Mortal Kombat Rip-Offs

[Mister Jack]

Remember how popular Mortal Kombat was in the 90s? Remember how everyone thought that blood and gore was the only thing you needed to make a popular fighter? Remember any of those horrible games that happened as a result of that logic? Well, let's remind the people whose brains are blocking out those memories!

 

 

Edited February 6, 2011 by Mister Jack

[Commander Shepard]

Eternal Champions: Challenge from the Dark Side

 

[staySICK]

I liked Eternal Champions.

 

but sure.

 

[Cyber Rat]

Legless victory? Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?

[Commander Shepard]

Legless victory? Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?

You don't need legs to win, and sometimes, you don't need arms.

[Cyber Rat]

I'll be honest, I had no idea of any of these ripoffs' existence during their time (except for Primal Rage). Looks like their failure stateside was big enough to never reach this part of Europe. Can't say I feel sorry.

 

And "Ultra Vortex Annihilations"? How can you make a game with such an awesome name and have it look like crap?

[Mister Jack]

I liked Eternal Champions too, actually. But it was definitely riding MK's coattails.

[HotChops]

Maybe it's my age, my conservative upbringing, or the possibility that those all released on Genesis, but I don't remember any of those except Primal Rage.

 

Eternal Champions looks okay.

 

This reminds me of that Simpsons X-mas episode with Bonestorm. They show the gameplay during a commercial and remember thinking at the time, "Oh come on, that game is crap. Mortal Kombat isn't that bad!"

 

But years later when I watch it, I think their depiction was pretty accurate. And I don't mean that in a bad way, more like in a lovingly satirical way.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vHpwVeL1xXk

 

(I couldn't find it in English.)

[Yantelope]

I remember Time Killers being the most violent of the MK era. I don't know of any fighting games now where you just lose limbs whilly nilly and where you can get decapitated mid round and lose instantly at any point. Oh, and if you lost an arm you could hit the button for that arm and shoot blood at your opponent. That's good gaming right there.

Edited February 8, 2011 by Yantelope

[NeoStarr]

I bet if some indie group released a new game in this style it might fare pretty well; so long as it was tongue-in-cheek and made lots of references to this era. I'd probably play it.

[Cyber Rat]

Maybe it's my age, my conservative upbringing, or the possibility that those all released on Genesis, but I don't remember any of those except Primal Rage.

 

Eternal Champions looks okay.

 

This reminds me of that Simpsons X-mas episode with Bonestorm. They show the gameplay during a commercial and remember thinking at the time, "Oh come on, that game is crap. Mortal Kombat isn't that bad!"

 

But years later when I watch it, I think their depiction was pretty accurate. And I don't mean that in a bad way, more like in a lovingly satirical way.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vHpwVeL1xXk

 

(I couldn't find it in English.)

 

My reading up on the games listed here seems to hint at Bonestorm being a parody of Blood Storm rather than Mortal Kombat. Another thing that points towards that was that they were obviously playing a Mortal Kombat parody (Liu Kang VS... a tank) when the Santa came in carrying Bonestorm. And Blood Storm also had an ad campaign making fun of Mortal Kombat.

 

Fact is, compared to what fighting games have evolved into, MK games have aged very poorly. But I think the fact that everyone remembers MK in that pool of cheap knockoffs speaks enough about the series not being utter crap.

 

(And hooray for Die Simpsons!)

 

I bet if some indie group released a new game in this style it might fare pretty well; so long as it was tongue-in-cheek and made lots of references to this era. I'd probably play it.

 

This makes me sad.