My Kombat Experience.
Mortal Kombat Series General
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My Kombat Experience.
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posted10/31/2007 08:15 PM (UTC)by
Member Since
10/25/2007 04:16 AM (UTC)
I like to think we all have an idealistic moment in our lives. A specific time where a lot of our happiest memories are. Like a snapshot of you at your most glorified. Our own 'Summer of '69.' Maybe I'm deluding myself into thinking there are others who share this sort of fantasy, but hey.
For me that year was 1994. That summer was wedged between fifth and sixth grade. It could probably be what I'd like to call the first Golden Moment. It could be pretty words and a comforting feel of nostalgia, but it could also be because it was the first time one of my now-infamous obsessions bloomed.
Mortal Kombat.
Yeah, it's a geek thing, and even a little sad to still admit and hold up, but it's one of my most talked up and tired obsessions. And it still is. So now let's see what writing skill I have left and compose a review and a few reasons why.
First, a small backstory. I wasn't too keen on fighting games growing up - If at all. I remember, though, when the first Mortal Kombat game made the 6:00 news for it's violence. They showcased the famous fatality of Sub-Zero's. Remember that one? Rips off his opponents head and the spine dangles? Yeah.
Now -that- was cool, I thought.
Skip ahead some months and change, and my aunt gave me a copy of said Mortal Kombat for my Super Nintendo. But I didn't realize it was -that- game because, as any fan remembers, the Super Nintendo's version had zero blood and completely altered fatalities. I didn't even know there were those in this game, as that one was forgotten. Who knew arcade games could come home? I sure as hell didn't.
And then we went to a cheesy place called Sahara Sams, somewhere in Suburbia. And in the middle of the arcade pile was Mortal Kombat II. A mad crowd of bloodthirsty eleven year olds were watching intently at the screen - A fight between everyone's favorite hero Liu Kang and his adorable love, Kitana. WTF? Okay...So I followed and watched, and arrived just in time to see a second fatality performed. If that motherfuck didn't turn into a dragon and eat half of Kitana's body. I say goddamn.
I was, like just about everyone else my age, immedietely hooked. For the first time I actually had something in common with other kids my age. It was damned cool to discuss Mortal Kombat. And if you knew all of the moves, and could pull off (insert uberhard move here) - You were an eleven year old god.
That realization came much later - At the time I simply thought it was awesome. I loved memorizing it, studying it, and waiting patiently for Mortal Friday, September 9th, 1994. That was the day the game hit the Super Nintendo, Sega Genesis, Gameboy, and the Gamegear. Remember those systems? Apparently the gore and blood and fatality-fest would all be in one piece.
Mortal Kombat, like it or not, broke down a lot of virgin walls in the popular gaming world. It showcased human looking fighters taking part in a digital bloodbath. And I don't think none of us would have continued playing through adulthood if there wasn't a good and competent storyline involved. Which, there was. The series started out on a very cliched and 2d storyline, but as we matured so did the story. Suddenly there were all these 'other emotions' there that weren't centered on seeing guts. We picked a side and we picked our fighter. And we all did have our favorites, didn't we?
I'll tell you mine if you tell me yours.
But I'm spiderweb-rambling. My point is that it offered a lot more that generic game-play. We studied combos and methods, finding secret characters, playing hidden games, doing such-and-such's fatality for the first time. Owning someone with a friendship. Behind us, as we played this game, our peers were waiting to see what we might discover. We read what others had discovered in Gamepro magazine, or Game Informer. There wasn't widespread access to the internet at the time, so trust me man, that fucking game taught patience, too. Waiting for Gamepro's Fighter's Edge to offer their open-faced Mortal Kombat tutorial was torment.
And the secrets and twists to our beloved 'canon' affected us. And I say us because I'm not the only one. When it was exposed that Mileena wasn't actually Kitana's sister but a mutant clone, I went all fanboy. I might as well have been a sixty-seven year old woman watching her soaps.
And then the movie came out in 1995. I was a hard addict, at that point, forbidden to go into arcades alone. My father used the word obsession many, many times. I countered that with his fishing obsession and was promptly told to stfu. But I digress.
I didn't see it in a theatre, but we all watched it here on a bootleg copy. My parents and a few close family friends sat down and watched it, and I was in my glory, man. They loved it - And I loved it when my father asked me questions.
"Rich, who's she?"
"Sonya Blade."
Damn it felt good to be that guy for a night.
In school I was known as the boy who studied Mortal Kombat. By then it wasn't cool anymore to know what I knew, so my fifteen minutes of popularity ended but the obsession raged on.
Now, some thirteen years later - Almost to the day, incidentially - I feel that old familiar Mortal Kombat kick in the groin. I get all back into it again - Watching videos, drawing characters, et cetera.(This one came about because I found some things I had from that time. One of them was a rule leaflet for a contest that expired 1/1/96.)
