The game that started the gore; Mortal Kombat.
Mortal Kombat, when you get right down to it, is Street Fighter with an Asian theme. Replace Ryu and the gang with Ninjas, and drop them all in Dojo's and Buddhist temples. It plays like your standard fighter, and the gameplay might leave you feeling a little empty. It's not the most imerrsive stuff out there, though that's not to say it's bad; just not deep. The first thing you'll love about MK are the graphics. They are incredibly well done. The character sprites look amazing in this game. I wish the same could be said for the animations, which can be a little choppy at times, but ussually hold up. The second thing you'll notice right away is that this is Mortal Kombat and there is no blood or gore. That's right, all of the blood has been replaced with sweat flying off your victim's body after being punch. A strange idea by Nintendo to make the game more kid-friendly. The sound is also impressive, all of the Eastren music is handled well. The voices of the characters sound good too. Mortal Kombat has two modes: Single player and Multiplayer. And single player is tough, and I mean tough. People used to the arcade mode in most fighting games today will be suprised. It first has you fight against all of the characters in the game, which is what'd you'd expect. Then you have to fight a shadow version of yourself, a little odd but not completely off the roof. Then it gets tough. Four fights that feature two characters (i.e. Scorpion and Sub Zero) against you. Now this is a challenge. And after that, right when you think your out of the woods, you got the two big guns everyone knows by now: Goro and Shang Tsung. Luckily, the options menu features a selection of five difficulty selections, so you can find what's right for you, making the game never feel cheaply hard, just challenging. The multiplayer is good fun with a friend, and rises the replay value. The thing about Mortal Kombat is you think it's going to be better than it actually is. Well, it started one of the most well known video game franchises ever, right? But when you look at it as a whole, it's just an average fighting game.