Mortal Kombat

▪ video game series

      video game series in the fighting genre created by the Midway Manufacturing Company of the United States. Mortal Kombat debuted as a two-dimensional arcade game in 1992 and went on to become one of the most popular video games in the 1990s. The original arcade game spawned many sequels and expansions across a wide array of console gaming systems, generated a line of toys, and inspired two motion pictures: Mortal Kombat (1995) and Mortal Kombat: Annihilation (1997).

      In Mortal Kombat players select one of many unique characters to battle against other fighters in a gauntlet-style tournament to determine who faces the final “boss.” Among the game's notable points is a vast catalogue of special techniques for each fighter that can be performed by entering an intricate series of commands on the controller. One of these techniques, the finishing move, gained particular notoriety because, if players quickly pressed the right combination of buttons on the controller, the defeated opponent would be brutally maimed, humiliated, or otherwise defiled. Because of the excessive amount of simulated blood, violence, and gore, Mortal Kombat faced intense public scrutiny. In fact, Mortal Kombat and other comparable games eventually gave rise to the Entertainment Software Rating Board. The advent of a rating system resulted in later versions of the game featuring the ability to restrict the violence in the game via game-play settings, but, as the series was founded on characters spraying blood and falling into spiked pits, the game's premise and overall feel remained the same. As advances in technology and a departure from Mortal Kombat's classic style began, the game faded in popularity and sales.

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