Mortal Kombat Arcade

"Test Your Might" redirects here. For the song with this lyric, see Mortal Kombat (song). For other properties with this quote, see Mortal Kombat.

Mortal Kombat is an arcade fighting game developed and published by Midway in 1992 as the first title in the Mortal Kombat series. It was subsequently released by Acclaim Entertainment for nearly every home platform of the time. The game focuses on the journey of the Shaolin monk Liu Kang to save Earthrealm from the evil sorcerer Shang Tsung, ending with their confrontation in the tournament known as Mortal Kombat. It introduced many key aspects of the Mortal Kombat series, including the unique five-button control scheme and gory finishing moves.

Mortal Kombat became a best-selling game and remains one of the most popular fighting games in the genre's history, spawning numerous sequels and spin-offs over the following years and decades, beginning with Mortal Kombat II in 1993, and together with the first sequel was the subject of a successful film adaptation in 1995. However, it also sparked much controversy for its depiction of extreme violence and gore using realistic digitized graphics, resulting in the introduction of age-specific content descriptor ratings for video games.

Gameplay

Mortal Kombat is a fighting game in which players battle opponents in one-on-one matches. The fighter that completely drains the opponent's health bar first wins the round, and the first to win two rounds wins the match. Each round is timed; if both fighters still have health remaining when time runs out, the one with more health wins the round. Two players can start a game together, or a second player can join in during a single player's game to fight against him/her. If a game was in progress at the time, the winner continues it alone; if not, the winner begins a new game.

Mortal Kombat uses an eight-directional joystick and five buttons, including two punch and two kick buttons (each further divided between high and low). Attacks can vary depending on the player's distance from the opponent. All player characters have a shared set of attacks performed by holding the joystick in various directions, such as leg sweep and an uppercut; the latter attack knocks the enemy high into the air and causes a large amount of damage. Most special moves were performed by tapping the joystick, sometimes ending with a button press. Unlike previous one-on-one fighting games, few moves require circular joystick movement. The game's blocking system also distinguished itself from other fighting games, as characters take a small amount of damage from regular moves while blocking. However, the dedicated block button allows users to defend against attacks without retreating and blocking characters lose very little ground when struck, thus making counterattacks much easier after a successful block.

Mortal Kombat further introduced the concept of "juggling", knocking an opponent into the air and following up with a combination of attacks while the enemy is still airborne and defenseless. The idea became so popular that it has spread to many other games. Another of the game's innovations was the Fatality, a finishing move executed against a defeated opponent to kill them in a gruesome fashion.

In the single-player game, the player faces each of the seven playable characters in a series of one-on-one matches against computer-controlled opponents, ending in a "Mirror Match" against a duplicate of the player's chosen character. The player must then fight in three endurance matches, each of which involves two opponents. As soon as the player defeats the first opponent, the second one enters the arena and the timer resets; however, the player's health meter does not regenerate. After the third endurance match, the player fights the sub-boss Goro, followed by a final match against Shang Tsung.

Between certain levels, players can compete in a minigame called "Test Your Might" for bonus points, breaking blocks of various materials by filling a meter past a certain point through rapid button presses. The first material the player must break is wood, followed by stone, steel, ruby, and finally diamond, with each successive material requiring more of the meter to be filled up and thus awarding more points. Two players can compete in the minigame at once and the last two materials are only accessible through two-player mode. The minigame would return in various forms in Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance, Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks, Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe, and Mortal Kombat: Komplete Edition.

Characters

Mortal Kombat includes seven playable characters, each with their own Fatality and all of whom would eventually become trademark characters and appear in sequels. The game was developed with digitized sprites based on real actors.[5][6] The protagonist of the game is the Shaolin monk and Earthrealm's chosen champion Liu Kang, played by Ho-Sung Pak, who enters the tournament to defeat the evil sorcerer Shang Tsung.

