Mortal Kombat (Euro, Bra)
Mortal Kombat is a 1992 arcade fighting game developed and published by Midway as the first title in the Mortal Kombat series. It introduced many key aspects of the series, including the unique five-button control scheme and gory finishing moves. The game focuses on the journey of the monk Liu Kang to save Earth from the evil sorcerer Shang Tsung, ending with their confrontation on the tournament known as Mortal Kombat.
The game spawned numerous sequels, as well as a successful 1995 film adaptation, and is one of the most popular fighting games to date. Mortal Kombat was subsequently released by Acclaim Entertainment for nearly every home video game platform of the time and became a best-selling game, as well as one of the most controversial video games for its depiction of gore and violence using realistic digitized graphics.
Mortal Kombat is a fighting game in which players battle opponents in one-on-one matches. The player that depletes the opponent's health bar first wins the round and the first player to win two rounds wins the match. Players select one of seven characters. Whereas other fighting games had characters with considerable differences in speed, height, attacks, strength, jumping heights and distances, the playable characters in Mortal Kombat are virtually identical to one another with only minimal differences in their moves' range and speed. The game also distinguished itself from other fighting games of the time with its unique control scheme. The controls consist of five buttons arranged in an "X" pattern: four buttons for high and low punches and kicks with a block button at the center, as well as an eight-way joystick. Attacks can vary depending on the player's distance from the opponent. All player characters have a shared set of attacks performed by holding the joystick in various directions, such a leg sweep and the uppercut, which knocks enemies high into the air and causes a large amount of damage.
Mortal Kombat also featured unique ways in which special moves were performed. It was the first game to introduce special moves performed exclusively using the joystick. Most special moves were performed by tapping the joystick, sometimes ending with a button press. Unlike previous one-on-one fighting games, few moves required circular joystick movement. In an interview with Computer and Video Games, Ed Boon stated, "[...] since the beginning, one of the things that's separated us from other fighting games is the crazy moves we've put in it, like fireballs and all the magic moves, so to speak." Another of the game's innovations was the Fatality, a finishing move executed against a beaten opponent to kill them in a gruesome fashion.
The game's blocking system also distinguished itself from other fighting games. Unlike Street Fighter characters take a small amount of damage from regular moves while blocking. However, the dedicated block button allows users to defend against attacks without retreating and blocking characters lose very little ground when struck, thus making counter attacks much easier after a successful block. Mortal Kombat also introduced the concept of "juggling", knocking an opponent into the air and following up with a combination of attacks while the enemy is still airborne and defenseless. The idea became so popular that it has spread to many other games.
In the single player game, players face each of the game's characters in a series of one-on-one matches against computer-controlled opponents, ending in a mirror match against the character that the player has selected. The player then must fight in a series of endurance matches featuring two opponents in each round. A second player can join in at any time to fight against the first player. Between certain levels, players can compete in a minigame called "Test Your Might" for bonus points, breaking blocks of various materials by filling a meter past a certain point through rapid button presses; the first material the player must break is wood, once broken, players progress onto stone, then to steel, ruby and finally, diamond, with each successive material requiring more of the meter to be filled up and thus awarding more points. Two players can compete in the minigame at once and the last two materials are only accessible through two-player mode. The minigame would return in various forms in Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance, Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks and Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe.
The game spawned numerous sequels, as well as a successful 1995 film adaptation, and is one of the most popular fighting games to date. Mortal Kombat was subsequently released by Acclaim Entertainment for nearly every home video game platform of the time and became a best-selling game, as well as one of the most controversial video games for its depiction of gore and violence using realistic digitized graphics.
Mortal Kombat is a fighting game in which players battle opponents in one-on-one matches. The player that depletes the opponent's health bar first wins the round and the first player to win two rounds wins the match. Players select one of seven characters. Whereas other fighting games had characters with considerable differences in speed, height, attacks, strength, jumping heights and distances, the playable characters in Mortal Kombat are virtually identical to one another with only minimal differences in their moves' range and speed. The game also distinguished itself from other fighting games of the time with its unique control scheme. The controls consist of five buttons arranged in an "X" pattern: four buttons for high and low punches and kicks with a block button at the center, as well as an eight-way joystick. Attacks can vary depending on the player's distance from the opponent. All player characters have a shared set of attacks performed by holding the joystick in various directions, such a leg sweep and the uppercut, which knocks enemies high into the air and causes a large amount of damage.
