The year is 1993, and I was a wee young lad who liked to play video games.�a Up until then I had played mostly NES games like Punch Out, Super Mario, Legendary Wings and several other favorites. Kiddy stuff. After we acquired a Sega Genisis, however, I was exposed to the realm of 16 bit games. Our collection initially consisted of more kiddy games like Aladdin and Lion King, as well as other Sega classics such as X-Men, Sonic and Zombie's Ate My Neighbors. But there was one game that changed my outlook on video games forever. That game was Mortal Kombat. We didn't have any arcades nearby, so I had not even heard about it beforehand. It didn't matter because every other game paled in comparison. Whenever our parents' weren't nearby, my brother and I would input the blood code and wreak gorey hell until we were satisfied... or got caught. It helped us vent a lot of our sibling rivalry. I liked to play as Scorpion or Raiden, while my brother favoured Sub-Zero and Liu Kang. So we had some epic battles back in the day. Its a miracle we didn't fry our Sega. Naturally when I heard there was a Mortal Kombat II, I had to have it. I know now that the Genisis port was the suckiest to be released. But at the time it was blood, mayhem and kombat times two. It was enough for me, more than enough. Oddly I lost interest in Mortal Kombat and video games in general until about 1998, when the PlayStation invaded our house. But even then I stuck with the staples of the console like: Resident Evil, Tomb Raider, Twisted Metal etcetera. I briefly encountered UMK3 in an arcade, but that was pretty much it. MK 4 flew completely under the radar. It wasn't until 2003, when I upgraded to a PlayStation 2, that I encountered kombat once more. GTA 3 and Timesplitters were fun, but MK: Deadly Alliance both re-introduced me and re-invigorated my interest in it. The smooth gameplay and the ability to test your might for the first time since the original, gave me great satisfaction and a sense of nostalgia I had never felt before. Since then I have acquired each subsequent title. Deception kicked more ass than I could haul to the store to purchase it. The konquest mode along with the addition of combo breakers made it more enjoyable and significantly added to the replay value. Armageddon with it's huge roster, create-a-character, and a storyline that left fans like me reeling and demanding answers, was easily the best game I had recently purchased. It may not be THE best in the series, but it's still one of my favorites. My reigning favorite to this day remains MK: Shaolin Monks, for too many reasons to list coherently. But I will say this; it was a multiplayer story-driven action mash-up of the first two Mortal Kombat games, what's not to like? My next venture into the realm of kombat brought me to a strange place. I am of course referring to MK vs DC. I was marginally disappointed with this game. If I had gone in with no expectations or without playing any other MK games, I may have liked it more. This was sadly not the case. It probably didn't help that I am a Marvel fan and believed that universe was better suited to take on the challenge. I mean come on, Cyclops vs Kano, Iron Man vs Sektor, or even Apocalypse vs Shao Kahn! The possibilities are endless! Oh, well... what's done is done and set in stone. But now, even as I type this, we are on the eve of a new age of kombat. Mortal Kombat 9 is set to release in 2011, and based on what I've seen so far, it could be the best one yet. Will it live up to its name and reverse the recent slump in the series fan base? One would think, one would hope, this one waits quietly in anticipation. Game on.