This Mortal Kombat trivia quiz has 50 free questions with answers and runs from Ed Boon and John Tobias's four-person Midway team in 1992 to the 2023 reboot and the 2021 film. It starts with the arcade original - the name that came from a pinball designer, the Sega blood code, the character who was nearly a man called Stryker - then moves through the Senate hearings that gave the world the ESRB, the Friendships and Babalities of Mortal Kombat II, and the Toasty guy himself. From there it covers the lore (Shokan, the Lin Kuei, the two brothers who have both worn the blue), the 3D-era games, the guest fighters, the record-setting sales of the NetherRealm era, and the three live-action films, the cartoon and the theme song. About a third of the questions are warm-ups any casual fan will get; the rest climb toward the kind of detail only someone who knows why the game shouts 'Frosty!' will land. Every answer has been checked against Wikipedia and the primary sources it cites, and each explanation adds one more thing worth knowing.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which company published the home console versions of the original Mortal Kombat in 1993?
Acclaim
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.
Q 02The first game's launch on four home systems on 13 September 1993 was marketed as what?
Mortal Monday
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.
Q 03Per Ed Boon, which pinball designer saw 'Kombat' on a whiteboard and suggested the title Mortal Kombat?
Steve Ritchie
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.
Q 04Which of these was a working title floated before the team settled on Mortal Kombat?
Dragon Attack
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.
Q 05What was Mortal Kombat's Sonya called when the character was still a male Special Forces agent?
Stryker
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.
Q 06Which martial-arts actress was the model for Sonya Blade and later claimed her likeness was used without her?
Cynthia Rothrock
Kathy Long was a real kickboxer John Tobias admired and had planned as a Mortal Kombat II fighter, but she was cut for time.
Q 07Johnny Cage, complete with his split-punch to the groin, is a parody of which action star?
Jean-Claude Van Damme
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.
Q 08Which green-clad hidden opponent could only be met on The Pit stage of the original Mortal Kombat arcade game?
Reptile
He was built in a single evening from the existing ninja sprites and is regarded as the first secret character in fighting-game history.
Q 09Which cheat code, a nod to a 1981 Genesis album, unlocked the blood in the Sega Genesis port?
ABACABB
The console and the band shared a name in North America, so the code spelled the album title Abacab with an extra B.
Q 10In the censored Super NES port of the first game, the red blood was recoloured to look like what?
Sweat
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.
Q 11Which US senator led the December 1993 hearings on video-game violence targeting Mortal Kombat?
Joe Lieberman
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.
Q 12Which Sega CD full-motion-video game joined Mortal Kombat as the target of the 1993 Senate hearings?
Night Trap
The controversy briefly boosted its sales before it was pulled from Toys 'R' Us and Kay-Bee shelves two weeks before Christmas.
Q 13What does a 'Babality' finishing move, introduced in Mortal Kombat II, turn the defeated opponent into?
A baby
Q 21Which resurrected 'Dragon King' is the main villain of Mortal Kombat: Deception (2004)?
Onaga
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.
Q 22Because of the DC licence, Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe (2008) was held to which ESRB rating?
Teen
Two Fatalities were censored in North America to keep the rating; it was also the last game Midway made before its bankruptcy.
Q 23Which God of War character was the PlayStation-exclusive guest fighter in the 2011 reboot?
Kratos
Sweet Tooth from Twisted Metal was the first choice for the slot; Freddy Krueger arrived later as DLC on both platforms.
It arrived alongside 'Friendships', a deliberately silly response to the violence controversy in which the winner dances or hands over a gift.
Q 14Which finishing move, debuting in the 1995 third game, required first granting a 'Mercy'?
Animality
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.
Q 15Whose face pops up shouting 'Toasty!' after a well-timed uppercut, starting in Mortal Kombat II?
Dan Forden
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.
Q 16In the 1995 third game, freezing a 'danger mode' foe with Sub-Zero triggered a falsetto shout of what?
Frosty!
A companion Easter egg, 'Crispy!!', fired if both players held High Punch after a Stage Fatality in Scorpion's Lair.
Q 17Which of Scorpion's two spear taunts was cut from the first two games' home ports?
Get over here!
Ed Boon recorded both lines himself, and the 2008 Guinness Gamer's Edition later credited him as the longest-serving video-game voice actor.
Q 18Which act recorded 'Techno Syndrome', the track widely known as the Mortal Kombat theme?
The Immortals
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.
Q 19What position did Mortal Kombat: The Album peak at on the Billboard 200?
Number 10
The 2011 Guinness Gamer's Edition later listed the 1995 film soundtrack as the most successful video-game spin-off soundtrack album.
Q 20What was the first game NetherRealm Studios made that was not a Mortal Kombat title?
Injustice: Gods Among Us
The Chicago studio is the old Midway team, renamed after Warner Bros. bought the assets out of Midway's 2009 bankruptcy.
Q 24What was the 2011 reboot's three-bar super move that shows the opponent's bones and organs breaking called?
X-ray
The same game brought back the perpendicular '2.5D' camera after five installments of free-roaming 3D fighting.
Q 25Who is the time-manipulating 'keeper of time' who serves as the main villain of the 2019 entry?
Kronika
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.
Q 26Which entry was the series' best-seller by 2022, with more than 15 million copies sold?
Mortal Kombat 11
It was announced at The Game Awards 2018 with a trailer of Dark Raiden fighting Scorpion, and its Aftermath expansion brought back Friendships.
Q 27What is the assist-partner system in the 2023 reboot called?
Kameo Fighters
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.
Q 28In the 2023 reboot's new timeline, which long-running character takes up the mantle of Scorpion?
Kuai Liang
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.
Q 29What is the name of the original 1992 Sub-Zero, the elder brother killed by Scorpion?
Bi-Han
He returns in later games as the shadowy wraith Noob Saibot, while his younger brother wears the blue from Mortal Kombat II onward.
Q 30What is the human name of the original Scorpion, the undead ninja avenging his family and clan?
Hanzo Hasashi
The 2021 film opens with him in 1617 Japan, and the reboot's plot hinges on a prophecy about his bloodline.