Mortal Kombat also featured unique ways in which special moves were performed. It was the first game to introduce special moves performed exclusively using the joystick. Most special moves were performed by tapping the joystick, sometimes ending with a button press. Unlike previous one-on-one fighting games, few moves required circular joystick movement. In an interview with Computer and Video Games, Ed Boon stated, "[...] since the beginning, one of the things that's separated us from other fighting games is the crazy moves we've put in it, like fireballs and all the magic moves, so to speak." Another of the game's innovations was the Fatality, a finishing move executed against a beaten opponent to kill them in a gruesome fashion.
The game's blocking system also distinguished itself from other fighting games. Unlike Street Fighter characters take a small amount of damage from regular moves while blocking. However, the dedicated block button allows users to defend against attacks without retreating and blocking characters lose very little ground when struck, thus making counter attacks much easier after a successful block. Mortal Kombat also introduced the concept of "juggling", knocking an opponent into the air and following up with a combination of attacks while the enemy is still airborne and defenseless. The idea became so popular that it has spread to many other games.
In the single player game, players face each of the game's characters in a series of one-on-one matches against computer-controlled opponents, ending in a mirror match against the character that the player has selected. The player then must fight in a series of endurance matches featuring two opponents in each round. A second player can join in at any time to fight against the first player. Between certain levels, players can compete in a minigame called "Test Your Might" for bonus points, breaking blocks of various materials by filling a meter past a certain point through rapid button presses; the first material the player must break is wood, once broken, players progress onto stone, then to steel, ruby and finally, diamond, with each successive material requiring more of the meter to be filled up and thus awarding more points. Two players can compete in the minigame at once and the last two materials are only accessible through two-player mode. The minigame would return in various forms in Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance, Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks and Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe.
Mortal Kombat (Euro, Bra)
Technical
CPU
- maincpu Z80 (@ 3 Mhz)
Chipset
- SEGA VDP PSG (@ 3 Mhz)
Display
- Orientation Yoko
- Resolution 255 x 224
- Frequency 59.922738 Hz
Controlers
- Number of players 2
- Number of buttons 2
- Kind of controler
- joy (8 ways)
- joy (8 ways)
- joy (8 ways)
- joy (8 ways)
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Mortal Kombat (Euro, Bra) Screenshots
Plot
The game takes place in a fantasy setting, with most of the game's events occurring in the fictional realms of the Mortal Kombat series. The original takes place in Earthrealm, where a tournament is being held at Shang Tsung's Island, on which seven of its locations serve as stages in the game. The player receives information about the characters in biographies displayed during the attract mode. Additional information about the characters and their motivations for entering the tournament is received upon completion of the game with each character.
The original Mortal Kombat is the only game in the series to not have an introduction video explaining its plot. The story was fully explained in subsequent games, starting with Mortal Kombat II. The introduction to Mortal Kombat II explains that Shang Tsung was banished to Earthrealm 500 years ago and with the help of the monstrous Goro is able to seize control of the Mortal Kombat tournament in an attempt to doom the realm.
The storyline of the first Mortal Kombat was later adapted into Paul W. S. Anderson's film Mortal Kombat, including an animated prequel titled Mortal Kombat: The Journey Begins, released direct-to-video. An alternate climax for the first game would be featured on the adventure game Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks, which tells an alternate version of the events between the first and second Mortal Kombat tournaments.
The original Mortal Kombat is the only game in the series to not have an introduction video explaining its plot. The story was fully explained in subsequent games, starting with Mortal Kombat II. The introduction to Mortal Kombat II explains that Shang Tsung was banished to Earthrealm 500 years ago and with the help of the monstrous Goro is able to seize control of the Mortal Kombat tournament in an attempt to doom the realm.
The storyline of the first Mortal Kombat was later adapted into Paul W. S. Anderson's film Mortal Kombat, including an animated prequel titled Mortal Kombat: The Journey Begins, released direct-to-video. An alternate climax for the first game would be featured on the adventure game Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks, which tells an alternate version of the events between the first and second Mortal Kombat tournaments.
