In 1992, Midway revolutionized the genre of fighting games by getting into the ring with a new fighter who raised blisters among the sectors most reluctant to video games and its possible harmful effects on youth who could dedicate so many hours to this hobby, which in those years had no Not even close to the scale it currently enjoys.
We are talking, of course, of the controversial Mortal Kombat, a quick project that was forged with the intention of unseating the Street Fighter II de Capcom like king of the arcades of fight in that decade. There were not a few who tried to face Ryu and company, but only a few managed to maintain the type and rare was the exception that shone with its own light: precisely, Mortal Kombat was one of them and we are going to dedicate his well-deserved tribute in MundiVideogames.
The impact that Mortal Kombat had within the genre of fighting games began thanks to its staging. Far from offering drawn sprites of the characters and a colorful finish, Midway opted for digitize flesh and blood actors, transferring both their physical appearance and movements to the game itself. In 1992, the realism of the digitizations of Mortal Kombat they knew no rival and became one of the hallmarks of the saga, until their leap into three dimensions with Mortal Kombat 4.
One of the most curious data about the development of the game reveals that, initially, Midway I had in mind a fighting game of another kind and that would feature the, then famous, martial arts star Jean Claude Van Damme. Apparently, the actor was not part of the project since his representative and Midway they were unable to reach an agreement that satisfied both parties. Paradoxically, Van Damme ended up embodying the colonel on the big screen guile in the terrible film adaptation of Street Fighter II. This incident would be the germ of the character Johnny Cage en Mortal Kombat: a phony and boastful martial arts actor.
Another of the distinctive features, and the most controversial, was the explicit violence in the program, never before represented with such graphic quality, which reached its zenith with the execution of the rivals through the maximum penalty materialized by the already popular fatalities. Taking the opponent's heart out of his chest, ripping his head off with the spine or throwing him into a pit full of sharp stakes were some of the ways in which to sentence the bloody fights of the game. The tabloid media targeted Mortal Kombat quickly and branded it as a terrible influence on minors who played this video game. Such was the controversy, that in his domestic conversion to Super Nintendo blood was replaced by sweat, the word fatality was nowhere to be found and many of these final moves had to be replaced by seemingly less cruel ones - however, the great rival of the 16-bit of Nintendo, Mega Drive, it did have a gore mode that could be activated by a combination of buttons when starting the game: the mythical ABACABB-.
Playably, Mortal Kombat opted for his own gameplay instead of imitating that of Street Fighter II, which the vast majority of rivals in the game of Capcom. We had a button to block, which had to be always pressed to avoid receiving hits, although some damage was absorbed by the character; we had two punch buttons, one for medium height and one for high; idem for kicks; the characteristic hook that launched the rival to the top of the screen; and the twist shots, also very typical of the gameplay Mortal Kombatsuch as the sweep or roundhouse kick. If in Street Fighter II there were bonus phases, in Mortal Kombat it was not going to be less, although the Test Your Might (test your strength) was reduced to crushing buttons until reaching an energy level that allowed us to break the block of material that we had to burst, ranging from simple wood to hard diamond. The bonus phases were lost in later games, until the arrival of Mortal Kombat Deadly Alliance, where this mini game was recovered for the occasion.
Another aspect that we can highlight from that first Mortal Kombat it was his atmosphere. He remembered enough those productions in VHS of filthy martial arts films, which reached their peak in the 70s and 80s and later became tapes that were to be released directly at the video store on the corner. Thus, their settings were full of oriental motifs and elements that were reminiscent of these types of films. And speaking of scenarios, the one most remembered by all was, without a doubt, the so-called the pit. It consisted of a stone bridge over a pit full of stakes and was conceived so that any player could punish the other by throwing him into the void without having to know the button combination of any fatality. Below, you could see bodies and some impaled heads, which were the faces of some of the game's programmers, and it was the stage where we faced the only hidden character in the game, the chameleon ninja. Reptile.
The plot of Mortal Kombat has always been one of the strengths of the franchise for fans of the same: For countless generations, a tournament called Mortal Kombat, where some warriors representing the Land of the earth fought against the fiercest servants of the outworld, a dimension dominated by a tyrannical emperor, Shao Kahn. The tournament rules stated that if the outworld won ten times in a row Mortal Kombat, would gain control of the Earth, being annexed to the dominions of the emperor. An ancient Shaolin monk named Kung Lao possessed the title of tournament champion, resting upon him the freedom of Earth, until a half-human, half-dragon named Goro, who acted under the orders of the sorcerer Shang tsung, He took his life and the title of champion in combat. The outworld has already achieved 9 consecutive victories thanks to prince shokan Goro. This last tournament is where the future of the Land of the earth.
