Perhaps more than any other genre of Hollywood adaptation; films based on video games have suffered from sub-standard appropriation, and awkward re-imaginings. Mortal Kombat may be considered one of the most successful to make the crossover, but as director Paul W. S. Anderson explained (in a 2004 commentary), even his 1995 hit involved an iterative process of deliberate alteration.

In Mortal Kombat X, the "Stunt Double" variation lets Johnny Cage summon a shadow clone for twice the impact. That must be why we're seeing double! There were no special effects required when Casper Van Dien met Linden Ashby - seen together hitting the gym in new photos!

Mortal Kombat X is less than a week away! As kombat draws nearer, fans who've pre-ordered the game can look forward to day one DLC access to Goro! He's facing off against Earthrealm champion Johnny Cage in a playable intro preview from NetherRealm Studios. Check it out:

Superhero summer blockbusters and licensed sequels have rewritten the box office rulebook for Hollywood in the 2010s. These days you're nothing if you aren't striving for a total media blitz, building a multi-pronged franchise "universe" across spin-offs and tie-ins. Marvel's Avengers has become the multimedia benchmark, extending its Disney-owned tendrils across multiple major movies, an on-going television series, several upcoming Netflix original series, and various other projects. It's the model everyone now aspires to - but did you know Mortal Kombat actually kinda did it already in the nineties?

The announcement of the first-ever Region 2 DVD release of Mortal Kombat: Conquest - The Complete Series has stirred a massive amount of interest within the fan kommunity. As well it should! Conquest isn't just a time-locked series that's only been available in its entirety to digital pirates, Australians [via a 2005 Region 4 release], and devotees of late night reruns. It's a unique piece of Kombat franchise history, and a rare example of a video game license thriving in a film environment.

Whether you're new to Conquest and the world created by Larry Kassanoff and his Threshold Entertainment Group, or simply revisiting, we hope you'll join us as we look back at what we generously consider the Mortal Kombat Cinematic Universe. Here's the rundown:

If you've ever found yourself wondering what goes on in the head of a Shokan Prince -- Amalgamated Dynamics Inc are all too happy to answer your question!

ADI were the studio responsible for creating practical and animatronic effects for the 1995 Mortal Kombat feature film. More specifically, their work brought one of Mortal Kombat's most iconic characters to life -- the towering, four-armed prince of pain known as Goro!

Not surprisingly, the character presented a series of challenges and technical opportunities during the 1994 production. What resulted was a truly memorable on-screen character. One that, according to the studio, earned the kudos of the likes of Peter Jackson (The Hobbit, Lord of the Rings), who described the creature as, "[a] seminal achievement in animatronics." These feats are in-part on display in the following video, which offers a feature glimpse of the machinery behind the highly emotive creature [below].

By his own admission, the John Tobias of twenty years ago had no idea he was creating one of the most successful franchises to come out of American gaming. As a young artist in Chicago, Tobias had big ideas, envisioning a fiction that endures to this day (in some shape or form), but the journey to 1992's breakout hit -- Mortal Kombat -- would take more than ideas.

Together with Ed Boon, Tobias holds the credit of co-creator of Mortal Kombat -- an acknowledgment that goes beyond the arcade and home consoles, to result in a massive multi-media phenomenon spawned from ideas and characters!

In Part 1 of our conversation with John Tobias, he took us through some of the early influences that helped shape the series to follow. From abandoned name choices, props and influences, to movie references and guest stars, the games origins are there to scrutinize.

In this second part of our twentieth anniversary retrospective, we continue the conversation, entering the explosion of Mortal Kombat into other mediums, and addressing the final chapter of Tobias' time with the series before his departure in 1999.

Modern Prometheus: John Tobias confronts Goro - brought to life for the 1995 film.

When Mortal Kombat began the journey from sprites to silver screen, production faced a slew of challenges at every conceivable level. As documented by the book Generation Xbox: How Video Games Invaded Hollywood, the obstacles began with the mere idea of a Mortal Kombat movie [full story]. Once greenlit; the realization of iconic, fantastical creatures and abilities from the games would push the makers to devise practical solutions.

Following widely reported plot rumors from the upcoming movie; Mortal Kombat Online yesterday reflected upon the trials and tribulations that face video game adaptations, and Mortal Kombat's trailblazing pedigree in the area [read on].

Through the course of this discussion, we included an excerpt from the Jamie Russel written book, Generation Xbox: How Video Games Invaded Hollywood.

Described as "a story of disaster, triumph and [Angelina] Jolie in hot pants," the book recounts the twenty year relationship between Hollywood and the interactive medium. Containing extensively researched anecdotes and tales from the people involved, [Russel] includes a meaty section regarding Larry Kasanoff and Paul W.S. Anderson's important journey to making Mortal Kombat -- still one of the most succesful game-based films to date.

At the end of last month, we gave away digital copies of the book to followers of our Twitter account (@MK_Online). Now, with permission from the publisher, we present the complete Mortal Kombat extract from Chapter 5: It's A-Me, Mario. For more details about the book, visit the authors website.

With the latest Mortal Kombat movie rumors sparking a surprised reaction [full story], we're reminded that you can never take for granted what will eventuate from the adaptation process.

Video games have now spent decades flirting with cinema, but in that time, very few movies have broken through an assumed stigma of incompatibility that still exists between the interactivity of games, and the plot structure of popular film. For prominent figures like film critic, Roger Ebert -- who infamously wrote in a 2010 blog, "... video games can never be art." -- the flaw may be presumed to lie in the source.

Despite the inherent similarities between these audio-visual mediums, which fans are no doubt more sympathetic to, critics and audiences have often agreed upon the failings of big screen adaptations, resulting in as many financial flops, as bad reviews.

In the eyes of many, the fighting genre has been particularly guilty of wasting time and money. Typically deviating wildly from the spirit of what made characters successful, fighting game films have contributed some of the most costly disappointments to DVD bargain bins. Infamous titles like; Tekken (2010), The King of Fighters (2009) and The Legend of Chun-Li (2009) have worked hard to earn the mutual ire of critics, fans and audiences alike, shedding dollars in the process. Indeed, as recent reference documents, time and experience has not improved the output of video game adaptations, at all.

Released theatrically in 1995, Mortal Kombat has managed to remain one of the most successful and best regarded movies of its type.

In 1995, Mortal Kombat was released to theatres worldwide, grossing a respectable $23 million dollars in it's opening weekend in the United States. An American launching pad for British director, Paul Anderson (Resident Evil, Event Horizon), the film was also a watershed moment for the licensing of video game properties in Hollywood, which to that point, had resulted in critical and financial failure in the box office.

The movie was the culmination of a licensing agreement between major players of the time, then MK-owners Midway Games, and production studio, Threshold Entertainment. The deal would go on to produce a film sequel; animated series, Mortal Kombat: Defenders of the Realm; live-action television show, Mortal Kombat: Conquest; and interactive live-action web series, Federation of Martial Arts.