Mortal Kombat: Was it's success because of graphic violence, blood, and gore?

[Toonami Tom]

I like Mortal Kombat becasue it has cool characters, and it's a fun fighting game. If it dodn't have the graphic violence, blood, and gore, I would like it just the same. I might even like it more if it didn't have that stuff. If it wasn't for thoses effects though, would it have been successful (or as successful)?

[Tetsu Deinonychus]

Successful, but not as successful.

Mortal Kombat was a sucess because fighting games were big at the time but many were horribly unoriginal. MK was a fighting game in the tradition of SF2 and Fatal Fury, but instead of just ripping them off like many fighting games of that era they had a few things that set them apart...

-Use of live-actors instead of the anime graphics of it's contemperarys.

-Different controls: High and Low attacks instead of Weak and strong attacks, simpler special-move commands, and a seperate block button instead of using the joystick to block.

-A character that can freeze people and another that shoots a spear from his wrist.

-Excessive blood and gore

Even without that last one MK was still a unique game, and would still have a following. But, I don't think it would be the runaway hit it was without the hype about the bloody violence.

[Ryona]

I'm one who's really into fighting games. But Mortal Kombat never interested me. I tried to give it numerous chances, but it always seemed to be a weak game to me dispite some of its original ideas.

[愛]

Once Mortal Kombat leaped onto PS2, I lost interest. I was really into the older games, mostly because I had friends who loved them too, so I could battle people. After that, I was only able to play by myself, and the games got too complicated.

[Tetsu Deinonychus]

I'm one who's really into fighting games. But Mortal Kombat never interested me. I tried to give it numerous chances, but it always seemed to be a weak game to me dispite some of its original ideas.I gotta say, it did lack the depth of Street Fighter and the SNK games, but I still had alot of fun with it.

[Ryona]

I gotta say, it did lack the depth of Street Fighter and the SNK games, but I still had alot of fun with it.

I do find the ninja characters like Sub-Zero, Scorpion and Reptile cool. But that's about it.

[The Stryker]

I think the story of MK puts it over Street Fighter in my book.

But thats just me

[ThirdMarioBro]

Great analytical topic. I love it.

Mortal Kombat was inferior on a technical level. I never found the engine to be half as refined as Street Fighter II: Hyper Fighting at the time. The Street Fighter games were

Now, Mortal Kombat got attention because of the shock value alone. That's how it drew attention away from the other fighters. I don't think the digitalized characters had much to do with it after the initial "OMG real people are getting decapitated on screen". Pit Fighter had digital character art, and it was garbage. People played Mortal Kombat, and it was a competant fighter, but it was fun to blow the fu*k out of the characters. It wasn't as good as Street Fighter, but it was good enough, and it had the added distructive value to make you giddy while playing it. I mean, who wouldn't enjoy doing this sh*t?

http://www.gameklip.com/v/362/

Now, I enjoyed the original games. The wern't that good in retrospect, but I liked spewing the other guy all over the screen, and the game was compatent enough to warrent playing. Still, that dosen't change the fact that the modern games suck. I find the production values to be poor, and the gameplay to be cheezy and poorly thought out. Street Fighter didn't have the ability to yank the skelaton out of Kano, or freeze Sonya and blow her over, causing her to shatter into a thousand little pieces, but Street Fighter had the gameplay, the "down to the frames" level of skill, and the mythology and pure depth to survive. But, Mortal Kombat had the shock value, and that's why it sells today while Street Figher is dying into obscurity. It's easy gratification. Don't get me wrong. Fatalities are fu*king awesome, but they aren't more important than gameplay, and that is something Mortal Kombat lacked, and still lacks....depth of gameplay. It had the storyline, but not the depth. Street Fighter had a story, but that wouldn't have lasted two minutes without killer gameplay.

Gameplay is more important, and Street Fighter had that in spades. How many gamers do you see play Street Fighter II today, and how many still play the original Mortal Kombat? Since Xbox Live is going to have both this summer, why don't we watch and see which gets more attention. I've seen SFII:Hyper Fighting all over the media, but Ultimate MK3 is being pretty muh ignored.