Mortal Kombat fighters
Liu Kang
He attended the tournament as a representative of his shaolin order, becoming the new champion of Mortal Kombat after defeating Shang tsung and the emperor himself in later games. Arguably the hero of the franchise during its early games, until the character lost charm and the team of Mortal Kombat decided to assassinate him and turn him into a zombie warrior in mortal kombat deception. The source of inspiration for the character, how could it be otherwise and as it happened with countless characters of this style, was Bruce Lee himself.
Johnny Cage
As we already mentioned, the origin of this character is the misunderstanding between the actor's representative Jean Claude Van Damme and the extinct Midway to be the protagonist of Mortal Kombat original. In this way, the incident with the Belgian triggered the creation of Johnny Cage, a boastful martial arts actor whose flexibility allowed him to deliver a falling blow aimed at the opponent's crotch.
The actor who played Cage, Daniel Pesina, was fired for making a commercial featuring the character for a game from another company. The lack of an actor to replace him was the reason why we did not see Johnny Cage en Mortal Kombat 3 -something that was solved in the edition Trilogy with a new actor for the occasion.
Raiden
Raiden He is the God of Thunder and guardian of the Earth Kingdom. He is the greatest ally of ground fighters and was invited to the tournament by the very Shang tsung. Knowing the wizard's tricks, he agrees to participate in a Mortal Kombat that will be crucial. His most striking powers were teleportation and launching against the rival, propelling him through the rest of the stage -as a curious note, the screams that the character uttered, and that to this day continue to be used in the games of the franchise, were howls without meaning that the actor Carlos Pesiona uttered before a microphone. The character of the character is remodeled after the events of Mortal Kombat Disappointment, becoming a god without mercy and darker. The source of inspiration for Raiden comes from the mythical movie of Coup in Little China, John Carpenter, where we can see one of the antagonists of the film with a similar outfit and powers.
Sonya Blade
A member of an elite special forces group, he ended up on the island of Shang tsung forced to participate in the tournament while following the tracks of Kano, a dangerous criminal who is sworn to revenge after murdering his partner. The kiss of death was his final move and in Mortal Kombat II it was only part of the decoration of one of the arenas. They were inspired by the karate champion Cynthia rothrock to create Sonya Blade, and her name is a nod to the sister of one of the game's creators -Sonya Boon-.
Kano
Mercenary, murderer and thief, he is a member of a criminal organization called Black Dragon. Enter the tournament when you hear rumors about a palace of Shang tsung where supposedly priceless treasures are hidden. The agent is on his heels Sonya Blade, and in a desperate act to get rid of her, he flees to the outworld through a dimensional portal, with the misfortune of ending up captured along with his pursuer. But luck was on the side of Kano: he himself spares his life, since he believes that the mercenary can be useful to teach his warriors how to use the weapons of Earth, something essential to successfully carry out his invasion plans in Mortal Kombat 3.
The most characteristic feature of Kano is your bionic eye to Terminator, and furthermore, his name seems taken from Jano, the Roman god of the two faces, something that suited this character with his face clearly differentiated into two parts. As a curious note, the bionic eye part was bought at a toy store when the MK Team I was looking for elements for the costumes of the fighters.
Sub-Zero
He belongs to a clan of murderous Chinese ninjas called Lin kuei. Master the art of freezing and is a formidable adversary. It is said that he participates in the tournament to assassinate Shang tsung in exchange for a large sum of money (detail of his biography that could be somewhat incongruous if we look at the end of the adventure that starred the frozen ninja -Mortal Kombat Mythologies-, where was the same Shang tsung who invited him to participate in the tournament) The plan seems simple, until he runs into the specter of Scorpion, a member of a rival ninja clan, whom he had to kill in search of a sacred scroll in MK Mythologies. Sub-Zero perished at the hands of Scorpion in the tournament, finding his bones in the Netherrealm that he had already visited and rebuilt by The Brotherhood of Shadows, who went from enemy in the past to new ally, serving the necromancer Quan Chi and to the fallen god shinnok. But the process had its price: he lost his powers and became Noob Saibot (names spelled backwards of the main creators of the game: Ed Boon y John Tobias) and it would be his younger brother the one who will wear the characteristic blue suit in later deliveries.
