Mortal Kombat began as Midway's answer to Capcom's popular Street Fighter II series. Since then, it has evolved into one of the premier fighting game franchises in the industry. Some people have left the series since its beginnings. Others have stuck with it through all its various incarnations. The fact remains that Mortal Kombat is still one of best and longest running fighting game series ever. With Mortal Kombat: Deception on its way and ready to prove that MK is back with a vengeance, we take a look back at the history of Mortal Kombat.

Original Release Date: 1992
Platforms: Arcade, Super Nintendo, Genesis, Sega CD, Game Boy, Game Gear, PC CD-ROM
Number of Playable Characters: 7
Number of Hidden Characters: 1
Number of -alities: 2 - Fatality and Pit
Competition: Street Fighter II Turbo

Story: GORO LIVES...

A 2,000 year old half-human dragon, Goro remains undefeated for the past 500 years. He won the title of Mortal Kombat Grand Champion by defeating Kung Lao, an ancient Shaolin fighting monk. It was during this period that the tournament fell into Shang Tsung's hands and was corrupted.

In order to enter the Earth Realm, the Outworld inhabitants must defeat the Earth warriors in ten straight Mortal Kombat tournaments. They have won nine, and this will be the tenth unless the Earth warriors can defeat Goro and Shang Tsung.

Game Summary: As the game that brought violence in video games into the media spotlight, the original Mortal Kombat was released at the dawn of fighting games. Following Capcom's lead with Street Fighter II, Midway created its own fighting game, with its own personality. Digitized, motion captured graphics made the game look very real when compared to other video games of its time. Your mission was no longer to simply beat down your opponent and take on the next person in line. Now, you not only had to take down your opposition, you also had to finish them off in style with a fatality. The goriest and most detailed fatalities ever to grace a Mortal Kombat game, they were the icing on your victory cake.

Home Ports: Some of the home versions did a fairly decent job of recreating the arcade atmosphere. However, the Genesis, Sega CD and PC CD-ROM versions were the only three home ports to feature the full blood and gore of the arcade game. While the Super Nintendo version didn't feature the high intensity gore of its arcade older brother, it did feature the best looking graphics next to the PC port. Both the Genesis and Sega CD versions were very dark, featuring little to no detail in the characters, stages and fatalities. The Game Boy and Game Gear ports were as basic as they come. Missing one character in each port and losing much of the graphic splendor, they did the job if you absolutely needed some portable Kombat.

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