Characters
Mortal Kombat included seven playable characters, all of which would eventually become trademark characters and appear in sequels. The game was developed with digitized sprites based on actors. The protagonist of the game is the Shaolin martial artist Liu Kang, played by Ho Sung Pak, who enters the tournament to defeat sorcerer Shang Tsung, the main antagonist and final boss (also played by Sung Pak).
Elizabeth Malecki played the Special Forces agent Sonya Blade, who is pursuing the Black Dragon mercenary Kano (played by Richard Divizio). Carlos Pesina played Raiden, the god of Thunder, while his brother Daniel Pesina played Hollywood movie star Johnny Cage and the Lin-Kuei warrior Sub-Zero as well as the game's two other ninja characters. The blue color of Sub-Zero's costume was changed to yellow to create the ninja specter Scorpion and to green for the game's secret character Reptile (though the costume used for motion capturing was actually red).Mortal Kombat would become famous for these palette swaps, and later games would continue it.
The four-armed Shokan warrior Goro serves as the sub boss of the game, being a half-human, half-dragon beast much stronger than the other characters, and unaffected by some of their manouveres. The character's stop motion model was created by Curt Chiarelli. When fighting on the Pit stage, the player could qualify to fight the secret character Reptile by meeting a special set of conditions. Goro, Shang Tsung, and Reptile were not playable in the original game, but would become playable in sequels. The Masked Guard in the Courtyard stage was portrayed by Mortal Kombat developer John Vogel.
Elizabeth Malecki played the Special Forces agent Sonya Blade, who is pursuing the Black Dragon mercenary Kano (played by Richard Divizio). Carlos Pesina played Raiden, the god of Thunder, while his brother Daniel Pesina played Hollywood movie star Johnny Cage and the Lin-Kuei warrior Sub-Zero as well as the game's two other ninja characters. The blue color of Sub-Zero's costume was changed to yellow to create the ninja specter Scorpion and to green for the game's secret character Reptile (though the costume used for motion capturing was actually red).Mortal Kombat would become famous for these palette swaps, and later games would continue it.
The four-armed Shokan warrior Goro serves as the sub boss of the game, being a half-human, half-dragon beast much stronger than the other characters, and unaffected by some of their manouveres. The character's stop motion model was created by Curt Chiarelli. When fighting on the Pit stage, the player could qualify to fight the secret character Reptile by meeting a special set of conditions. Goro, Shang Tsung, and Reptile were not playable in the original game, but would become playable in sequels. The Masked Guard in the Courtyard stage was portrayed by Mortal Kombat developer John Vogel.
Development and promotion
Originally, creators Ed Boon and John Tobias wanted to create an action game featuring a digitized version of martial arts film star Jean-Claude Van Damme. However, Van Damme was already in negotiations with another company for a video game that ultimately was never released. Van Damme's likeness remained in the form of playable character Johnny Cage (with whom he shares his name's initials, JC), a Hollywood martial arts movie star who performs a split punch to the groin (performed by Van Damme in a scene from Bloodsport). Ed Boon and John Tobias have stated that Midway tasked them with the project of creating a "combat game for release within a year", which the two believed was intended to compete with the popular Street Fighter II.Mortal Kombat was reportedly developed in 10 months from 1991 to 1992, with a test version seeing limited release halfway through the development cycle. In an interview with the Official Nintendo Magazine, Boon stated that the development team initially consisted of four people - himself as programmer, artists John Tobias and John Vogel, and Dan Forden as sound designer.
The final arcade game used eight megabytes of graphics data, with each character having 64 colours and around 300 frames of animation.
The team had difficulty settling on a name for the game. Boon has stated that for six months during development "...nobody could come up with a name nobody didn't hate." Some of the names suggested were Kumite, Dragon Attack, Death Blow and Fatality. Someone had written down "combat" on the drawing board for the names in Boon's office and someone wrote a K over the C, according to Boon, "...just to be kind of weird..." Pinball designer Steve Ritchie was sitting in Boon's office, saw the word "Kombat" and said to him, "Why don't you name it Mortal Kombat?", a name that Boon stated "just stuck." The series itself commonly uses the letter "K" in place of "C" for words containing the hard C sound.
