Misplaced Pages

#507492

190-464: Mortal Kombat II is a fighting game originally produced by Midway for the arcades in 1993. It was ported to multiple home systems, including MS-DOS , Amiga , Game Boy , Game Gear , Sega Genesis , 32X , Sega Saturn , Super Nintendo Entertainment System , and PlayStation only in Japan, mostly in licensed versions developed by Probe Software (later renamed to Probe Entertainment for some ports of

380-479: A 3rd Strike semi-final match held at Evolution Championship Series 2004 (Evo 2004) between Daigo Umehara and Justin Wong . During this match, Umehara made an unexpected comeback by parrying 15 consecutive hits of Wong's "Super Art" move using Chun-Li while Umehara had only one pixel on his health bar. Umehara subsequently won the match. "Evo Moment #37" is frequently described as the most iconic and memorable moment in

570-403: A brand , this game launched a thousand imitators en route to becoming one of the most famous -- and infamous -- video games ever made. Its technical and artistic mastery is only matched by its gushing gore. — GamePro in 2007 Over the following years, multiple publications acclaimed Mortal Kombat II as one of the best video games ever. It was ranked as the 97th top game of all time by

760-532: A ring out . It was possible for some Death Traps to kill both fighters simultaneously, in which case the round went to the player who had taken the least damage, or Player 1 if both players had full life bars. Traditional Stage Fatalities, seen since the original MK game through MK4 , made a return in the 2011 Mortal Kombat . Button combinations are once again used to perform Stage Fatalities. Quitalities , first introduced in Mortal Kombat X , occurs when

950-402: A Fatality may require certain distances and quick button sequences in order to achieve the desired result. Usually, every character has their own special Fatality that must be performed at a certain distance from the opponent, the three distances being: close (the finishing move would not work unless the player is right next to the opponent), sweep (the player should stand a step or two away from

1140-559: A best-of-three matches format like later fighting games, and has training bonus stages . The Player vs Player edition of Karate Champ , released later that year, is also the first fighting game to allow two-player duel. It influenced Konami 's Yie Ar Kung Fu , released in October 1984. The game drew heavily from Bruce Lee films, with the main player character Oolong modelled after Lee (like in Bruceploitation films). In contrast to

1330-472: A boxing game featuring a behind-the-character perspective, maneuvers such as blocking and dodging, and stamina meters that are depleted or replenished by blows. Karate Champ was developed by Technōs Japan and released by Data East in May 1984, and is credited with establishing and popularizing the one-on-one fighting game genre. A variety of moves can be performed using the dual-joystick controls. It uses

1520-512: A brutal and gruesome finishing move onto the defeated opponent. Prompted by the announcer saying "Finish Him!", players have a short time window to execute a Fatality by entering a specific button and joystick combination while positioned at a specific distance from the opponent. The Fatality and its derivations are arguably the most notable features of the Mortal Kombat series with cultural impact and controversies . Fighting games often include

1710-411: A character's health, and the round continues until a fighter's health reaches zero. Hence, the main goal is to completely deplete the health bar of one's opponent, thus achieving a " knockout ". Games such as Virtua Fighter also allow a character to be defeated by forcing them outside of the arena, awarding a "ring-out" to the victor. The Super Smash Bros. series allows players to send fighters off

1900-513: A desire in the viewer to want to know more. I think we had something very similar with Shang Tsung and Shao Kahn and for me that came from that feeling I had as a kid when I learned more about what made the Star Wars universe tick in Empire Strikes Back . I wanted MK fans to have that same feeling. — John Tobias According to the project's lead programmer Ed Boon , Mortal Kombat II

2090-465: A fan of the game (and you know who you are), then the Saturn version is everything you can hope for - an arcade-perfect translation - and yet, there is nothing outside of a flashy presentation and a little gore to recommend this game over a million others just like it." Scary Larry of GamePro agreed that the Saturn port "duplicates the arcade version perfectly", but argued that the slowdown and load times make

SECTION 10

#1732859357508

2280-470: A fixed-size arena along a two-dimensional plane , where characters navigate the plane horizontally by walking or dashing, and vertically by jumping. Some games allow limited movement in 3D space, such as Tekken , while some are set in fully three-dimensional environments without restricting characters' movement, such as Power Stone and Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm ; these are sometimes referred to as "3D arena" fighting games. The fighting game genre

2470-511: A game that featured unprecedentedly detailed pre-rendered 3D graphics and vastly improved on the core concept of combos, presenting a way faster gameplay than most other games of that era, specific combo-breaker maneuvers, and the "Ultra", a series of combined finishing moves surpassing the number of 20 hits. Many of the games of that period were low budget clones of the more popular games, and in some cases this led to controversy; in 1994, Capcom USA took unsuccessful legal action against Data East over

2660-417: A greater number of animations, but otherwise play like those rendered in two dimensions. Games that are fully three-dimensional without a 2D plane are sometimes referred to as "3D arena" fighting games. Aside from restricting movement space, fighting games confine the player's actions to offensive and defensive maneuvers. Players must learn each game's effective combinations of attacks and defenses. Blocking

2850-482: A hit when countering zoning. The opposite of turtling , rushdown refers to a number of specific aggressive strategies, philosophies, and play styles across all fighting games. The general goal of a rushdown play style is to overwhelm the opponent and force costly mistakes, either by using fast, confusing setups or by taking advantage of an impatient opponent as they are forced to play defense for prolonged periods of time. Rushdown players often favor attacking opponents in

3040-569: A lethal finishing move in any game, including the termed "Fatals" in the Killer Instinct series. In the game ClayFighter 63⅓ the Fatalities were parodied in the form of "Claytality." "Fatalities" expanded into the shooter genre, most notably in the Gears of War series as "Executions". In many games in the franchise there are different types of Fatalities and Finishers: This finisher allows

3230-561: A limited CD offer, which was posted on the arcade version of the game's attract mode . Other merchandise for the game included a periodical official fanzine Mortal Kombat II Kollector's Magazine published by Midway and Sendai , a series of collectible stickers for an album by Panini Group , two different series of action figures (released in Argentina in 1995 and in the US in 1999, respectively), and collectible card game Mortal Kombat Kard Game that

3420-471: A limited amount of time to perform one of several violent moves (such as ripping an organ out) attributed to a button and direction combination. The time then resets and the player can perform a second move, but the time bar decreases more rapidly after each move. It is also possible to "fail" the Fatality by running out of time before performing a final finishing move (such as ripping the opponent's head off). Once

3610-589: A month. Mortal Kombat II became the world's best-selling video game (until it was eclipsed by Donkey Kong Country , released in November 1994). In the United States, it was the top-selling Genesis, SNES, and Game Gear game in September 1994, and the top Game Gear game the following month. The Genesis version went on to sell 1.78 million copies in the United States, along with an additional 1.51 million American copies of

3800-426: A negative point of the game. For Mortal Kombat: Armageddon , the Fatality concept was completely revised. In all previous games, finishing moves were in the form of a button combo, activating a scripted animation sequence. For Armageddon , the old system was replaced with a new Kreate-A-Fatality, or "Kustom-Chain-Fatality" system. After defeating an opponent in two rounds (with default settings), players are given

3990-602: A number of games that sparked another surge in fighting game popularity. Super Smash Bros. Brawl was released in early March 2008 to universal acclaim and went on to set a new record in sales, at one point selling at 120 units per minute. Another game was Street Fighter IV , the series' first mainline title since Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike in 1999, which was released in early 2009 also to critical acclaim, having garnered praise since its debut at Japanese arcades in July 2008. The console versions of Street Fighter IV , as well as

SECTION 20

#1732859357508

4180-532: A player disconnects in the middle of an online match. This results in their character instantly dying, and their opponent is awarded with a win. Examples of quitalities include the loser's head simultaneously exploding or the loser swiftly snapping their own neck. Like the Hara-Kiri, the Quitality is a finisher that requires the defeated player to commit instead of the winner, although it can be done at any point during

4370-431: A player at any time. The game also introduced pressure-sensitive controls that determine the strength of an attack, though due to causing damaged arcade cabinets, Capcom replaced it soon after with a six-button control scheme offering light, medium, and hard punches and kicks, which became another staple of the genre. In 1988, Home Data released Reikai Dōshi: Chinese Exorcist , also known as Last Apostle Puppet Show ,

4560-554: A popular genre for amateur and doujin developers in Japan. The 2002 title Melty Blood was developed by then-amateur developer French Bread and achieved cult success on the PC . It became highly popular in arcades following its 2005 release, and a version was released for the PlayStation 2 the following year. The late 1990s and early 2000s saw the rise in online gaming . In 2004, Mortal Kombat: Deception , Dead or Alive Ultimate , and

4750-802: A publicist at Acclaim, responded to this by stating: "This is a fantasy game, with all different characters. This is a martial arts game which comes from Asia. [ sic ] The game was not created to foster stereotypes." Critical studies professor Marsha Kinder accused the game of "a misogynist aspect to the combat", alleging that "in MKII , some of the most violent possibilities are against women. Also, their fatality moves are highly eroticised." Mortal Kombat actors Daniel Pesina, Philip Ahn, Katalin Zamiar, and Elizabeth Malecki unsuccessfully filed two lawsuits in 1996 and 1997 against Midway, Williams, Nintendo of America , Sega of America, and Acclaim Entertainment for

4940-441: A realistic fighting engine that features three-dimensional environments while abandoning time limits and health bars in favor of an innovative Body Damage System, where a sword strike to a certain body part can amputate a limb or decapitate the head. Video game enthusiasts took an interest in fictional crossovers , which feature characters from multiple franchises in a particular game. An early example of this type of fighting game

5130-512: A response to hackers of the original Street Fighter II game to add new features. However, criticism of these updates grew as players demanded a true sequel. By 1995, the dominant franchises were the Mortal Kombat series in America and the Virtua Fighter series in Japan, with Street Fighter Alpha unable to match the popularity of Street Fighter II . Throughout this period, the fighting game

5320-609: A series of bosses , and Enter the Dragon (1973), about an international martial arts tournament. Other inspiration is Japanese martial arts works, including the manga and anime series Karate Master (1971–1977), and Sonny Chiba 's The Street Fighter (1974). Before martial arts games, the earliest video games with fist-fighting are boxing games , featuring battles between characters with fantastic abilities and complex special maneuvers. Sega 's black-and-white boxing game Heavyweight Champ , released for arcades in 1976,

5510-480: A set number of lives (called stocks) for each player (usually three), and if the score is tied between two or more fighters when time runs out, then a " sudden death " match will take place by delivering a single hit to an opponent with 300% damage. Fighting games widely feature health bars , introduced in Yie Ar Kung-Fu in 1984, which are depleted as characters sustain blows. Each successful attack will deplete

5700-485: A set number of rounds (typically three ), beginning with the announcer's signal. If the score is tied after an even number of rounds (such as 1-1), then the winner is decided in the final round. Round decisions can also be determined by time over, which judge players based on remaining health to declare a winner. In the Super Smash Bros. series, the rules are different. Instead of rounds, the games usually give players

5890-473: A single-player campaign or tournament, where the player must defeat a sequence of several computer-controlled opponents. Winning the tournament often reveals a special story-ending cutscene , and some games also grant access to hidden characters or special features upon victory. Tekken introduced the concept of story modes in 1994 with the first arcade full motion video cutscenes for each character's victory. In most fighting games, players may select from

Mortal Kombat II - Misplaced Pages Continue

6080-403: A sweaty, glistening appearance, while post-editing was done on the sprites afterward to highlight flesh tones and improve the visibility of muscles, which Tobias felt set the series apart from similar games using digitized graphics. Animations of Shang Tsung morphing into other characters were created by Midway's John Vogel using a computer, while hand-drawn animations were used for other parts of

6270-465: A type of action game where two (in one-on-one fighting games) or more (in platform fighters ) on-screen characters fight each other. These games typically feature special moves that are triggered using rapid sequences of carefully timed button presses and joystick movements. Games traditionally show fighters from a side view, even as the genre has progressed from two-dimensional (2D) to three-dimensional (3D) graphics. Street Fighter II , though not

6460-482: A variety of playable characters with unique fighting styles, special moves, and personalities. This became a strong convention for the genre with the release of Street Fighter II (1991), and these character choices have led to deeper game strategy and replay value. Custom character creation, or "create–a–fighter", is a feature of some fighting games that allows a player to customize the appearance and move set of their own character. Super Fire Pro Wrestling X Premium

6650-426: A variety of computer-controlled fighters, Street Fighter II allowed players to play against each other. The popularity of Street Fighter II surprised the gaming industry, as arcade owners bought more machines to keep up with demand. Street Fighter II was also responsible for popularizing the combo mechanic, which came about when skilled players learned that they could combine several attacks that left no time for

6840-469: A variety of non-canonical endings for each of them. This game also establishes that the original Sub-Zero Bi-Han was killed by Scorpion in the first game and Bi-Han's younger brother Kuai Liang took the identity of the new Sub-Zero. The game includes 12 playable characters. The game also features three hidden opponents for unlockable fights: Jade (played by Katalin Zamiar), a female ninja clad in green who

7030-516: Is a basic defense against basic attacks. Some games feature more advanced blocking techniques; for example, Capcom's Street Fighter III features a move termed " parrying ", which can be immediately followed by counter-attack, skipping the temporary stun a block would have put them in. A similar stun state is termed "just defended" in SNK 's Garou: Mark of the Wolves . An integral feature of fighting games

7220-451: Is a common element of gameplay . Fighting games emphasize the height of blows, ranging from low to jumping attacks. Thus, strategy requires predicting adversarial moves, similar to rock–paper–scissors . In addition to blows, players can utilize throwing or grappling to circumvent blocks. Most fighting games allow a grapple move by pressing two or more buttons together, or simply by pressing punch or kick while being directly adjacent to

7410-462: Is a great game, but it's a serious case of 'been there, done that!'" Brazilian magazine Ação Games gave the 32X version 5 out of 5 on all six categories. Reviewing the CD-ROM based Saturn port, EGM commented that the graphics are identical to the arcade version but that there are missing sound effects and "unbearable" slowdown when first performing a special move. They rated it the best home version of

7600-583: Is a portable", but were less enthusiastic about the Game Boy version. Though they commented that it is better than most fighting games for the system, two of their four reviewers said that it was not worth getting with the game available on much more powerful platforms. Critical reception of the Amiga version was also mostly very favorable, including Ed Lawrence of CU Amiga declaring that "every person who own an Amiga has to own Mortal Kombat 2 . In terms of revitalising

7790-462: Is considered the first video game with fist fighting. Vectorbeam 's arcade video game Warrior (1979) is sometimes credited as one of the first fighting games; in contrast to Heavyweight Champ and most later games, Warrior is based on sword fighting duels and uses a bird's-eye view . Sega 's jidaigeki -themed arcade action game Samurai , released in March 1980, features a boss battle where

Mortal Kombat II - Misplaced Pages Continue

7980-496: Is considered to be the "Dark Age" of fighting games. The two most prolific developers of 2D fighting games, Capcom and SNK, combined intellectual property to produce SNK vs. Capcom games. SNK released the first game of this type, SNK vs. Capcom: The Match of the Millennium , for its Neo Geo Pocket Color handheld at the end of 1999. GameSpot regarded the game as "perhaps the most highly anticipated fighter ever" and called it

8170-458: Is distinctly related to the beat 'em up genre, which pits many computer-controlled enemies against one or more player characters. The first video game to feature fist fighting is Heavyweight Champ (1976), but Karate Champ (1984) actually features the one-on-one fighting game genre instead of a sports game in arcades . Yie Ar Kung-Fu was released later that year with various fighting styles and introduced health meters , and The Way of

8360-505: Is here, and I mean everything." Sushi-X of Electronic Gaming Monthly ( EGM ) called the Genesis version "a great translation considering its limitations", commenting that its graphics and sounds are not as good as those of the SNES version. A reviewer for The Detroit News was "very disappointed" with the Genesis port and recommended the SNES version instead. The four reviewers of EGM hailed

8550-402: Is immune to projectiles; Noob Saibot (played by Daniel Pesina), a dark silhouetted ninja who is a "lost warrior" from the first MK game; and Smoke (played by Daniel Pesina), a male ninja clothed in gray who emits smoke from his body. Sonya and Kano are the only playable characters from the first Mortal Kombat who were not implemented as fighters, as they only appear in the background of

8740-476: Is mitigated by technology such as GGPO , which synchronizes players by quickly rolling back to the most recent accurate game state, correcting errors, and then jumping back to the current frame. Such games include Skullgirls and Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike Online Edition . The first fighting games were fundamentally inspired by martial arts films , especially Bruce Lee 's Hong Kong action cinema . Films include Game of Death (1972), where Lee fights

8930-404: Is no longer required, as the opponent only needs to be either standing or hit in a particular spot on the stage. Unlike previous Stage Fatalities, Death Traps can be initiated anytime during a round and only require the opponent be hit into them, meaning an instant victory. However, if they are not executed in the decisive round, the fight does not end, going on to the next round. This action acts as

9120-606: Is not a port , but a separately produced game based on the same premise. Capcom released Street Fighter III in 1997 which features improved 2D visuals, but is also unable to match the impact of earlier games. Excitement stirred in Japan over Virtua Fighter 3 in arcades, and Sega eventually ported the game to its Dreamcast console. Meanwhile, SNK released several fighting games on its Neo Geo platform, including Samurai Shodown II in 1994, Real Bout Fatal Fury in 1995, The Last Blade in 1997, and annual updates to its The King of Fighters franchise. Garou: Mark of

