it, with the PG-13 movie, were marketing ploys to get kids to play the video games. if parents saw the film was pg-13 and the cartoon was for everyone they would think MK was ok for their kids. It's something like Playboy selling their logo on a t-shirt for kids - it gets them aware of the brand so when they become adults they buy Playboy movies and magazines and stuff. Only MK designers wanted the kids to play MK now.

Well regardless of how bloody and gory the games were, let's face it, Mortal Kombat was popular as hell with kids. I was 7 years old when I was introduced to the franchise (through the games) and it was THEN that the movies and all that other media followed. So yeah, there's absolutely nothing wrong with making a children's cartoon for Mortal Kombat, since Film and TV ratings were a lot more strict than Video Game ratings. It's only now that people actually pay attention to the game ratings.
Back then, nobody cared about how violent video games were (except Fox News, of course), but they did care about how violent TV and films were, so MK movies and DOTR had to be made for a more general audience in order to reach the entire demographic, much of which consisted of kids.

Haha, I made that sig.

And it was. It was made specifically for that. I mean, Sonya had catchphrases for fuck's sake. It followed every trope a Saturday morning kids' cartoon had. Also I tend to really like that show when I re watch it, probably because Sub Zero's Luke Perry voice is so awkward it's entertaining, and Raiden is voiced by Clancy Brown.

It had a great cast. Cree Summer voiced Kitana. Brian Tochi (who voiced Leonardo in the Ninja Turtle movies) did Liu Kang. And let's not forget Ron freakin Perlman as Stryker. That alone made Stryker cool.