The launch of Mortal Kombat for home consoles by Acclaim Entertainment was one of the largest video game launches of the time. A flood of TV commercials heralded the simultaneous release of all four home versions of the game on September 13, 1993, a date dubbed "Mortal Monday. " In the same year, an official Mortal Kombat Collector's Edition, written and illustrated by the game's designer artist John Tobias, was available through mail order, describing the backstory of the game in a greater detail. The mail order deal was displayed during the attract mode of the game. The comic book would later be sold normally around the country, although it was close to impossible to get a copy outside of the United States. The entire comic book was later included as an unlockable bonus in "The Krypt" mode of Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance.
Mortal Kombat: The Album, an album by The Immortals featuring techno songs, was released in May 1994. It features two themes for the game, "Techno Syndrome" and "Hypnotic House". "Techno Syndrome" was adapted for the 1995 movie soundtrack and incorporated the familiar "Mortal Kombat!" yell from the Mortal Monday commercials.Jeff Rovin also penned a novelization of the first Mortal Kombat game, which was published in June 1995 in order to coincide with the release of the first movie. There were also lines of action figures based on the original characters.
The final arcade game used eight megabytes of graphics data, with each character having 64 colours and around 300 frames of animation.
The team had difficulty settling on a name for the game. Boon has stated that for six months during development "...nobody could come up with a name nobody didn't hate." Some of the names suggested were Kumite, Dragon Attack, Death Blow and Fatality. Someone had written down "combat" on the drawing board for the names in Boon's office and someone wrote a K over the C, according to Boon, "...just to be kind of weird..." Pinball designer Steve Ritchie was sitting in Boon's office, saw the word "Kombat" and said to him, "Why don't you name it Mortal Kombat?", a name that Boon stated "just stuck." The series itself commonly uses the letter "K" in place of "C" for words containing the hard C sound.
The launch of Mortal Kombat for home consoles by Acclaim Entertainment was one of the largest video game launches of the time. A flood of TV commercials heralded the simultaneous release of all four home versions of the game on September 13, 1993, a date dubbed "Mortal Monday. " In the same year, an official Mortal Kombat Collector's Edition, written and illustrated by the game's designer artist John Tobias, was available through mail order, describing the backstory of the game in a greater detail. The mail order deal was displayed during the attract mode of the game. The comic book would later be sold normally around the country, although it was close to impossible to get a copy outside of the United States. The entire comic book was later included as an unlockable bonus in "The Krypt" mode of Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance.
Mortal Kombat: The Album, an album by The Immortals featuring techno songs, was released in May 1994. It features two themes for the game, "Techno Syndrome" and "Hypnotic House". "Techno Syndrome" was adapted for the 1995 movie soundtrack and incorporated the familiar "Mortal Kombat!" yell from the Mortal Monday commercials.Jeff Rovin also penned a novelization of the first Mortal Kombat game, which was published in June 1995 in order to coincide with the release of the first movie. There were also lines of action figures based on the original characters.
Ports
Four official ports released as part of the "Mortal Monday" campaign in 1993. Sega Genesis/Mega Drive and SNES were the home console ports, while handheld console ports were released for Game Boy and Game Gear. While the SNES version's visuals and audio were more accurate than the Genesis/Mega Drive version, it features changes to the gameplay and due to Nintendo's "Family Friendly" policy, replaced the blood with sweat and most of the fatalities with less violent "finishing moves". On Sega's console, the blood and uncensored fatalities were available via a cheat code. The code spelled out "ABACABB", a nod to the Abacab album by the band Genesis who shared their name with the North American version of the console. A unique Easter egg in this version included a head shot of the President of Probe Software, Fergus McGovern, which sometimes flew in front of the moon in The Pit stage. This version was given an MA-13 rating by the Videogame Rating Council. The Japanese port was named Mortal Kombat: Shinken Kourin Densetsu.
The Game Boy version was severely cut down from its arcade counterpart. It suffered from laggy controls and a limited button layout. It also omitted Reptile and the bloodier Fatality moves. However, players could play as Goro via a code. Johnny Cage was apparently intended to be a playable character, but was cut out; bits of his character data remain in the data files.
