Given that most fighting games are inherently about having two or more opposing forces engage in a physical battle until one of them comes out victorious, it’s not really surprising that some of the genre’s titles go about this in a fairly brutal manner.
For the majority of its existence, Mortal Kombat has arguably been the king of fighting game gore, with its array of terrifying fatalities having spawned a lot of imitations over the years.
However, some fans are currently debating whether these finishers could do with a little bit of toning down.
Do you think Mortal Kombat's fatalities need to start prioritising creativity over gore?
The Resetera thread containing this debate began with a post from user Firmament1, who shared a video by YouTuber Tactical Bacon Productions, which argues that the brutality of the kills in recent Mortal Kombat games has begun to limit how well they can serve as an expression of character’s personality, as well as possibly making the games uncomfortable for developers to work on.
While Firmament1 admitted to not having enough experience with the games to offer an opinion, many in the thread certainly did, with a surprising number seeming to agree with at least some of what Tactical Bacon Productions had said.
For example, user Exposure suggested: “I feel like fatalities have hit this point of one-upping themselves to the point that it sometimes feels like watching (gore porn) than actual fatalities in the classic Mortal Kombat sense.”
Similarly, Dolce added: “Mortal Kombats (ten and eleven) went in a different direction, almost every fatality just has someone exploding with a bunch of realistically detailed, anatomically correct organs, etc flying everywhere. There's no real humour anymore, and it's not silly and cartoony anymore.
On the other hand, user spman2099 argued that this is still the case, saying: “Mortal Kombat is fine. The violence is extremely silly and primarily just played for laughs. Like it or not, it is a huge part of the series' character. It would be silly to tone it down.”
Meanwhile, one thing those in the thread did seem to agree on fairly unanimously was the point about developers having to watch gory footage in order to create the fatalities, with user Shopolic saying: “I love violence in Mortal Kombat games and it's one of the most important aspects of this series from the beginning, but if it harms the developers, they should change their methods without a doubt and their health is more important than these things.”
Regardless of how you feel about Mortal Kombat’s finishing moves, make sure to follow us for updates on Mortal Kombat 12 whenever new details about the game are revealed.