50 Fun Facts About Mortal Kombat

Which company published the home console versions of the original Mortal Kombat in 1993?

Midway made the arcade game, but the console launch was Acclaim's show, and by November 1993 it had shipped more than three million copies across the SNES, Genesis, Game Boy and Game Gear.

The first game's launch on four home systems on 13 September 1993 was marketed as what?

TV ads counted down to the day; the sequel repeated the trick a year later with a 'Mortal Friday' that shipped 2.5 million copies using 65 trucks and 11 jumbo jets.

Per Ed Boon, which pinball designer saw 'Kombat' on a whiteboard and suggested the title Mortal Kombat?

The same man later supplied the voice of Shao Kahn in Mortal Kombat II, so the emperor's taunts come from the person who named the game.

Which of these was a working title floated before the team settled on Mortal Kombat?

Kumite, Death Blow and simply Fatality were also on the list; Boon said that for six months nobody could come up with a name nobody hated.

What was Mortal Kombat's Sonya called when the character was still a male Special Forces agent?

The name and the riot-cop concept were recycled for a brand-new fighter two games later, which is why he feels like a leftover from an earlier era.

Which martial-arts actress was the model for Sonya Blade and later claimed her likeness was used without her?

Kathy Long was a real kickboxer John Tobias admired and had planned as a Mortal Kombat II fighter, but she was cut for time.

Johnny Cage, complete with his split-punch to the groin, is a parody of which action star?

Midway had originally tried to license the star himself for a Bloodsport-style game; when that fell through, Cage kept the initials J.C. as a wink.

Which green-clad hidden opponent could only be met on The Pit stage of the original Mortal Kombat arcade game?

He was built in a single evening from the existing ninja sprites and is regarded as the first secret character in fighting-game history.

Which cheat code, a nod to a 1981 Genesis album, unlocked the blood in the Sega Genesis port?

The console and the band shared a name in North America, so the code spelled the album title Abacab with an extra B.

In the censored Super NES port of the first game, the red blood was recoloured to look like what?

A Game Genie code could turn it red again, and the Sega version's uncensored gore helped it outsell the Nintendo cartridge roughly five to one.

Which US senator led the December 1993 hearings on video-game violence targeting Mortal Kombat?

He was tipped off by a former chief of staff whose son had asked for the Sega version, and he shared the stage with Bob Keeshan, TV's Captain Kangaroo.

Which Sega CD full-motion-video game joined Mortal Kombat as the target of the 1993 Senate hearings?

The controversy briefly boosted its sales before it was pulled from Toys 'R' Us and Kay-Bee shelves two weeks before Christmas.

What does a 'Babality' finishing move, introduced in Mortal Kombat II, turn the defeated opponent into?

It arrived alongside 'Friendships', a deliberately silly response to the violence controversy in which the winner dances or hands over a gift.

Which finishing move, debuting in the 1995 third game, required first granting a 'Mercy'?

The winner transforms into an animal to finish the job; the Mercy restores a sliver of the loser's health so the round has to be won a second time.

Whose face pops up shouting 'Toasty!' after a well-timed uppercut, starting in Mortal Kombat II?

He is the series' sound designer and is credited in the games with the nickname; the shout began as 'You're toast!', a taunt used during testing sessions.

In the 1995 third game, freezing a 'danger mode' foe with Sub-Zero triggered a falsetto shout of what?

A companion Easter egg, 'Crispy!!', fired if both players held High Punch after a Stage Fatality in Scorpion's Lair.

Which of Scorpion's two spear taunts was cut from the first two games' home ports?

Ed Boon recorded both lines himself, and the 2008 Guinness Gamer's Edition later credited him as the longest-serving video-game voice actor.

Which act recorded 'Techno Syndrome', the track widely known as the Mortal Kombat theme?

The duo behind Lords of Acid had one month to write the album; Olivier Adams finished this track alone on an Atari ST while his partner was at a label meeting.

What position did Mortal Kombat: The Album peak at on the Billboard 200?

The 2011 Guinness Gamer's Edition later listed the 1995 film soundtrack as the most successful video-game spin-off soundtrack album.

What was the first game NetherRealm Studios made that was not a Mortal Kombat title?

The Chicago studio is the old Midway team, renamed after Warner Bros. bought the assets out of Midway's 2009 bankruptcy.

Which resurrected 'Dragon King' is the main villain of Mortal Kombat: Deception (2004)?

The game's Konquest mode follows Shujinko, a warrior tricked into spending his whole life gathering artifacts for the villain while believing he served the Elder Gods.

Because of the DC licence, Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe (2008) was held to which ESRB rating?

Two Fatalities were censored in North America to keep the rating; it was also the last game Midway made before its bankruptcy.

Which God of War character was the PlayStation-exclusive guest fighter in the 2011 reboot?

Sweet Tooth from Twisted Metal was the first choice for the slot; Freddy Krueger arrived later as DLC on both platforms.

What was the 2011 reboot's three-bar super move that shows the opponent's bones and organs breaking called?

The same game brought back the perpendicular '2.5D' camera after five installments of free-roaming 3D fighting.

