Mortal Kombat (commonly abbreviated "MK") is a series of fighting games created by Ed Boon and John Tobias. The first four renditions and their updates were developed by Midway Games and initially released on arcade machines, and later to home consoles. The arcade titles were later picked up by Acclaim Entertainment for the home console conversions. Beginning with Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance, Midway Games exclusively created home versions of Mortal Kombat up until Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe. Following Midway's bankruptcy, the franchise was picked up by Warner Bros. in July 2009 and became a part of the Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. The most recent title is Mortal Kombat which is an alternate retelling of the events from the first three games in the series.
The development of the first game was originally based on idea of making a video game starring Jean-Claude Van Damme, but that idea fell through and Mortal Kombat was created instead and released in 1992. As a result of its success, Mortal Kombat has spawned many sequels and has been spun off into several action-adventure games, films (animated and live-action with its own sequel), and television series (animated and live-action). Other spin-offs include various comic book series, a card game and a live-action tour.
The series is known for its high levels of bloody violence, including, most notably, its Fatalities—finishing moves, requiring a sequence of buttons to perform, which, in part, led to the creation of the ESRB.[2][3] The series name itself is also known for using the letter "K" in place of "C" for the hard C sound, thus intentionally misspelling the word "combat," as well as other words with the hard C sound within later games in the series. Early games in the series were especially noted for its realistic digitized sprites (which differentiated it from its contemporaries' hand-drawn sprites), as well as an extensive use of palette swapping to create new characters.
The development of the first game was originally based on idea of making a video game starring Jean-Claude Van Damme, but that idea fell through and Mortal Kombat was created instead and released in 1992. As a result of its success, Mortal Kombat has spawned many sequels and has been spun off into several action-adventure games, films (animated and live-action with its own sequel), and television series (animated and live-action). Other spin-offs include various comic book series, a card game and a live-action tour.
The series is known for its high levels of bloody violence, including, most notably, its Fatalities—finishing moves, requiring a sequence of buttons to perform, which, in part, led to the creation of the ESRB.[2][3] The series name itself is also known for using the letter "K" in place of "C" for the hard C sound, thus intentionally misspelling the word "combat," as well as other words with the hard C sound within later games in the series. Early games in the series were especially noted for its realistic digitized sprites (which differentiated it from its contemporaries' hand-drawn sprites), as well as an extensive use of palette swapping to create new characters.
Gameplay
Further information: Fighting game
The original three games and their updates, Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat II, Mortal Kombat 3, Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 and Mortal Kombat Trilogy, were styled in a 2D fighting fashion. The first two were played in the arcades with a joystick and five buttons: high punch, low punch, high kick, low kick, and block. Mortal Kombat 3 and its updates added a sixth "run" button.[4] Characters in the early Mortal Kombat games play virtually identical to one another, with the only major differences being their special moves.[5] Through the 1990s, Midway Games would keep their single styled fighting moves with four attack buttons for a different array of punches and kicks and block. Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance changed this by differentiating characters normal moves and even giving them multiple fighting styles. Beginning in Deadly Alliance and until Mortal Kombat: Deception, the characters would have three fighting styles per character: two unarmed styles, and one weapon style.[6] Few exceptions to this arose in Mortal Kombat: Armageddon, such as monster-like boss characters like Moloch and Onaga who would have only one fighting style.[7] While most of the styles used are based on real martial arts, some are entirely fictitious.[8] Goro's fighting styles, for example, are designed to take advantage of the fact that he has four arms. For Armageddon, fighting styles were reduced to a maximum of two per character (generally one hand-to-hand combat style and one weapon style) due to the sheer number of playable characters.[7] Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe dropped the multiple fighting style trend altogether in favor of giving each character a much wider variety of special moves,[9] but some characters still use multiple fighting styles.[10] 2011's Mortal Kombat returned to a single 2D fighting plane although characters are rendered in 3D fashion; unlike previous MK games, four buttons on the game controller represent an attack and are linked to a corresponding limb.
