Despite the heat from parental groups and even the government getting involved, Mortal Kombat was still due for its release on nearly every console under the sun in 1993. Specifically on September 13th, 1993 which was labeled "Mortal Monday". Both Nintendo's Super Nintendo and Sega's Genesis were the biggest consoles to benefit from ports of the arcade classic. But in an act of both sticking to their kid friendly guns and a little bit of cowardice, Nintendo opted to heavily censor the game, changing the blood to sweat, and heavily editing fatalities.
Sega embraced the idea of gore, and hid the option with a blood code that could be accessed in a text crawl before the title screen. With the news that Sega wasn't going to wuss out on the gore, it helped sell tons of Sega Genesis consoles that year, and in the end Mortal Kombat would be one of the best selling games on the console in 1993. The Genesis port was published by Acclaim and developed by their mostly genesis only developer Probe.
The plot of the game goes as follows. You play as one of seven different fighters in a tournament to the death run by the evil Shang Tsung. The fate of the entire Earthrealm relies on you as if Shang Tsung wins this tournament, it will be ten in a row, and will allow him the ability to take over the realm in the name of Outworld. You have to beat the rest of your foes in order to get a battle with Shang Tsung, as well as his heavy in the four armed beast Goro.
Mortal Kombat can be played with a three button controller, but it is far more useful with a six button controller, to differentiate the high and low attacks that each character can use. You can punch, kick, block, uppercut, sweep, and jump attack your way to a victory.
Your cast of characters is as follows. The Shaolin monk Liu Kang, the special forces member Sonya Blade, the god of thunder Raiden, the movie star Johnny Cage, the criminal Kano, and the two rival ninjas Sub-Zero and Scorpion. Each has their own special moves and unique fatalities. Those special moves can be done through different button combinations, usually a certain direction and a certain letter button.
The variety of moves range from the Scorpion's harpoon pull attack, Sub-Zero's freeze attack, Raiden's lightning shots, Johnny Cage's shadow kick, and more. But for as cool as the main moves are, the fatalties are still the best part of the game. Win two matches, and you'll have the chance to finish your opponent with gory ends like ripping their heart out with Kano, blowing their head up with Raiden, ripping their head off with Sub-Zero, or... that weak looking uppercut move with Liu Kang.
In between every three rounds in the main game, you'll have the option to "test your might". You have to tap the A and C buttons to raise your stamina, then press start to chop the item, be it wood, stone or steel. It's not important to complete, but does add to the frivolous score in the game. As for main game options, you fight the other six kombatants before facing yourself in a mirror match. After that it's three endurance matches which pit you against two opponents, and finally it's the last two fights between Goro and Shang Tsung.
Graphically the game looks pretty good, save for losing a lot of detail that the arcade and even the SNES ports had. I mostly attribute that less in the ability of the Genesis, and more to the half assed approach that Probe would often take with ports. Sprites also lose plenty of frames so they don't look as fluid as other versions. But despite that, you get every level in the game, from the courtyard to the pit, to Goro's lair, and despite some missing items, the sprites still look very detailed, coming close to replicating the motion captured look of the arcade version.
The audio side is also a mixed bag. Probe at the helm caused a lot of audio from the arcade version to be omitted from the port, even the legendary "Finish Him/Her" audio. The other noticeable thing is that the game is made up entirely of new music tracks instead of trying to just emulate the arcade originals. I know some people dislike the new tunes, but since I've grown up with this game they are the ones I easily recognize. In the end, it's not the worst handling of the audio, but the glaring omissions are far too noticeable to ignore.
The original Mortal Kombat game is still one of my favorites on the Sega Genesis. While yes, there are more definitive ports of the Arcade out there, and the franchise moved on to bigger and better titles (Like the one that followed in Mortal Kombat II), I still find fun in grabbing the controller and giving this one a play. It's an important title that led to a ratings system for the industry, and even forced Nintendo to change their own policies with titles. While not a flawless victory, it's still a true great in the fighting game genre.
RATING: A-