Foes of the Arcade - Mortal Kombat (1992) - Shang Tsung
Note: Foes of the Arcade is a new series Iâll be undertaking as an excuse to both exercise my incredibly rusty writing skills and spend more time in my office tinkering with MAME under the guise of doing something useful so as not to draw the ire of my wife. If you realize that last sentence was a run-on, you can see why this is a necessary exercise.
The Game
Born of a failed attempt to create a licensed JCVD gaming-vehicle, Mortal Kombat uppercut its way into arcades in the summer of 1992. When Midwayâs licensing opportunity fell-through, the developers Ed Boon and John Tobias decided instead to create an ultra-violent, fighting-game spoof of classic Kung Fu movies like Enter the Dragon. Games that shift licenses or themes midway through development rarely gain any following at home or in the arcade (Iâm looking at you Sun-Man and Journey to Silius), Mortal Kombat bucked that trend by inspiring a generation of angsty teenagers to flock to arcades and WalMart foyers. The Muscles from Brussels would go on to star in Street Fighter: The Movie: The Game, a fighter that isnât nearly as bad as its terrible title and reputation would have you believe, but seemed hilarious in light of how bad the movie on which it is based turned out to be.
Fear not JCVD superfans, we got this instead, with infinitely more Raul Julia
It didnât take long before the stupid, mid-western moms that went after Al Bundyâs jokes about menstruation took note of the graphic violence happening to the lifelike, digitized character models that were notable and realistic-seeming for the time. News crews flocked to the arcades and the footage of dumb teenagers praising the murder-simulation stirred noted crumbling-society-detective Senator Joseph Lieberman from his Oden-sleep. The rest of the story is history: Sega ate shit in front of a congressional committee of noted elderly congressmen while Nintendo backed the bus over them, meanwhile arcade industry representation sat in the back of the room and hoped nobody realized they were ultimately the cause for the entire hearing. Mortal Kombat isnât solely responsible for the fallout: warning labels on the arcade cabinets themselves and the creation of the ESRB for console and PC games, but it certainly accelerated the case for a Parental Advisory system for games.
Joe Lieberman: Rated B/O for Boring and Opportunistic
The game itself really requires little explanation, itâs a straightforward Street Fighter clone that stood out in a sea of similar games. It wasnât just the violence that makes the MK series notable though, as MK titles were technically sound (balance issues aside) and juggling your bloody opponent across the screen was quite fun. So many games of this era were simple rip-offs of the Street Fighter formula that did nothing original with the format, and in many cases aped their inspiration quite poorly (go play the first World Heroes or the TMNT fighting game right now if you canât recall this era).Â
Both Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat feature two distinct styles of fighting: quarter-circle-fireball-moves and charge-type moves like Blankaâs shock or E. Hondaâs hundred-hand-slap. The way these styles are implemented in each game differ greatly. Mortal Kombat requires the player to hit a button to block, rather than holding back in the SF-style, creating a much more offensively-oriented playstyle that moves the action forward at a faster pace. As a consequence of this, the way charge moves work in MK is much different: the player doesnât âchargeâ the move at all, but enters a series of directional inputs to send Raiden or Kano careening towards his opponent. Because of this difference in implementation, characters in MK1 arenât simply âchargeâ or âfireballâ types, but often have a mix of both styles.
Thereâs only one serious problem with this classic: the cheap-ass AI. This game is balls-hard for all but the most dedicated of players, and I really question how successful the series would have been if seeing the fatalities didnât make getting splattered so worthwhile. All of Midwayâs games are designed to steal your money, but this series is downright devious. All of the 2D Kombats use the controversial technique known as input scanning, wherein the AI isnât really AI at all, it waits for you to input a movement and performs the perfect counter. MK1 isnât nearly as bad as its sequel, it will let you win a bit more, but if youâve ever felt like your opponent knew what you were doing before your character actually did it: HE/SHE DID.Â
The Hero
Sub-Zero wasnât always my favorite palette-swapped ninja, I was a Scorpion man as a kid, but I think switching favorite-ninjas is a true sign of maturity. Sub-Zeroâs story is particularly tragic as heâs actually murdered in the canon of this series, in this initial tournament, in fact. All of MKâs characters would get wonderfully fleshed-out stories as the series advanced, with their endings strangely not being canonical for the most part: you would have to wait for the next entry in the series to figure out which character actually won the Mortal Kombat tournament. Sub-Zero mains in Mortal Kombat II were treated to the news that their hero was killed in the midst of the first game, but fear not, his gear was picked up by his identical-looking brother who is now seeking revenge. Spoilers above.