9310-456: Is often cited as one of the best video games ever made. A sequel, Mortal Kombat 3 , was released in 1995. The gameplay system of Mortal Kombat II is an improved version of that from the original Mortal Kombat . There are several changes in standard moves: a crouching punch was added, low and high kicks have greater differentiation (be they crouching or standing up), roundhouse kicks are made more powerful (knocking an opponent across

9500-717: Is the 1996 arcade release X-Men vs. Street Fighter (which later became the Marvel vs. Capcom series), featuring comic book superheroes and characters from other Capcom games. In 1999, Nintendo released the first game in the Super Smash Bros. series, which allowed match-ups from various franchises, such as Pikachu vs. Mario . In the early 2000s, the fighting genre boom turned to bust. In retrospect, multiple developers attribute its decline to its increasing complexity and specialization, and to other factors such as over-saturation . This complexity shut out casual players, and

9690-508: Is the final boss in the arcade mode. The mist steps also allow combos to be performed as a manner of "crouch dashing," or when the Mishima player could run to the opponent while crouching since regular running prevented executing easy combos. Polygonal fighters became trendy and many developers started to make them. Further all-new titles were released in 1995: Zero Divide on the PlayStation,

SECTION 50

#1732859357508

9880-570: Is the only series installment to feature this finisher. Heroic Brutalities are finishing moves exclusive to the 2008 crossover game Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe . In addition to the MK characters' Fatalities being toned down therein to accommodate the game's "Teen" rating, the Heroic Brutalities represented the DC characters' moral code against killing. The censored finishers from both sides were considered

10070-508: Is the use of "special attacks", also called "secret moves", that employ combinations of directional inputs and button presses to perform a particular move beyond basic punching and kicking. Some special moves, which play an animation portraying an aspect of the character's personality, are referred to as taunts . Originated by Japanese company SNK in Art of Fighting (1992), these add humor, and they effect gameplay in certain games, such as improving

10260-446: Is the winner; at this point, the losing character will become dazed and the winner is given the opportunity of using a finishing move. Mortal Kombat II lacks the "Test Your Might" bonus games and point system from the first game, in favor of a consecutive win tally where wins are represented by icons . The game marked the introduction of multiple Fatalities (special moves allowing the victorious character to execute their opponent at

10450-430: Is to force an opponent to take significant risks to approach the zoning player's character, or to stall out the in-game timer, which causes the player with more health (typically the one doing the zoning) to win. The effectiveness of the latter strategy varies from game to game, based on the effectiveness of zoning tools as well as the length of the in-game timer and the rewards characters can receive for successfully landing

10640-489: The Gundam: Battle Assault series. This genre is distinctly related to beat 'em ups, another action genre involving combat, where the player character must fight many enemies at the same time. Beat 'em ups, like traditional fighting games, display player and enemy health in a bar, generally located at the top of the screen. However, beat 'em ups generally do not feature combat divided into separate "rounds". During

10830-519: The Microsoft Windows , PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 . Another compilation release, for the Nintendo DS , was canceled. Arcade1Up released a home arcade cabinet compilation that included the game, as well as the original Mortal Kombat and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 . Mortal Kombat II proved to be an enormous commercial success and even a cultural phenomenon. WMS Industries , owner of Midway at

11020-466: The PlayStation Network (PSN). The Game Boy, Game Gear, SNES, and Genesis versions were released simultaneously on September 13, 1994, dubbed "Mortal Tuesday" by Acclaim's marketing. The PlayStation version was released only in Japan, retitled Mortal Kombat II: Kyuukyoku Shinken ( モータルコンバットII 究極神拳 , Mōtaru Konbatto Tsū Kyūkyoku Shinken , "Mortal Kombat II: Ultimate Godly Fist") ; this subtitle

11210-514: The Super NES and Genesis versions of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 , this finisher allowed players to perform a combo which would cause the opponent to explode. Brutalities were not very popular, as they were extremely difficult to accomplish, requiring the player to memorize and perform a special 11-hit combo. This finisher did not appear in another game until Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks , in which it

11400-451: The Tekken , Soul and Dead or Alive franchises continued to release installments. Classic Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat games were re-released on PlayStation Network and Xbox Live Arcade , allowing internet play, and in some cases, HD graphics. The early part of the decade had seen the rise of competitive video gaming, referred to by the term Esports . The rise in esports saw

11590-652: The Xbox version of Street Fighter Anniversary Collection became the first fighting games to offer online multiplayer and have received positive reception from critics. While the genre became generally far less popular than it once was, arcades and their attendant fighting games remained reasonably popular in Japan during this time period, and remain so even today. Virtua Fighter 5 lacked an online mode, but still achieved success both on home consoles and in arcades; players practiced at home and went to arcades to compete face-to-face with opponents. In addition to Virtua Fighter ,

SECTION 60

#1732859357508

11780-457: The samurai player character confronts a boss samurai in one-on-one sword-fighting combat. One-on-one boxing games appeared on consoles with Activision 's Atari VCS game Boxing , released in July 1980, and Sega's SG-1000 game Champion Boxing (1983), which is Yu Suzuki 's debut at Sega. Nintendo 's arcade game Punch-Out was developed in 1983 and released in February 1984, as

11970-480: The "incredible" hype surrounding the game was "well deserved", describing it as "a perfect blend of great graphics, action and violence". In his review of the arcade release, Rik Skews of Computer + Video Games ( C+VG ) wrote: "the only true rival to Street [F]ighter II " returned "in a sequel that bites off the head of the original." Regarding the Genesis version, Mark Patterson of C+VG wrote that " Probe has done an incredible job with this conversion. Everything

12160-470: The 1980s to 1990s, publications used the terms "fighting game" and "beat 'em up" interchangeably, along with other terms such as " martial arts simulation" (or more specific terms such as " judo simulator") and "punch-kick" games. Fighting games were still being called "beat 'em up" games in video game magazines up until the end of the 1990s. With hindsight, critics have argued that the two types of game gradually became dichotomous as they evolved, though

12350-466: The 1993 arcade game Fighter's History , which supposedly plagiarized Street Fighter 2 . Data East's largest objection in court was that their 1984 arcade game Karate Champ was the true originator of the competitive fighting game genre, which predated the original Street Fighter by three years, but the reason the case was decided against Capcom was that the copied elements were scènes à faire and thus excluded from copyright. Sega AM2 debuted in

12540-440: The 19th best Genesis game by GamesRadar , as well as the 12th best ever SNES game by Rich Knight of Complex and as the 25th top game for the SNES by Richard George of IGN; in 1995, SNES magazine Super Play also ranked it as the best sequel on the platform. In Poland, where the Amiga was the most popular gaming platform of the early 1990s, MKII was ranked as the ninth best ever Amiga game by Michał Wierzbicki of CHIP and as

12730-456: The 22nd best Amiga game by PSX Extreme editor-in-chief Przemysław Ścierski. In 1995, Total! Listed the game 4th on its "Top 100 SNES Games". In 1996, GamesMaster rated the game 35th on their "Top 100 Games of All Time". Most hard-core fans agree that Mortal Kombat II is the best in the entire series. Midway improved on every single aspect and ... inspired a horde of also-rans . — GameSpot in 2002 GamesRadar called it "the point when

12920-420: The 32X version, IGN 's Levi Buchanan stated that "if you do not have a SNES, this is the home version of MKII to get." In contrast, GamePro remarked that the 32X version offered too little improvement over the Genesis version, even failing to correct the control shortcomings, and was technically poor given the 32X's capabilities. In a review of the 32X version of the game, Next Generation opined that " MKII

13110-419: The Amiga market, this is far more important than any Commodore buy-out could ever be." In a rare dissenting opinion, Jonathan Nash of Amiga Power dismissed Mortal Kombat II as "a clearly nonsensical title", recommending to "buy Shadow Fighter instead". The later PC version was also well-received, with Next Generation stating that "if you like fighting games, this is the best that's available." About

13300-642: The Exploding Fist (1985) further popularized the genre on home systems. In 1987, Capcom 's Street Fighter introduced special attacks , and in 1991, its highly successful sequel Street Fighter II refined and popularized many genre conventions, including combos. Fighting games subsequently became the preeminent genre for video gaming in the early to mid-1990s, particularly in arcades. This period spawned dozens of other popular fighting games, including franchises like Street Fighter , Mortal Kombat , Super Smash Bros. , and Tekken . Fighting games are

13490-914: The Exploding Fist borrowed heavily from Karate Champ , but nevertheless achieved critical success and afforded the burgeoning genre further popularity on home computers in PAL regions, becoming the UK's best-selling computer game of 1985 . In North America, Data East ported Karate Champ to home computers in October 1985, becoming one of the best-selling computer games of the late 1980s. Other game developers also imitated Karate Champ , notably System 3 's computer game International Karate , released in Europe in November 1985; after Epyx released it in North America in April 1986, Data East took unsuccessful legal action against Epyx over

