How Mortal Kombat Defined The Console War Between Sega And Nintendo

The inside story on the game launch that made $50 million in a single day, 'Mortal Monday', and present yet another thrilling chapter in the titanic 16-bit struggle between Sega and Nintendo.

[deno]

I was there, it absolutely changed the playing field.

[SuperSonic91]

Thanks to this game the Nintendo monopoly was defeated.

Thanks this game the hypocrisy of Nintendo against violence in video games they threw against Sega was exposed because eventually they licensed MK2 on the SNES with full blood and gore.

Nintendo threw the whole video game industry under the bus and dragged all these politicians to get involved in video games.
They wanted to smear the reputation of Sega instead they smear the reputation of the gaming industry whenever mass killings in America happens video games have become the fall guy of these politicians.

[King_Noctis]

...what?

[CorndogBurglar]

Uh......

Blaming Nintendo for violent video games getting the attention of politicians? What are you talking about?

Did Nintendo call up politicians and tell them there was a violent game like Mortal Mombat out there?

Don't be silly. Politicians would have been all over MK whether Nintendo held back the blood in MK1 or not.

[Sgt_Slaughter]

Your username is telling me you're 100% biased so your comment isn't informative

[strayanalog]

I loved MK in the arcades, but when I saw it on a console I was blown away. The digitized actors and the gore were just amazing. In fact, I fondly remember not being able to stop playing it, because it truly was unlike anything that I had seen before.

[CorndogBurglar]

Why did it blow you away on console but not the arcade? The arcade version was better in every possible way. Better graphics and sound especially.

The first time I saw the arcade I couldn't believe what I was seeing. To be honest, as great it was to have it on consoles, I was a little disappointed because it didn't look nearly as good as the arcade version.

[CobraKai]

I remember seeing at first and thinking it was a sequel to Pit Fighter. Man was I wrong. Lol.

Maybe strayanalog was blown away at the fact that the were able to port the more demanding Arcade to consoles.

[Sitdown]

Ahhh, those were the days.

[deno]

Heck yeah. I remember going to some comic book store in Philly in 1992 and mk1 and mk2 machines were in there. The big kids would always play and I'd get a chance at some point with my 4 quarters. Great times and great year.

[Negativecool]

MK2 was released in '93 there deno.

[roland82]

Back when there was an difference between the consoles. Now we fight over two consoles that both have 95% of the same games

[salmonade]

A, B, A, C, A, B, B .. blood code for sega mega-drive, I will never forget. RIP

[NecrumOddBoy]

And Genesis

"GET OVER HERE!"

[Smokehouse]

That code is ingrained in my memory too lol.

[CobraKai]

That and the D, U, L, L, A, R, D code.

I remember being disappointed that the Genesis game initially had no blood. Then I read a gaming mag (no internet back then) that had the ABACABB “blood code” and boooom SPINE RIP!!!!!!

[RememberThe357]

Played Mortal Kombat for the first time on my brand new silver Gameboy Pocket, the cartridge that had both the first and second game on it. Man, Scorpion and Jax we're my guys. That was a great Christmas.

[optimus]

i remember there being a code for the super nintendo since they greyed out the blood and turned it into "sweat" , the code would put the red back in.

[letsa_go]

That was the genesis. The only way to add blood to the SNES game was with the game genie.

[CorndogBurglar]

Yeah, you are confusing the systems. Super Nintendo had no way of putting the blood in it, and the fatalities were not violent either.

[Sgt_Slaughter]

SNES could as well, just had to have external means (Game Genie)

[mch2011uk]

Played mine on the master system 2. It was at a time when mulity player was having your mates round. Good times.