Elizabeth Malecki plays the Special Forces agent, Sonya Blade, who is pursuing a mercenary from the Black Dragon organization, Kano (played by Richard Divizio). Carlos Pesina plays Raiden, the god of thunder and protector of Earthrealm, while his brother Daniel Pesina plays the Hollywood movie star Johnny Cage and the Lin Kuei ninja clan assassin Sub-Zero, as well as the game's two other ninja characters. The blue color of Sub-Zero's outfit was changed to yellow to create the vengeful specter Scorpion, a former ninja from rival clan who along with his family has been killed by Sub-Zero prior to the tournament, and to green for the game's secret character, Reptile (though the costume used for motion capture was actually red).[7] Mortal Kombat would become famous for such palette swaps that would continue to be used later games the technique to create new characters.

The four-armed Shokan warrior, Goro serves as the sub-boss of the game; being a half-human, half-dragon beast, he is much stronger than the other characters and cannot be affected by their projectiles and throw attacks. The character's sprites are based on a stop motion model which was created by Curt Chiarelli. Shang Tsung, the game's main antagonist and final boss (also played by Ho-Sung Pak) who can transform into any playable character in the game at any time during a battle.

When fighting on the Pit stage, the player could qualify to fight the secret character Reptile, who uses the moves of both Scorpion and Sub-Zero, by meeting a special set of conditions.[8] Players could not choose to play as Goro, Shang Tsung, or Reptile in the original game, where also neither of them has a Fatality, but eventually could play as all three in sequels. The Masked Guard in the Courtyard stage was portrayed by Mortal Kombat developer John Vogel.

Mortal Kombat 1 (1992) Special Moves and Finishers Guide

The following moves are compatible with the Arcade, PC DOS and Windows, Sega Genesis, Sega CD, SNES, PlayStation 2, XBox, PlayStation 3, XBox 360 and Jakks TV Plug and Play versions of Mortal Kombat. If some move is available only for a specific version this will be mentioned right after the key combination with an Abbreviation. If you find an error please inform us immediately. If you are looking for a Moves list for other platform take a look at the bottom of this guide and download your guide.

How To: Perform The Pit Stage Fatality
Execute an uppercut (D + HP) at the end of the fight in the Pit arena to send him falling to the bottom of the pit.

Johnny Cage
Special Moves:
Green Bolt: B, F, LP
Shadow Kick: B, F, LK
Ball Breaker: BL + LP
Finishing Moves:
Fatality: F, F, F, HP (close)

Kano
Special Moves:
Spin Attack: F, D, B, Up, F, ...
Knife Throw: Hold Block, B, F
Finishing Moves:
Fatality: B, D, F, LP (close) - A
Fatality: B, B, B, LP (close) - SG

Raiden
Special Moves:
Teleport: D, Up
Lightning: D, F, LP
Torpedo: B, B, F
Finishing Moves:
Fatality: F, B, B, B, HP (close)

Liu Kang
Special Moves:
Fireball: F, F, HP
Flying Kick: F, F, HK
Finishing Moves:
Fatality: F, D, B, Up, F, ...

Scorpion
Special Moves:
Spear: B, B, LP
Teleport: D, B, HP
Finishing Moves:
Fatality: Hold BL, Up, Up (1/2 screen)

Sub-Zero
Special Moves:
Ice Freeze: D, F, LP
Slide: Hold B + LP + LK + BL - A
Slide: Hold B, LK + HK - SG
Finishing Moves:
Fatality: F, D, F, HP (close)

Sonya
Special Moves:
Ring Toss: LP, B, LP - A (Revision 5)
Ring Toss: B, B, LP - PC DOS
Ring Toss: B, LP, B, LP - A
Leg Grab: D + BL + LP + LK
Square Flight: F, B, HP
Finishing Moves:
Fatality: F, F, B, B, BL

Cheats, Tricks, Bugs, and Easter Eggs

On the fourth stage, The Pit, look at the moon. If there are shadows flying in front of the moon you can fight Reptile. When the shadows are in front of the moon, you must get a doubleflawless victory two perfects and do the Fatality without EMeverEM hitting block. If you beat Reptile, you will be awarded 10,000,000 points Note Reptile only appears in versions 3.0 and 4.0 and can only be fought when playing as either Sonya or Scorpion in version 4.0. His name shows as Scorpion but he wears green and can do both Scorpions spear special move or SubZeros freeze move. He is also extremely difficult to beat.