13680-527: The Japanese shōnen manga and anime series Fist of the North Star , the protagonist Kenshiro performs gory fatalities in the form of finishing moves which consist of attacking pressure points that cause heads and bodies to explode. The Japanese seinen manga and anime series Riki-Oh (1988 debut), along with its Hong Kong martial arts film adaptation Story of Ricky (1991), featured gory fatalities in

13870-544: The Kahn's Arena stage, chained and on display as his prisoners. The reason for this was due to the storage limitations of arcade hardware at the time. When Midway employees ran audits on several Mortal Kombat arcade cabinets in the Chicago area, they found that Kano and Sonya were the least chosen characters. So they were cut to background sprites in order to make room for new characters. When we finished Mortal Kombat I , Acclaim did

14060-458: The PSN version has continued to occupy the service's top ten monthly sales chart nearly three years later in February 2010. The initial critical reception of Mortal Kombat II was overwhelmingly positive, with Sega Visions describing the way in which the sequel was directed as "sheer brilliance", and Nintendo Power calling it "the hottest fighter ever". Tony Brusgul of The Daily Gazette opined

14250-446: The SNES version as a "near-perfect" translation of the arcade game. A reviewer for The Baltimore Sun called the SNES version "the best game I've ever played - a true translation", and Patterson noted it was the bloodiest game Nintendo has yet allowed to be released. C+VG declared it "the most perfect coin-op conversion ever". Next Generation stated about SNES version that "with full creative license, Acclaim has produced possibly

14440-550: The Western-developed FX Fighter on PC and Criticom on console, and Sega's arcade Fighting Vipers - on top of Tekken 2 , an updated Battle Arena Toshinden 2 , and console ports of Tekken and Virtua Fighter 2 . A multitude of new polygonal releases arrived in 1996 from both prime and smaller developers, major games being Virtua Fighter 3 , Soul Edge , Dead or Alive , Last Bronx (in Japan), and

14630-525: The Wolves from 1999 (part of the Fatal Fury series) was considered one of SNK's last great games; the company announced that it would close its doors in late 2001. Electronic Gaming Monthly reported that in 1996, U.S. gamers spent nearly $ 150 million on current generation fighting games, and in Japan, fighting games accounted for over 80% of video game sales. The fighting game genre continued to evolve, with several strong 3D fighting games emerging in

14820-572: The act which revives the opponent in lieu of delivering a final blow or performing a Fatality by restoring a small amount of health. Should the opponent be defeated again, an Animality may be performed. Introduced in Mortal Kombat II , Babalities turn a defeated opponent into an infant version of the character. They returned in Mortal Kombat (2011) with distinct animations for each character. Introduced in Mortal Kombat Trilogy and

15010-437: The arcades in 1996, porting it for the PlayStation in 1998. It spawned a long-running franchise , known for its fast-paced control system, innovative counterattacks , and environmental hazards . The series again included games important to the success of their respective consoles, such as Dead or Alive 3 for the Xbox and Dead or Alive 4 for the Xbox 360 . In 1998, Bushido Blade , published by Square , introduced

15200-498: The basis for his fighting game Street Fighter . Nintendo's boxing sequel Super Punch-Out was released for arcades in late 1984 and ported by Elite to home computers as Frank Bruno's Boxing in 1985, features martial arts elements, high and low guarding, ducking, lateral dodging, and a KO meter. This meter is built up with successful attacks and, when full, enables a special, more powerful punch to be thrown. Broderbund 's Karateka , designed by Jordan Mechner and released at

15390-453: The best arcade conversion ever." Regarding the portable console ports, Patterson stated that "no Game Boy owner should go without this" and called the Game Gear version "still the best handheld beat-'em up" on the market though lacking much canonical content. EGM reviewers concurred that the Game Gear version "has eye-popping graphics, and great control - so much so that you won't believe this

15580-433: The best arcade fighters around." As late as 2009, many fans still considered MKII to be the best title in the series. According to a 2011 article by Mike Harradence of PlayStation Universe, the "bigger, bolder and bloodier" game remains "a firm fan favourite among MK aficionados". That year, IGN's Richard George wrote that " Mortal Kombat II is considered by many to be the pinnacle of the series" and called it "still one of

15770-578: The best fighting game ever to be released for a handheld console. Capcom released Capcom vs. SNK: Millennium Fight 2000 for arcades and the Dreamcast in 2000, followed by sequels in subsequent years. Though none matched the critical success of the handheld version, Capcom vs. SNK 2 EO was noted as the first game of the genre to successfully utilize internet competition. Other crossovers from 2008 included Tatsunoko vs. Capcom and Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe . The most successful crossover, however,

15960-403: The best opening-week sales in video game history at that point. Acclaim's analysts expected that the number of copies sold would reach at least 2.5 million within the first few weeks of release (at an average retail price of $ 60) and the sales to top $ 150 million by the end of the year. In the first week of its console release, the game made sales to $ 50 million, which Acclaim Entertainment said

16150-403: The best-selling fighting arcade video game franchises that have sold at least 10,000 arcade units . The prices of fighting game arcade units ranged from $ 1,300 (equivalent to $ 2,800 in 2023) for Street Fighter II Dash ( Champion Edition ) in 1992, up to $ 21,000 (equivalent to $ 44,000 in 2023) for Virtua Fighter (1993). In addition to unit sales, arcade games typically earned

16340-595: The boss or secret characters. Following his failure to defeat Liu Kang in the previous Mortal Kombat tournament, the evil Shang Tsung begs his master Shao Kahn , supreme ruler of Outworld and the surrounding kingdoms, to spare his life. He tells Shao Kahn that if they hold the next Mortal Kombat Tournament in Outworld, the Earthrealm warriors must travel away from home to attend. Kahn agrees to this plan, and restores Shang Tsung's youth and martial arts prowess. He then extends

16530-450: The bugs corrected, also adding additional content, as development had still been in progress for all that time. The final version was revision 3.1, released in January 1994. In conjunction with the release of the arcade game in 1993, an official comic book, Mortal Kombat II Collector's Edition , written and illustrated by Tobias, was released through mail order , describing the backstory of

16720-493: The categories "Best Super NES Game" and "Best Arcade-to-Home Translation". Other awards included "The Best of the Show (Super NES)" for the SCES '94 from GamePro and "Bloodiest Game of 1994" from EGM . In 2017, Gamesradar listed the game 29th on its "Best Sega Genesis/Mega Drive games of all time". As in the case of the first Mortal Kombat game, the content of Mortal Kombat II became

16910-408: The character each player is currently using. As a result of this, a concept called "footsies" has emerged, frequently defined as players jockeying for position and using low-commitment moves at distances where neither character has a particular advantage. Depending on the game, character, and move used, a player may be rewarded for a decisive blow with a strong positional advantage, strong enough that

17100-401: The competition it gave to other games including Street Fighter II and how it popularized the arcades, as well as in machinima.com 's list of top ten gaming memes. The 2012 film Wreck-It Ralph shows a cyborg resembling Mortal Kombat' s Kano performing his signature heart-ripping Fatality move on a zombie. By 1996, Mortal Kombat ' s creation had become a generic gaming term for

17290-457: The content that was in there, so it became almost a non-issue." Tobias agreed, saying that they "were content with the M for mature on our packaging." There were also some other controversies. In 1994, Guy Aoki , president of Media Action Network for Asian Americans (MANAA), criticized the game for allegedly perpetuating existing stereotypes of Asians as martial arts experts with the game's portrayal of several of its characters. Allyne Mills,

17480-478: The corner of a stage or as they get up from a knockdown; both situations severely limit the options of the opponent and often allow the attacking player to force high-risk guessing scenarios. Spacing is the act of positioning a character at a range where their attacks and movement tools carry the lowest risk and the highest reward. The concept is somewhat akin to that of footwork in martial arts. The desired position for play varies based on what tools are available to

17670-440: The critically acclaimed Virtua Fighter 5 was released to very little acclaim in 2007, its update Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown received much more attention due to renewed interest in the genre. Numerous indie fighting games have also been crowdfunded on websites such as Kickstarter and Indiegogo , the most notable success being the tag team fighting game Skullgirls in 2012. Later, in 2019, Ubisoft reported that

17860-495: The end of 1984, is a one-on-one fighting game for home computers that successfully added plot to its fighting action, like the beat 'em up Kung-Fu Master . By early 1985, martial arts games had become popular in arcades. On home computers, the Japanese MSX version of Yie Ar Kung-Fu was released in January 1985, and Beam Software 's The Way of the Exploding Fist was released for PAL regions in May 1985; The Way of

18050-468: The end of a match) as well as additional, non-lethal finishing moves to the franchise: Babalities (turning the opponent into a crying baby), Friendships (a non-malicious interaction, such as dancing or giving a gift to the defeated opponent) and additional stage-specific Fatalities (the victor uppercutting their opponent into an abyss below, spikes in the ceiling, or a pool of acid in the background). Finishing moves cannot be performed either by or against

