![]() Animated sprites of actual people looked cheesy when compared to the colorful characters produced by Capcom. Even though they were excessively graphic and featured colorful special moves, the games were visually simple. The first several games were especially notable for their simplistic styles. Who can get mad when opposing fighters are turned into babies or become close friends through dancing? Midway’s response? They added Babalities and Friendships to Mortal Kombat II. They were literally killing them in a variety of graphic manners, including the ever popular spine rip right after the famous “Finish him/her!” Clearly parents were none too comfortable this, and the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) was formed a mere two years later. Eventually players weren’t just knocking their opponents out. Midway decided they wanted none of this with Mortal Kombat. Despite all of the punching, kicking, and sometimes fireball throwing, no one actually died after a battle. ![]() Before Mortal Kombat hit the shelves, all fighting games were notably tame. Even though the series has an expansive story about warring realms and Elder Gods putting everyones lives on the line in tournaments, its aggressively violent style made it an icon. It’s really for these reasons alone that Mortal Kombat was able to stay so popular while everyone else failed. To do this, Mortal Kombat featured sprites based on actors as opposed to computer generated characters, a ton of secrets, and excessive bloody violence boldly exclaiming “FATALITY.” The product of four guys attempting to make an adaptation of Universal Soldier, featuring Jean-Claude Van Damme himself, Mortal Kombat was intended to be something completely different. Then the Chicago-based Midway Games released Mortal Kombat in 1992 and subsequently put the genre on its head. It seemed as if this Capcom developed powerhouse would never be beaten. A lot of companies tried to be the next Street Fighter II but all fell by the wayside. The previously limited roster in Street Fighter was expanded, a distinct combo system was first introduced, intricate special moves were a massive hit, and the game was graphically smooth. When Street Fighter II came out in 1991, it changed everything. Mortal Kombat’s runaway success took the industry by surprise. That fanbase especially began salivating this week when a new Mortal Kombat installment was officially announced. Yet even as other genres have since taken the spotlight, fighting games have maintained a core devout fanbase, one that is admittedly growing once again. The genre that was once one of the most popular has now been relegated to a certain few franchises while first-person shooters or online role-playing games run rampant. There are major tournaments every year, but most people focus on playing with their close friends in personally set up skirmishes or online. Home consoles have taken over and that’s where most fighting games happen now. Nowadays, this doesn’t usually happen anymore. As the industry grew and expanded, more and more fighting games came out, hoping to profit off hungry gamers with pockets full of quarters and dreams of being “the best.” It’s for this reason why arcade tournaments were so prevalent around games like Street Fighter II, one of the most influential games in history. Playing a fighting game on your own is fun, sure, but there’s just something satisfying in playing against an evenly skilled friend and besting them. Very few genres at the time were as heavily focused on one-on-one play. Back before home consoles were everyone’s goto source of gaming, arcades were a hot bed for virtual fighting aficionados. The fighting genre has changed significantly since the early arcade days.
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