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[SJRB]

 

[LMJ]

No it was mainly the demons feasting on limbs and the photorealistic graphics that really got peoples attention.

It was announced on the news multiple times as being cited as Photoreal - with Geralado Riveria coming on TV during the broadcast stating "I went to see what is being described as the first Photoreal Game immediately when Activision called to let us know it was in Arcades - and though we can only show this screenshot due to the heavy violence depicted within. Everyone else who gathered to see Mortal Komabt agreed that it is the first photoreal game to date - as for my own opinion - I don't know - Is it? Write me and let me know your thoughts"

The fatalities didn't get nearly as much attention compared to it's own launch, gamers kept MK in the News for a long time for being this technical masterpiece.

Then 15 women or some such witnessed it for the first time but didn't make nearly as much noise as it's mere release in Arcades heralded at news stations across the US.

Doom hitting shareware with a early playthrough riding a wave of MK hype, then going full release got a lot of attention. And then Doom got undeserved attention after Columbine which was years and yeaaars later when people were already playing quake and other fully 3d titles.

And this Conversation of Duke Nukem 3d was still relevant considering computer shops received a technical Duke Nukem 3d demo long before the game finalized and released, or even released as shareware.

I have not in fact specified any date incorrectly - the only date I have in fact cited is not related to gaming.

Definition of "photorealistic"

Photorealistic is a genre of art that encompasses painting, drawing and other graphic media, in which an artist studies a photograph and then attempts to reproduce the image as realistically as possible in another medium.

Again, not what I would say about MK, great looking game for the time...but no... Also there were no "demons feasting" in the first MK if i recall, there was death by, flames, impalement, exploding, chunk-ing? (Goro) lasers, acid kiss and shattering etc

Dude enough of the personal stories, we are talking retail here be it Arcade or for sale in store, shareware betas are great, but they were virtually non existent in the 90's. How about some links?

Again i'll give you it looked more real than most (again REAL actors), but not photo realistic and I clearly remember all of the realistic violence complaints when you used a fatality (also funny as the deaths weren't remotely realistic at the time, unless you explode in to femurs and humerus' when you die lol)



An article from NY Times

Video Violence: It's Hot! It's Mortal! It's Kombat!; Teen-Agers Eagerly Await Electronic Carnage While Adults Debate Message Being Sent (Published 1993)

www.nytimes.com

Complaint about realistic violence and gore

A funny look back at complaints about MK

Remember how the first Mortal Kombat games were so violent that it was considered abusive to let children play them? VideoGameDunkey remembers...

www.eventhubs.com

Again, gore and "realistic violence"

Controversies surrounding Mortal Kombat - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Wiki's main complaints, yup violence and Gore and as for Columbine which occured in 1999 a whole seven years after MK hit arcades they and Doom were pulled into Congress again to try and blame the gun violence on ANYTHING but parents/therapy/school etc They still do that FYI

 

[molasar]

I’ll leave you with the best music the series has ever had.

Do you mean these?

 

[hroerekr]

Would love to see it back to the roots and aim for a more a more moody and realistic take.

But I'm not sure if would appeal to the wider audience. Maybe extra content with just a handful of chars and arenas? DLC?

 

[Reality Czar]

Not sure that I would call it scary. During the 90s there was a lot of satanic pop culture stuff out and about and it wasn't really scary at that point. Black Sabbath and Dio was decades old. We were three movies into the Hellraiser series. Metal was almost self parody at that point (remember Gwar?). DOOM had all the demons and stuff, wasn't ever really scary, more fun like a heavy metal album cover.

Playing MK when I was a kid was akin to watching a super violent horror movie I wasn't suppose to watch yet. That can never be replicated I feel.

Yes and I would add by the time MK came out I had already seen Friday 13th and Nightmare on Elm Street and Robocop. Dismemberment and violence were pretty mainstream at the time. We were largely desensitized to the stuff.

Almost feel like it is the Gen X version of Tom and Jerry comics, or The Three Stooges. There has always been some hyper violent cartoonish stuff out there.

 

[Tomeru]

Itsnot that it used to be scary, its just that it wasnt a comedy like it is now. MK stopped taking itself seriously.

 

[EverydayBeast]

Grew up with Mortal Kombat and now Netherrealms is dealing with roster issues, MK is still my pick for a fighter.

 

[dcx4610]

It always bothered me how the consoles and sequels screwed up the fatality sequence. MK1's gong sound and the screen going black was disturbing. It felt like watching snuff or seeing something you weren't supposed to see. The sound and the dimming of the picture made it feel like a big moment. It seemed to get worse every sequel and less about being disturbing and more about being funny or ridiculous.

That said, I haven't played a lot of the newer ones but I found myself actually impressed and disturbed again at some of the fatalities. I just can't get into the gameplay of most fighting games anymore but I think the series has actually aged well and fits the tone of the original.

To OPs point though and it will never happen, I'd love a more stripped down and crude sequel one day. A simple touranment without any of the crazy characters or Outworld stuff. I like ninjas looking like ninjas and having just regular looking martial artists competing. An Enter the Dragon style game with blood and guts could be a lot of fun.

