For years, we have been talking about the rivalry between Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter. But this wasn't a simple debate between the emperor of Outworld and the owner of an evil organization called Shadaloo in a Death Battle. The truth is much bigger than that. The regular story is that Mortal Kombat was built to became a competition for Street Fighter, but today, we're gonna go much deeper. We're going to state that Mortal Kombat was something more. It wasn't just a competition to Street Fighter. It was a revolution that dethroned Street Fighter and changed the way we experience and play the series forever. To understand just how the series became so well-liked, you need to understand the world that they were walking into. Let's rewind back to 1987.
Street Fighter was established in 1987 by Capcom. It was the first game of the franchise that started it all as a pioneer. You only play as Ryu and fight through non-playable characters in a one player mode, but in two player mode, player two controls Ken Masters. The first of the series started out as a pioneer. Then in 1991, Street Fighter II came out on arcades as the sequel to the first Street Fighter. Street Fighter II marks the start of having a roster of multiple characters to play as. Upon release on the home consoles, the fighting game genre was popularized, leading to other companies to make their own fighting games and try and be the competition for Street Fighter.
In 1992, a brand new company being Midway Games has stepped up to the fighting game genre to be the competition for Street Fighter. And that's when two adults decided to step up and create a fighting game. This is where Ed Boon and John Tobias came in. Midway started development and followed Street Fighter's footsteps. It was more challenging, cruel and full of strife. One question comes to mind, "What will a brutal fighting game look like?" Enter Mortal Kombat, the brutal fighting game by Midway.
Upon arcade release of Mortal Kombat, things have been calm. It's like teenagers stepping up to the arcade joint to try out the game. The arcade release of the first Mortal Kombat became calm, until Midway partnered up with Acclaim Entertainment to begin porting the first Mortal Kombat to 16-bit home consoles. Once that happens, things took a turn for the worse. Mortal Kombat's home console release sparked controversy due to digitized sprites and graphic violence. That move sparked Senate hearings on video game violence held by Joe Lieberman and Herb Kohl and the creation of the ESRB. Mortal Kombat's home console release wasn't just the source of sparking controversy. It became the titan of fighting games like Street Fighter was.
To Midway, the N64 cartridges became a nightmare since they became incredibly expensive to produce and have a limited amount of memory. That's how adults faced tough challenges that caused them to struggle when the cartridges were produced. This doesn't just apply to Midway, but to other companies as well, except for Capcom, which didn't produce a single game for the N64. One Capcom veteran named Yoshiki Okamoto later said and believed that when they switched to making games for the PlayStation, including Mortal Kombat, their profits have skyrocketed. That tells you developers that made Mortal Kombat games for the PlayStation had no problem at all because of the system's use of CD-ROMs that hold much more data than cartridges, resulting in the games' better performance on the PS1 than on the N64.
Capcom has read a scroll of rules and requirements to try and expand Street Fighter beyond the gaming realm. So they did and they made a live action movie in 1994 by Jean Claude Van Damme, which received a negative reception from fans of the franchise due to its lack of special moves. While the film was met with negativity, the fight between Chun-Li and Vega was the only good thing in the film. It recreates and dates to the iconic battle in Street Fighter II. The film industry also had a bit of a competition between Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat in the mid 90s as New Line Cinema made a live action movie aptly named Mortal Kombat.
The 1995 film directed by Paul Anderson became a competition for the live action Street Fighter film, but unlike the games, the violence in it was toned-down due to its PG-13 rating. Despite the criticism towards the toned-down violence, the original film was praised for a spot-on cast, faithful costume design, sharp fight scenes and choreography and unforgettabble soundtrack that is inseparable from the franchise. They scream "Mortal Kombat!" because of the film, not the game. Then Annihilation, the sequel to the film came to pick up right where the first film left off with the inclusion of Outworld's emperor, Shao Kahn, which don't talk to me about that. The original film hammered home the concept of special moves, sharp fight scenes based on the very first Mortal Kombat and its sequel. New Line Cinema squeezed the concept of toning down the violence in the film to give it a PG-13 rating.
