STACK Magazine April 2015 Issue 126

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visit FEATURE GAMES
APRIL 2015 JB Hi-Fi
1Work began on Mortal Kombat in 1991. The
intention was to base a game on Jean-
Claude Van Damme, with the Belgian actor in
the starring role.
2There were only four members in the
original development team. Ed Boon did
the programming, John Tobias and John Vogel
handled the graphics, while Dan Forden was
responsible for the sound.
3 Mortal Kombat was completed in only eight
months.
4 Before they settled on
Mortal Kombat, early names
for the game included Dragon
Attack, Fatality, Death Blow and
Kumite.
5 Inspiration for the game
came from Tsui Hark's Zu
Warriors and The Swordsman,
and John Carpenter's Big
Trouble in Little China.
6 While heavily influenced
by Street Fighter 2, the
devs implemented the use
of digitised actors for characters instead of
animations. The point of difference on release
was startling.
7The digitised characters
were initially played by the
developers' friends and families.
This progressed to Chicago-
based actors.
8 Mortal Kombat was first
unleashed to arcades in 1992.
9Kung Lao's hat is modelled off
Oddjob in Goldfinger (1964).
10When ported to Super
Nintendo Entertainment
System, the gore was censored
and many of the fatalities were
removed to become 'finishing
moves'. SEGA opted to tone down
its version too, although by entering
the cheat code “ABACABB”, the
gore was unlocked.
11The original Mortal Kombat was
instrumental in the establishment of the
Entertainment Software Rating Board in the
US. Along with Time Killers and Night Trap , the
game also prompted the Australian government
to establish the Commonwealth Classification
Act on March 1, 1995. In 2011, the rebooted
Mortal Kombat was also refused classification
but later achieved an R18+ rating when Warner
Interactive appealed the decision.
12Despite the questionable quality of the
film adaptation, Mortal Kombat still took
$122 million at the box office in 1995.
13The soundtrack to the film went platinum
in just two weeks.
14The role of Johnny Cage was originally
given to Brandon Lee, prior to his death
while filming The Crow (1994).
15Before a scheduling clash prevented it,
director Steven Spielberg, a fan of the
To celebrate the release of Mortal Kombat X this month, we've thrown together
a fun Mortal Kombat two-pager that you will either find mildly entertaining,
or if you don't know the franchise, it will positively bore the arse off of you.