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Mortal Kombat Memories
In 1995, the Mortal Kombat video games were riding high on a
wave of infamy. Digitized decapitations and removal of spinal columns tend to
get a lot of attention from anyone with eyeballs. Parents were up in arms over
the ultra-violence on display, but kids couldn’t get enough splattering blood
(or sweat if you were playing it on the Super NES). In an attempt to bridge the
generation gap (or just line their pockets with more cold hard cash) Midway
decided to put on a stage show featuring a very clear good vs evil storyline with
only a handful of NO fatalities and I was there. Before we get into the
details of my infamous trip to see the Mortal Kombat Live Tour, let me share
with you the frenzy we were all caught up in during the MK era.
Prior to the 1993 release of Mortal Kombat on home video
game consoles, the closest most of us got to “fighting games” was choosing Mode
B on Double Dragon for the Nintendo Entertainment System. The clunky jump kicks
and useless punching attacks assigned to Jimmy, Billy, Linda and the rest left
a lot to be desired, so most of us stuck to laying the smack down on Abobo’s in
the standard side scrolling Mode A. The fact that we couldn’t easily apply a
roundhouse kick to our digital opponent’s face meant the popularity of one on one fighting games was slowed tremendously. Then in 1991 Street Fighter II became a fixture in
every 7-11, pizza joint and video arcade nationwide, feeding our hunger for the
ancient art of butt-kicking and creating the most popular genre of the decade.
I remember attending a birthday party in 1992 held at
Camelot Family Fun Center in Anaheim, CA where my buddy Brandon was so ticked
off that this kid kept “cheaping” him in a game of Street Fighter II. The offending player did this by
cornering Brandon's pixelated pugilist at the end of the screen and attacking poor Blanka
with a barrage of E. Honda’s hundred hand slaps from which there was no escape.
As this massacre was taking place there were 20 kids lined up to get their shot
at the champion of the moment, with Brandon screaming, “Stop cheaping me!
You’re cheaping me!” all the while. I personally always had more interest in
side-scrolling Fatal Fury/TMNT/The Simpsons/X-Men type games, where you
demolished an endless stream of side-scrolling enemies, but I couldn’t deny
that this was the hottest thing going.
By 1993, I was at the height of my new comic book collecting hobby. Superman had died the previous year, Batman’s back had just been broken
by Bane and every cover seemed to be made from aluminum foil. It was during
this time that I first beheld the iconic Mortal Kombat logo on the back
covers of my favorite comics and began to wonder what was this event was I was
supposed to be preparing myself for. When the TV ads featuring young urban males
flooding city streets screaming “Mortal Kombaaaat!” started popping up during every commercial break, I sensed that things
would never be the same again.
Suddenly on the playground where I was used to acting out
“Hadookans” and “Sonic Booms”, now I’m being told stories about “Fatalities”
and some guy named Rayden. “You can punch a guy’s head off!”, “One
guy rips off his face and breaths fire!”, I had a hard time believing any of
this could be possible. But sure enough, one day after school, there I was
watching my friend use Kano to rip the beating heart from Scorpion’s chest.
The excess gore wasn’t really my style, but it was
fascinating. Every 12 year old boy has some bloodlust in him after all. Within a
few minutes of watching I realized that I had seen the same style of “3-D/Real
Person” fighting in a game called Pit Fighter at an arcade in 1990, Mortal
Kombat just took it to the next level by adding gushers of blood and entrails.
Everything was EXTREEEEME in the 90’s, so it makes sense that our video games
would reflect that attitude.
Next thing I know Mortal Kombat is being featured on the news showing parents in an
uproar over this violence being sold to kids and suddenly it became the
forbidden game you could only play at your “bad news” buddy’s house. You know
the guy, the one whose parent’s let him watch Rated R movies and drink Mountain
Dew for breakfast. Just like a junkie who knows where to get his fix, I knew my
video game violence dealer well. By the time MK3 came out in 1995,
I was spending every day after school listening to The Jerky Boys and watching
Baraka slice up Reptile at his house.
During those 2 years everyone was jumping on the fighting
game bandwagon with offerings like Tekken, Virtua Fighter, Killer Instinct,
freakin’ dinosaurs fighting giant apes in Primal Rage, it was madness! Capcom
finally got my quarters by creating X-Men: Children of the Atom, wherein I
could play as my favorite characters from the X-Universe. All I needed to get
on board with fighting games was for the violence to be put in a comic book
context, “Of course Wolverine is fighting Silver Samurai, they have a
long-standing grudge. BERSERKER BARRAGE!”