According to Ed Boon, "since the beginning, one of the things that's separated us from other fighting games is the crazy moves we've put in it, like fireballs and all the magic moves, so to speak." When asked if Capcom's Street Fighter series would ever do a crossover game with Mortal Kombat, Street Fighter producer Yoshinori Ono called Mortal Kombat a very different game from Street Fighter. Capcom's senior director of communications compared Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat by asking if the interviewer preferred the "precision and depth" of Street Fighter or the "gore and comedy" of Mortal Kombat; he also stated that the Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat rivalry was considered similar to the Coke and Pepsi rivalry in the 1990s.[15] Senior producer of Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe, Hans Lo, called Street Fighter a little more technical fighter in comparison to Mortal Kombat.
Mortal Kombat: Deception and Mortal Kombat: Armageddon feature "Konquest", a free-roaming action-adventure mode that significantly expanded on the single-player experience. Both games also include distinct minigame modes such "Chess Kombat", an action-strategy game similar to Archon. Two other bonus minigames, "Puzzle Kombat" inspired by Puzzle Fighter and "Motor Kombat" inspired by Mario Kart, feature super deformed versions of Mortal Kombat characters.
Finishing moves
Main article: Fatality (Mortal Kombat)
Kung Lao's 'Buzzsaw-on-the-Ground' against Mileena in 2011's Mortal Kombat. Director Ed Boon called it probably the most painful-looking Fatality ever made
A defining and best-known feature of the Mortal Kombat series is a finishing move called Fatality. An original idea behind the Fatalities was to give gamers a free hit at the end of the fight.[4] The basic Fatalities are finishing moves that allow the victorious characters to end a match in a special way by murdering their defeated, defenseless opponents in a gruesome manner, usually in the predefined ways exclusive for the given character. The only exception from this is Mortal Kombat: Armageddon, which instead features the Kreate-A-Fatality, allowing the players to perform their own Fatalities by conducting a series of violent moves chosen from a pool that is common for all characters.
Other finishing moves in the various Mortal Kombat games include Animality (introduced in Mortal Kombat 3) turning a victor into an animal to violently finish off the opponent, Brutality (introduced in Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3) which is bashing an opponent into pieces with a long combo of hits, and Stage Fatalities/Death Traps (introduced in the original Mortal Kombat Pit Stage, and later made more difficult in "Mortal Kombat II" by requiring specific and different button sequences to be pressed) utilizing parts of certain stages to execute a lethal finishing move. Mortal Kombat: Deception added the Hara-Kiri, a self-Fatality allowing the losers to engage in a suicide-based finishing move (enabling a possible race between both players to see if the winning player can finish off the losing player before the losing character can kill himself or herself first).
Friendship moves, introduced in Mortal Kombat II and involving displays of friendship towards the enemy, instead of killing,[21] were made as a comical response to the attention the series gathered due to its violent content.[4] A Fatality similar to Friendship is Babality also introduced in MKII and turning the opponent into a baby.[21] In Mortal Kombat released in 2011, a Babality can only be performed if the winner has not blocked a single attack made by the opponent in the final round. Mortal Kombat 3 saw Mercy, where the victor gives a little health to the opponent and the fight then resumes.
Plot
The series takes place in a fictional universe consisting of six surviving realms which, according to in-game backstories, were created by the Elder Gods. The Mortal Kombat: Deception manual described the six realms as: "Earthrealm, home to such legendary heroes as Liu Kang, Kung Lao, Sonya Blade, Johnny Cage, and Jax, and also under the protection of the Thunder God Raiden; Netherrealm, the fiery depths of which are inhospitable to all but the most vile, a realm of demons and shadowy warriors; Outworld, a realm of constant strife which Emperor Shao Kahn claims as his own; Seido, The Realm of Order, whose inhabitants prize structure and order above all else; The Realm of Chaos, whose inhabitants do not abide by any rules whatsoever, and where constant turmoil and change are worshipped; and Edenia, which is known for its beauty, artistic expression, and the longevity of its inhabitants." The Elder Gods decreed that the denizens of one realm could only conquer another realm by defeating the defending realm's greatest warriors in ten consecutive Mortal Kombat tournaments.