Sub-Zero is one of the few characters that I feel like is even somewhat-equipped to deal with the cheapness of this gameâs AI. His slide move is a perfect compliment to any jump kick or uppercut, allowing you to combo damage and put forth a better showing. When you team this with his ice ball, that mercifully isnât blocked every goddamn time you use it like it would be in the sequel, you get a formidable character.
Perhaps more interesting than the character himself is the drama that took place behind the scenes with the actor that brought him to life (and many other characters). Daniel Pesina was a martial artist and aspiring actor from the Chicagoland Area that was recruited to play most of the characters in Mortal Kombat 1 and 2 by his younger brother, Carlos, already a Midway employee. The details of the eventual split and recasting are murky, but apparently it boils down to the fact that Mortal Kombat bankrolled Midway for a few years and Pesina had the gall to expect royalties from the likeness(es) that allowed this company to continue existing longer than it otherwise would have. We may never know what the dispute ultimately was, likely something petty and stupid and totally affordable by Midway, but Pesina left the team after MK1 and was ultimately replaced. Rumors abound that this drama was the reason why Johnny Cage was killed off after MK2 and didnât appear in the third game until the third expansion, Mortal Kombat Trilogy.
The Villain
This son of a bitch: Shang Tsung, the poor manâs Lo Pan. The temptation to pick Goro, Shang Tsungâs bitch and sub-boss, for this blog was very strong, but I feel like everyone writes about Goro and thereâs nothing left to say about him. In reality, Shang Tsung was always the more compelling big-bad, even if we had to wait for the movie to figure out exactly why. Shang Tsungâs motivation for competing in the Mortal Kombat tournament is some fuck-y agreement he made with Raiden and the Elder Gods a thousand years ago, wherein if he or his champion wins the tournament ten consecutive times, he gets to invade Earth and claim it for himself.
Sure, we would find out in subsequent games that he was actually acting on behalf of a beefier, less-interesting shithead named Shao Kahn, but letâs not ignore the compelling context of 1992! Also, letâs set aside how stupid it was to allow Shang Tsung to allow his own champion AND himself to defend his title ten consecutive times, of course theyâre likely to win and of course heâd pick a four-armed shotokan named Goro to be his buffer, so what, Earth (Earthrealm, in the lore) has like... Kung Lao (whose descendant wouldnât appear until the second game) and stuff!Â
You would have to shut your brain off to see the logic of creating special rules to distract a dark-magic shithead from invading the baby-world of Earth instead of just killing him yourself, apparently an ability the Elder Gods would have all along according to the lore of later games, but it made the story of this game possible, and I love it, so letâs entertain the notion. Shang Tsung is a shape-shifting, elderly badass that exists only to throw the highest-calibrated AI foes of your past at you until you rage-quit and go home.Â
His primary attack is morphing into Goro wherein he fist-pound and throws your ass into a bloody pool on the ground. On top of that, heâs capable of morphing into any other character in the game, on the highest difficulty-setting, mind you. Finally, on top of all that, he has his own special move that is basically a three-chained Liu Kang fireball that takes half of your health.
The Outcome: Epic Failure!Â
Watch the video below if you want to see a man become tired in real-time. After slamming into the brick wall that is Goro around ten times, I cleared him and managed to make it to Shang Tsung, who I remember being significantly easier on Sega Genesis. In the arcade, the story was quite different. Iâve ranted a not-insignificant amount about how Midway games steal your money, and Shang Tsung is no different. Donât expect some kind of vacation because you beat sub-boss, Shang Tsung is just as difficult. I ultimately rage-quit after seeing my performance fall to sad levels.
The Damage