More Than A Game – WHAT MORTAL KOMBAT MEANS TO ME

Mortal Kombat holds a special place in my heart.

The gory and extremely over-the-top fatalities are awesome and play a big part in what gave Mortal Kombat its legacy. To me, the fatalities are only the icing on top of an already delicious cake that is Mortal Kombat; a franchise that has been an important part of my life even before I was born. Come join me on my retrospective as a fangirl from Earthrealm.

It Has Begun

It all started when my older brother first experienced the original games as a kid. He would play them on the Sega Genesis with his friends. The games are a huge hit at the time for their stellar gameplay, gnarly (at the time) fatalities, and bombastic characters.

It’s these reasons why New Line Cinema and Lawrence Kasanoff saw the potential in a Mortal Kombat movie. Thus in 1995, the first Mortal Kombat movie was released to the public starring Robin Shou, Linden Ashby, Bridgette Wilson, Cary Hiroyuki-Tagawa, and Christopher Lambert.

For many critics, it was a mess of an action film but those that grew up in the 1990s would celebrate the film and its respect for the source material…for the most part. It is far from a flawless victory but it holds a special place in the hearts of fans including my older brother.

I was born in 1996 and from the moment I was brought into the world, my brother indoctrinated me. There are old home videos of me as a baby and my brother can be heard singing the famous Techno Syndrome song by The Immortals as he played with me.

Since he was seven years older than myself, as I grew up, I inherited pretty much everything he had which included clothes, games, and VHS tapes (google it if you’re too young to remember). One of these VHS tapes was a little movie called Mortal Kombat.

He would put it in, the New Line Cinema logo rolled into view and we heard that shouting of: “MORTAL KOMBAT!!!” Without even having played the games before, the intro alone got me to jam out and get me excited for the fantasy/martial arts adventure. Ever since that day, I have grown up adoring Mortal Kombat as one of my favorite films.

Like I said, it is not technically a good movie but the memories of loving the characters, pretending to fight with my brother like the characters, the music, the atmosphere. It all left me with so many memories that I will never forget and I doubt my brother never will either.

We even grew up watching the one and only Mortal Kombat: Annihilation. We can still put it on and have a good time but not in the way the filmmakers had hoped. Annihilation is one of the most amazingly bad movies that my brother and I burst into tears of laughter every time we watch it. It is arguably worse than Batman & Robin of the same year: 1997.

My First Mortal Kombat Game

This shared admiration for Mortal Kombat (1995) led to us getting our first Mortal Kombat video game we had ever actually owned. It was the early 2000s, we had our PlayStation 2, and we booted up the newest entry at the time which was Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance.

Scorpion, Sub-Zero, Jax, Sonya, Shang Tsung, so many of the characters that we loved brought to a graphical fidelity and epicness that made our jaws drop. Yeah, the game is not much to look back on these days but we still loved it and even to this day, we will put it on and play some matches just for fun…but likely swap back to Mortal Kombat 11 soon after.

Since he was one of my favorites from the movie, I experimented with Johnny Cage in Deadly Alliance. This would mark the beginning of my love for Johnny Cage as I would always play and main the character in other games. He might not always be my main but I always anticipate his return in every game.

My brother would always pick Sub-Zero and he mastered the character. This tradition would carry over into Mortal Kombat: Armageddon which acted as the finale of the series at the time. Sadly, Armageddon is a pretty poor game but back in 2006, seeing every single character from the lore on there made us love it. Even to this day, the Konquest story mode featuring Taven remains a personal favorite of mine to revisit.

The thing that always brings me back to Armageddon, however, is the opening cinematic. Wow, did this cinematic rock: it was an epic war that rivaled the likes of Avengers: Endgame. I get chills every time I watch it.

Start Of The New Era

From there, Mortal Kombat took a nose dive since new games weren’t coming. I ended up going back and playing older games including the original Mortal Kombat. Then from out of the blue came Mortal Kombat VS DC Universe: yes, this was a thing that happened. Mortal Kombat characters battling superheroes and villains from the DC Universe in a weird yet oddly entertaining crossover that made little to no sense.

It wasn’t very good but it proved to be important because this would result in Mortal Kombat coming back a few years later in a reboot simply titled Mortal Kombat (2011). However, rather than completely rebooting and erasing what had come prior, Mortal Kombat (2011) AKA Mortal Kombat 9 would actually act as a sequel. The events of Armageddon lead to Raiden sending visions back in time to his past self, a form of time travel to try and prevent Armageddon.

