What is Mortal Kombat?
Mortal Kombat is a 2D fighting game developed by Ed Boon of NetherRealm in 1992. MK was the most iconic and violent video game of all time back in the 90s. The plot of the game is about a tournament to see who the champion is. There are characters from different realms such as earth, outworld and many more who join the tournament for different reasons. Did you know that MK was inspired by Bloodsport (starting Jeanne Claude Van Danme) and Enter the Dragon? Well Ed Boon, John Tobias, Dan Forden and John Vogel wanted to do a ninja-themed game, while working at Midway at the time. Also was approach by Midway to do a video game adaptation of 1992 Universal Solider with digitized sprites (the idea of that was later in the development). Due to the success of Street Fighter, Midway wanted to make their own fighting game but gory. The most notable thing that Mortal Kombat has is “Fatalities” which is a gruesome way to finish off opponent towards end of the match.
Later expanded to Animality, Friendship, and Babality throughout the course of the franchise. The franchise has grown a lot in 32 years and remember growing up with original MK game on SNES. Down the line, the franchise has spawn movies, cartoon, toys and so much more. What about iconic characters like Liu Kang, Scorpion, Sub-Zero, Raiden and so on? Everyone remembers them and play a vital role in the story line in the games. The franchise has shift between 2D to 3D graphics in generations. Always had couple of reboot and remake featuring third-party characters like Kratos, Freddy Kruger, Conan the Barbarian and The Terminator. There is a lot of references of Mortal Kombat in movies, cartoon and video games. But I am not bored you with the history of MK but discuss the downfall of the franchise.
Downfall of Mortal Kombat
I know that the franchise has some bad apples such as Sub-Zero Mythologies and Special Forces. Personally, I haven’t play those and never well. I did get some problems with 3D era of MK games like MK vs DC Universe. Even it pays the way of Injustice series but it felt kind of off because Justice League doesn’t unalive people but villains like The Joker and Deathstroke do. Still, I felt that it wasn’t a good idea in my opinion. As Maximilian Dood stated in this “Mortal Kombat 1 in Trouble” video which he stated that “if there will be a crossover game they have to out MK in the title”. My first thought it was Mortal Kombat vs Killer Instinct because there was a poll that Ed Boon put out about the next project. But there was not Injustice 3 but a newer MK game.
Fast forward to 2023, Netherealms Studios developed another reboot of MK franchise and it a fresh new take on your favorite iconic characters. Liu Kang is now an elder god and Raiden is a normal human. The gameplay mechanic is very similar to MK 11 but now with assist system called Kameos. Kameos can be used to assist characters in defense and offense in battle. I had problem with Kameos system but overall game was not bad at all. But MK1 has it faults such as paid fatalities, no crossplay and other issues that NR hasn’t fixed. I feel is though WB had full control over this game not Ed Boon. WB wants to milk money from players which lead to poor sales of expansion Khaos Reign.
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Some players have problem with story mode and felt that it didn’t live to first one. What about gender-swapping of Sketor and Cyrax? Well I understand, it a multiverse thing but we already have a male version for Kameos. In my opinion, they are pandering which South Park does a great job tackling this problem. People argue that it’s woke and tired of the pandering in video games, movies and etc. I have to say this, Mortal Kombat 1 is my least favorite of the franchise, don’t get me wrong. I like the updated graphics and gameplay. But I felt Mortal Kombat 11 was better because variation system. Thank you for reading but if you want to buy MK1 on Amazon do so and enjoy it or not.
