Mortal Kombat — stories left

Mortal Kombat creators Ed Boon and John Tobias have stated that Midway Games tasked them with the project of developing a "combat game for release within a year", which the two believed was intended to compete with the popular Street Fighter II.

Boon said the development team initially consisted of four people — himself as programmer, artists John Tobias and John Vogel, and Dan Forden as sound designer.

Boon later said, "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.

Boon said that he hated the "dizzied" mechanic, but that it was fun to have one's opponent get dizzied and get in a free hit.

Ed Boon has stated that for six months during development "nobody could come up with a name nobody didn't hate.

Pinball designer Steve Ritchie was sitting in Boon's office, saw the word "Kombat" and said to him, "Why don't you name it Mortal Kombat?", a name that Boon stated "just stuck.

John Tobias recalled this a bit differently, saying it "came about during the trademark process in naming the game.

TV commercials heralded the simultaneous release of all four home versions of the game, SNES, Genesis, Game Boy, and Game Gear, on September 13, 1993, a date dubbed "Mortal Monday".

"Techno Syndrome" was adapted for the 1995 movie soundtrack and incorporated the "Mortal Kombat!" yell from the Mortal Monday commercials.

Four ports were released in North America and Europe as part of the "Mortal Monday" campaign in 1993: home console ports for the Super NES and Sega Genesis, and handheld console ports for the Game Boy and Game Gear.

While the SNES version's visuals and audio were more arcade accurate than those of the Genesis version, it has less precise controls and due to Nintendo's "family friendly" policies, replaces the blood with sweat and most of the Fatalities with less violent "finishing moves".

GamePro hailed the SNES port of Mortal Kombat as having graphics closer to the arcade version than the other three initial home ports, with cleaner definition and a better color palette, and said that while four of the fatalities had been cut, the new finishing moves which replace them "are pretty cool, though not as bloody.

Bill Kunkel wrote in Electronic Games that both Genesis and Super NES ports of the game as "superb, first-rate conversions" noting that the SNES edition graphically was better than the Sega Genesis version while noting that "the characters, while they don't move quite as quickly as their Genesis counterparts, are magnificently animated.

Reviewing the Game Boy version of the game, Nintendo Power stated that the graphic have been simplified but that "the essence of the Super NES and arcade games have been well-preserved" while noting that "the animation, not surprisingly, is considerably slower than the Super NES.

Electronic Gaming Monthly awarded Mortal Kombat the title of "Most Controversial Game of 1993".

In 2013, the first Mortal Kombat was ranked as the best arcade game of the 1990s by Complex (the sequel, which "took everything we loved about the original and magnified it by about a million," was given sixth place on the list).

It is the first main installment in the Mortal Kombat franchise, and was subsequently released by Acclaim Entertainment for nearly every home platform of the time.

According to Tobias, he and Boon had envisioned a fighting game similar to Data East's Karate Champ but featuring large digitized characters even before that, and the success of Capcom's Street Fighter II only helped them convince the management of their idea.

An Amiga version was released in late 1993 in Europe only, with graphics based on the Genesis version, controls limited to either one or two action buttons, and a minimal soundtrack with music arranged by Allister Brimble.

The game sold copies worldwide in its first three weeks of release.

Bill Kunkel wrote in Electronic Games that both Genesis and Super NES ports of the game as "superb, first-rate conversions" noting that the SNES edition graphically was better than the Sega Genesis version while noting that "the characters, while they don't move quite as quickly as their Genesis counterparts, are magnificently animated.

The reviewers of Electronic Gaming Monthly described it as over-hyped with only minor improvements over the Genesis version, and complained of the lag times.

In 2004, readers of Retro Gamer voted Mortal Kombat as the 55th top retro game, with the staff commenting that "future versions would address the limitations of the first game, but this is where it all began.

In 2011, Complex ranked the first Mortal Kombat as the 12th best fighting game of all time, while Wirtualna Polska ranked it as the 19th best Amiga game.

In 2013, the first Mortal Kombat was ranked as the best arcade game of the 1990s by Complex (the sequel, which "took everything we loved about the original and magnified it by about a million," was given sixth place on the list).

In the United States, it was the top-selling game for the Genesis, SNES, and Game Gear in 1993, with the Genesis version being the overall best-selling console game of the year; it remained the top Genesis and SNES game in January 1994.

The digitized sprite graphics were praised and compared favorably with Pit-Fighter, but the gameplay was compared unfavorably with Street Fighter II and Fatal Fury 2.

However, the Nintendo version's widely reported censorship of blood and dismemberments affected sales, and was widely criticized by gaming media for censorship issues into the following decades.

Reviewing the Super NES release, Nintendo Power praised the games graphics, animation and sound as "excellent" while noting that four of the finishing moves are unidentical to the arcade game.

The review criticized the game as "pretty easy unless you set the difficulty to hard.

They also criticized the fact that the port was developed for the three-button controller, saying this makes some moves awkward to pull off, but concluded, "Great graphics, sound, and control in combination with the special Mode A setting make the Genesis Mortal Kombat a beat-em-up force.

The Sega CD version was even more harshly criticized by gaming media.

They criticized that the load times between fights and lag times during fights "give the game a quirky, out-of-touch feel.

They praised the digitized graphics, storyline, gameplay and characters.

The sweat effect, which was a palette coloration added after Nintendo's decision to censor the game, could be reverted to the original red blood color via a Game Genie code input as "BDB4-DD07".

On the Genesis version, the blood and uncensored Fatalities were available via a cheat code, spelled out "ABACABB", a nod to the 1981 album Abacab by the English rock band Genesis, who shared their name with the North American version of the console.

However, the Nintendo version's widely reported censorship of blood and dismemberments affected sales, and was widely criticized by gaming media for censorship issues into the following decades.

Mortal Kombat was one of many violent video games that came into prominence between 1992 and 1993, generating controversy among parents and public officials.

Instead, Midway sought to make an action game based on the upcoming movie Universal Soldier and featuring a digitized version of martial arts film star Jean-Claude Van Damme, but he was already in negotiations with another company for a video game that ultimately was never released.

John Tobias recalled this a bit differently, saying it "came about during the trademark process in naming the game.

A conversion of the game being developed by Iguana Entertainment was scheduled to be published on the Atari Jaguar, but it was never released.

The comic was advertised during the game's attract mode and would later be sold, although it was quite difficult to get a copy outside of the United States.

The review criticized the game as "pretty easy unless you set the difficulty to hard.

In the top 10 game sales for 1994/3, only 2 SNES titles — Mortal Kombat and Aladdin — placed, while 8 Mega Drive titles charted, led by NBA Jam at number one.

Mortal Kombat creators Ed Boon and John Tobias have stated that Midway Games tasked them with the project of developing a "combat game for release within a year", which the two believed was intended to compete with the popular Street Fighter II.

On the Genesis version, the blood and uncensored Fatalities were available via a cheat code, spelled out "ABACABB", a nod to the 1981 album Abacab by the English rock band Genesis, who shared their name with the North American version of the console.