 

[Nhranaghacon]

It was largely considered bleeding cutting edge technology and photoreal. I have no intention of continuing the conversation as I'm getting attacked for dates I never cited
and the dictionary is getting thrown at me as an attempt to diminish this. But plenty of people actually remember it (and within this thread) that it was considered photoreal by everyone who had seen it.. and the NEWS media
on Aracade Launch.

There were plenty of guys in their late 20's and 30's that couldn't stomach sitting through and playing Mortal Kombat after seeing it a few times, I didn't have a grasp of this.

I remember walking away from the cabinet on one occasion and seeing my fave co op game had one guy sitting there... walking up and throwing in a couple of coins.
And in passing asking if he was just waiting for MK to open up - his response was "No, I've looked at it quiet a bit over the first month it released - now that the visuals
have worn off on me I can't really stomach watching it". And lots of guys now probably in their 60's today who couldn't stomach sitting through MK.

 

[Tiamat2san]

It’s the P.T of fighting games....

‘seriously it was always goofy and fun.
How can someone be scared by MK?
Or maybe if you faint a the view of digital colourful blood .

 

[Ikutachi]

It was always just cool/goofy to me.

 

[BennyBlanco]

i agree that the vibe in old mortal kombat was way more eerie and menacing. now it’s all kind of cartoony and dumb looking. then again i was like 12 when I played those games.

 

[Null Persp]

It wasn't scary but it was darker compared to now.

 

[Yselacrey00]

Here is some classic stuff:



Here is the modern stuff:



i think what made the classic game so much more scary is how crude everything was compared to today

the costumes, the stages, the fighting.. it was all kinda basic compared to the high flying fast paced detailed action we have today

IMO MK could benefit by being a little more basic.. less is more principle

the stages today are too pretty and a little too dynamic rather than unsettling, making it cartoonish

fatalities are also too cinematic and over the top

another thing that makes the old games scarier is how unsettling the music tracks are

i think if mortal kombat 2 was laced with modern graphics it would be a terrifying game

They made it more family friendly to expand their audience. Obviously it worked since now we even have a movie.

 

[Phoenix RISING]

Two things I found a little scary as a kid.

1. The Goro Lives intro


2. Fighting him in his Lair.

The statue stage, the bridge, and the cave fight vs the bosses in MK are all a little foreboding.

Sequel games never matched that tone.

 

[Wonko_C]

I never had a problem with blood or fatalities, but MK2 on SNES freaked me out every time one of the secret characters suddenly appeared right before the round started, it was the creepy music that played instead of the expected stage tune that got me every. single. fucking. time.

It got so bad I started having nightmares, so I stopped playing it altogether.

 

[Soodanim]

Do you mean these?

Never knew those existed. I prefer them to the SNES versions, which never sat right with me

 

[Krizalidx11]

Because you were a kid back then and everything is scary to kids

 

[mortal]

It was? lol

Even as a kid, I never got the impression that MK was meant to be outright scary. Shocking maybe, but not scary.

 

[triplestation]

It was? lol

Even as a kid, I never got the impression that MK was meant to be outright scary. Shocking maybe, but not scary.

well, most of the characters seemed really dark at least

baraka was spooky as shit

it started getting scary when i'd see shit like goro, kintaro and shao khan

as scorpion, having to fight something like reptile or subzero felt formidable

and then there was the anticipation anxiety of having to deal with some real motherfuckers that are coming up at the top of the tower of doom

maybe dark is a better description

 

[Spearheadz]

Most of the "scariness" was just that we didn't know things back then. The lore is so deep and defined now, there's no mysticim, no surprises, no "into the grey".

 

[Little Chicken]

MKII was some weird Asian mystic grindhouse shit that they've never been able to replicate in the sequels. Like others, I wouldnt call it scary, but the game certainly evokes horror in its environments and overall bleakness.

Just look at that. Do you want to be there? No! It's simple, disturbing and beautiful at the same time, without bashing you around the head with gore.

Everything here is lost in translation in the subsequent versions of The Dead Pool

 

[anthony2690]

Mortal kombat has never been scary, it's always been goofy fun.

 

[triplestation]

MKII was some weird Asian mystic grindhouse shit that they've never been able to replicate in the sequels. Like others, I wouldnt call it scary, but the game certainly evokes horror in its environments and overall bleakness.

Just look at that. Do you want to be there? No! It's simple, disturbing and beautiful at the same time, without bashing you around the head with gore.

Everything here is lost in translation in the subsequent versions of The Dead Pool

totally agree

fantastic post

i think bleak is a great word to describe the classic stages

my other favorite stage is the forest where the trees had moving faces

 

[Little Chicken]

totally agree

fantastic post

i think bleak is a great word to describe the classic stages

my other favorite stage is the forest where the trees had moving faces

Really is a case of less is more, I feel.

 

[Spearheadz]

Where the hell is Smoke/Jade?!

 

[Hawking Radiation]

Christ some of you saying this game was comical as a kid.

SERIOUSLY?

You find decapitations, limp separations with blood spatters all over the screen comical? Street Fighter and Tekken were the only other good fighting games out at the time and were more popular and nothing on the level of MK and MK is the one that is comical. Right.

I seriously wonder what your childhood was like if gore on the level of MK is comical or funny as a 12 year old.