Mortal Kombat

Title: Mortal Kombat
Platform Played On: Sega Genesis
Release Date: August 1992
Date Played: 1995-1998
Time Played: 5 hours
Completed (Y/N): N/A
Score: 3/5




Opinion:
I was 10, and a proud owner of the Sega Genesis.

I actually didnt get introduced to MK 1 until after playing Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, so getting a hold of MK 1 was a bit of a downer to say the least. Instead of 26 characters I had a choice of 7, most of which were not very desirable, and looked terrible. The masks on Sub Zero and Scorpion looked like low budget underwear on their heads compared to the sharp looking half robot half ninja looking ones I was used to, and the overall graphical fidelity was just not there. Granted I was comparing a brand new game to a 3 year old dinosaur, which is not fair at all. But the bottom line for me was that I could either play MK1 or UMK3, and there was absolutely no reason to go back to MK1 if you had the much better UMK3.

I appreciated MK1 for starting it all, but basically the minute UMK3 hit the shelf it's two prequels automatically became museum pieces. There was absolutely no reason to play the first two games, Ultimate had all of the features of the first two plus more, much more.

Without this game, there would not be UMK3, nor there would be 8 sequels (excluding side stories), and one of the most memorable franchises in video game history wouldnt exist. So there is no argument about the importance of this game, it just so happens that you had to have been there and played it when it came out. Story (although cool) is not what gravitates people towards Mortal Kombat, it is the fighting and craziness of it, and it's sequels went above and beyond on both of those. The mere fact that you cant really buy MK 1 by itself anymore and that it only comes as part of a bundle tells me that although it is important to history, it is no longer relevant. If you want some Mortal Kombat action, look no further than the 2011's release of Mortal Kombat reboot on PS3 and Xbox. It is an exellent MK, arguably the best in the series (it was also rereleased as Mortal Kombat  Komplete Edition in 2012.) 2011's Mortal Kombat is to the entire series as UMK3 was to 1 and 2. It is one and only stop for all of your MK cravings.

Bottom line is, even back in 1995 Mortal Kombat 1 was obsolete in the shadow of its sequels. I thought it was cool, but didnt really play it, since there was something much better readily available (UMK3).