Scorpion
Clan ninja Shirai ryu, rival of Lin kuei. He faced Sub-Zero in a temple that kept a sacred scroll that was the objective of both, suffering the inclemency of the icy lin kuei. Not only does he lose his life, his clan is destroyed and his family dies (later we discover that the person responsible for this is the sorcerer Quan ChiAfter resurrecting to take revenge, his outfit changes to a uniform similar to that of the lin kuei and yellow in color, considered the tinge of cowardice among ninjas. In this first tournament, he will be able to satisfy his revenge, although the appearances of the ninja specter will not end here. In later installments, he becomes even the champion of the Old Gods to try to defeat onaga en mortal kombat deception.
Scorpion is the favorite fighter of Ed Boon, who has lent his voice to the character in all installments (which earned him a place in the book Guinness World Record of video games): when you hear his characteristic "come here" and "get over here" it is the voice of his own Boon.
Goro
Prince of the dynasty shōkan and champion of Mortal Kombat after snatching the title from Kung Lao original, this half dragon half human being remained undefeated for 9 tournaments. Goro He represented the last obstacle to reaching the final combat of the tournament: he beats an enormous force, capable of quickly sentencing the fight with blows that consumed generous fragments of the vitality bar. To capture the movements of Goro a model and the stop motion technique were used.
Shang tsung
Shang tsung is a perfidious sorcerer at the service of Shao Kahn. It was the last trick of the outworld supposing Goro lost the tournament, something that happened, in addition to the fact that the tsung bit the dust as he faced Liu Kang. His most impressive ability was the ability to transform into any of the characters in the game, so you were forced to vary your strategy in the middle of combat. tsung it changed shape.
Despite his humiliating defeat, the emperor spares his life by revealing a plan to lure the warriors of Earth to the outworld and be able to assassinate them there: this would be the starting point of Mortal Kombat II. Interestingly, and as with Raiden, the inspiration to elaborate Shang tsung also comes from the film Coup in Little ChinaThey were specifically based on the bad guy in the movie, Lo pan, to create the metamorphic sorcerer.
Reptile
It is a being of a race of reptilian men of the outworld that became extinct thousands of years ago, at the hands of the very being it serves, Shao Kahn. He closely monitors the events of the tournament to report to the emperor, as well as serving as a bodyguard for Shang tsung. Reptile was the only secret character from the first Mortal Kombat, and in order to fight him, a series of requirements had to be met on stage the pit. If we succeeded, they would transfer us to the pit, full of corpses, and there we would fight against this chameleonic fighter, capable of attacking us with the special movements of Scorpion y Sub-Zero.
ermac
Although it doesn't really appear in the game as such, ermac it does have its origins in this first Mortal Kombat: a random failure when driving to Scorpion made his suit out of red instead of yellow, hence later the team of Mortal Kombat had the idea of creating ermac, a name that comes neither more nor less than ERtube MACro. Until Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 He was not a character with his own looks, movements and biography, earning the respect of many fans, especially with his latest appearances.
Mortal Kombat It was a game that opened a bitter debate about the explicit content of video games, something that is very common today: we only have to notice the immense number of games available to the public with high violence content, many of them authentic super sales, like titles of the saga Call of Duty, Gears of War o God of War. As a fighting game, it managed to earn its respected place in the Olympus of cake shows thanks to the realistic staging of its graphics, the cruelty of its fatalities, its setting and its charismatic characters.
The franchise went through some turbulent period, especially in those moments in which we saw clunkers of the caliber of Mortal Kombat Special Forces -one of the worst games in the vast catalog of PlayStation- or a second adaptation to the big screen that inadvertently became a misunderstood film of humor and worship that did not even remotely become the blockbuster that was the first film - after these two rockets, john tobias, one of the co-creators of the saga, abandoned Midway-. It could be said that until Mortal Kombat Deadly Alliance The franchise did not regain importance within the fighting scene, but the most important push came with the last game published in 2011 by the hand of Warner Bros -He took over the IP rights after the closing of Midway-, which consisted of a kind of camouflaged remake of the first three installments and which was a millionaire success. It seems that with his new godfather, mortal combat is guaranteed for more years and it will be the next 2015 when we can enjoy Mortal Kombat X and what will be the most heartbreaking fatalities we have ever seen. Long live the combat!