The animated series for Street Fighter premiered on the same year on USA's Saturday morning block and received an overwhelmingly negative reception despite having two seasons. It was listed on the top 8 worst Street Fighter failures. It's the part where Guile recruited every character in the game into an anti-terrorist paramilitary group, terrible dialogue and atrocious story. It wasn't just Street Fighter that became a dumpster fire, but Darkstalkers as well, which also became critically panned due to the shoddy quality, garbage animation and horrible dialogues Street Fighter has.
Then Mortal Kombat: Defenders of the Realm also premiered on the same year on USA and was also met with negative reception from critics due to its lack of violence that contributed to aiming at younger audiences and its cancellation after one season, shoddy animation, atrocious dialogue and the antics that were never experienced in the games. Antics include Raiden being cheeky, Nightwolf relying centrically on technology, Stryker having an issue with Kiva, Nightwolf's pet dog, and even Sonya saying "Kombat Time". Not much of an antic, but definetely not well thought out.
In 1997, Mortal Kombat enters the 3D space and does away with the digitized sprites from the first three games with the entry of Mortal Kombat 4. The installment puts the series in a 3D arena space, introduces throwable objects and the use of weapons, marking it the first game of the series to ever take place in a 3D space.
In 2002, as we move on to the next generation of gaming, Midway has kept the 3D space from Mortal Kombat 4 with the introduction of Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance. Deadly Alliance is the first game of the franchise that has new things never before seen in the previous entries like switching between styles, with one fighting style having a weapon, color coded coins needed to unlock content in the Krypt, breakers and interactive stage gimmicks.
Then Deception released in 2004 and introduced Hara-Kiris, which of course, are only performed by the losing player. And finally, Armageddon came out in 2006 to introduce the roster's everyone is here approach to have every character introduced in previous installments and the create your own Fatality mechanic. Ed Boon went ahead to help direct the three games within the sixth generation era that came out every two years for six years. What tells us is that these games weave into the spire of lost souls and spirits. In this case, Shao Kahn threatened to unleash Armageddon on all realms.
And as we move on to the 7th generation of gaming, Midway partnered up with Warner Bros. to develop Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe. It does away with switching between fighting styles the 3D era trilogy has, but keeps the simple combos and has gimmicks of stage transitions on some stages, the rage system and two finishers for each character. While the 8th game of the series, it is not canon to Armageddon. Due to its T rating, the violence and the Fatalitles in it were toned down for all of the Mortal Kombat side and the DC villains with the exception of Shao Kahn and Darkseid, who don't have finishing moves. But not the DC heroes as they have Heroic Brutalities. It's due to the inclusion of DC Comics characters. That's why they wouldn't want fans to see Batman murdered.
See, Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe may be alright, but I pretty much enjoyed its story because of Raiden and Superman being the alphas of their team and Mortal Kombat characters being relegated to Gotham and all that stuff. DLC was planned, but it was scrapped due to Midway's decline. According to 1UP, Midway filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy right after DLC was mentioned. This paved the way for Warner Bros. to acquire most of Midway's assets, including Mortal Kombat, and subsequently close out the Midway Games structure on July 10, 2009, putting the series on hiatus.
Warner Bros. went out to close most of Midway's Chicago headquarters and its San Diego and Newcastle studios, leaving the Chicago studio alive and intact to rename the studio as WB Games Chicago several days later. Over a year later, WB Games Chicago was rebranded and reincorporated into NetherRealm Studios. And guess what? This was their first game they have ever made since Warner Bros. owned the rights of Mortal Kombat. This resulted in the creation of their very first game under the NetherRealm Studios umbrella aptly called Mortal Kombat.