[Tetsu Deinonychus]

Mortal Kombat was inferior on a technical level. I never found the engine to be half as refined as Street Fighter II: Hyper Fighting at the time. The Street Fighter games were.I'd have to agree, but you have to admit that MK's special move's were more varied. Ice-freeze, Wrist spear, Teleport punch, etc.

Pit Fighter had digital character art, and it was garbage.But in MKs case the costumes didn't look ridiculous and the actors could punch and kick convincingly. Also, Pit Fighter would have sucked with any graphics.

It wasn't as good as Street Fighter, but it was good enough.My sentiments exactly!

I think the story of MK puts it over Street Fighter in my book.

But thats just me
I think they both have excellent storylines actually.:)

[ThirdMarioBro]

I do admit that the costumes were pretty badass in Mortal Kombat. Scorpion was always badass in my book. Also, Sonya was played by a porn star. You can't beat that either.

[Toonami Tom]

Wait.... You mean the characters in the 16-bit games were actually sprites of.... real people!? Whoa! That's deep.:D Did this trend continue on all the way to MK3? Does it continue today at all in MK games?

I haven't played any of the current MK games. That last one I played was Ultimate MK3.

Back on the gore factor, when I play I usually leave it turned on. Just because it's there.

As for Street Fighter, for some reason this game was almost completely ignored by me when I was younger. I really have no idea why. This was back in the days of the 16-bit systems, like SNES. I came to know Mortal Kombat through my best friend, who pretty much had an obsession with the game. Everytime he would come over he broguht the game with him. Soon I knew the characters, and they were as iconic as Super Mario or Link to me.

My friend wouldn't eat ketchup on his food because he thought it looked like blood.:D Yeah, he was kinda strange. He even made bloody gushing noises when we used to play with action figures.

[Tetsu Deinonychus]

Yes from the original MK to UMK3 and Trilogy all the character sprites (except Goro who I think was stop-motion) were made by filming actors in costume infront of a bluescreen and scanning the footage into their computer to make sprites out of it. There were a few games in that era that did that, but MK is the only one I've ever seen that did it right. Which is a shame because it's a really cool idea.

But, from MK 4 on, all the characters are simply realistic 3D Polygon characters, but I think they use motion capture and, I think (in MK4 at least), scanned the actors in costume for the texture map.

[Archon_Turtle]

Yes from the original MK to UMK3 and Trilogy all the character sprites (except Goro who I think was stop-motion) were made by filming actors in costume infront of a bluescreen and scanning the footage into their computer to make sprites out of it. There were a few games in that era that did that, but MK is the only one I've ever seen that did it right. Which is a shame because it's a really cool idea.

But, from MK 4 on, all the characters are simply realistic 3D Polygon characters, but I think they use motion capture and, I think (in MK4 at least), scanned the actors in costume for the texture map.

What about Primal Rage! They filmed Dinosaurs in front of a blue screen fighting and that was a great game...oh wait...no...no it wasn't

[XERO]

Honestly...

The only good thing that came out of Mortal Kombat was Liu Kang. That's why Shaolin Monks pwns Deception anyday.8)

[Sliced]

The first mortal Kombat game was not that great honestly... It was very original, the characters, the moves, the ''finish him !''. That was great. But I never had alot of fun playing it. Well I of course did, but I was running tired of it pretty fast. Street fighter was a better ''fighting'' game, with better controls (in my opinion) and the fights were more fluid.

Then came MK 2 ! Still today, MK 2 is considered by many as one of the best fighting game of all time. Big lot of original and cool characters, even more cool moves, and the best thing : 2 ultra brutal and cool fatalities for each characters. And on top of all that, the game gained alot in fluidity, the fights were faster and more intersting. MK 2 is the game that owned'em all. No fighting games were more played and more loved than MK2.

The mk story line always was cheesy, bit too much sometimes, but still, it was gory... and real... oh and did I mentioned gory ? :roll:

But in my opinion, the best fighting game of all time, still unmatched today (I'm talking for myself.) is Killer Instincs. Now THAT was a hell of a fighting game. It was of course directly inspired from MK and SF. But man, those combos and ''fatalities'' were just blain awsome. The story was bullsh*t, but the controls were great, as well as the graphics. And those combos, oh man the humanity ! In every arcades I went back in the days, Killer Instincs was THE main attraction. And for good reasons.

