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Mortal Kombat Super Nintendo
By combining digitized character graphics and extreme violence, Midway's 1992 fighter revolutionized the U.S. fighting game genre, spawned a long-running series, and helped create controversy regarding video game violence.
Mortal Kombat is a 2D fighting game developed and released by Midway in 1992 for arcades. After initial popularity, it was ported to most fourth-generation consoles (in a special event known as "Mortal Monday").
The game was controversial due to the combination of excessive gore and violence (including post-battle execution moves known as Fatalities) and fully-digitized character graphics, two concepts that were introduced to the fighting game genre by Mortal Kombat. Originally designed as a video game starring Jean-Claude Van Damme (whose likeness can be seen in the character Johnny Cage), the game introduced a monstrous franchise that spawned a multitude of sequels, a series of comic books, music CDs, a live tour, two television shows, and two major motion pictures (Mortal Kombat and Mortal Kombat Annihilation).
The game revolves around the brutal Mortal Kombat tournament held in a hidden island ruled by the evil sorceror Shang Tsung (whose half-dragon, half-human bodyguard, Goro, remains the undefeated champion of the tournament). Each of the seven playable characters enter the tournament for different reasons (some for revenge, while others for glory). The main protagonist is Liu Kang, a Shaolin Monk of the White Lotus society who wants to bring honor back to the Mortal Kombat tournament. The main storyline was expanded through comics and sequels, involving the evil forces of Outworld, who use the tournament in order to take over Earth (known as Earthrealm).