Who is the time-manipulating 'keeper of time' who serves as the main villain of the 2019 entry?

Her scheme drags past versions of the cast into the present, which is how the game gets a young Johnny Cage and an old one in the same room.

Which entry was the series' best-seller by 2022, with more than 15 million copies sold?

It was announced at The Game Awards 2018 with a trailer of Dark Raiden fighting Scorpion, and its Aftermath expansion brought back Friendships.

What is the assist-partner system in the 2023 reboot called?

The 2023 game is the twelfth main entry and the series' second reboot, set in a new timeline created by Liu Kang as fire god.

In the 2023 reboot's new timeline, which long-running character takes up the mantle of Scorpion?

He had been the series' main Sub-Zero since Mortal Kombat II; in the new timeline he leaves the Lin Kuei with Smoke and founds his own clan in Japan.

What is the name of the original 1992 Sub-Zero, the elder brother killed by Scorpion?

He returns in later games as the shadowy wraith Noob Saibot, while his younger brother wears the blue from Mortal Kombat II onward.

What is the human name of the original Scorpion, the undead ninja avenging his family and clan?

The 2021 film opens with him in 1617 Japan, and the reboot's plot hinges on a prophecy about his bloodline.

Scorpion belonged to which ninja clan, wiped out by the rival Lin Kuei?

John Tobias made one ninja Chinese and the other Japanese to embody a real dispute over a book claiming the Lin Kuei influenced Japan's ninja.

Scorpion is the franchise mascot, yet he is missing from one main installment; which one?

Fan complaints about the missing roster were answered within the year by an 'Ultimate' update that restored him along with other favourites.

What was Sub-Zero's early working name during development of the first game?

John Tobias first sketched him simply as 'Ninja'; the name Frost later went to his treacherous apprentice in the 2002 game.

Which 1987 film inspired Sub-Zero's 'Spine Rip' Fatality in the first game?

The SNES port swapped it for a freeze-and-shatter finish that fans liked so much it became a series staple.

Kano's nationality was retconned to what after audiences misheard Trevor Goddard's accent?

Goddard was actually playing him as Cockney; the games made the change official in Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe, partly as a tribute after Goddard's death.

What is Kitana's primary weapon?

Her 'twin' Mileena, who fights with sai, was originally a clone; both were made from the same actress via palette swap in Mortal Kombat II.

Goro, the four-armed sub-boss of the first game, belongs to which half-human, half-dragon race?

He held the tournament title for 500 years after beating the Great Kung Lao; his sprites came from a stop-motion clay model rather than a costumed actor.

John Tobias said Shao Kahn was inspired by which villain, an emperor the audience knows nothing about?

Tobias wanted players to feel the way he did learning about the Star Wars universe in The Empire Strikes Back; the emperor's signature weapon is the Wrath Hammer.

Both Shang Tsung's sorcerer archetype and Raiden's design drew on which 1986 John Carpenter film?

Shang Tsung owes something to the film's Lo Pan, while Raiden borrows from its lightning-throwing warrior in a conical hat.

What did actor Ho-Sung Pak refuse to do for Liu Kang, prompting the team to restyle the character after Bruce Lee?

The compromise became canon: he was written as a renegade monk who had grown his hair back, and his yells still echo Bruce Lee's.

Who played the thunder god Rayden in the 1995 film?

Sean Connery was offered the part and turned it down; Lambert declined to return for the sequel, where James Remar took over.

Which 1998 release overtook the 1995 film as the highest-grossing video-game adaptation?

It opened at number one against just one other new release, The Baby-Sitters Club, and out-earned it by nearly eight to one that weekend.

The 2021 reboot film premiered in US cinemas on the same day it landed on which streaming service?

It became the service's biggest film launch to date, reaching 5.5 million US households in 17 days.

Lewis Tan's washed-up MMA fighter in the 2021 film, a character invented for the movie, is named what?

Johnny Cage was deliberately left out because the director felt his giant personality would unbalance the film; he was saved for the sequel.

Which was the first Mortal Kombat film of any kind to receive an R rating from the MPA?

The 2020 animated feature beat the live-action reboot to it by a year, and was the first Mortal Kombat project made at Warner Bros. Animation.

The 1996 animated series Defenders of the Realm ran for 13 episodes on which US cable channel?

It aired back-to-back with the Street Fighter cartoon, and its heroes flew dragon-shaped jets out of a hidden base.

Who composed 'Techno Syndrome 2021', the theme for the reboot film?

It reached number 5 on Billboard's Dance/Electronic Digital Song Sales chart, and he began writing for the film before he was officially hired.

Ed Boon named Sonya after one of his sisters; which other fighter is named after his other sister?

The two creators also hid themselves in the roster: Noob Saibot is Boon and Tobias spelled backwards, a joke preserved in their Twitter handles.

Mortal Kombat II was briefly the world's best-selling video game until which November 1994 release?

Its console launch, dubbed 'Mortal Friday', pulled in over $50 million in a week, beating the opening weekends of Forrest Gump and The Lion King.

Roughly how big was the development budget for the original 1992 arcade game?

The core team was four people, and the arcade version alone went on to gross an estimated $570 million.