As the first game published by WB Games under the NetherRealm Studios umbrella, Mortal Kombat serves as a sequel to Armageddon, a 2011 reboot of the franchise and a modern take on Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. It takes away the ability to switch between the fighting styles in game and complex combos and replaces it with simple combos and returns to a 2D fighter format the first three games have. The character roster became fleshed out within the story that entails a modern take on a classic story that involves Shao Kahn as the main antagonist of the story rather than making the roster a chaotic mess. Each character has two Fatalities and takes away the half-baked create your own Fatality mechanic from Armageddon.
Here are the new things that were never introduced in any of the games under the Midway umbrella. Mortal Kombat introduces the super gauge. It holds up to three bars and fills up when taking damage or your opponent blocks. Enhanced special moves deal more damage than the regular version of special moves. They consume one bar of the super gauge. Breakers from the 3D era trilogy also returned to consume two bars of the super gauge.
And here's someting new to the series, X-Ray attacks. X-Ray attacks were introduced to consume all three bars of the super gauge. They deal a lot of damage and come with effects of breaking bones. The feature continues in Mortal Kombat X, which of course, became the starting point of introducing brand new faces that never appeared in the Midway era. Then Mortal Kombat 11 came along, which, of course, made Shao Kahn playable for the first time and changed how we use supers. Instead of through the gauge, they are only used when HP is low. They are called Fatal Blows. Then the series was rebooted again to a fresh new timeline in Mortal Kombat 1. It has the return of the three-bar super gauge, but Fatal Blows are still available when HP is low and has the return of x-ray effects.
Warner Bros. owning Mortal Kombat would pave the way for a planned movie that had to be R-rated to match the games' extreme violence. It resulted in the creation of 2021's live action Mortal Kombat movie reboot directed by Simon McQuoid. The film introduced an original character named Cole Young, an MMA fighter who was given a dragon symbol to represent he is chosen for Mortal Kombat, making him the film's main character, which created a plothole. He is not supposed to be the main character, especially when he never appeared in any of the games. Thankfully, a sequel is coming.
The sequel titled Mortal Kombat II, fixes the mistakes the first movie had made. More familiar faces are coming and Raiden dons his look seen in the games. Now, this movie is gonna feature a Mortal Kombat tournament on the big screen like the 1995 film and feature Shao Kahn as the main antagonist. After its theatrical release, Mortal Kombat II became a flawless victory that critics believed that the sequel has fixed several mistakes like making an original character like Cole Young the main protagonist, a lack of the Mortal Kombat tournament and the divisive Arcana thing and the fights became more brutal than the first film. Both of them were praised for brutal fights that match the games and the sequel to the reboot also learned from the bland fights and atrocious character designs introduced in Annihilation.
To make it exciting, not only we're waiting for Mortal Kombat II because we're also waiting for a brand new live action Street Fighter movie, which is coming out in October this year. The trailer shows that Paramount and Legendary has nailed the Street Fighter movie reboot. Unlike the 1994 movie by Jean Claude Van Damme, the movie features iconic special moves, like Ryu's Hadoken, Ken's Shoryuken, Chun-Li's Spinning Bird Kick, Guile's Flash Kick and E. Honda's Thousand Hands Slap, just to name a few. It is gonna feature a tournament as well like Mortal Kombat II did. We now have two live action movies based on the popular fighting game franchises coming out this year that feature a tournament. This creates a competition between two praise-worthy films. Oh and the film will have the f-bomb like the other one by Jean Claude Van Damme despite the PG-13 rating, so brace yourselves.
If we look back at the history of Mortal Kombat media, the worst of them all was Defenders of the Realm. Warner Bros. knew that the animated series got critically panned over the lack of violence and killing and antics. So with enough resources in mind, Warner Bros. decided to make a direct-to-video animated movie that reflects the game's extreme violence. Lo and behold, Warner Bros. introduced the new animated movie series, Mortal Kombat Legends.
