Most settings are also either outdoors, during the daytime, or set regions of the world that are known to have dense populations. Many stages are settings where crowds watch and cheer, sometimes in large stadiums and settings that imply the fight as an organized spectated event, a prizefight or a tournament match. Most fighting games are focalized through the frame of the event spectator. The most prevalent arcade convention is the communication of the spectacle. So Mortal Kombat, Injustice and other games developed at the Netherealm studios in Chicago, have always had an easier time disconnecting from the arcade convention than games like Street Fighter, King of Fighters and Tekken. Remember that the “death of arcades” is more prevalent in the US and Canada than it is in places like Japan, parts of Europe and South-East Asian countries. Console based fighting games don’t necessarily need timers, or continue screens or ladder style progression structures, but they’re elements that have become characteristic of the genre, and fighting game enthusiasts are mostly used to them. Most of the accepted conventions and tropes of fighting games come from their long and deep historical relationship with the arcade environment.
Mortal kombat 4 ps2#
Mortal Kombat 4 showed an attempt to communicate something beyond the shock and gore that was characteristic of the series, and it paved the way for a group of PS2 games that took themselves just a little more seriously. This is is pretty typical for an artistic work, but new for Mortal Kombat, which for the first four titles were mostly flat gore-fests with a very messy 90s arcade style. It has a strong character, and its various elements are densely layered and focused to communicate a heavy tone, that’s only occasionally betrayed by its occasional narrative stumbles.
Mortal kombat 4 series#
And yet, Mortal Kombat 4 was the first game in the series to feel like it had real creative direction. MK4 also reveals the series’ identity crisis during the late 90s, a certain confusion and stumbling that was seen from several sequels trying to refocalize SNES inspirations through the 3D aesthetic.
Yet it fits in neither camp the game imposes systems that reflect both eras and presents a visual style similar to neither. Mortal Kombat 4 represents the state of transition between the SNES MK games and the PS2-era titles.
We can split up the Mortal Kombat games into these kinds “packs” of smaller sub-series, each with their own visual style, tone and interpretation of the universe. Deadly Alliance, Deception and Armageddon represent their own focused, mostly homogeneous sub-series in the same way that MK3, UKM3 and MK: Trilogy do, or MK1 and MK2. But when we look at the Mortal Kombat games from a different perspective, we see that they do have considerable value and are in fact quite interesting as games and as fighting games. And with these current expectations we seem to have for fighting games, it isn’t too surprising that the PS2-era games were generally seen as sub-par. So there isn’t much attention put to what fighting games do artistically. There’s a focus on design, but a very cold part of design that aims for “balance” and focuses on the optimization process, rather than the ideas and feelings design communicates and the experience it molds. This means that within discussions about Mortal Kombat, the PS2-era titles receive little attention.įighting games, much more than games in other genres, are mostly evaluated by their ability to be played competitively. DC Universe spin-off on the 360, act as the Dark Horses of the series-metaphorical scars from a depressive period from which MK9 signals its departure. The PS2-era Mortal Kombat games, Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance, Mortal Kombat: Deception, and Mortal Kombat: Armageddon, as well as the Mortal Kombat vs. The narrative of Mortal Kombat in those spaces is mostly that of loss, a tragic state of decline after UMK3 that ends though the release of Mortal Kombat 9, where the series goes “back to its roots” in a glorious redemption. Mortal Kombat as a series is often framed through a tone of lament within enthusiast fighting game c ommunities.