The Mortal Kombat videogame series revolutionized fighting arcade games and video game fighter platforms. The Mortal Kombat video games have been produced since the mid-1990s and continue to be produced today. The Mortal Kombat video games changed the arcade scene forever. The Mortal Kombat video game series was one of the all-time greatest selling arcade games in the history of gaming.

The Mortal Kombat video games are known for their violence, blood, interesting characters, and their cult following. The Mortal Kombat video game series initially garnered attention from fans because it was the first arcade fighting game that had a fatality concept. A fatality system was after the opponent had been defeated, the winner was allowed to attempt to kill them. The winner usually performed a special move that cut a body part off the defeated and dizzy opponent. The most popular fatality in the Mortal Kombat video games was when Kano would rip the opponent’s heart out, killing them instantly and ending the match. Another popular fatality was when Subzero, a ninja who possessed freezing abilities, would freeze his opponent and then shatter them with a swift kick to the head.

Not only did the Mortal Kombat video games create a unique fatality system, but the series also implemented numerous interesting and fun characters. One of the Mortal Kombat video games’ most popular characters was Scorpion, a ninja who could shoot a spear out of his hand. This spear would become attached to an opponent and pull them close to Scorpion, allowing him to beat them up. Scorpion, who would famously scream when this move was executed, would punch them in the face after pulling them close. This ability became a favorite with the Mortal Kombat fans and Scorpion has appeared in every single Mortal Kombat game in the series.

The Mortal Kombat video games developed a cult following of fans. These devoted fans would play and buy any type of Mortal Kombat merchandise. The Mortal Kombat merchandise included things like posters, shirts, cartoons, action figures, books, movies, fruit snacks, lunch boxes, and hats. The devoted fans made the Mortal Kombat video games one of the most notorious gaming franchises in video game history.

The Mortal Kombat video games came under a lot of pressure from parental groups bent on video game censorship. Due to the large amount of violence, blood, fatalities, and abuse presented in the Mortal Kombat video games, many politicians opposed to video game violence protested the game, the game designers, and the manufacturer for allowing this type of media to be presented and sold to young children. The Mortal Kombat video game fans protested and opposed the censorship that the politicians wanted to apply to the Mortal Kombat video games.

The opposition from political and parental groups did nothing to stop the series success – it only added fuel to the fire, and the Mortal Kombat video games became even more popular among young teenage males and young adult gamers.

The Mortal Kombat series also helped revive the arcade industry. In the mid-1990s when Mortal Kombat was first released, the arcade industry was suffering. Not many people wanted to play in arcades since home entertainment systems like the Sega Genesis, the Super Nintendo, and the Nintendo had been released. The Mortal Kombat video games reenergized the arcade industry and created interest in what was once a dying video game business.

The Mortal Kombat video games are still released today, nearly two decades after the first Mortal Kombat game was released. There are new Mortal Kombat video games coming out for the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3. These games are highly anticipated and should sell extremely well, just proving that the Mortal Kombat video game franchise is alive and thriving. The devoted cult following the Mortal Kombat series continues to survive and the fans demand that new Mortal Kombat games be released every year. Without the Mortal Kombat video games, the arcade industry would have died in the mid-1990s, and millions of young gamers would not have participated in the fighting game genre.