat II , Friendships feature
27492-725: Was Super Smash Bros. Brawl for the Wii . Featuring 40 characters from Nintendo and third-party franchises, the game was a runaway commercial success in addition to being lavished with critical praise. In the new millennium, fighting games became less popular and plentiful than in the mid-1990s, with multiplayer competition shifting towards other genres. However, SNK reappeared in 2003 as SNK Playmore and continued to release games. Arc System Works received critical acclaim for releasing Guilty Gear X in 2001, as well as its sequel Guilty Gear XX , as both were 2D fighting games featuring striking anime -inspired graphics. Fighting games became
27666-444: Was a novelty as the traditional fighting games ended with the loser simply knocked unconscious and the victor posing for the players). According to Boon, it started with an idea to enable the player to hit a dizzied opponent at the end of the match with a "free hit", and that idea "quickly evolved into something nasty." Tobias recalled it differently: "Our first idea was to use them as a finishing move for final boss Shang Tsung , who
27840-614: Was added as a mobile-exclusive character using his signature moves and X-Ray attack from MK9. On the update 1.13, Jade and Baraka were also added in the game as mobile exclusives, using their X-Rays from MK9. The latest version as of September 2017 (version 1.14) includes the popularly demanded Takeda, as well as the most recent addition to the ninja cast, Tremor. By October 4, another update was released, featuring Goro (Klassic and Tigrar Fury) and Shao Kahn. A February 2018 update introduced Bo' Rai Cho and Kintaro. An October 2018 update introduced console DLC character Leatherface . In February 2019,
28014-526: Was also released for Windows on October 4, 2016. A sequel, Mortal Kombat 11 , was released on April 23, 2019, for Nintendo Switch , PlayStation 4 , Windows , and Xbox One , with another follow-up released on September 19, 2023. Mortal Kombat X is a fighting game in which two characters fight against each other using a variety of attacks, including special moves, and the series' trademark gruesome finishing moves, Fatalities . The game allows two players to face each other (either locally or online), or
28188-419: Was building off the popularity of its previous iteration and was still positively received, selling more than 3 million copies worldwide by August 2010, one year after its release. Other successful games that followed include Mortal Kombat , Marvel vs. Capcom 3 , The King of Fighters XIII , Dead or Alive 5 , Tekken Tag Tournament 2 , Soulcalibur V , and Guilty Gear Xrd . Though
28362-474: Was designed by Takashi Nishiyama, the creator of the original Street Fighter , which it was envisioned as a spiritual successor to. Fatal Fury placed more emphasis on storytelling and the timing of special moves, and added a two-plane system where characters could step into the foreground or background. Meanwhile, Sega experimented with Dark Edge , an early attempt at a 3D fighting game where characters could move in all directions. However, Sega never released
28536-409: Was directed at the game's controls, overall gameplay, graphics, story, and characters, with some reviewers calling it the best game in the Mortal Kombat series. However, the PC version of the game was met with mixed reception, with reviewers citing numerous technical issues (including frequent crashes and slow netcode) as problems that severely hinder the experience. Selling more than 10 million copies,
28710-479: Was easier to learn than Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat , which has six and five buttons respectively. By the time the game was released for the Sega Saturn in Japan, the game and system were selling at almost a one-to-one ratio. In 1994, Namco released Tekken , the rival arcade game using cutting-edge 3D polygon technology. The 1995 PlayStation game Battle Arena Toshinden is credited for taking
28884-418: Was going to pull out his sword and behead his opponent. Then we thought, 'What if the player could do that to his opponent?'" Tobias and former Midway Games programmer Mark Turmell stated that initially no one at Midway expected players to find the Fatalities in the game. Tobias said: "When we watched players react to the Fatalities, we knew we had no choice but to give them more." Much like special moves,
29058-667: Was inadvertently leaked by the Xbox Games Store , with Tremor from Mortal Kombat: Special Forces and Tanya from Mortal Kombat 4 later rounding out the cast of the Kombat Pack. Ultimately, the pack was revealed to include all of the content in the Samurai Pack, Ultimate Horror Pack, Klassic Pack #1, Predator/Prey Pack and Klassic Pack #2. the Terminator from the eponymous franchise and Michael Myers from
29232-537: Was not explicitly used as a finisher, but rather as a powerup. A move similar to the Brutality appeared in Mortal Kombat: Deception , in the form of a Fatality of Li Mei : her Fatality was to rapidly strike the opponent repeatedly, then to step back and pose as her opponent twitches for a moment, before exploding in a pile of gore. Brutalities make a return appearance in 2015's Mortal Kombat X , featured as enhanced versions of certain moves used as
29406-422: Was officially released on August 25, 2016, as a free-to-play title on Steam in order to test the enhanced netcode, which lasted through September 1, 2016. As soon as the beta ended, it was announced that Mortal Kombat XL (both as a full game for purchase, and as an update for Mortal Kombat X owners) would become available alongside the Kombat Pack 2 DLC on October 4, 2016, along with the updates that would bring
29580-410: Was released on PC on October 4, 2016, along with the PC release of Mortal Kombat XL . On January 20, 2016, coinciding with the official announcement of Kombat Pack 2, NetherRealm Studios announced a new release of the game, called Mortal Kombat XL to be released simultaneously with said Kombat Pack, which would include all previously released downloadable content up to Kombat Pack 2. Mortal Kombat XL
29754-446: Was the dominant genre in competitive video gaming, with enthusiasts popularly attending arcades in order to find human opponents. The genre was also very popular on home consoles. At the beginning of 1996, GamePro (a magazine devoted chiefly to home console and handheld gaming) reported that for the last several years, their reader surveys had consistently yielded 4 out of 5 respondents name fighting games as their favorite genre. In
29928-425: Was the first game to include such a feature. Fighting games can support a two-player duel, sometimes by letting a second player challenge the first at any moment during a single-player match. Some games allow four-player simultaneous competition. Uniquely, the Super Smash Bros. series has allowed eight-player local and online multiplayer matches, beginning with Super Smash Bros. for Wii U , though many classify
30102-550: Was the only fighting game included in the esport league, the Championship Gaming Series (CGS), in 2007 and 2008. The league was operated and fully broadcast by DirecTV in association with British Sky Broadcasting (BSkyB) and STAR TV . Dead or Alive has been credited for launching the careers of pro-gamer turned Koei Tecmo employee, Emmanuel Rodriguez, and the highest-paid women pro-gamers, Kat Gunn and Vanessa Arteaga . The late 2000s featured
30276-468: Was then released for Xbox One and PlayStation 4 on March 1, 2016, in North America, and March 4, 2016, in Europe. With the PC having been left behind after Kombat Pack 1, in August 2016 Ed Boon ran a poll on Twitter, which resulted in 45% of 10,000 voters saying they wanted Mortal Kombat XL for PC. After it ended, he posted the results, suggesting they would be acted upon. Shortly after, an online-only beta
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