18240-610: The fast motions of a joystick, and so players had difficulty executing special moves with any accuracy. The release of Street Fighter II in 1991 is considered a revolutionary moment in the fighting game genre. Yoshiki Okamoto 's team developed the most accurate joystick and button scanning routine in the genre thus far. This allowed players to reliably execute multi-button special moves, which had previously required an element of luck. The graphics took advantage of Capcom's CPS arcade chipset , with highly detailed characters and stages . Whereas previous games allowed players to combat

18430-522: The fighter sparing their defeated opponent after a match by performing an act of kindness toward them. Developers described their inclusion as "a counter to all the blood and gore". In MKII , Shao Kahn would announce "Friendship... Friendship?", while in MK3 and MKT he would say "Friendship... Friendship, Again?" in a clearly disappointed or confused tone. While largely left out since MK3 , and only alluded to in some characters' fatalities, it returned upon

18620-499: The finishing blow in the decisive round of a fight. They again appeared in 2019's Mortal Kombat 11 and in 2023's Mortal Kombat 1 in which every character shares the Brutality "The Klassic" (which consists of decapitating the opponent with a rising uppercut while their spine is still attached to their head. This was very similar to Sub-Zero's "Spine Rip" Fatality in Mortal Kombat (1992) ). Appearing only in Mortal Kombat X ,

18810-466: The first fighting game to use digitized sprites and motion capture animation. Meanwhile, home game consoles largely ignored the genre. Budokan: The Martial Spirit was one of the few releases for the Sega Genesis , but was not as popular as games in other genres. Technical challenges limited the popularity of early fighting games. Programmers had difficulty producing a game that could recognize

19000-451: The first fighting game, is considered to have standardized the genre, and similar games released prior to Street Fighter II have since been more explicitly classified as fighting games. Fighting games typically involve hand-to-hand combat, though many games also feature characters with melee weapons. Fighting characters are usually based on humans, but there are also games that are entirely based around mecha robot characters, for example

19190-408: The first game, Acclaim handled the home conversions. San Francisco Chronicle claimed in 1994 that Acclaim had spent $ 50 million on developing, manufacturing and marketing the game. To create the character animations for the game, actors were placed in front of a gray background and performed the motions, which were recorded on videotape (using a broadcast-quality, $ 20,000 Sony camera instead of

19380-402: The form of finishing moves similar to those that later appeared in Mortal Kombat . While creating Mortal Kombat , Ed Boon and John Tobias started with the idea of a Street Fighter II style system and retained many of its conventions but tweaked others. The most notable additions were graphic blood effects, more brutal fighting techniques, and especially the fatal finishing moves (this

19570-541: The free-to-play platform fighting game Brawlhalla reached 20 million players, with it climbing to 80 million by 2022. In 2018, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate for the Nintendo Switch was released. It became the best-selling fighting game of all time, topping its Wii predecessor Super Smash Bros. Brawl and introduced nearly 90 characters through its default mode and through downloadable content or DLC, having sold 34.22 million copies worldwide. Later in

19760-410: The game controls, which created a sense of mystique and invited players to practice the game. Following Street Fighter's lead, the use of command-based hidden moves began to pervade other games in the rising fighting game genre. Street Fighter also introduced other staples of the genre, including the blocking technique, as well as the ability for a challenger to jump in and initiate a match against

19950-577: The game for the SNES. In the United Kingdom, it was the top-selling game in September 1994, including for the Mega Drive, SNES, Master System, Game Gear, and Game Boy; it remained the top-selling game for the Master System, Game Gear, and Game Boy in October, and for the Game Gear in November. By 2002, estimated gross sales of Mortal Kombat II home video games exceeded $ 400 million. Re-released in 2007,

20140-406: The game frustrating to play. He concluded that the conversion would make a decent holdover until Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 was released for Saturn, but fails to measure up to Mortal Kombat 3 on the PlayStation. Sega Saturn Magazine was extremely disappointed with the final version of the Saturn port, calling it "much worse than any of the versions seen on the cartridge format", as opposed to

20330-425: The game in greater detail. Acclaim Entertainment stated that it "had started Mortal Kombat II with a $ 10 million global marketing campaign" for the home versions. A part of this sum was used to film and air the live-action TV commercial created by David Anderson and Bob Keen . The video featured Scorpion, Sub-Zero, Reptile (with a notably more reptilian appearance), Kitana, Baraka and Shao Kahn, who were played by

20520-424: The game outside Japan because it felt that "unrestrained" 3D fighting games were unenjoyable. Sega also attempted to introduce holographic 3D technology to the genre with Holosseum in 1992, though it was unsuccessful. Several fighting games achieved commercial success, including SNK's Art of Fighting and Samurai Shodown as well as Sega's Eternal Champions . Nevertheless, Street Fighter II remained

20710-403: The game to date but said that with Mortal Kombat II having considerably aged by this point, any port needed to be near arcade perfect to stand out. Next Generation said that the Saturn version was arcade perfect, but that the Mortal Kombat series as a whole was grossly overrated and lacked any gameplay innovations to make it stand out from other fighting games. They summarized that "if you are

20900-439: The game was also released with green-colored blood and black-and-white fatality sequences in Japan; it was at that time a unique occurrence of a western game being censored in Japan, not the reverse. Years later, Boon recalled: "I've always had the position that the rating system was a good idea and should be put in place. Once Mortal Kombat II came out, there was a rating system in place. We were an M-rated game, and everybody knew

21090-549: The game) and Sculptured Software and published by Acclaim Entertainment (currently distributed by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment ). It is the second main installment in the Mortal Kombat franchise and a sequel to 1992's Mortal Kombat , improving the gameplay and expanding the mythos of the original Mortal Kombat , introducing more varied finishing moves (including several Fatalities per character and new finishers, such as Babality and Friendship) and several iconic characters, such as Kitana , Mileena , Kung Lao ,

21280-406: The game, such as the Fatalities. For animating Goro and Kintaro, clay sculptures were created by Tobias' friend Curt Chiarelli and then turned into 12-inch latex miniatures that were used for stop motion filming. Because of technical restrictions, the actors' costumes had to be simple and no acrobatic moves such as backflips could have been recorded; the most difficult moves to perform were some of

21470-528: The game. Yie Ar Kung-Fu went on to become the UK's best-selling computer game of 1986 , the second year in a row for fighting games. The same year, Martech 's Uchi Mata for home computers featured novel controller motions for grappling maneuvers, but they were deemed too difficult. In the late 1980s, side-scrolling beat 'em ups became considerably more popular than one-on-one fighting games, with many arcade game developers focused more on producing beat 'em ups and shoot 'em ups. Takashi Nishiyama used

21660-573: The genre into "true 3D" due to its introduction of the sidestep maneuver, which IGN described as "one little move" that "changed the fighter forever". The "sidestep" in the game, however, consisted of shoulder rolls instead of actual sidesteps. That year, Namco released Tekken 2 , which introduced actual sidestepping or "mist steps" as first released in arcade games and in the international fighting game community. These moves are only exclusive to its two protagonists, Heihachi Mishima and his son, Kazuya Mishima , and his counterpart transformation which

21850-400: The genre with the 1993 arcade game Burning Rival , but they gained renown with the release of Virtua Fighter for the same platform the same year. It is the first fighting game with 3D polygon graphics and a viewpoint that zoomed and rotated with the action. Despite the graphics, players were confined to back and forth motion as seen in other fighting games. With only three buttons, it

22040-467: The grounded realism of Karate Champ , Yie Ar Kung-Fu moved the genre towards more fantastical, fast-paced action with a variety of special moves and high jumps, establishing the template for subsequent fighting games. It expanded on Karate Champ by pitting the player against a variety of opponents, each with a unique appearance and fighting style. The player could also perform up to sixteen different moves, including projectile attacks, and it replaced

22230-399: The hidden character Noob Saibot , and the series' recurring villain, Shao Kahn . The game's plot continues from the first game, featuring the next Mortal Kombat tournament set in the otherdimensional realm of Outworld, with the Outworld and Earthrealm representatives fighting each other on their way to challenge the evil emperor Shao Kahn. The game was an unprecedented commercial success and

22420-480: The history of competitive video gaming, compared to sports moments such as Babe Ruth's called shot and the Ice Hockey Miracle on Ice . It inspired many to start playing 3rd Strike, which brought new life into the fighting game community (FGC) during a time when the community was in a state of stagnation. Dead or Alive 4 became the first fighting game to have a televised competitive esport scene as it

22610-435: The home port of Tekken 2 , cementing 3D as the future of the genre. In 1994, SNK released The King of Fighters '94 in arcades, where players choose from teams of three characters to eliminate each other one by one. Eventually, Capcom released further updates to Street Fighter II , including Super Street Fighter II and Super Street Fighter II Turbo . These games feature more characters and new moves, some of which are

22800-406: The home version, and they sold six million copies or something crazy like that. We had already started talking about doing a Star Wars game, and then our general manager at the time came to us one day and said, 'What do you mean a Star Wars game? You can't do a Star Wars game. You've got to do another Mortal Kombat game.' The notion of sequels wasn't even something that we had entertained. It