The first Mortal Kombat game takes place in Earthrealm where seven different warriors with their own reasons for entering participated in the tournament with the eventual prize being the continued freedom of their realm, threatened with a takeover by Outworld. Among the established warriors were Liu Kang, Johnny Cage, and Sonya Blade. With the help of the Thunder God Raiden, the Earthrealm warriors were victorious and Liu Kang became the new champion of Mortal Kombat. In Mortal Kombat II, unable to deal with Shang Tsung's failure, Outworld Emperor Shao Kahn lures the Earthrealm warriors to the Outworld where the Earthrealm warriors eventually defeat Shao Kahn. By Mortal Kombat 3, Shao Kahn revives Edenia's (now a part of his Outworld domain) former queen Sindel in Earthrealm, combining it with Outworld as well. He then attempts to invade Earthrealm but is ultimately defeated by the Earthrealm warriors again. After Kahn's defeat, Edenia was freed from Kahn's grasp and returned to a peaceful realm, ruled by Princess Kitana. The following game, Mortal Kombat 4, features the former elder god Shinnok attempting to conquer the realms and attempting to kill the thunder god Raiden. However, he is also defeated by the Earthrealm warriors.
In Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance, the sorcerers Quan Chi and Shang Tsung join forces to conquer the realms and subsequently become the antagonists. By Mortal Kombat: Deception, after several fights, the sorcerers emerge victorious having killed most of Earthrealms' warriors until Raiden steps forth to oppose them. The Dragon King Onaga, who had been freed by Reptile at the end of Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance,[25] had deceived Shujinko, the protagonist of Mortal Kombat: Deception, into searching for six pieces of Kamidogu,[23] the source of Onaga's power. Onaga then confronted the alliance of Raiden, Shang Tsung, and Quan Chi and thus obtained Quan Chi's amulet,[26] the final piece of his power, becoming the antagonist. Only a few warriors remained to combat against the Dragon King and his forces. Shujinko eventually triumphed over the Dragon King and removed his threat to the Mortal Kombat universe.
In Mortal Kombat: Armageddon the catastrophe known as Armageddon starts. Centuries before the first Mortal Kombat, Queen Delia foretold the realms would be destroyed in an event known as Armageddon. King Argus had his sons, Taven, the protagonist of the game, and Daegon, put into incubation who would one day be awakened to save the realms from Armageddon. In the end, however, because Blaze's design has been corrupted by Onaga's holy men, Taven's victory over Blaze does not destroy the combatants or strip them of their powers, instead increasing the powers of the fighters, potentially exacerbating the onset of Armageddon. As a result, Taven will make it his duty as a new god to delay Armageddon until a solution can be found.
In Mortal Kombat (2011), it is revealed that the battle between the warriors of the six realms culminated into only two survivors: Shao Kahn and Raiden. Badly beaten, Raiden had only one last move he could make to prevent Shao Kahn from claiming the power of Blaze. He sends visions of the entire course of the Mortal Kombat timeline to himself in the past right before the tenth Mortal Kombat tournament (first game). This transfer of information to his former self causes a rift in time causing the Armageddon timeline to be erased and a new "reboot" timeline to be introduced, with a new outcome of Mortal Kombat history to be written. But this story leads to even worse unforeseen events. It ends with many of the main game characters dying at the hands of Queen Sindel and eventually Raiden accidentally kills Liu Kang in self-defense. But eventually the Elder Gods aid Raiden in killing Shao Kahn and saving Earthrealm. But as the scene goes on it is later revealed that this was all a plan by Lord Shinnok and Quan Chi.
Characters
Main article: List of Mortal Kombat characters
The series features scores of player characters, including Baraka, Cyrax, Goro, Jade, Jax, Johnny Cage, Kano, Kenshi, Kitana, Kung Lao, Liu Kang, Mileena, Nightwolf, Noob Saibot, Raiden, Reptile, Scorpion, Sektor, Shang Tsung, Shao Kahn, Sheeva, Sindel, Smoke, Sonya Blade, Stryker and Sub-Zero.