The Game Gear version was similar to the Game Boy version, but with major improvements, (color, faster gameplay, and tighter control). Like its 16-bit counterpart, the game was censored unless a cheat code had been entered. It lacked Kano and Reptile and had only two arenas. A Sega Master System port based on this version was also released.
Ports for the PC DOS and the Amiga were also released in 1993. Both the IBM PC version and MS-DOS are the most faithful ports of the arcade version in terms of graphics and gameplay. The PC and DOS ports differ in terms of music score however; the DOS version was more accurate in that factor. The DOS version came in CD and floppy-disk formats. The Amiga version's gameplay was limited to one action button, and featured a cut down soundtrack with music arranged by Allister Brimble.
The Mega-CD/Sega CD version of the game was released featuring a video intro of the Mortal Monday commercial and loading times. This port did not require a code to be entered to access the uncensored content and thus was given an MA-17 rating. While this port was technologically inferior to the better-looking SNES port, it resembled the arcade version more faithfully in actual gameplay. It also featured the authentic CD-DA soundtrack, taken right from the arcade version, but some of the tracks play on the incorrect arenas, (such as Courtyard playing The Pit's theme). Several remixes of the Mortal Kombat theme music were included as bonus, including the remix used later for the film adaptation. The gore could be disabled by entering the "DULLARD" code at the main menu.
With the release of Mortal Kombat: Deception "Premium Pack" in 2004, both the Xbox and PlayStation 2 received ports of the game as bonus content. While it was promoted as "arcade perfect", there were some sound issues and sped up gameplay. That same year, Jakks Pacific release the game as one of its Plug It in & Play TV Games. The game comparisons to the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis version but with different music and the original arcade voices. This port lacks flashing text and a scrolling background layer, so moving objects—such as the clouds on The Pit and Palace Gates stages and the monks in the Courtyard—instead remain static. The programmer of this port was Chris Burke, for developer Digital Eclipse.
The game was a part of 2005's compilation Midway Arcade Treasures: Extended Play. This port features the same controls, graphics and gore that the original game contained, but like Mortal Kombat: Deception "Premium Pack", it suffers from sound issues and has no bios of the characters. On August 31, 2011, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment released Mortal Kombat Arcade Kollection, consisting of Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat II and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, as a downloadable title for PlayStation Network, Xbox Live Arcade and Windows.
The Game Boy version was severely cut down from its arcade counterpart. It suffered from laggy controls and a limited button layout. It also omitted Reptile and the bloodier Fatality moves. However, players could play as Goro via a code. Johnny Cage was apparently intended to be a playable character, but was cut out; bits of his character data remain in the data files.
The Game Gear version was similar to the Game Boy version, but with major improvements, (color, faster gameplay, and tighter control). Like its 16-bit counterpart, the game was censored unless a cheat code had been entered. It lacked Kano and Reptile and had only two arenas. A Sega Master System port based on this version was also released.
Ports for the PC DOS and the Amiga were also released in 1993. Both the IBM PC version and MS-DOS are the most faithful ports of the arcade version in terms of graphics and gameplay. The PC and DOS ports differ in terms of music score however; the DOS version was more accurate in that factor. The DOS version came in CD and floppy-disk formats. The Amiga version's gameplay was limited to one action button, and featured a cut down soundtrack with music arranged by Allister Brimble.
The Mega-CD/Sega CD version of the game was released featuring a video intro of the Mortal Monday commercial and loading times. This port did not require a code to be entered to access the uncensored content and thus was given an MA-17 rating. While this port was technologically inferior to the better-looking SNES port, it resembled the arcade version more faithfully in actual gameplay. It also featured the authentic CD-DA soundtrack, taken right from the arcade version, but some of the tracks play on the incorrect arenas, (such as Courtyard playing The Pit's theme). Several remixes of the Mortal Kombat theme music were included as bonus, including the remix used later for the film adaptation. The gore could be disabled by entering the "DULLARD" code at the main menu.
With the release of Mortal Kombat: Deception "Premium Pack" in 2004, both the Xbox and PlayStation 2 received ports of the game as bonus content. While it was promoted as "arcade perfect", there were some sound issues and sped up gameplay. That same year, Jakks Pacific release the game as one of its Plug It in & Play TV Games. The game comparisons to the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis version but with different music and the original arcade voices. This port lacks flashing text and a scrolling background layer, so moving objects—such as the clouds on The Pit and Palace Gates stages and the monks in the Courtyard—instead remain static. The programmer of this port was Chris Burke, for developer Digital Eclipse.
