MORTAL KOMBAT (ARCADE)

FINISH HIM! If you were a gamer in the 90s and loved fighting games, (or even games in general), you were either a ‘fighter in the street’ or ‘mortal combatant'. MORTAL KOMBAT takes seven fighters and allows them the chance to win a tournament which would save the earth from Outworld and the big boss, Shang Tsung (his big boss, to be unveiled at a later time), from taking over. What made this game unique were a few features. They used actual fighters and took digitized video of their moves and incorporated that into the game. It makes for a cleaner, more realistic character and their fighting moves. But the most signature aspect of this game, and franchise? The obvious finishing moves! This was an idea that when a fighter wins the best of 3 match, they have a few seconds to execute a really nasty move against the loser. The first installment kept these basic (compared to what would come later in the franchise), but we still got head dismemberment, heart-rippings, and the infamous spine pull. Combine that with continuous bloody fighthing and you have a legendary game involved in the ’93 Congressional hearing on video game violence. Nonetheless, looking back at this classic, this one would spawn a million imitators, but you can't beat the original. Go back and revisit it. But be reminded this was only a taste of things to Kome.

GAMING SCORE: 8/10