Development history
Origins
Mortal Kombat started development in 1991 with only four people: Ed Boon, John Tobias, John Vogel and Dan Forden.[29] In 2009, Boon said: "The first Mortal Kombat game was 4 guys, literally, one programmer, myself (Boon), two graphics guys (Tobias and Vogel), and a sound guy (Forden) was the entire team, literally."[30] Originally, Boon and Tobias were approached to create a video game adaptation of the 1992 film Universal Soldier[31] starring martial arts film actor Jean-Claude Van Damme, with a digitized version of the action star fighting villains.[32] Intending to make a game "a lot more hard edge, a little bit more serious, a little bit more like Enter the Dragon or Bloodsport" than Street Fighter II,[33] Boon and Tobias decided to continue their project even after the deal to use the Bloodsport license fell through.[2] One of their own characters, Johnny Cage, became "a spoof on the whole Van Damme situation."
Tobias said that his inspirations for the game's story and characters came from the Chinese mythology and some of the stories and rumored events about the Shaolin monks. Regarding the film Big Trouble in Little China, Tobias wrote that although this movie "kind of Americanized my obsession for supernatural kung fu films from China, it was not my biggest influence. My biggest influences came from Tsui Hark films -- Zu Warriors & The Swordsman. We had to get them from bootleggers in Chicago's Chinatown."
Ed Boon recalled that for six out of the eight months while they were in production of the original Mortal Kombat, "nobody could come up with a name nobody didn't hate." Some of the names suggested included "Kumite", "Dragon Attack", "Death Blow" and just "Fatality". Someone had written down "combat" on the drawing board for the names in Boon's office and then someone wrote a K over the C, according to Boon, "just to be kind of weird." Steve Ritchie, a pinball designer at that time, was sitting in Boon's office and saw the word "Kombat" and said to Boon, 'Why don't you name it Mortal Kombat?' and that name "just stuck."[35] Since then, the series uses the letter "K" in place of "C" for various words containing the hard C sound. According to Boon, during the MK games' development they usually spell the words correctly and only "correct it" when one of the developers points out they should do it.
Graphics
The original Mortal Kombat was developed with digitized sprites based on actors, as opposed to animated cartoon graphics.[37] Early Mortal Kombat games were known for their extensive use of palette swap, a practice of re-coloring certain sprites to appear as different characters which was used for the ninja characters. In fact, many of the most popular characters have originated as a simple palette swaps.[38] In the very first game, the male ninja fighters were essentially the same character; only the colors of their attire, fighting stance, and special techniques indicated the difference. Later games added other ninjas based on the same model, as well as several female ninja color swap characters (beginning with Kitana) initially also using just one base model (since Mortal Kombat II). All of them gradually became very different characters in the following installments of the series.
Mortal Kombat 4 brought the series into 3D, replacing the digitized fighters of previous games with polygon models. The team switched from digitized actors to motion capture technology: "A martial-arts expert with as many as 100 electronic sensors taped to his body sends precise readings to a camera as he goes through his moves—running, jumping, kicking, punching. The action is captured, digitized and synthesized into a 'naked' wire-frame model stored in a computer. Those models can then be 'dressed' with clothing, facial expressions and other characteristics by means of a computer technique called texture mapping."
Miscellaneous
Mortal Kombat included secret characters, secret games, and other Easter eggs. For example, Mortal Kombat 3 includes a hidden game of Galaga[19] and there is as a hidden game of Pong in Mortal Kombat II.[40] Many extras in the series have only been accessible through very challenging, demanding, and sometimes coincidental requirements. The Sega Mega Drive/Genesis versions contains some unique eggs, such as "Fergality". The Sega Mega-CD version also contained an additional code (known as the "Dad's Code"), which changed the names of the fighters to that of characters from the classic BBC comedy series Dad's Army. Popular characters of Reptile and Jade were originally introduced as hidden enemies, becoming playable after returning in subsequent games.
