Mortal Kombat

Mortal Kombat is the fighting game that made the news. It put digitised human actors on screen instead of drawn sprites, and it built its whole identity around the thing competitors would not do: you could kill the opponent after the fight was already won.

That move is the Fatality, and it changed both the genre and the political climate around games. Where Street Fighter II was precise and technical, Mortal Kombat was slower, heavier and far more theatrical: blood sprays, a deep-voiced announcer, and a cast of seven fighters whose special moves were easy to learn and hard to escape. Scorpion's spear, Sub-Zero's freeze, and the block-then-counter rhythm gave it a low skill floor without removing the depth, which is why it became the highest-grossing arcade game of 1993. The arcade original, unlike the home ports, shipped with the blood and the Fatalities intact - it is the version on this page, running the T-Unit board revisions. The hidden character Reptile and the Kombat Kode system are both documented parts of this release.

• ▸Digitised live actors rather than hand-drawn sprites
• ▸Fatalities - finishing moves performed after the match is decided
• ▸Seven fighters with readable special moves and a heavy, deliberate pace
• ▸The hidden green ninja Reptile, added as a secret fight