Collection essentials #224: Mortal Kombat (SNES)

I already talked about Mortal Kombat for the Sega Genesis, so please refer back to that post for more info on the game and the controversy behind it.

Mortal Kombat was one of the most violent video games in an era where graphic violence in games wasn’t a norm yet, which freaked people out. At first, when it came to controversy over violent video games, Nintendo first thought it best to side with concerned parents, pledging not to let blood and gore on their games in order to appear more principled, and so that consumers wouldn’t have to worry about it. Now, Mortal Kombat was a super popular game and Nintendo would have been silly not to want it made for their console. So Nintendo tried to have it both ways and make the SNES version very censored.

All the blood from the arcade version is gone in this release. Instead, when characters take certain hits, you’ll see sweat fly from their face. There are still finishing moves for the end of the fight when it’s time to kill the opponent, and actually three of them were basically unaltered since they didn’t involve blood in the original arcade game, but four of them had to be changed due to being too gory. They actually did a pretty good job with two of the censored fatalities, and Sub-Zero’s “freeze and smash” fatality from this particular version of the game went on to be seen in some form in many future series entries. However, two of the censored fatalities are just really lame, to the point where you see it and think “What even just happened?” 

And that’s arguably not the worst thing you can say about SNES Mortal Kombat 1, either. For some reason, they messed up the controls. The game feels very “stiff” in a way that the arcade and Genesis versions don’t. Sometimes characters don’t respond if you just quickly tap a button. Now, I got used to this version’s controls to the point where I’m comfortable with them, but it still doesn’t feel as smooth or satisfying to play as the aforementioned versions of this game.

On the positive side, though, this version succeeds in the graphics and audio department. The graphics are very faithfully recreated from the arcade version, something that certainly can’t be said of the Sega Genesis port. The music is a bit altered from the arcade version, but it could be argued that it sounds even better. 

Even if the gameplay had been smoother, the censoring of this version was still probably enough to kill this version’s reputation, as a lot of people were drawn to Mortal Kombat because of the blood and gore. Mortal Kombat 1 on the Sega Genesis greatly outsold its SNES counterpart and helped turn the tides in Sega’s favor for a time during these years of tight competition. As you’ll discover in my next blog posts, Nintendo would learn their lessons from this debacle.

As for me, Mortal Kombat 1 on the SNES is quite a nostalgic title. It might have been the first fighting game I ever played. Somehow my family got their hands on a copy, and I remember my first time playing it, having no real idea what I was doing. I kept trying all the different characters and Johnny Cage kept kicking my butt over and over. Then I finally played as Johnny Cage, and Kano kicked my butt instead. This was when I was about 6 six years old, and I think I remember my mom thinking the game was too violent for me at that time, even though this version was censored, so my parents got rid of it before very long. But a while later, when I was about 12 and finally got my own room with a TV, my mom found some old video game stuff at yard sales including a spare Super Nintendo with some games, including this Mortal Kombat cartridge shown in the photo, and I was happy to have it back. So it’s basically my “second childhood copy.” For being both historically and personally significant, this game is a clear essential.