Some Easter eggs originated from in-jokes between members of the development team. One example is "Toasty", which found its way into the game in the form of a small image of sound designer Dan Forden, who would appear in the corner of the screen during gameplay (after performing an uppercut) and yell the word "Toasty". This egg was also the key to unlocking the hidden character Smoke when it happened in the Portal stage.[40] In Mortal Kombat 4, Forden would say "Toasty! 3D!" after Scorpion did his burn Fatality, a reference to the fact that it is the first 3D game of the series. "Toasty" is also found in Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks, appearing randomly after the character pulls off a chain of hits, though the picture of Forden was removed for that version,[44] and returned for the 2011's Mortal Kombat game. Yet another private joke was the hidden character "Noob Saibot", who appeared in various versions of the game. The character's name derived from two of the series' creators' surnames, Ed Boon and John Tobias, spelled backward.[45] In addition, the character Ermac's name came from the first Mortal Kombat, which had "ERMAC5" (Error Macro 5) on its diagnostics screen; players presumed this dealt with some secret character. The development team decided to turn this rumor into an actual character, who was introduced in Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 as a secret character.[46][47] The character Mokap is based upon lead of the motion capture team for modern MK games, Carlos Pesina (who had also played Raiden in MK and MKII)
Further information: Fighting game
The original three games and their updates, Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat II, Mortal Kombat 3, Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 and Mortal Kombat Trilogy, were styled in a 2D fighting fashion. The first two were played in the arcades with a joystick and five buttons: high punch, low punch, high kick, low kick, and block. Mortal Kombat 3 and its updates added a sixth "run" button.[4] Characters in the early Mortal Kombat games play virtually identical to one another, with the only major differences being their special moves.[5] Through the 1990s, Midway Games would keep their single styled fighting moves with four attack buttons for a different array of punches and kicks and block. Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance changed this by differentiating characters normal moves and even giving them multiple fighting styles. Beginning in Deadly Alliance and until Mortal Kombat: Deception, the characters would have three fighting styles per character: two unarmed styles, and one weapon style.[6] Few exceptions to this arose in Mortal Kombat: Armageddon, such as monster-like boss characters like Moloch and Onaga who would have only one fighting style.[7] While most of the styles used are based on real martial arts, some are entirely fictitious.[8] Goro's fighting styles, for example, are designed to take advantage of the fact that he has four arms. For Armageddon, fighting styles were reduced to a maximum of two per character (generally one hand-to-hand combat style and one weapon style) due to the sheer number of playable characters.[7] Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe dropped the multiple fighting style trend altogether in favor of giving each character a much wider variety of special moves,[9] but some characters still use multiple fighting styles.[10] 2011's Mortal Kombat returned to a single 2D fighting plane although characters are rendered in 3D fashion; unlike previous MK games, four buttons on the game controller represent an attack and are linked to a corresponding limb.
According to Ed Boon, "since the beginning, one of the things that's separated us from other fighting games is the crazy moves we've put in it, like fireballs and all the magic moves, so to speak." When asked if Capcom's Street Fighter series would ever do a crossover game with Mortal Kombat, Street Fighter producer Yoshinori Ono called Mortal Kombat a very different game from Street Fighter. Capcom's senior director of communications compared Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat by asking if the interviewer preferred the "precision and depth" of Street Fighter or the "gore and comedy" of Mortal Kombat; he also stated that the Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat rivalry was considered similar to the Coke and Pepsi rivalry in the 1990s.[15] Senior producer of Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe, Hans Lo, called Street Fighter a little more technical fighter in comparison to Mortal Kombat.
Mortal Kombat: Deception and Mortal Kombat: Armageddon feature "Konquest", a free-roaming action-adventure mode that significantly expanded on the single-player experience. Both games also include distinct minigame modes such "Chess Kombat", an action-strategy game similar to Archon. Two other bonus minigames, "Puzzle Kombat" inspired by Puzzle Fighter and "Motor Kombat" inspired by Mario Kart, feature super deformed versions of Mortal Kombat characters.