Mortal Kombat 9 was the first game in the series that I bought for myself and I am so glad I did. It was a stunning gem that showed the potential for Mortal Kombat‘s universe and storytelling, feeling like a giant six hour epic movie. It took the stories of the original Mortal Kombat trilogy and merged them into a familiar story that wasn’t afraid to reinvent. There were twists, turns, and new events that took the mythology in totally new ways.

From beginning to end, I was in awe as I experienced the beginning of a new era for Mortal Kombat. I was reintroduced to Richard Epcar who has become the definitive voice for Raiden. Scorpion and Sub-Zero’s rivalry along with Sub-Zero’s brother were given so much more development. My favorite character Johnny Cage was still my main, changed back to his more classic depiction while still giving him enough depth to make him an actual character. One that would evolve throughout the next few games.

Rise And Fall Of A Legacy

So I was hyped, I needed more Mortal Kombat so I waited anxiously for the next game but I would have to wait longer than expected. However, in the same year, Mortal Kombat would get a web series known as Mortal Kombat: Legacy. It was a dark and gritty reboot that would take things in a more realistic angle. The first season set the characters up perfectly with Ian Anthony Dale providing a picture perfect Hanzo Hasashi AKA Scorpion.

It set the stage for the tournament to come in the second season. So I eagerly awaited said season and I got it in 2013…but I ended up being disappointed. While I am not some purist that wants everything to be like the games, I did find the changes made to Legacy‘s mythology to be strange. For example, Liu Kang was now a villain representing Outworld and all the build up for Johnny Cage led to him being portrayed as a weakling who was easily defeated.

The second season was also rushed with so many fights ending way too fast and characters deaths happening within the blink of an eye. Also, certain characters from the first season never returned including Jax, Sonya, Kano, Cyrax, and Sektor who were all setup perfectly. It also ended on a really bad cliffhanger that never got a follow up so season two killed Mortal Kombat: Legacy by losing track of itself.

A New Generation

So I was without Mortal Kombat for a bit longer until the PS4 era hit and Mortal Kombat X came in 2015. Much like Mortal Kombat 9, the tenth game took a lot of risks but it ended up paying off perfectly. It jumped ahead two decades, introduced new characters including the Kombat Kids, Kotal Kahn, Erron Black, and more. It still kept many of the same iconic characters but expanded upon them, showing them as veteran fighters of Earthrealm. This includes my favorite character: Johnny Cage who was now the star of the game which made me nearly drop in shock. A cocky, comic relief character had evolved into a leader and a family man…while still providing comedy.

The new characters are great too both from a storytelling and gameplay perspective: Cassie Cage, Jaquci Briggs, Kung Jin, and Takeda Takahashi were all super fun to play. They never felt like watered down versions of the legacy characters: they left their own stamp. They all had origins and character arcs that I really enjoyed and I also found their variations fun to learn. I played Mortal Kombat X with my brother and it brought us right back to the days playing Deadly Alliance and watching the 1995 movie.

Then DLC came along and as someone who loves horror movies? I was astounded by the likes of Jason Voorhees, Predator, and the character who would end up becoming my new main: Alien. Not only did it appeal to me as a huge Aliens fan but his gameplay was so well-executed that he could overpower every character on the roster. Then add the awesome lore that this Xenomorph is the result of bonding with Tarkatan genes? That pleased me as an Alien and Mortal Kombat fangirl at once.

It couldn’t possibly get better than this. Oh, how wrong we were…

A Time Of Greatness

2019 comes around and we are given an absolutely gorgeous first look at Mortal Kombat 11. The graphical fidelity made Mortal Kombat X look like it was from the PS2 era. However, it was not just looks because it seemed like it was doing everything right: massive roster, intense gameplay, character customization that we already loved in Injustice 2, and more new characters.

When April 23rd hit, we could not have been more excited to boot up the game. Unfortunately, my brother and I live separately so we each experienced the game on our own but that did not stop either of us from absolutely adoring every second of Mortal Kombat 11. When a game is able to make me cry within the first fifteen minutes of the story? That’s nothing but applause worthy.