22990-441: The invitation to the thunder god and Earthrealm's protector, Raiden , who gathers his warriors and takes them into Outworld. The new tournament is much more dangerous, as Shao Kahn has the home field advantage. According to the Mortal Kombat series' canon , Liu Kang won this tournament as well, defeating Shao Kahn and his bodyguard Kintaro. The game's story mode can be also finished using any other playable character, resulting in

23180-467: The jumping kicks. Several characters (namely Jade, Kitana, Mileena, Noob Saibot, Reptile, Scorpion, Smoke, and Sub-Zero) were created using the first game's palette swap technique on just two base models. The game was noted for its "strong female presence", as it was featuring more than one woman character as it was common in the genre at the time. Due to memory limitations and the development team's desire to introduce more new characters, two fighters from

23370-417: The late 1990s, traditional 2D fighting games began to decline in popularity, with specific franchises falling into difficulty due to 3D fighters. Although the release of Street Fighter EX introduced 3D graphics to the series, both it and Street Fighter: The Movie flopped in arcades. A home video game also titled Street Fighter: The Movie was released for the PlayStation and Sega Saturn , but it

23560-469: The late 1990s. Namco 's Tekken (released in arcades in 1994 and on the PlayStation in 1995) proved critical to the PlayStation's early success, with its sequels also becoming some of the console's most important games. The Soul series of weapon-based fighting games also achieved considerable critical success, beginning with 1995's Soul Edge (known as Soul Blade outside Japan) to Soulcalibur VI in 2018. Tecmo released Dead or Alive in

23750-425: The latest game Tekken 8 , which was released in January 2024 sold over 2 million copies in its first month alone. Thus, the 2020s have had a marked resurgence in fighting games that has been deemed a new golden age in fighting games. The following are the highest-grossing fighting game franchises, in terms of total gross revenue generated by arcade games , console games , and computer games . The following are

23940-442: The magazine's readers voted it to receive the 1995's Nintendo Power Awards for "Best Tournament Fighter (all Nintendo platforms)" and "Best Play Control (Game Boy)", with the game having been nominated by the staff also in the categories "Worst Villain" (positively, an equivalent of "Best Hero") and "Best Overall (all Nintendo platforms)". VideoGames named MKII as the "Best Fighting Game" of 1994, also awarding it second place in

24130-431: The majority of their gross revenue from coin drop earnings. Fatality (Mortal Kombat)#Stage Fatality The origins of the Fatality concept has been traced back to several violent Asian martial arts media. In The Street Fighter (1974), a Japanese martial arts film, Sonny Chiba performs x-ray fatality finishing moves, which at the time was seen as a gimmick to distinguish it from other martial arts films. In

24320-419: The market for fighting games became smaller and more specialized. Even as far back as 1997, many in the industry said that the fighting game market's growing inaccessibility to newcomers was bringing an end to the genre's dominance. Furthermore, arcades gradually became less profitable throughout the late 1990s to early 2000s due to the increased technical power and popularity of home consoles. The early 2000s

24510-434: The mid-2020s, the genre achieved another renaissance with the arrival of Street Fighter 6 and its immediate success, together with Mortal Kombat 1 and Tekken 8 . Street Fighter 6 sold over 1 million copies within five days after its launch, and sold over 3 million copies by January 2024. Mortal Kombat 1 sold over 2 million copies in its first two months, and garnered over 3 million copies by January 2024, while

24700-693: The more interactive nature and freedom of the Kreate-a-Fatality system, and others missing the previous games' character-specific ending moves and alternatives to killing the opponent. Originally, there were individual character-specific Kreate-a-Fatality moves for each character, but this feature was dropped, reportedly due to such a feat's infeasibility (especially in regards to the Kreate-A-Character option, which individual moves would not translate to). This kind of Fatality has only been in this game. Stage Fatalities brought environment interaction within

24890-448: The most fun 16-bit fighters to play". In 2013, Rich Knight and Hanuman Welch of Complex wrote that " Mortal Kombat II took everything we loved about the original and magnified it by about a million. ... We still love this game." That same year, Knight and Gus Turner from the same magazine also ranked it as the sixth best 2D fighting game of all time, stating: "Truth be told, the latest MK has nothing on this one. Nothing. A step up from

25080-400: The most popular, spawning a Champion Edition that improved game balance and allowed players to use boss characters that were unselectable in the previous version. Chicago's Midway Games achieved unprecedented notoriety when they released Mortal Kombat in 1992. The game featured digital characters drawn from real actors, numerous secrets, and " Fatality " finishing maneuvers in which

25270-434: The one-on-one boss battles of his earlier beat 'em up Kung-Fu Master as the template for Capcom 's fighting game Street Fighter , combined with elements of Karate Champ and Yie Ar Kung Fu . Street Fighter found its own niche in the gaming world, which was dominated by beat 'em ups and shoot 'em ups at the time. Part of the game's appeal was the use of special moves that could only be discovered by experimenting with

25460-439: The opponent to recover if they timed them correctly. Its success led to fighting games becoming the dominant genre in the arcade game industry of the early 1990s, which led to a resurgence of the arcade game industry. The popularity of Street Fighter II led it to be released for home game consoles and becoming the defining template for fighting games. SNK released Fatal Fury shortly after Street Fighter II in 1991. It

25650-406: The opponent, but still within the distance that a sweeping low kick should hit), and far (at least one jump's length away from the opponent). Each character has signature Fatalities. Traditionally for the main and important characters of the games their Fatalities are usually a reflection of either their storyline or their special abilities: e.g., Sub-Zero 's Fatalities have traditionally involved

25840-541: The opponent. Other fighting games, like Dead or Alive , have a unique button for throws and takedowns. Projectiles are primarily in 2D fighting games, like the Hadouken in Street Fighter . Projectiles can simply inflict damage, or can maneuver opponents into disadvantageous positions. Especially in 2D, zoning is defensive play that focuses on using relatively risk-free attacks to keep the opposing player away. The object

26030-427: The original Mortal Kombat , Sonya Blade and Kano, whom Boon cited as the least-picked characters in the game, were excluded, substituted by two palette swaps, Mileena and Reptile. In place of Sonya, two new playable female characters, Kitana and Mileena, were introduced so the game might better compete against Capcom 's Street Fighter II: The World Warrior featuring Chun-Li . Another planned female fighter, based on

26220-495: The original in every way, MK II was, and still is, a solid, violent game that's an essential title to grab for any serious fan of fighting games." In 2014, Kevin Wong of Complex wrote: "Today, we remember Mortal Kombat II for its anarchic spirit—the game was endlessly intriguing and weird, and it had an uneasy atmosphere—anything could happen at any given moment. Critics derided Mortal Kombat as meaningless shock value, but its sequel proved those naysayers wrong. Mortal Kombat II

26410-456: The pantheon of all-time classics." Many publications also listed Mortal Kombat II among the best video games of its genre or era. It was ranked as the third best fighting game by the staff of GamePro and the ninth best fighting game of all time by Rich Knight of Cinema Blend in 2008, as the third top fighting game of all time by Marissa Meli of UGO and the second best 2D fighting game ever made by Robert Workman of GamePlayBook in 2010, and as

26600-418: The player reaches 10 chains, he/she must use a finisher or else the Fatality sequence will stop and the player will not receive a rank or reward. If time runs out before the player can end the chain with a final fatal move, no rank or reward is given and the Fatality is not counted, regardless of how many moves were completed. This concept has been met with a mixed reaction, with some fans and critics preferring

26790-536: The player to morph into an animal and maul their opponent. This style of Fatality debuted in Mortal Kombat 3 . According to Boon, his team "listened to what the players said about MKII and the Animalities that they thought were in there but really were not. To answer all these rumors , we put Animalities in MKIII [ sic ]." In order to perform an Animality, the player must first grant their opponent Mercy,

26980-760: The player's character kills their opponent. The game earned a reputation for its gratuitous violence, and was adapted for home game consoles. The home version of Mortal Kombat was released on September 13, 1993, a day promoted as "Mortal Monday". The advertising resulted in line-ups to purchase the game and a subsequent backlash from politicians concerned about the game's violence. The Mortal Kombat franchise would achieve iconic status similar to that of Street Fighter with several sequels as well as movies, television series, and extensive merchandising. Numerous other game developers tried to imitate Street Fighter II and Mortal Kombat 's financial success with similar games, including Rare Software with Killer Instinct ,

27170-528: The point-scoring system of Karate Champ with a health meter system, becoming the standard for the genre. Irem 's Kung-Fu Master , designed by Takashi Nishiyama and released in November 1984, is a side-scrolling beat 'em up that, at the end of each level , featured one-on-one boss battles that resemble fighting games. It is based on Hong Kong martial arts films, specifically Jackie Chan 's Wheels on Meals (1984) and Bruce Lee's Game of Death . Nishiyama later used its one-on-one boss battles as

