I doubt that there’s a person who hasn’t heard about the extremely popular and controversial Mortal Kombat series. Thought at first as a fighting game where Jean-Claude Van Damme would have a character, it was later scrapped for a fantastical version of the game, called Mortal Kombat. Owned at first by the Midway Games Chicago, it was purchased later by Warner Bros after the studio filed for bankruptcy. Once with the purchase, Midway Games studio has been renamed into NetherRealm Studios. The franchise has been rebooted in 2011.
Because Mortal Kombat can be easily considered one of the most goriest franchises in gaming history, it comes with no surprise that it had its share of controversy and even court trials. The first Mortal Kombat game is one of the main reasons to why the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) and Australian Classification Board systems were created.
Mortal Kombat X
Mortal Kombat X continues on the legacy left by its prequel, Mortal Kombat 9. Adding tons of features on the prequel, MKX proves itself to be an extremely entertaining game to play, be it alone in the story or a simple skirmish or with your friends and relatives across the internet and even at the same computer.
If there are people that still haven’t heard of this franchise, Mortal Kombat is one of the most goriest beat’em up games, featuring over 20 characters, each one with its voice pack, animations, fighting moves, fatalities and so on. The purpose is to defeat your enemy within the time limit. For this you have a series of fighting moves that can be discovered through the use of ‘Move List’ menu. A tutorial is available for both newbies and veterans detailing the basic movement, blocking and the types of fighting moves. As addition to what is already known from the prequel, you can choose between prolonging the moment you’re laid on the ground from a previous hit to break the opponent’s combo and doing a backroll after the same situation in order to get some distance between you and the enemy.
You can now choose between 3 fighting styles for each playable character. Each of the styles give certain attack or defense abilities made to fit any preferences the player might have. Another nice addition to the game is that the characters have been given a better personality through the conversations they have at the beginning of each match instead of just some introductory line like in the 9th game.
Getting out of added stuff and going to removed ones we’re facing the disappearance of the co-op tower fights where you and your friend could play together against the AI in tournaments.
All in all, Mortal Kombat X is a new experience meant to keep the player(s) on the seat(s) in front of the monitor for several good hours. I personally recommend the ‘Test your Luck’ fight mode where the battle will suffer some changes on both the arena itself and the characters; I laughed with tears at some of the fights.
Following this short opinion on the game, the awaited point of this article is reached: The Top 10 Fatalities in this game.
Following this long, long list, here are some of the best fatalities seen in this game. As a warning, I picked some of the most brutal ones.
10. Kenshin – Tele-copter
You have probably seen either in movies or real-life footage, people that get sucked into an airplane’s engine. Well, this is basically the same, except you get to see in slow motion how the face gets turned into slices.
9. Kitana – Splitting Hairs
This goresome fatality tends to leave speechless the victim in the end by severing both its brain and the mouth at the same time.
8. Sub-Zero – Bed of Ice
Sub-Zero has a great care of you and puts you to sleep in an Addams Family manner with a spiky bed. The ending reminds of the Neversoft Game Studio’s logo.
7. Mileena – Tasty Treat
Had a hard time between choosing the fatalities performed by Mileena but I preferred to go with her second one since it is messier than the first one. As the name suggests, Mileena has a small snack after an easy fight with the opponent. The snack is provided, of course, by the defeated.
6. Tanya – Edenian Drill
This fatality shows the great acrobatic skills that Tanya has, returning to the initial position with the prize and some ‘ribbons’ on her shoulders.
5. Shinnok – Flick Trick
If you ever miss opening up those PEZ dispensers, you can just take Shinnok, beat the crap out of the opponent then use his head to open him up. Literally. Have fuuun!
4. Kano – Head Case
Well, the beginning starts with a classic case of ‘It’s the inside that matters’ and finishing up a ventilation hole for whatever is left for the brain.
3. Liu Kang – Splitter
Flaming feet, Cannonball with flaming feet and splitting the enemy with the flaming feet. Nothing else to add.
2. Ermac – Inner Workings
The first part reminds me of a person scrambling a solved Rubik’s Cube while the second part follows Kano’s consideration for the insides.
1. Kotal Kahn – Tight Squeeze
The bear hug of an Aztec God can be a bit explosive for your head and cause all the juice inside you to take off like a water fountain.
Honorable Mentions
Couldn’t have left this list without some Easter Eggs and Modern Generation jokes that were included in this game. Funny enough, the jokes run in the family:
1. Johnny Cage – Here’s Johnny
The memorable scene in ‘The Shining’, written by Stephen King and directed by Stanley Kubrick found its way into the game with Johnny Cage ripping the torso vertically in half, shoving his own head inside it and yelling from there: Heeeere’s Johnny!
2. Cassie Cage – Selfie
This generation’s popular trend, the selfie, has affected Johnny Cage’s daughter as well, Cassie, with a jaw dropping fatality, named Selfie, with a picture taken and posted on a social media. Depending on the characters used as victims for the fatality you might see different comments left by others on the post.
So this is it, a short one about one of the goriest fighting games ever made. Here’s to hoping that the next one is even bloodier. *clinks champagne glass*