Mortal Kombat, Blood and Arena

Con this catchy advertising tagline, which we would now call viral, the bloodiest fighting game in the history of video games was introduced in 1992: Mortal Kombat.

Partorito negli antri più oscuri, e creativi, degli studios della Midway Games, to whom we also give thanks for having gifted us gems like NBA Jam, Mortal Kombat soon became a benchmark for all those who wanted to try their hand at beat'em ups, drawing the purest vital lifeblood from the 'versus' genre.

Availing itself of innovative digitized realistic graphics (real actors and performers were used to capture the movements of each individual character), Mortal Kombat caused a stir and censorship at the time, some of it unfortunately enforced for real: I remember in fact that the Mega Drive version replaced the blood from the fighters’ wounds with… water!

The story behind the game is as basic as it is fascinating, and draws from the most famous martial arts films: a sorcerer calls a tournament, which takes precisely the name of the video game, in which the strongest warriors on Earth are invited to participate.

Behind the tournament’s façade, much more sinister schemes are actually hiding, tied to warlords from other worlds, determined to conquer our planet and subjugate human beings.

Il roster of available characters in the first, unforgettable chapter of the series, is very varied: we can choose to play as the vengeful undead Scorpion, the ninja with the gold and black uniform, or his icy nemesis, that Sub-Zero who stands opposed to him even on a chromatic level, with his characteristic blue alternating with black.

There are many others, including Liu Kang, a not-so-veiled epigone of Bruce Lee, the hero chosen by the Light to defeat once and for all Shang Tsung, the host and undisputed lord of the island that is home to the very violent tournament. And it is precisely the factor of violence that characterizes Midway’s jewel: every in-game clash makes use of forbidden and anything but restrained moves: blood flows in torrents after every point, every elbow, every low blow we will land on our opponent, only to end with the iconic phrase 'Finish him' (or her), at the end of the game’s final round.

At this point, we will be able to deliver the coup de grâce to the enemy, indulging in the secret combinations that unlock the Fatalities. These are highly spectacular kills, often foreshadowed by a darkening of the game screen, which, in addition to providing a spectacular cinematic cut to the sequence, help emphasize the brutality with which Kano will rip out the defeated opponent’s heart, Raiden will summon lightning to incinerate heads, or one of my favorites, Sonya Blade’s famous “kiss of fire”!

Ma Mortal Kombat has never been just this: at the core of it all is a wonderfully immediate gameplay, capable of attracting both fighting game experts, who at the time could also take on a certain Street Fighter, and newcomers, easily recognizable around the arcade cabinets by the frantic inexperience with which they randomly mashed the game buttons, hoping to snatch a victory from the friend of the moment.

The Mortal Kombat saga, now in its twelfth official installment with the deliberately nostalgic title of Mortal Kombat 1, has redefined the standards of fighting games, standing out thanks to the perfect combination of gameplay and story.

It’s time to get back in the game.

Test your might!