Finishing moves
Main article: Fatality (Mortal Kombat)
Kung Lao's 'Buzzsaw-on-the-Ground' against Mileena in 2011's Mortal Kombat. Director Ed Boon called it probably the most painful-looking Fatality ever made
A defining and best-known feature of the Mortal Kombat series is a finishing move called Fatality. An original idea behind the Fatalities was to give gamers a free hit at the end of the fight.[4] The basic Fatalities are finishing moves that allow the victorious characters to end a match in a special way by murdering their defeated, defenseless opponents in a gruesome manner, usually in the predefined ways exclusive for the given character. The only exception from this is Mortal Kombat: Armageddon, which instead features the Kreate-A-Fatality, allowing the players to perform their own Fatalities by conducting a series of violent moves chosen from a pool that is common for all characters.
Other finishing moves in the various Mortal Kombat games include Animality (introduced in Mortal Kombat 3) turning a victor into an animal to violently finish off the opponent, Brutality (introduced in Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3) which is bashing an opponent into pieces with a long combo of hits, and Stage Fatalities/Death Traps (introduced in the original Mortal Kombat Pit Stage, and later made more difficult in "Mortal Kombat II" by requiring specific and different button sequences to be pressed) utilizing parts of certain stages to execute a lethal finishing move. Mortal Kombat: Deception added the Hara-Kiri, a self-Fatality allowing the losers to engage in a suicide-based finishing move (enabling a possible race between both players to see if the winning player can finish off the losing player before the losing character can kill himself or herself first).
Friendship moves, introduced in Mortal Kombat II and involving displays of friendship towards the enemy, instead of killing,[21] were made as a comical response to the attention the series gathered due to its violent content.[4] A Fatality similar to Friendship is Babality also introduced in MKII and turning the opponent into a baby.[21] In Mortal Kombat released in 2011, a Babality can only be performed if the winner has not blocked a single attack made by the opponent in the final round. Mortal Kombat 3 saw Mercy, where the victor gives a little health to the opponent and the fight then resumes.
Plot
The series takes place in a fictional universe consisting of six surviving realms which, according to in-game backstories, were created by the Elder Gods. The Mortal Kombat: Deception manual described the six realms as: "Earthrealm, home to such legendary heroes as Liu Kang, Kung Lao, Sonya Blade, Johnny Cage, and Jax, and also under the protection of the Thunder God Raiden; Netherrealm, the fiery depths of which are inhospitable to all but the most vile, a realm of demons and shadowy warriors; Outworld, a realm of constant strife which Emperor Shao Kahn claims as his own; Seido, The Realm of Order, whose inhabitants prize structure and order above all else; The Realm of Chaos, whose inhabitants do not abide by any rules whatsoever, and where constant turmoil and change are worshipped; and Edenia, which is known for its beauty, artistic expression, and the longevity of its inhabitants." The Elder Gods decreed that the denizens of one realm could only conquer another realm by defeating the defending realm's greatest warriors in ten consecutive Mortal Kombat tournaments.
The first Mortal Kombat game takes place in Earthrealm where seven different warriors with their own reasons for entering participated in the tournament with the eventual prize being the continued freedom of their realm, threatened with a takeover by Outworld. Among the established warriors were Liu Kang, Johnny Cage, and Sonya Blade. With the help of the Thunder God Raiden, the Earthrealm warriors were victorious and Liu Kang became the new champion of Mortal Kombat. In Mortal Kombat II, unable to deal with Shang Tsung's failure, Outworld Emperor Shao Kahn lures the Earthrealm warriors to the Outworld where the Earthrealm warriors eventually defeat Shao Kahn. By Mortal Kombat 3, Shao Kahn revives Edenia's (now a part of his Outworld domain) former queen Sindel in Earthrealm, combining it with Outworld as well. He then attempts to invade Earthrealm but is ultimately defeated by the Earthrealm warriors again. After Kahn's defeat, Edenia was freed from Kahn's grasp and returned to a peaceful realm, ruled by Princess Kitana. The following game, Mortal Kombat 4, features the former elder god Shinnok attempting to conquer the realms and attempting to kill the thunder god Raiden. However, he is also defeated by the Earthrealm warriors.
In Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance, the sorcerers Quan Chi and Shang Tsung join forces to conquer the realms and subsequently become the antagonists. By Mortal Kombat: Deception, after several fights, the sorcerers emerge victorious having killed most of Earthrealms' warriors until Raiden steps forth to oppose them. The Dragon King Onaga, who had been freed by Reptile at the end of Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance,[25] had deceived Shujinko, the protagonist of Mortal Kombat: Deception, into searching for six pieces of Kamidogu,[23] the source of Onaga's power. Onaga then confronted the alliance of Raiden, Shang Tsung, and Quan Chi and thus obtained Quan Chi's amulet,[26] the final piece of his power, becoming the antagonist. Only a few warriors remained to combat against the Dragon King and his forces. Shujinko eventually triumphed over the Dragon King and removed his threat to the Mortal Kombat universe.
In Mortal Kombat: Armageddon the catastrophe known as Armageddon starts. Centuries before the first Mortal Kombat, Queen Delia foretold the realms would be destroyed in an event known as Armageddon. King Argus had his sons, Taven, the protagonist of the game, and Daegon, put into incubation who would one day be awakened to save the realms from Armageddon. In the end, however, because Blaze's design has been corrupted by Onaga's holy men, Taven's victory over Blaze does not destroy the combatants or strip them of their powers, instead increasing the powers of the fighters, potentially exacerbating the onset of Armageddon. As a result, Taven will make it his duty as a new god to delay Armageddon until a solution can be found.
In Mortal Kombat (2011), it is revealed that the battle between the warriors of the six realms culminated into only two survivors: Shao Kahn and Raiden. Badly beaten, Raiden had only one last move he could make to prevent Shao Kahn from claiming the power of Blaze. He sends visions of the entire course of the Mortal Kombat timeline to himself in the past right before the tenth Mortal Kombat tournament (first game). This transfer of information to his former self causes a rift in time causing the Armageddon timeline to be erased and a new "reboot" timeline to be introduced, with a new outcome of Mortal Kombat history to be written. But this story leads to even worse unforeseen events. It ends with many of the main game characters dying at the hands of Queen Sindel and eventually Raiden accidentally kills Liu Kang in self-defense. But eventually the Elder Gods aid Raiden in killing Shao Kahn and saving Earthrealm. But as the scene goes on it is later revealed that this was all a plan by Lord Shinnok and Quan Chi.
Characters
Main article: List of Mortal Kombat characters
The series features scores of player characters, including Baraka, Cyrax, Goro, Jade, Jax, Johnny Cage, Kano, Kenshi, Kitana, Kung Lao, Liu Kang, Mileena, Nightwolf, Noob Saibot, Raiden, Reptile, Scorpion, Sektor, Shang Tsung, Shao Kahn, Sheeva, Sindel, Smoke, Sonya Blade, Stryker and Sub-Zero.
Development history
Origins
Mortal Kombat started development in 1991 with only four people: Ed Boon, John Tobias, John Vogel and Dan Forden.[29] In 2009, Boon said: "The first Mortal Kombat game was 4 guys, literally, one programmer, myself (Boon), two graphics guys (Tobias and Vogel), and a sound guy (Forden) was the entire team, literally."[30] Originally, Boon and Tobias were approached to create a video game adaptation of the 1992 film Universal Soldier[31] starring martial arts film actor Jean-Claude Van Damme, with a digitized version of the action star fighting villains.[32] Intending to make a game "a lot more hard edge, a little bit more serious, a little bit more like Enter the Dragon or Bloodsport" than Street Fighter II,[33] Boon and Tobias decided to continue their project even after the deal to use the Bloodsport license fell through.[2] One of their own characters, Johnny Cage, became "a spoof on the whole Van Damme situation."
Tobias said that his inspirations for the game's story and characters came from the Chinese mythology and some of the stories and rumored events about the Shaolin monks. Regarding the film Big Trouble in Little China, Tobias wrote that although this movie "kind of Americanized my obsession for supernatural kung fu films from China, it was not my biggest influence. My biggest influences came from Tsui Hark films -- Zu Warriors & The Swordsman. We had to get them from bootleggers in Chicago's Chinatown."
