Mortal Kombat

The original Mortal Kombat (shortened MK) was made by utilizing digitized sprites, which were based on actors. This was a relatively new thing back when it was created in 1992, as most fighting games featured animated cartoon graphics.Amongst the series, the game has grown a great reputation for its extremely grotesque violence. Notably the most gory part of the game was the famous fatality ability, which involved some sort of decapitation of the opponent.

Finishing moves (like the fatality) in later games included the Animality (turning into an animal to violently finish off the opponent), the Mercy (where the victor gives a little health to the opponent, stupid in my opinion, MORE BLOOD), the Hara Kiri, the Brutality (bashing an opponent into pieces with a long combination of hits), the Friendship (such as giving the opponent a flower or a present instead of murdering them...)and the Babality (turns your opponent in to a baby).

The Babality and Friendship moves were created as a satirical non-violent finishing move, a sarcastic swipe at the U.S. congressional Investigation for Violence in Video games who came down harshly on the Mortal Kombat games. Purists, such as myself, who fonder of the earlier style, were upset by the introduction of such finishing moves, and Mortal Kombat's "purely explicit" and dark gameplay was once again implemented upon the release of Mortal Kombat 4.

MK 4 was the first game to feature complete 3D design, but also replacing the fighters of the previous games with polygon characters. MK: Deadly Alliance game each character a unique set of fighting styles, as opposed to the single shared style amongst the previous games. It also included a "Konquest" mode, which would be developed for later titles into a story-based minigame. There were many other games created following the series, my favorite being Mortal Kombat: Armageddon, but you get the jist of what this MK thing really is.