While his size would not be a problem (all the playable characters were digitally resized to be the same height), the impending difficulty of creating an extensively detailed fur-lined costume, however, led to Midway's revamping of the character into the game's four-armed boss in the same way as Goro. Kintaro was originally going to be a playable character (a tall anthropomorphic tiger with two arms). It should be noted that in each new game, his feline features stand out more than the last. According to his Mortal Kombat (2011) bio, this is indicative of the lower-class Tigrar clan of Shokan, differing from the more elite-class Draco clan that Goro and Sheeva belong to, so there are likely more of his kind out there. Unlike Goro and Sheeva, Kintaro has tiger striped markings all over his body as well as sharp fangs, claws and feline-like feet. He is the only member of his race seen thus far to have unique features. The draw of the Fatalities in the original Mortal Kombat is a major reason why the franchise became so big and why it's still going strong to this day.Kintaro replaced Goro after Goro was defeated by Liu Kang in Mortal Kombat. The Fatality system wouldn't have been anywhere near as effective if it only belonged to an end boss, especially as most players likely would never have seen it in the arcades. There are a number of classic video game elements that were created by accident, such as the combo system in the Street Fighter games.
The developers loved the effect this had on the game and it became the Fatality system, which helped propel Mortal Kombat to stardom in the arcades. This became Johnny Cage's first Fatality. During development, Mortal Kombat co-creator Ed Boon combined the decapitation response animation with Johnny Cage's uppercut, as he was the only character coded into the game at the time. Shang Tsung was going to be the only character with a Fatality, as he would use his sword to behead opponents.Īs Mortal Kombat used digitized images of real actors for its sprites, an animation was recorded specifically for the beheading scene, where a character would slump to the ground. This led to a discussion about Shang Tsung's original design and how he was originally meant to use a sword. Mortal Kombat co-creator John Tobias was asked on Twitter about why some fighters like Kano and Scorpion were allowed to use weapons in the original game. The Fatalities in Mortal Kombat are a major part of the series' identity, and it came about by accident.
Related: Mortal Kombat Stars Ludi Lin & Max Huang Want a Shaolin Monk Spinoff Mortal Kombat gave each of its characters a Fatality, which was a special move that could be used when the "Finish Him/Her" prompt appeared on screen, leading to an incredibly violent cutscene that showed the victor killing their enemy. The violence in Mortal Kombat led to the creation of the ESRB, which still gives age ratings to video games in America to this day. Mortal Kombat was still a great fighting game, but the crowds came to look at the spurts of blood and the graphic murders that would take place at the end of matches, as there was nothing else like it in gaming at the time.
Mortal Kombat and Doom are two titles credited with bringing ultra-violence into mainstream video games.įatal Fury and Street Fighter II became popular in the arcades due to their competitive PvP matches, while Mortal Kombat became popular due to its blood and gore. The co-creator of the Mortal Kombatseries has explained how the iconic Fatalities came to be, as they were originally only meant for a single character.