Mortal Kombat

How outrageous a video game is changes over time – some of the games that seem fairly innocuous today would have shocked an audience in the 80s or 90s. So it was with Mortal Kombat which provoked outrage on its release in 1992, thanks to unprecedented levels of violence. One particular feature was the finishing move, which was called a Fatality – once you’d defeated your opponent, you could use a special move to kill them. It was this mercilessness that marked Mortal Kombat apart from its competitors, and brought the phrase “Finish ’em” into everyday gamer parlance. It was the first game to ever be given a mature rating by the Entertainment Software Rating Board and was banned in several countries, but has gone on to become one of the most enduring franchises of all times, with many different versions of the game, along with TV shows, books and even a movie or two.