Then the movie came out. Mortal Kombat was THE summer movie
of 1995 for me. I already had a crush on Bridgette Wilson (who played Sonya
Blade) from her role in Billy Madison and now she was a butt-kicking babe in
cut-off jean shorts? SOLD! Every character was so over the top and ridiculous,
it was a 13 year old male’s definition of entertainment. Sure Frenchman known
for playing an immortal Scotsman, Christopher Lambert was an odd choice for Rayden, but
he was the perfect level of silly in the role. I was so into the movie I even
bought the soundtrack on cassette. The only movie to get that distinction prior
to this frenzy was Aladdin and “A Whole New World” had nothing on “Juke-Joint
Jezebel” by KMFDM. It was after the movie rocked theaters and MK3 had been
flying off store shelves that the live show was announced.
In Orange County where I grew up, the event was going to
take place on October 21, 1995 at The Pond of Anaheim, where The Mighty Ducks
played hockey against other NHL teams. It actually seems a perfect fit in
retrospect, where the biggest draw of hockey is less the sport and more the
brawling, so too was Mortal Kombat less about martial arts than 32 bit mayhem.
I would say the thing I was most excited about was seeing live versions of newer
characters like Baraka, Cabal and Sindel who weren’t part of the first film and
didn’t get much respect in the dismal follow-up Mortal Kombat: Annihilation. Most
likely unaware of what Mortal Kombat was, since I never played it at home, my
Mom agreed to let me attend with my friend’s mom as our chaperon.
I was pretty excited to go to one of these shows. I had
friends who got to see the Masters of the Universe Power Tour live stage show
and the TMNT: Coming Out of Their Shells Tour, which had been a point of
extreme jealousy for years, so I psyched about being able to experience one of
these shows for myself. There were so many potential scenarios playing out in my head: Would we see an animatronic Goro smashing good guys? Would Sub-Zero freeze somebody in the crowd and break them into tiny pieces? Would Stryker...eat a doughnut?
When we arrived at The Pond, I remember booth after booth of
merchandise lining the circular hallways of the arena. I don’t remember what they were selling, as much as I remember the kids running around acting
out the fatal moves of their favorite characters. Of course the audience was
made up predominately of hyper-active young boys, most several years younger
than us. At 13, we were just on the edge of acceptable to attend, but we were
still excited for the show. So we shuffled to our seats up in the nosebleeds
and it was then that an interesting proposition came our way.
A woman approached our group with her young son and pointed
to a group of seats several levels below us. She said that she had some extra
tickets and would be happy for us to join them in watching the show from a
better view. Unbelievably my friend’s Mom said OK to the 2 of us following this
complete stranger down to the seats while she waited in our official spot with
his little brother. When we arrived we were to give her the sign that the seats
were ready and they would follow us down. Keep in mind, at 13 we didn’t see the
danger in this situation, we were all for this free upgrade, but our adult
guardian should have realized she could have been sending us into the kingdom of
Outworld under the care of Shang Tsung in the form of a middle aged woman.
When we arrived at the lower-level seating we were thrilled,
“This is great!”, we were thinking. We could now clearly see the set where Liu
Kang and Johnny Cage would be dispensing their brand of martial arts justice. Then
the security guard showed up. He asked the lady for her tickets to prove she
had claim to sit in this area and so she starts digging around in her purse.
“Oh, I know they’re here somewhere…It’s so dark in here…I just had them.” The
security guard was on to her immediately and said, “Ma’am, I’m afraid you are
going to have to go back to your original seats.” It was then we realized we
had been used. In her crazy brain she must have thought that the more kids you
have with you, the less security will want to disappoint them and just let you
squat in premium seats. We arrived broken-hearted and a little confused at our
distant seats to take in the spectacle.
The show itself was pretty disappointing and I doubt being closer
would have made it less so. The fights were more like something from an episode
of WMAC Masters than anything seen on a video game screen. In fact, I think
Hakeem “The Machine” Alston was playing Jax, so it wasn’t that far removed from
the kiddified martial arts seen on that FOX Saturday morning TV show.
Now that I think about it, “Red Dragon” Chris Casamassa from
WMAC Masters battled Robin Shou’s Liu Kang on the big screen as Scorpion,
Hakeem was the first guy to have his soul stolen by Shang Tsung in the movie
and “Superstar” Ho Sung Pak was the original Liu Kang model for MK 1 and 2. With
all those connections it’s no wonder Mortal Kombat became less edgy while
inspiring action figures, a cartoon show and eventual syndicated TV series. Like
Robocop and Rambo before, if there’s money to be made it’s going to get
sanitized for mass consumption. Less blood = mo’ money!