And I'm finding out that it's okay now to admit what we like, especially if it comes from our childhood. And that's pretty nifty.
So, who was/is your favorite character?
Discuss.
For me that year was 1994. That summer was wedged between fifth and sixth grade. It could probably be what I'd like to call the first Golden Moment. It could be pretty words and a comforting feel of nostalgia, but it could also be because it was the first time one of my now-infamous obsessions bloomed.
Mortal Kombat.
Yeah, it's a geek thing, and even a little sad to still admit and hold up, but it's one of my most talked up and tired obsessions. And it still is. So now let's see what writing skill I have left and compose a review and a few reasons why.
First, a small backstory. I wasn't too keen on fighting games growing up - If at all. I remember, though, when the first Mortal Kombat game made the 6:00 news for it's violence. They showcased the famous fatality of Sub-Zero's. Remember that one? Rips off his opponents head and the spine dangles? Yeah.
Now -that- was cool, I thought.
Skip ahead some months and change, and my aunt gave me a copy of said Mortal Kombat for my Super Nintendo. But I didn't realize it was -that- game because, as any fan remembers, the Super Nintendo's version had zero blood and completely altered fatalities. I didn't even know there were those in this game, as that one was forgotten. Who knew arcade games could come home? I sure as hell didn't.
And then we went to a cheesy place called Sahara Sams, somewhere in Suburbia. And in the middle of the arcade pile was Mortal Kombat II. A mad crowd of bloodthirsty eleven year olds were watching intently at the screen - A fight between everyone's favorite hero Liu Kang and his adorable love, Kitana. WTF? Okay...So I followed and watched, and arrived just in time to see a second fatality performed. If that motherfuck didn't turn into a dragon and eat half of Kitana's body. I say goddamn.
I was, like just about everyone else my age, immedietely hooked. For the first time I actually had something in common with other kids my age. It was damned cool to discuss Mortal Kombat. And if you knew all of the moves, and could pull off (insert uberhard move here) - You were an eleven year old god.
That realization came much later - At the time I simply thought it was awesome. I loved memorizing it, studying it, and waiting patiently for Mortal Friday, September 9th, 1994. That was the day the game hit the Super Nintendo, Sega Genesis, Gameboy, and the Gamegear. Remember those systems? Apparently the gore and blood and fatality-fest would all be in one piece.
Mortal Kombat, like it or not, broke down a lot of virgin walls in the popular gaming world. It showcased human looking fighters taking part in a digital bloodbath. And I don't think none of us would have continued playing through adulthood if there wasn't a good and competent storyline involved. Which, there was. The series started out on a very cliched and 2d storyline, but as we matured so did the story. Suddenly there were all these 'other emotions' there that weren't centered on seeing guts. We picked a side and we picked our fighter. And we all did have our favorites, didn't we?
I'll tell you mine if you tell me yours.
But I'm spiderweb-rambling. My point is that it offered a lot more that generic game-play. We studied combos and methods, finding secret characters, playing hidden games, doing such-and-such's fatality for the first time. Owning someone with a friendship. Behind us, as we played this game, our peers were waiting to see what we might discover. We read what others had discovered in Gamepro magazine, or Game Informer. There wasn't widespread access to the internet at the time, so trust me man, that fucking game taught patience, too. Waiting for Gamepro's Fighter's Edge to offer their open-faced Mortal Kombat tutorial was torment.
And the secrets and twists to our beloved 'canon' affected us. And I say us because I'm not the only one. When it was exposed that Mileena wasn't actually Kitana's sister but a mutant clone, I went all fanboy. I might as well have been a sixty-seven year old woman watching her soaps.
And then the movie came out in 1995. I was a hard addict, at that point, forbidden to go into arcades alone. My father used the word obsession many, many times. I countered that with his fishing obsession and was promptly told to stfu. But I digress.
I didn't see it in a theatre, but we all watched it here on a bootleg copy. My parents and a few close family friends sat down and watched it, and I was in my glory, man. They loved it - And I loved it when my father asked me questions.
"Rich, who's she?"
"Sonya Blade."
Damn it felt good to be that guy for a night.
In school I was known as the boy who studied Mortal Kombat. By then it wasn't cool anymore to know what I knew, so my fifteen minutes of popularity ended but the obsession raged on.
Now, some thirteen years later - Almost to the day, incidentially - I feel that old familiar Mortal Kombat kick in the groin. I get all back into it again - Watching videos, drawing characters, et cetera.(This one came about because I found some things I had from that time. One of them was a rule leaflet for a contest that expired 1/1/96.)
And I'm finding out that it's okay now to admit what we like, especially if it comes from our childhood. And that's pretty nifty.
So, who was/is your favorite character?
Discuss.
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