History
Mortal Combat is an American media franchise that produced series of video games. The game was first developed by Midway Games in 1992. It was based on an idea that Ed Boon and John Tobias had an idea of a game where Jean-Claude Van Damme is the main character and the whole game would be based on it. Unfortunately, the goal was not accomplished but on the positive side, a fantasy-themed fighting game was created instead, nonetheless hinting of him with movie character Johnny Cage, where his initials and personal style resemble Van Damme’s. By creating the Mortal Kombat a trend was created as well – “secret fighter”. One can reach that level if the player fulfilled a set of requirements
The original game has spawned many sequels and spin-offs consisting of several action-adventure games, as well as a comic book series and a card game. Moreover, shortly after the game was created the license was given to the movie producer Lawrence Kasanoff leading to the first movie of the franchise. Kasanoff also produced the second movie, animated TV series, live-action TV series movies, the first one million platinum-selling albums, and a live-action tour. In a short time Mortal Kombat has become the best-selling fighting game franchise worldwide and one of the highest-grossing media franchises of all time.
The idea behind the “plot”
Any fighting game kind of needs a storyline in order to be unique. Not just for the characters, but for the world itself. Who are those characters? Why are they fighting? Where are they fighting? Are they heroes?
The answer of those was kind of given in the first Mortal Combat movie. Sometimes the sequels just retread the same plot over and over (ie. the Soul Calibur games and King of Fighters). Nevertheless, Mortal Kombat has been able to hold its own for over 25 years due to embracing its own confusing mythology and finding ways to be fresh.
There’s a reason why the Mortal Kombat plot has been spread in different forms. There have been ten fighting games plus upgrades that are part of its canon and a few side games (Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe, Injustice: Gods Among Us, and the wonderful Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks are non-canon). With the rapid video games development, storytelling has become more advanced and twisted through the years. It used to be that we’d just get some profile text, ending text, and a couple of neat images. In the current situation, we get full universes and cinematic story modes.
The Mortal Kombat Multiverse
The multiverse of Mortal Kombat is split into dimensions or aka realms. We can consider them as alternate Earths, where the parallel universe does not exist. Basically, they are considered as different planets.
The main realms appear to be:
- Earthrealm is a realm similar to ours.
- Edenia is kind of a happy fairytale world made of magic and beauty.
- Outworld is where the bad guys live. It represents a world where violence and monsters run the dimension.
- Netherrealm is a representation of our Hell.
- Seido is the realm of order. By order, you can imagine not a single matter is “unordered”.
- Chaosrealm is the exact opposite of Seido, where anarchy is a way of life.
Then you got some of the random worlds like the world of reptile people, the world of vampires, the world of bug people, and so on.
The above-mentioned dimensions are ruled by gods, to some extend. The gods are split into three types: regular, Elder and Titans. The regular gods have the habit to meddle in man’s affairs in a limited sense. Like the exact opposite, the Elder Gods are higher on the power scale and don’t do much. Even higher on the scale in importance and power are Titans, who are hidden in the shadows.
As in any other universe, a war can appear between the realms. One of the properties of a realm is that it can absorb each other. When this event happens then a big mixed and not sustained blop is appearing. To avoid that the Elder Gods have written a book full of rules. Conquering and merging can only be done by invoking Mortal Kombat. The tournament will appear in every generation. The winner loses the ability to age until the next tournament. If the offending realm wins 10 tournaments in a row, then and only then do they have the right to overtake the opposite realm. Something to keep in mind is that the people in most of the other realms except Earthrealm, have incredibly long lifespans and live for thousands and thousands of years.
So now we can say that we kind of figure it out and we managed to explain why the tournament is happening. Moreover, because of the long life span, the whole of The Mortal Kombat Multiverse can be observed at different times. In the upcoming articles, we will discuss some of the major time spans and why they are important.
We, at RetroPyxel, are just as much eager to share our passion for retro gaming with you. Don’t forget to share your thoughts on this game in the comments section below.
Enjoy the week and see you next time!
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