bromaxbro/mk repository overview

⁠Mortal Kombat's love for 80's characters explained

If you ever come close to a Mortal Kombat game in the last few years, you will have undoubtedly noticed some of its guest characters⁠ in the roster are well known from their 80's appearances in movies, tv, and comics. As of the latest game in the series, MK11 Ultimate, The Joker, Terminator, Rambo, and Spawn have come into the roster.

For most fighting games, crossover characters usually take the form of fighters from other franchises. See, for example, Tekken 7 and the addition of Akuma⁠, who is originally from the Street Fighter Universe. So what is the deal with Mortal Kombat and the 80's pop culture zeitgeist?

⁠Ed Boon's and John Tobias

To start, Ed Boon holds a lot of influence in the franchise. Being the co-creator of it and working on nearly every game in the franchise. From Midway and NetherRealm Studios after. He is, without a doubt, the creative leader for the series. But there is another half to the birth of the MK Franchise, John Tobias. Even to this day, you can go to his Twitter⁠ and get unique insights from Midway's creative process with the first few games.

It is here that we can tell you a universal truth about MK characters. They are all inspired by 80' pop culture. Sub-Zero, Sonya, Raiden. They are all inspired in some capacity by Tobias and Boon's love of pop culture.

Although the two have since gone their ways, Boon moved to Warner Brothers and NetherRealms Studios specifically, and the latest information is that Tobias works as part of Zynga. However, he still comes back to the Mortal Kombat franchise to assist in Comic Tie-ins, as he is a great comic artist.

⁠Something different from the norm

As stated earlier, most fighting games tend to keep their crossovers to the general FGC. But many of the latest generations of fighting games have opened themselves up to the broader media world. For example, Brawhalla, a platform fighter in Super Smash Bros's spirit, has done crossover characters and skins with the WWE, Rayman, Ben 10, and more.

For Mortal Kombat, it all began back in 2011, yes that is one decade ago, with the reboot of the franchise under the new NetherRealm Studio moniker and bankrolled by Warner Brothers. As part of the Komplete edition of the game, Freddy Kruger was made available to those that upgraded or purchased that version. Also, Kratos, from the God of War series, was known for the PlayStation version.

From then on, the inclusion of guest characters has slowly morphed from a fun little bow added at the tail end of development for one of the games to something fans of the series generally wish for, if not outright expect, with each new piece of DLC.

It is only a matter of time until characters from franchisees that have long been seen as uncrossable begin to make their way into games. Who knows, maybe Darth Vader could be the next character for a Mortal Kombat DLC.

⁠Mortal Kombat’s pop culture zeitgeist

If you think of fighting games, I am willing to bet that MK is a series that will cross your mind rather quickly. Sure, it is not the one people in the FGC might go for on any given day to tell you about. But it is the one most people, or demographics, will be recognized at a glance.

The big teenage violence scare of the '90s did wonders for the franchise PR. Decades later, it is uniquely situated to be a bit of a bridge between hardcore gaming audiences, who are also likely to be consumers of most pop culture, and larger audiences that might be familiar with both MK and other media properties.

Think of it like this, Fortnite stronghold on pop culture for teens is akin to what MK could have been in early 2000, where crossovers and brand integration been a thing back then. So now the MK audience is somewhat primed to welcome in these collaborations between a beloved game franchise and pop culture classics that would otherwise have a hard time tapping into hardcore gamers markets.

⁠Characters featured in the franchise so far

As of the time of writing, a total of 11 characters have been added to the franchise in some way. In no particular order these are:

• Freddy Krueger, for the Mortal Kombat Komplete edition
• Kratos, As a bonus character for Mortal Kombat for PS Owners
• Alien, as part of a Mortal Kombat X DLC
• Predator, if there is an Alien, there must be a Predator
• Jason Voorhees, also from an MKX DLC
• Leatherface, Why one horror villain if you can have two?

From here on, these are all characters added in MK11 DLCs:

• John Rambo
• The Joker
• The Terminator
• Spawn
• RoboCop There is a lot to look forward to when it comes to cameos, skins, and entirely new characters in the FGC space. As esports and gaming become more mainstream, companies will look to place their brands in front of the demographics they want most.