27360-430: The previous game's reliance on juggling the opponent in the air with successive hits was an accident, and had been tightened in Mortal Kombat II . Boon said that the reason to not completely remove it in favor of a different system of chaining attacks together was to set the game apart from the competing titles such as Street Fighter and allow for players to devise their own combinations of attacks. A double jump ability

27550-439: The real-life kickboxer Kathy Long whom Tobias admired, was omitted due to time constraints. A male bonus character played by Kyu Hwang was also cut from the game. The first version of MKII , revision 1.4, "was effectively a public beta test ", featuring few Fatalities and many software bugs ; it also lacked the endings for the characters. It took three subsequent revisions to have the moves and finishing moves finalized and all

27740-405: The release of Mortal Kombat 11: Aftermath as part of a free update to the main game. The Hara-Kiri (Japanese for a certain type of ritual suicide literally meaning "belly cut"; Kenshi is the only character who uses it in this form) is a finishing move in which the losing player kills themselves at the end of a match, rather than be finished off by their opponent. Mortal Kombat: Deception

27930-411: The rewarded player can minimize the number of viable moves available to the other player. Doing so, and then taking advantage of the opponent's limited options, is called pressure. Common forms of pressure include making a player guess whether they should block high or low, or keeping the opposing player trapped in the corner and punishing any attempts to escape. Fighting game matches generally consist of

28120-411: The rise of major international fighting game tournaments such as Tougeki – Super Battle Opera and Evolution Championship Series , and famous players such as Daigo Umehara . An important fighting game at the time was Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike , originally released in 1999. The game gained significant attention with " Evo Moment 37 ", also known as the "Daigo Parry", which refers to a portion of

28310-597: The same actors as in the game. The game's promotional campaign's tagline was "Nothing ... Nothing can prepare you." In 2008, Eurogamer called Mortal Kombat II "a marketing triumph". Malibu Comics published a series of Mortal Kombat comic books featuring the characters from both MKII and the original game. Mortal Kombat II: Music from the Arcade Game Soundtrack , an album featuring music from Mortal Kombat II and Mortal Kombat , composed by Dan Forden, could originally only be purchased by ordering it through

28500-411: The screen, like the game's uppercut ), and it is easier to perform combos due to reduced recovery times for attacks. Returning characters also gained new special moves, including some to be used in mid-air, and the game plays almost twice as fast as the original. As with its predecessor, matches are divided into rounds, and the first player to win two rounds by fully depleting their opponent's life bar

28690-479: The series as the platform fighter subgenre due to its deviation from traditional fighting game rules and design. Several games such as Marvel vs. Capcom and Dead or Alive have featured teams where players form "tag teams" to fight duels, but a character may be swapped by a teammate. Some fighting games offer the endurance challenge of a series of opponents. Online games can suffer lag from slow data transmission , which can disrupt split-second timing. This

28880-513: The series became great". In 2007, GamesRadar included four elements of this game - Dan Forden's "Toasty!" effect during an uppercut (also ranked as the 11th funniest moment in video games by Rich Knight of Complex in 2012), Friendship and Babality finishing moves, and the ceiling spikes Stage Fatality - among the ten greatest things about Mortal Kombat . Reviewing the PlayStation 3 release in 2007, IGN's Jeff Haynes stated that " Mortal Kombat II still manages to stand up almost 15 years later as one of

29070-578: The series, occurring when a player uses a part of the stage or map to execute a player. It is a finishing move that is not a standard character Fatality. Some examples of Stage Fatalities are having the victim fall into a pool of acid or a pit of spikes, or to be run over by a subway train; the stage then does not darken. Stage Fatalities are present in the series from the first Mortal Kombat , though are absent from Deadly Alliance . Deception features more Stage Fatalities, renamed Death Traps, than any previous Mortal Kombat game. A special button combination

29260-655: The sports game genre. Fighting games involve combat between pairs of fighters using highly exaggerated martial arts moves. They typically revolve primarily around brawling or combat sport , though some variations feature weaponry. Games usually display on-screen fighters from a side view, and even 3D fighting games play largely within a 2D plane of motion. Games usually confine characters to moving left and right and jumping, although some games such as Fatal Fury: King of Fighters allow players to move between parallel planes of movement. Recent games tend to be rendered in three dimensions, making it easier for developers to add

29450-403: The staff of Game Informer in 2001, as the 38th most important video game of all time by the staff of GamePro in 2007, and as the 32nd best video game of all time by The Boston Phoenix in 2010. Featuring it in their 2003 video game hall of fame series, the staff of GameSpot wrote: " Mortal Kombat II was so much better, as a sequel, than it had to be that it absolutely deserves a place in

29640-406: The stage when a character reaches a high percentage of damage; however, the gameplay objective differs from that of traditional fighting games in that the aim is to increase damage counters and knock opponents off the stage instead of depleting life bars. Beginning with Midway's Mortal Kombat released in 1992, the Mortal Kombat series introduced "Fatalities", where the match victor inflicts

29830-438: The standard Hi8 camera used for the original Mortal Kombat ). The video capture footage was then processed into a computer, and the background was removed from selected frames to create sprites . Towards the end of the game's development, they opted to instead use a blue screen technique and processed the footage directly into the computer for a similar, simpler process. The actors were lightly sprayed with water to give them

30020-545: The strength of other attacks. Some characters have unusual taunts, like Dan Hibiki from Street Fighter Alpha . Combos that chain several attacks are fundamental to the genre since Street Fighter II (1991). Most fighting games display a "combo meter" of progress through a combo. The effectiveness of such moves often relates to the difficulty of execution and the degree of risk. These moves are often challenging, requiring excellent memory and timing. Predicting opponents' moves and counter-attacking, known as "countering",

30210-427: The subject of a great deal of controversy regarding violent video games. Nancian Cherry of Toledo Blade wrote that both games had "an army of critics too: people upset by the bone-crunching, blood-spurting, limb-ripping violence depicted on the small screen." According to IGN, " Mortal Kombat II wore its notoriety as a badge of honor, boasting about it in promotional materials, and even parodying it in-game." The game

30400-457: The third best fighting game of all time by Peter Rubin of Complex in 2011. It was also ranked as the 53rd best game on any Nintendo platform by the staff of Nintendo Power in 1997, featured among the 100 best games of the 20th century by Jakub Kralka of Benchmark in 2009, and ranked as the tenth best 16-bit game ever by McKinley Noble of PC World that same year. The game also received accolades for its various conversions. Mortal Kombat II

30590-764: The time, reported its 1993 sales in the quarter ending December 31 rose to $ 101 million from $ 86 million and said much of its revenue gain was related to the sale of the arcade version of MKII . It went on to become America's highest-grossing arcade game of 1994 according to the Amusement & Music Operators Association (AMOA). By 1996, the number of arcade machines sold approached 25,000 units; at that time, arcade games that sold 5,000 units were considered strong titles (Midway printed special T-shirts to celebrate 300 machines being manufactured in one day) and an arcade cabinet cost $ 3,000–4,000. The arcade version went on to sell 27,000 units, and grossed $ 600 million as of 2002. MKII

30780-604: The two terms may still be conflated. Sports-based combat games are games that feature boxing , mixed martial arts (MMA), or wrestling . Serious boxing games belong more to the sports game genre than the action game genre, as they aim for a more realistic model of boxing techniques, whereas moves in fighting games tend to be either highly exaggerated or outright fantastical models of Asian martial arts techniques. As such, boxing games, mixed martial arts games, and wrestling games are often described as distinct genres, without comparison to fighting games, and belong more in

30970-410: The unauthorized misuse of their likenesses and to seek royalties from sales of the games' home ports. Pesina, who sought $ 10 million in the suits for his roles in the first two MK games, had appeared in costume as Johnny Cage in a 1994 print advertisement for the fighting game BloodStorm . Arguably the best Western fighting game to date, and certainly the title that defined Mortal Kombat as

31160-404: The updated Super Street Fighter IV , sold more than 6 million copies over the next few years. The success of these two games, among others, sparked a renaissance for the genre, introducing new players to the genre and with the increased audience allowing other fighting game franchises to achieve successful revivals of their own, as well as increasing tournament participation. Tekken 6

31350-602: The use of his powers of ice, whereas Scorpion 's storyline of a hellspawn ninja spectre involves the use of setting someone ablaze or using his famous spear. The number of individual Fatalities varies depending upon the game; while characters in Mortal Kombat and Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance had only one, Mortal Kombat II and Mortal Kombat 3 and its updates ( Mortal Kombat Trilogy and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 ) featured as many as four. The Fatalities were featured in ScrewAttack 's " Top 10 OMGWTF Moments " due to

31540-402: The vastly superior pre-release version they had reviewed five months earlier. Mortal Kombat II received numerous annual awards from gaming publications. Game Players gave it the titles of "Best Genesis Fighting Game", "Best SNES Fighting Game" and "Best Overall SNES Game" of 1994. The staff of Nintendo Power ranked MKII as the second (SNES) and fifth (Game Boy) "Top Game" of 1994, while

