While “Mortal Kombat” may not have invented video game violence, it certainly made everyone concerned about it. Having been banned in Australia, Germany, and South Korea, the notoriously gory fighting game actually prompted the creation of the ESRB video game ratings system. There’s even a Wikipedia page dedicated solely to the game’s controversies!
Though flying torrents of blood and the like are fairly standard for most games with any degree of violence, “Mortal Kombat” is so notorious for kicking the whole thing up a notch with the Fatality. For seasoned gamers, the words “Finish him/her!” are associated with brutal dismemberments and often complete disintegrations.
Now, a recent Reddit thread celebrating the iconic move is having a look at just how violent the Fatality has become over the years. Kicking off with the fairly tame Fatalities of the 1992 arcade original and going all the way to the gore of the highly anticipated “Mortal Kombat X”, which makes full use of modern graphic capabilities.
Through the power of GIFs, here we can see Scorpion flame-roasting up some Sub-Zero in one of the earlier releases:
To, uh, this:
Oh, yeah, and this:
