A timeline of Mortal Kombat ripoffs from the 1990s
NetherRealm’s winning formula kicked off a gold rush that never panned out
Graphic: James Bareham/Polygon
did.
In a five-year span, video gamers in arcades and their homes were overrun by fighting games that followed the same format: battles to the death, often organized by some supernatural being; a sinister announcing voice commanding players to execute a helpless opponent; gratuitously brutal finishers that seemed designed to provoke outrage and controversy, and secret moves with inside-joke meanings.
Here is a timeline of nine unapologetic
Mortal Kombat ripoffs. It’s noteworthy how many of them had launches that were scrubbed, and how many are linked to a platform’s demise in the late 1990s.