The MK legacy is currently being revived thanks to nostalgic
gamers worldwide, but I’ll always look back fondly on the original hysteria
that resulted in some “dangerous” attitudes and adventures during my youth. So
tell me, what was your favorite character, game or fatality in the series?
Moudy Posted on Dec 24, 2014 at 12:27 AM
One of the best games ever!
MissM Posted on Dec 16, 2014 at 08:18 AM
@Hoju Koolander I got it at a Book Stop or Walden books. It was in the magazine section. I have it somewhere, I will look for it and take a picture. It came out around the time of the release of MK 3. It had a break down of the characters, the creation of the game, the phenomenon of the game also with some details about the live tour. I must have read it over and over.
One of the funny things is that under each character profile, the characters answer questions like favorite food, favorite book, and one of them was like, who do you get mistaken for and Sonya Blade says She-Ra. I always loved that. Such a fun series. I just wish they'd make nice female figures to the games.
Hoju Koolander Posted on Dec 15, 2014 at 11:58 PM
@MissM Thanks. Glad to know I'm not alone in remembering that this thing existed. Where did you get the magazine? Super Market? Toy Store?
MissM Posted on Dec 15, 2014 at 06:13 AM
I so remember the MK live tour. I never saw it but I had this Kollector's Edition magazine that featured images of the cast. It was so cool. This article was perfect at capturing that feel of the time. I remember so many debates in the cafeteria about the merits of Street Fighter 2 or Mortal Kombat. Very cool images and a great article.
vkimo Posted on Dec 11, 2014 at 08:11 PM
Haha I never new Mortal Kombat went Broadway. Sounds kool.
I really don't rekall when the MK bomb dropped initially. I do remember begging my parents to take us to the movie. My mom was somewhat of a helikopter parent so I was amazed she konsented to this, klearly she didn't know a thing about it.
I remember shortly into the movie we see Liu's brother get the beat down from Shang Tsung. The whole time I was watching the movie I was also watching my mom who seemed more distressed by the moment. The final straw was when one of the guards did a flying jump kick and Sub Zero froze him and we him break into pieces and his frozen head slides up. Needless to say we left mid movie. I didn't see the point now because we already saw the worst part.
Hoju Koolander Posted on Dec 10, 2014 at 06:13 PM
@NLogan I almost referenced the Big Trouble In Little China Raiden/Rayden, he was always featured in the Saturday afternoon commercials for local TV broadcasts of the movie. I never knew about the different spellings or the breakdown in the original Japanese. Cool!
@Vaporman87 Typing letters to magazines/newspapers, the original comments section! I bet your letter was infamous around the EGM offices. Scorpion was always my favorite guy as well. I had an obsession with grappling hooks, so his weapon of choice gave him instant status with me.
Speaking of which, correction in the second to last paragraph: Johnny Cage fought Scorpion, not Liu Kang. Those freakin' colorful ninjas...
NLogan Posted on Dec 10, 2014 at 05:14 PM
Raiden (game spelling) and lightning from the three storms are way cooler than Rayden (movie and comic book spelling). Rai and den means thunder and lightning in Japanese, and is based off of Raijin the Shinto thunder and lightning god. He looks just like the Taoist god of thunder and has the Chinese character for thunder on his uniform.
Vaporman87 Posted on Dec 10, 2014 at 04:56 PM
@NLogan: LOL! Yeah, that "Rayden" was actually much cooler than the Lambert Rayden. Awesome movie.
NLogan Posted on Dec 10, 2014 at 03:50 PM
Raiden was my favorite from Big Trouble in Little China.
Shang Tsung was my favorite from the movie not because I liked it, But because I met the actor Carey Hiroyuki Tagawa and he was awesome and a super nice guy.
As for the video game I never played it much preferring to spend my quarters elsewhere. It never came out on the original NES that I rocked until college.
Vaporman87 Posted on Dec 09, 2014 at 11:34 PM
I was in my second year of college when this game first hit home consoles. I was fairly excited about it, though MK was never a favorite of mine.
But when things really turned ugly and we had government stepping in to try and censor games, I got a little more interested in not just the game, but how it was being received.
There is an article by raptor that covers a little bit of that episode. I enjoyed both versions for home consoles (the SNES and Genesis). For me however, I took my anger at some magazines, namely Electronic Gaming Monthly, to a whole other level. I too was seeing some editor bias in those days, and I was going to make my thoughts heard to these people. So one of my roommates and I typed up a 7 page letter and sent it to EGM.
I still have a copy of that letter. It's hilarious to read now (thinking that such a thing would matter at all in life). But I guess we all were a little passionate about stupid things in our youth.
As for my favorite character, I was always a Sub Zero/Scorpion fan.
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