The Legends series crushes all of the antics and the toned down violence in Defenders of the Realm and replaces them with the seriousness and the extreme violence and killing the games are known for. It uses x-ray and close up effects during fight scenes and they are the best of the series along with the Fatalitles in them. I could just sit there and watch them all day. Mortal Kombat Legends is known for focusing on characters. Scorpion's Revenge focuses on Scorpion, Battle of the Realms focuses on Liu Kang, Snow Blind focuses on Kenshi, and Cage Match focuses on Johnny Cage. There was the next movie of the series, Fall of Edenia, to have a focus on Kitana, but it was put on hold or cancelled.
But I'm not putting a slant on Mortal Kombat: Defenders of the Realm. I actually loved the show despite the antics. My personal favorites are Kombat Begins Again, Sting of the Scorpion, Familiar Red and Fall from Grace. Liu Kang, Sonya, Jax, Nightwolf, Stryker, Sub Zero and Raiden are on par with their UMK3 design since the TV series is based on the game. But Kitana's design is mixed to me. Her design is a blend of MKII and UMK3. That seems to be the subject of letting the animated series go down to pan city.
Not only Warner Bros. owning the rights of Mortal Kombat unlocked new experiences. It also allowed NetherRealm Studios to take what they learned from the toned-down violence in Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe. Ed Boon knew that with the right resources, they have an idea that would fit perfectly. A fighting game based on the DC Universe, so there it is, their original IP, Injustice.
Injustice tapped back into the toned-down violence they learned from Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe and made a fighting game based on DC Comics. While Injustice was developed by the same studio behind the 2011 reboot of Mortal Kombat, it does away with the use of Heroic Brutalities for the DC heroes and toned-down Fatalitles for the DC villains. Superman was the main antagonist, not Darkseid. And in 2013, Injustice: Gods Among Us was released. NetherRealm Studios now has two legendary IPs all polished up and ready to go. That unlocks experiences we'd experience in Sonic SatAM.
While I do like Mortal Kombat being under the Warner Bros. umbrella better than it being under the Midway umbrella, Midway in all of its forms was a great company. They owned games that are a part of the golden age of gaming with Williams, like Paperboy, Spy Hunter, Toobin', Sinistar, Defender, Joust, Smash TV and tons more. What so special about these games is that they have a lot of charm Mortal Kombat doesn't have since it's aimed at mature audiences. We do have several collections of Midway's games in the golden age of gaming, including the one that I played during my road trip to Florida and at the hotel with my cousin, Midway Arcade Treasures. It is a compilation that holds most of the games. I pretty much loved the games in them. Since Warner Bros. now owns most of Midway's assets, they could compile all of the non-Mortal Kombat games in the golden age of gaming with Atari's help and port them to modern consoles like they did with compiling all of the golden age Mortal Kombat games to hit fans right in the heart.
WB owning Mortal Kombat would've brought some Mortal Kombat characters to the ill-fated free-to-play platform fighter, MultiVersus. However, that will never happen now that support on the game has been sunset. That allowed Warner Bros. to bring their collaborations to Fortnite for characters to be used as skins, including, guess what? Mortal Kombat. 2011 was when Mortal Kombat was taken to the fresh new level with the return to its roots of a 2D fighter, a fleshed out roster bound with the story, simple combos and two Fatalities on each character. 2026 marks the 15th anniversary of the 2011 reboot that serves as the 9th entry of the franchise and the first entry under the WB umbrella and the 16th anniversary of establishing NRS.
The 2011 reboot didn't dethrone Street Fighter. Warner Bros. and NetherRealm Studios allowed Mortal Kombat to be the face of the revolution that changed the series forever, something that Midway wouldn't dare do. Their victory wasn't just a victory for the series. It was a victory for a new way of thinking about the series. It was a victory for new ideas for the remainder of the series. And NetherRealm Studios is the company to pave the way for future Mortal Kombat and Injustice projects. They, in fact, have Mortal Kombat 2 in the works along with Injustice 3. When will they announce these games is unknown, but we can see them come.
