Relive Mortal Kombat's flashy, bloody and controversial history in this retro game collection

Jonathan Ore · CBC News

· Posted: Oct 30, 2025 9:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: October 30

I was astir 8 years aged erstwhile I archetypal played Mortal Kombat, the one-on-one warring crippled that scandalized parents and politicians successful the aboriginal 1990s.

I was playing with my cousins successful the arrivals country of Toronto's Pearson airdrome erstwhile I unknowingly unlocked a concealed finishing move.

The ninja I was controlling, Scorpion, removed his mask, revealing a skull, and spat a fireball, mounting his hostile ablaze, leaving thing but a charred skeleton.

The connection "FATALITY" flashed successful greenish all-caps.

My eyes widened successful shock. I looked astatine my cousins, each of america agape. That unbelievable infinitesimal was conscionable 1 illustration wherefore Mortal Kombat became the must-play crippled of 1992.

Scorpion performs his infamous finishing determination successful Mortal Kombat II. The games' bloody unit scandalized parents and politicians astatine the time. (Digital Eclipse/Atari)

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection is the latest merchandise by Digital Eclipse, which specializes successful broad collections of classical crippled bid which besides papers their instauration and past with extended developer interviews and archival material.

That attack mostly shines with Mortal Kombat, but the different robust documentary simply glosses implicit the motivation panic that ensued from its bone-snapping, blood-curdling action.

The postulation includes the galore arcade versions of Mortal Kombat, and those that were released for location and portable consoles. (Digital Eclipse/Atari)

Hybrid crippled postulation and documentary

Legacy Kollection includes 23 Mortal Kombat games released betwixt 1992 and 2003. The main attractions are astir apt the archetypal six arcade releases and the location versions for consoles similar the Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo.

It's astir apt the astir broad postulation of this era, with astonishing inclusions specified arsenic the stripped-down versions for portable systems similar the Game Boy, and spin-offs similar the warring and enactment hybrid MK Mythologies: Sub-Zero.

Ed Boon, left, and John Tobias, right, 2 of the creators of the archetypal Mortal Kombat. (Digital Eclipse/Atari)

A timeline, portion of the interactive documentary, spends important clip connected the leadup and merchandise of the archetypal Mortal Kombat, interviewing main creators including pb programmer Ed Boon and artist/designer John Tobias.

To its credit, it doesn’t skip important contexts that a little scrupulous storyteller mightiness disregard to marque Mortal Kombat look adjacent much revolutionary than it really was.

It wasn't the archetypal breakout, one-on-one warring game: that's Street Fighter II, which Boon and Tobias took arsenic a blueprint.

Neither was it the archetypal to see copious amounts of blood, nor to digitize photos and videos to marque realistic quality characters. NARC did some successful 1990, and Atari featured the archetypal warring crippled with digitized characters with Pit-Fighter that aforesaid year.

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection includes archival photos of the improvement teams astatine Midway during the 1990s. (Digital Eclipse/Atari)

Longtime fans volition relish the extent of archival material, similar footage of the motion-capture actors taking absorption from Tobias and Boon, and stills from a promotional video that tried to woo Jean Claude Van-Damme to prima successful the original.

And yet, isolated from Sal Divita and Kerry Hoskins — who played Nightwolf and Sonya Blade, respectively — we spot oregon perceive astir thing from the actors.

The motivation panic besides gets abbreviated shrift. There's little than a infinitesimal of footage from the U.S. Senate hearings from 1993-4, though Boon, Tobias and others bespeak connected the aftermath — the instauration of the archetypal video games ratings system, present known arsenic the Entertainment Software Rating Board.

WATCH | From the CBC Archives — the Mortal Kombat 'kontroversy':

It would person helped to perceive from immoderate politicians live contiguous who attended those hearings, oregon from those who were portion of acrophobic parents’ groups astatine the time.

That whitethorn beryllium retired of the scope of a games-first institution similar Digital Eclipse but the bundle feels incomplete without a deeper dive.

The aged games, for amended and worse

If I’ve been talking much astir the documentary materials, it mightiness beryllium due to the fact that the Mortal Kombat games are similar Jack Daniel’s whiskey: distinctive and punchy, but yet lacking successful extent oregon nuance. 

That said, nary 1 drinks Jack for the nuance. The smacks of a Mortal Kombat uppercut inactive reverberate, and the colourful formed is arsenic memorable arsenic ever. But the aboriginal Kombat games were ne'er arsenic analyzable arsenic adjacent the different warring games retired astatine the time, and person aged poorly.

The location versions from Sega and Nintendo — with their muddy graphics, missing animation frames oregon unresponsive controls — mightiness look similar unusual inclusions compared to the immaculate arcade versions.

But it’s important to retrieve that galore much radical played these games astatine location than successful arcades, which were already opening to diminution erstwhile the archetypal Mortal Kombat first released.

Not lone is Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection a dense dose of nostalgia, it’s besides fascinating to comparison and opposition wherever definite versions went incorrect portion others succeeded.

You mightiness adjacent beryllium amazed by a fewer entries. The Game Boy mentation of Mortal Kombat II is rather playable contempt monolithic method limitations, and the Genesis Mortal Kombat's funky soundtrack surpasses, I suggest, adjacent the arcade original.

It’s astir inevitable that Legacy Kollection fails to encompass the footprint the bid near connected fashionable civilization arsenic a whole. But portion it isn’t a flawless victory, it’s the champion mode to relive 1 of the loudest chapters successful Western entertainment, and volition apt enactment that mode for immoderate time.

Lesser-known versions, including this 1 for the Nintendo Game Boy, are besides portion of the collection. (Digital Eclipse/Atari)