The game was a part of 2005's compilation Midway Arcade Treasures: Extended Play. This port features the same controls, graphics and gore that the original game contained, but like Mortal Kombat: Deception "Premium Pack", it suffers from sound issues and has no bios of the characters. On August 31, 2011, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment released Mortal Kombat Arcade Kollection, consisting of Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat II and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, as a downloadable title for PlayStation Network, Xbox Live Arcade and Windows.
Reception
Electronic Gaming Monthly awarded Mortal Kombat the title of "Most Controversial Game of 1993". In 1995, the Daily News wrote, "the original Mortal Kombat video game debuted in 1992. Its combination of story line, character and mega-violence soon made it a hit worldwide. And the controversy engendered by its blood-gushing special effects only served to boost its popularity." In 2007, CraveOnline ranked it second of the top ten 2D fighters of all time. In 2008, Forbes called Mortal Kombat one of the "most loved arcade games" that was "king of the arcade" in its day, writing that the arcade machines of the original title go from a few hundred dollars to $2,500. In 2011, Complex ranked the first Mortal Kombat as the 12th best fighting game of all time, while Wirtualna Polska ranked it as the 19th best Amiga game. In 2012, Time named it one of the 100 greatest video games of all time.
On the other hand, IGN named the SNES port of Mortal Kombat as the eight worst arcade-to-console conversion for its censorship issues. Nintendo's decision to make the game more family friendly was also included on GameSpy's list of the dumbest moments in gaming.
While many games have been subject to urban legends about secret features and unlockable content, these kinds of myths were particularly rampant among the dedicated fan community of the Mortal Kombat series. The game's creators did little to dispel the rumors, some of which were even eventually implemented in subsequent games. The most notable of these myths was due to a glitch where the hidden character Reptile was displayed red instead of green. As a result of this error, an internal error counter indicated as "ERMAC" (ERror MACro) was incremented. This would later lead the developers to include the red-garbed ninja Ermac on Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 and subsequent games. According to UGO.com, there was also an urban legend circulating around the time that had to do with inputting a secret code that would allow uncensored Fatalities and blood in the SNES version; however, this was later proven untrue, being only available on the Mega Drive/Genesis version of Mortal Kombat.
On the other hand, IGN named the SNES port of Mortal Kombat as the eight worst arcade-to-console conversion for its censorship issues. Nintendo's decision to make the game more family friendly was also included on GameSpy's list of the dumbest moments in gaming.
Controversy
See also: Controversy of Mortal Kombat
Mortal Kombat was one of many violent video games that came into prominence between 1992 and 1993, generating controversy among parents and public officials. Hearings on video game violence and the corruption of society, headed by Senator Joseph Lieberman and Herb Kohl were held in late 1992 to 1993. The legislators were especially concerned with the realistic replica of human figures in games, such as Mortal Kombat, Night Trap and Lethal Enforcers, as opposed to cartoonish characters in other violent games such as Eternal Champions. The result of the hearings was that the entertainment software industry was given one year to form a working rating system or the federal government would intervene and create its own system. Eventually, the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) was conceived, requiring all video games to be rated and for these ratings to be placed on the games' packaging.Mortal Kombat was the first game to receive a mature ESRB rating.Rumored content
While many games have been subject to urban legends about secret features and unlockable content, these kinds of myths were particularly rampant among the dedicated fan community of the Mortal Kombat series. The game's creators did little to dispel the rumors, some of which were even eventually implemented in subsequent games. The most notable of these myths was due to a glitch where the hidden character Reptile was displayed red instead of green. As a result of this error, an internal error counter indicated as "ERMAC" (ERror MACro) was incremented. This would later lead the developers to include the red-garbed ninja Ermac on Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 and subsequent games. According to UGO.com, there was also an urban legend circulating around the time that had to do with inputting a secret code that would allow uncensored Fatalities and blood in the SNES version; however, this was later proven untrue, being only available on the Mega Drive/Genesis version of Mortal Kombat.