Today's games are awsome, but not even Tekken, Virtua fighter, Soul Calibur or Mortal Kombat are getting near of the hype KI caused back in 1995.

These were my 2 cents...

[Kid Icarus]

I never knew about the big gore thing until years after I played the game.

I got MK2 for the SNES right when it came out as a Christmas present... had no idea what it was. I played it, it was okay, then I heard about it from friends. Started trying to learn fatalities and such.

The point? It would have sold just as well without the gore. Capcom can't be relied upon exclusively to push fighting games out, and Midway filled a gap for the average gamer to actually not totally suck at fighting games.

EDIT, just read above post. It's Killer Instinct. No 'S'. And KI Gold on the N64 is my favorite fighting game... hopefuly we'll see it on Wii's Virtual Console in the fall... that classic pad looks like it'll be damn sexy with that game.

[Sliced]

Oupsie, my mistake.

I taught that KI gold was ok, but was not as fun as the first. Will we see Killer Instinct ''insert bad ass name'' for the Wii ? I doubt it, although it might be, I haven't hurd anything about KI for years. Some rumors here and there but nothing solid. A sh*t load of fans are wanting it back, but I have the feeling that we won't get a new Killer Instinct anytime soon.

[ThirdMarioBro]

EDIT, just read above post. It's Killer Instinct. No 'S'. And KI Gold on the N64 is my favorite fighting game... hopefuly we'll see it on Wii's Virtual Console in the fall... that classic pad looks like it'll be damn sexy with that game.

Not going to happen. Rare owns KI sadly.

[trexmaster]

What about Primal Rage! They filmed Dinosaurs in front of a blue screen fighting and that was a great game...oh wait...no...no it wasn't

I liked Primal Rage; I once had all the fighters as toys. Yet another classic that needs remaking, especially on the upcoming PS3.

[Sliced]

Not going to happen. Rare owns KI sadly.

Not only that, but if I'm not mistaken, Xbox owns Rare now. So KI won't appear elsewhere than on the xbox or 360... Wich I'm sure won't happen anytime soon.

Primal rage was a cool game, I just enjoyed squashing the ones who were worshiping me as a god. It was a fun game indeed. But, was not up to the competition... I think the toys were more popular than the game.

[Space Lieutenant Josh]

I think the main reason Mortal Kombat was so successful was because of the controversial press it got. That's been causing things to sell well for hundreds of years. Also, Mortal Kombat was the game that caused the ESRB to come into existence, I'm pretty sure.

[KROW]

MK's success was a mix of shock and value. When it started, it gained momentum with its violence and gore. Soon after, though, the franchise needed to take a new direction before it got obsolete. So, Ed Boon focused more on story and added more meaning to the franchise.

As technology progressed, it became clear that live-acting was getting stale, so they switched to the 3D polygons. Still, though, fans were turning towards other games. It wasn't until Deception that MK got its revival. They used motion capture technology, giving the game that real life feel it once had, and even added different fighting styles to each fighter, plus an option to use a weapon during battle. Quite innovative, I'd say.

Though it was born in blood, MK now thrives in spirit and substance.

[XERO]

As technology progressed, it became clear that live-acting was getting stale, so they switched to the 3D polygons. Still, though, fans were turning towards other games. It wasn't until Deception that MK got its revival. They used motion capture technology, giving the game that real life feel it once had, and even added different fighting styles to each fighter, plus an option to use a weapon during battle. Quite innovative, I'd say.

Actually, Deadly Alliance started the different fighting styles, and MK4 brought the weapons into the battles.

As for the motion capture, you got me there.:P

[Ecto Jedi]

There is little doubt as to the fact that Mortal Kombat wouldn't have been nearly as successful had it not contained copious amounts of blood and guts, and ipso facto, become the veritable poster child for all forms of media that cater to our more violent tendencies. After all, MK is, at its core, nothing but a Street Fighter II clone -- and a dumbed-down one at that. Sure, it introduced plenty of cool ideas (infamous "Fatalities," endurance matches, motion-captured fighters, etc.) and does undeniably possess its own unique charm, but in the end the gimmicks do wear a little thin and the gameplay becomes rather tame.