With tons of Easter eggs, references, classic characters, new characters, a new villain, and so much being bombarded, my jaw was on the floor by the end of Mortal Kombat 11‘s story. It was like everything I had experienced in my life as a Mortal Kombat fan had culminated into that game there. And I haven’t even talked about the gameplay which is so buttery smooth and fun to master: not a single character on the roster is bad. Even the ones that I rarely even touch, I can still have a lot of fun with and enjoy unlocking their gear and skins. I am not ashamed to call Mortal Kombat 11 the best game in the entire franchise and this is back when there was only the base roster and story.

Little did I know that we’d get a plethora of new characters that were all great and even a new story that continues where the MK11 story ended. It brought back my favorite villain of all time with Cary Hiroyuki-Tagawa as the face and voice of Shang Tsung, my most requested character Fujin, and continued the already epic story. I even did a whole review on this second story known as Aftermath if you wish to read it.

The Hype Is Rebooted

As a Mortal Kombat fangirl, I was already head over heels because the developers at Netherrealm Studios brought my back to my childhood. I was back to watching that 90s movie but as the perfect game that honors and tributes that movie in so many ways. At the time, my hopes for a new Mortal Kombat movie were mild at best.

There had been rumblings of a reboot for almost ten years at that point so I kind of doubted the movie would even get made. Then I heard casting news: Ludi Lin as Liu Kang? What? Okay then! Hiroyuki Sanada as Scorpion? 100% YES! Joe Taslim as Sub-Zero, Mehcad Brooks as Jax, Chin Han as Shang Tsung, and even Tadanobu Asano as Lord Raiden? Okay, I was starting to get hyped…until things went silent. Everything about Mortal Kombat was kept so under wraps that it was hard to know what was going on. Was production going on okay? Any problems while filming?

We didn’t even get a single look at the logo until 2020 was almost over. I’ll admit, I was starting to get nervous since we didn’t get any pictures, any teasers, only some words from the writers and director that gave me some faith. Finally…it happened.

Promo images hit the internet and instantly, my hype was back and I wanted to see more. Fatalities were confirmed. Lewis Tan was confirmed as a brand new character. More info and promotional material released making me excited. Posters featuring the characters started dropping to build hype for a trailer that week. The hype was real because these characters looked amazing! I NEEDED THAT TRAILER!

Then it happened, on February 18th, 2021 the first trailer for the Mortal Kombat reboot dropped and I was stunned with a look of shock on my face. The characters look perfect, the cinematography was perfect, the powers look perfect, the fights look perfect, the lore looked perfect, and the trailer featured a orchestral cover of Techno Syndrome that sounded, you guessed it, perfect. I needed April to GET OVER HERE!

More featurettes and TV spots have been released, making me more excited than ever leading me to where we are today as I write this. It is currently April 22nd, 2021 which means Mortal Kombat hits theaters and HBO Max tomorrow. It doesn’t feel real, honestly. My most anticipated movie of the year is arriving tomorrow and I could not be more ready for it. Yes, I’m even excited to see this new character: Cole Young.

Soon, my brother is coming over and we are going to chill at home to watch our childhood franchise come back once again and transport us to Outworld, Earthrealm, and the Netherrealm once again.

This is what Mortal Kombat means to me as a woman in her twenties these days. It’s memories, family, and fun times that make me smile through interesting characters, bombastic adventures, tons of crazy gore, and unforgettable music. Everyone has their thing: this is what my brother and I still have in our twenties and thirties.

Some people can list off every alien species in the Star Trek universe or breakdown the history of Hogwarts from the Wizarding World. Meanwhile, I can tell you Reptile’s real name and list off the commands for multiple fatalities across several games. If it’s Mortal Kombat-related, I can tell you about it in great detail. Even the forgotten animated series from the 90s that nobody remembers.

Scorpion throwing his kunai, Liu Kang summoning a dragon, Sub-Zero freezing things: it’s our childhood brought to life in a way that we had only dreamed about since we were playing games like Deadly Alliance.

I look forward to giving you all my review of the new movie as soon as possible.

You’re all SO SWEET for making it this far and I hope you all enjoyed this review! I write about anything geek related, especially comic book related stuff so if you want to stay up to date with all the reviews, news breakdowns, and lists I do, make sure to follow this blog or follow me on Twitter @MelodyMacReady ! Love you all!