Ed Boon recalled that for six out of the eight months while they were in production of the original Mortal Kombat, "nobody could come up with a name nobody didn't hate." Some of the names suggested included "Kumite", "Dragon Attack", "Death Blow" and just "Fatality". Someone had written down "combat" on the drawing board for the names in Boon's office and then someone wrote a K over the C, according to Boon, "just to be kind of weird." Steve Ritchie, a pinball designer at that time, was sitting in Boon's office and saw the word "Kombat" and said to Boon, 'Why don't you name it Mortal Kombat?' and that name "just stuck."[35] Since then, the series uses the letter "K" in place of "C" for various words containing the hard C sound. According to Boon, during the MK games' development they usually spell the words correctly and only "correct it" when one of the developers points out they should do it.
Graphics
The original Mortal Kombat was developed with digitized sprites based on actors, as opposed to animated cartoon graphics.[37] Early Mortal Kombat games were known for their extensive use of palette swap, a practice of re-coloring certain sprites to appear as different characters which was used for the ninja characters. In fact, many of the most popular characters have originated as a simple palette swaps.[38] In the very first game, the male ninja fighters were essentially the same character; only the colors of their attire, fighting stance, and special techniques indicated the difference. Later games added other ninjas based on the same model, as well as several female ninja color swap characters (beginning with Kitana) initially also using just one base model (since Mortal Kombat II). All of them gradually became very different characters in the following installments of the series.
Mortal Kombat 4 brought the series into 3D, replacing the digitized fighters of previous games with polygon models. The team switched from digitized actors to motion capture technology: "A martial-arts expert with as many as 100 electronic sensors taped to his body sends precise readings to a camera as he goes through his moves—running, jumping, kicking, punching. The action is captured, digitized and synthesized into a 'naked' wire-frame model stored in a computer. Those models can then be 'dressed' with clothing, facial expressions and other characteristics by means of a computer technique called texture mapping."
Miscellaneous
Mortal Kombat included secret characters, secret games, and other Easter eggs. For example, Mortal Kombat 3 includes a hidden game of Galaga[19] and there is as a hidden game of Pong in Mortal Kombat II.[40] Many extras in the series have only been accessible through very challenging, demanding, and sometimes coincidental requirements. The Sega Mega Drive/Genesis versions contains some unique eggs, such as "Fergality". The Sega Mega-CD version also contained an additional code (known as the "Dad's Code"), which changed the names of the fighters to that of characters from the classic BBC comedy series Dad's Army. Popular characters of Reptile and Jade were originally introduced as hidden enemies, becoming playable after returning in subsequent games.
Some Easter eggs originated from in-jokes between members of the development team. One example is "Toasty", which found its way into the game in the form of a small image of sound designer Dan Forden, who would appear in the corner of the screen during gameplay (after performing an uppercut) and yell the word "Toasty". This egg was also the key to unlocking the hidden character Smoke when it happened in the Portal stage.[40] In Mortal Kombat 4, Forden would say "Toasty! 3D!" after Scorpion did his burn Fatality, a reference to the fact that it is the first 3D game of the series. "Toasty" is also found in Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks, appearing randomly after the character pulls off a chain of hits, though the picture of Forden was removed for that version,[44] and returned for the 2011's Mortal Kombat game. Yet another private joke was the hidden character "Noob Saibot", who appeared in various versions of the game. The character's name derived from two of the series' creators' surnames, Ed Boon and John Tobias, spelled backward.[45] In addition, the character Ermac's name came from the first Mortal Kombat, which had "ERMAC5" (Error Macro 5) on its diagnostics screen; players presumed this dealt with some secret character. The development team decided to turn this rumor into an actual character, who was introduced in Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 as a secret character.[46][47] The character Mokap is based upon lead of the motion capture team for modern MK games, Carlos Pesina (who had also played Raiden in MK and MKII)
System Requirements!
Cpu: 500 Mhz
Ram: 128 Mb
Video Memory: 16 Mb
Size:42 Mb
Windows Xp,7,Vista,8
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