31730-419: The winning player performs a unique fatality pertaining to which faction that player is part of in the game. Each faction has a set of five completely unique faction kills, however the player has to play continuously for one single faction to reveal every faction kill available to that particular faction, including one that is unlocked by a Faction War victory. Debuting in Mortal Kombat II , Friendships feature

31920-722: Was Super Smash Bros. Brawl for the Wii . Featuring 40 characters from Nintendo and third-party franchises, the game was a runaway commercial success in addition to being lavished with critical praise. In the new millennium, fighting games became less popular and plentiful than in the mid-1990s, with multiplayer competition shifting towards other genres. However, SNK reappeared in 2003 as SNK Playmore and continued to release games. Arc System Works received critical acclaim for releasing Guilty Gear X in 2001, as well as its sequel Guilty Gear XX , as both were 2D fighting games featuring striking anime -inspired graphics. Fighting games became

32110-448: Was "The largest introduction of a video game in history". Distribution of over 2.5 million copies around 15,000 stores required 65 trucks and 11 jumbo jets. First-week sales of over $ 50 million in the United States surpassed the opening box office results of that season's Hollywood film blockbusters , such as Forrest Gump , True Lies , The Mask , and The Lion King . Approximately 2.5 million units were shipped to stores within

32300-432: Was "intended to look different than the original MK " and "had everything we wanted to put into MK but did not have time for." In 2012, Boon placed creating the game among his best Mortal Kombat memories, recalling: "When we did Mortal Kombat II , we got new equipment and all that stuff, but it was funny because when we started working on Mortal Kombat II , the mania, the hysteria of the home versions of Mortal Kombat I

32490-520: Was a Flawless Victory—irreverent, hilarious, and horrific in equal measures." Fighting game The fighting game genre of video games involves combat between multiple characters, often (but not limited to) one-on-one battles. Fighting game combat often features mechanics such as blocking , grappling , counter-attacking, and chaining attacks together into " combos ". Characters generally engage hand-to-hand combat , often with martial arts , but some may include weaponry. Battles are usually set in

32680-444: Was a novelty as the traditional fighting games ended with the loser simply knocked unconscious and the victor posing for the players). According to Boon, it started with an idea to enable the player to hit a dizzied opponent at the end of the match with a "free hit", and that idea "quickly evolved into something nasty." Tobias recalled it differently: "Our first idea was to use them as a finishing move for final boss Shang Tsung , who

32870-445: Was acclaimed by most critics, receiving many annual awards and being featured in various top lists in the years and decades to come, and also caused a major video game controversy due to the series' continuous depiction of graphic violence. It spawned a spin-off game, Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks , had the greatest influence on the 2011 soft reboot game Mortal Kombat , and inspired numerous video game clones . Mortal Kombat II

33060-597: Was also used for the Japanese release of the Sega 32X port. The game was also featured in several compilation releases, including Midway Arcade Treasures 2 for the GameCube , PlayStation 2 , and Xbox , Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox as a hidden and unlockable Easter egg, Midway Arcade Treasures: Extended Play for the PlayStation Portable , and Mortal Kombat Arcade Kollection for

33250-569: Was banned in Germany, where MKII was put in the index by the Federal Department for Media Harmful to Young Persons (BPjM) and all versions of the game except for the Game Boy version were subjected to being confiscated from the nation's market for violating the German Penal Code by showing excessive violence and cruel acts against representations of human beings. Due to regional censorship,

33440-419: Was building off the popularity of its previous iteration and was still positively received, selling more than 3 million copies worldwide by August 2010, one year after its release. Other successful games that followed include Mortal Kombat , Marvel vs. Capcom 3 , The King of Fighters XIII , Dead or Alive 5 , Tekken Tag Tournament 2 , Soulcalibur V , and Guilty Gear Xrd . Though

33630-467: Was considered an arcade game of the year, taking over from the original Mortal Kombat . On the day of the release of the game's first four versions for cartridge -based console systems (Sega's Genesis and Game Gear and Nintendo's SNES and Game Boy), dubbed "Mortal Friday" (September 9, 1994), celebrated annually by the fan community on the second Friday of September an unprecedented number of more than 2.5 million copies were shipped to be distributed, with

33820-474: Was designed by Takashi Nishiyama, the creator of the original Street Fighter , which it was envisioned as a spiritual successor to. Fatal Fury placed more emphasis on storytelling and the timing of special moves, and added a two-plane system where characters could step into the foreground or background. Meanwhile, Sega experimented with Dark Edge , an early attempt at a 3D fighting game where characters could move in all directions. However, Sega never released

34010-473: Was easier to learn than Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat , which has six and five buttons respectively. By the time the game was released for the Sega Saturn in Japan, the game and system were selling at almost a one-to-one ratio. In 1994, Namco released Tekken , the rival arcade game using cutting-edge 3D polygon technology. The 1995 PlayStation game Battle Arena Toshinden is credited for taking

34200-418: Was going to pull out his sword and behead his opponent. Then we thought, 'What if the player could do that to his opponent?'" Tobias and former Midway Games programmer Mark Turmell stated that initially no one at Midway expected players to find the Fatalities in the game. Tobias said: "When we watched players react to the Fatalities, we knew we had no choice but to give them more." Much like special moves,

34390-460: Was implemented but later removed. At one point, a bonus stage was planned to feature "a bunch of ninjas jumping all over the place and you would swing at them, just like you're in the middle of a fight in a kung fu movie." All of the music was composed, performed, recorded and mixed by Dan Forden , the Mortal Kombat series' sound designer and composer, using the Williams DCS sound system. Like

34580-405: Was included among the ten best arcade games by Wirtualna Polska , and ranked as the fifth top arcade game by the staff of GameTrailers in 2009, as the 31st top arcade game of all time by the staff of GameSpy in 2011, and as the sixth best arcade game of the 1990s by Complex in 2013. Regarding the 16-bit console versions, MKII was ranked as the fourth best ever Genesis game by Complex and as

34770-411: Was just like, 'Oh, you do this game and then you move onto the next game.' Looking back now, it's really silly that we wouldn't have entertained that idea. — Ed Boon MKII' s story influences came from the same places as the first game. One influence came from the first two Star Wars films, where you knew that there was an emperor ruling the universe, but knew nothing else about him. It created

34960-428: Was literally all around us. We were so busy working on the next one, going from seven characters to 12 and two Fatalities per character and all these other things that that consumed every second." Both the theme and art style of MKII were slightly darker than those of its predecessor, although a more vibrant color palette was employed and the new game had a much richer color depth than the previous game. A new feature

35150-451: Was marketed as " Mortal Kombat II trading cards". Since 1994, multiple official ports and emulated versions of Mortal Kombat II have been released for a wide variety of home systems, including the 8-bit ( Game Boy , Game Gear , and Master System ), 16-bit ( Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) and Sega Genesis / Mega Drive ) and 32-bit ( 32X , PlayStation , and Sega Saturn ) consoles, Amiga and MS-DOS computers, and

35340-527: Was not explicitly used as a finisher, but rather as a powerup. A move similar to the Brutality appeared in Mortal Kombat: Deception , in the form of a Fatality of Li Mei : her Fatality was to rapidly strike the opponent repeatedly, then to step back and pose as her opponent twitches for a moment, before exploding in a pile of gore. Brutalities make a return appearance in 2015's Mortal Kombat X , featured as enhanced versions of certain moves used as

35530-446: Was the dominant genre in competitive video gaming, with enthusiasts popularly attending arcades in order to find human opponents. The genre was also very popular on home consoles. At the beginning of 1996, GamePro (a magazine devoted chiefly to home console and handheld gaming) reported that for the last several years, their reader surveys had consistently yielded 4 out of 5 respondents name fighting games as their favorite genre. In

35720-425: Was the first game to include such a feature. Fighting games can support a two-player duel, sometimes by letting a second player challenge the first at any moment during a single-player match. Some games allow four-player simultaneous competition. Uniquely, the Super Smash Bros. series has allowed eight-player local and online multiplayer matches, beginning with Super Smash Bros. for Wii U , though many classify

35910-539: Was the only fighting game included in the esport league, the Championship Gaming Series (CGS), in 2007 and 2008. The league was operated and fully broadcast by DirecTV in association with British Sky Broadcasting (BSkyB) and STAR TV . Dead or Alive has been credited for launching the careers of pro-gamer turned Koei Tecmo employee, Emmanuel Rodriguez, and the highest-paid women pro-gamers, Kat Gunn and Vanessa Arteaga . The late 2000s featured

36100-466: Was the use of multiple layers of parallax scrolling in the arcade version. The game was made to be less serious with the addition of humorous alternative finishing moves. Some of the considered Fatalities were rejected as too extreme at the time. Care was taken during the programming process to give the game a "good feel", with Boon simulating elements such as gravity into the video game design . The game's lead designer and artist John Tobias noted that

#507492