While Street Fighter II's brilliant core gameplay has stood the test of time and remains every bit as entertaining and challenging as it was back in 1992, Mortal Kombat seems awfully dated by comparison. Don't get me wrong, there's no denying MK's impact on the video game industry and its success at the arcades, but without its mature theme and the blood it probably wouldn't have managed to break apart from all the other SF II clones out there.

[Toonami Tom]

That video ThirdMarioBro posted on the 1st page was horrific. It makes me wonder what's going on in the game makers minds. They actually spent the time to program that.:o

[Kid Icarus]

Not going to happen. Rare owns KI sadly. True... that sucks. Oh well, that's why I'm going Wii60, just as soon as I can afford a 360.

[KROW]

Actually, Deadly Alliance started the different fighting styles, and MK4 brought the weapons into the battles.

As for the motion capture, you got me there.:P
Oh, right. What did I say, Deception? I meant Alliance. My mistake. :goofygri:

[XERO]

Yeah.

I hated Deadly Alliance for the fact that they killed off Liu Kang.

I mean, if they can bring back Johnny Cage, human and all, how can they make Liu Kang, the Champion, a friggin' zombie?

Can you say 'Haterade'?

[KROW]

Yeah.

I hated Deadly Alliance for the fact that they killed off Liu Kang.

I mean, if they can bring back Johnny Cage, human and all, how can they make Liu Kang, the Champion, a friggin' zombie?

Can you say 'Haterade'?
'Cause King Lao didn't get enough props. :lol:

[XERO]

Well, his hat is a 'prop.' :P

[KROW]

Well, his hat is a 'prop.' :P
Heh. Point taken. Maybe he wasn't featured in Alliance because Midway couldn't find someone to do that irritating high-pitch voice of his in time. :P

[XERO]

Bah. That would be an crappy excuse. Besides, they found someone for Shaolin Monks to voice Liu Kang. :P

My guess would be that with Liu Kang, he would always be the champion. So, they killed him off to expand opportunities for other Kombatants to take his crown.

[KROW]

Bah. That would be an crappy excuse. Besides, they found someone for Shaolin Monks to voice Liu Kang. :P

My guess would be that with Liu Kang, he would always be the champion. So, they killed him off to expand opportunities for other Kombatants to take his crown.
Yeah. Actually, I think they killed Liu off to try to prove how badass Tsung and Quan Chi could be, to make them more important than they really are. *shrugs* I think if they wanted to make an impact with their characters, they should make a game where Raiden goes postal. I mean, what would happen if they had to defeat a God?

[XERO]

Yeah. Actually, I think they killed Liu off to try to prove how badass Tsung and Quan Chi could be, to make them more important than they really are. *shrugs* I think if they wanted to make an impact with their characters, they should make a game where Raiden goes postal. I mean, what would happen if they had to defeat a God?

They didn't want to expose the truth:

Shang Tsung and Quan Chi are lovers.

Liu Kang found out and was killed. Afterwards, Shang Tsung paid off Raiden to keep his mouth shut, and while Quan Chi watched, gave him a freebie. :lol:

[Jo269976]

I'd have to say the fighting is the reason it became popular, but the violence was the icing on the cake.

I got a MK Plug & Play game and there is no gore, no fatalitys, no blood no nothing! And believe me it's not the same. :(

[Ecto Jedi]

I'd have to say the fighting is the reason it became popular, but the violence was the icing on the cake.

I got a MK Plug & Play game and there is no gore, no fatalitys, no blood no nothing! And believe me it's not the same. :(

If you're still in doubt as to the role the violence played in the success of the franchise, try playing the original Mortal Kombat on the SNES. Awful, awful game -- MK without the blood and with dull graphics isn't worth playing.

[Spitfire]

MK was like GTA to me. It had it's shock value. The game parents didn't want their kids to play. But unlike GTA it actually changed! Oh my god! They switched to this Soul Caliber rip off system and it worked better for it. Still not appealing to me. But I'd play MK over GTA anyday.