How Mortal Kombat Changed the Gaming World – Advanced

General English

How Mortal Kombat (and moral panic) changed the gaming world

Level: AdvancedTime: 60 minFocus: Phrasal Verbs

TEXT:

📋 Overview

1Warmer

2Key Words

3Comprehension

4Key Language

5Discussion

6In Your Own Words

Article

HIGHLIGHT:

Gaming & Culture

How Mortal Kombat (and moral panic) changed the gaming world

On its release in 1993, Midway's gore-filled fighting game ushered in a new era of hyperviolent gaming that continues to influence the industry to this day

Keith Stuart03 November, 2025

1On 9 December 1993, Democratic senator Joe Lieberman sat before a congressional hearing on video game violence and told attendees that the video game industry had crossed a line. The focus of his ire was Mortal Kombat, Midway's bloody fighting game, recently released on the Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo Entertainment System after a successful run in the arcades. "Blood splatters from the contestants' heads," he told the room. "The game narrator instructs the player to finish his opponent. That player may choose a method of murder ranging from ripping a heart out or pulling off the head of the opponent, with spinal cord attached."

2Lieberman's aim with the congressional hearing had been to force the US games industry into creating a formal ratings system, preventing minors from buying violent titles. He succeeded in that – the Entertainment Software Rating Board was established as a result of the hearing – but he also boosted a moral panic that had quietly begun with the launch of the Mortal Kombat arcade game in 1992. This then took on more urgency following the high-profile home console release on 13 September 1993 – a global simultaneous launch Midway named Mortal Monday.

3It's interesting now to watch those hearings and then look at the game they were describing. Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection is an anthology of the first four titles in the series, in arcade and various home console forms, as well as an array of spin-offs for the Game Boy Advance and PlayStation. The original titles are almost quaint relics of 1990s teen culture. The digitised visuals, created by filming actors performing martial arts moves then converting that footage into 2D sprite animations, are charmingly jerky and low-resolution, the controversial fatalities more bloodily amusing than horrifying.

4Playing again now, the game is obviously a product of twenty-something guys brought up on 80s horror films. Midway had originally assembled a four-man team including coder Ed Boon and John Tobias to produce a combat action game starring Jean-Claude Van Damme. However, when that deal fell through, Boon and Tobias imagined a competitor to hugely successful Capcom hit Street Fighter II, inspired by the wave of popular hyperviolent martial arts flicks such as Bloodsport and Best of the Best. Boon's elevator pitch was "the MTV version of Street Fighter", and the fatalities emerged throughout the development process, the team pulling in ideas from their favourite movies: RoboCop, Terminator and Enter the Dragon. Straight away, the company knew that blood and guts would mean notoriety and no one was fazed. Talking to Polygon in 2022, Boon said, "If there was something that we would even say, 'Is this going too far?' our CEO was like, 'No, go even further.' Plus we had [Midway game designer] Eugene Jarvis as our mentor […] he had just done Narc, which was a pretty violent game in its own right. So if anything, we were encouraged to go even further."

5In effect, the moral panic over Mortal Kombat was to the early 1990s what the video nasty controversy was to the early 1980s. It also ensured the success of the series. Mortal Kombat became the biggest-selling game of the Christmas season and beyond, shifting six million copies across multiple machines. What the Kollection shows is how adaptable the games have been, taking the original arcade concept on to handheld platforms and then into the 32-bit console era where spin-offs Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero and Mortal Kombat: Special Forces expanded into the action-adventure genre.

6For the industry itself, the Mortal Kombat panic simply became a new front on which to fight the console wars. Sega courted the controversy, allowing Mega Drive owners to access the full gore of the arcade version by inputting a "secret" code. By contrast, Nintendo sought to bolster its family-friendly image by removing fatalities and turning the game's blood into grey "sweat". Unsurprisingly, it was the Sega version that sold best.

7There have been many media panics since this one. Doom remained a tabloid fixture for the entire 1990s, becoming inextricably linked with the Columbine school shooting due to Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold's interest in the game. Grand Theft Auto and Call of Duty were regular targets throughout the 2010s, and more recently Fortnite has been accused of leading a generation of schoolchildren into addiction. But the sight of Joe Lieberman in that wood-panelled senate room describing gruesome images from Mortal Kombat – as well as Night Trap and Lethal Enforcers – retains its unique fascination.

8This was a turning point for the games business – it was the era in which the focus shifted from children to teens, from abstract puzzlers and platformers to graphically rich shooters, bloody fighting games and adult-oriented action adventures. Midway set out to discover exactly what it could get away with. The answer shaped the entire industry.

📋

Lesson Overview

About This Lesson

This article explains the historical importance of Mortal Kombat and how it created a whole new market for video games.

Level: Advanced (C1)
Skills: Reading, Speaking, Writing
Language Focus: Phrasal verbs (bring up on, fall through, get away with, pull off, rip out, do out, catch on, figure out, put off, think through)
Time: 60 minutes
Activities: Key words (match + fill-in × 20) · Comprehension questions · Key language: phrasal verbs · Discussion · In your own words

👈 The article is on the left. Use tabs to navigate. Choose a highlight colour and select text to mark in the article — you can use all three colours at once. Click ✕ to clear all highlights.

Warmer

Discuss these questions in pairs.

🤔

Why are young people frequently attracted to doing what they are told not to do?

🎮

Which examples can you think of when young people deliberately do the "wrong thing" for enjoyment?

🛒

Which products deliberately attract young consumers by looking like they are the "wrong thing" to do?

Key Words

a. Match the correct word to each definition

Find the words in the article to read them in context. Some of the words may appear in a different form in the article.

quaintassemblebloodyfatality boostcombatlow-resolutionconsole arcadecontroversialgruesomehorrifying irelaunchmoral panicopponent retainspin-offjerkysplatter

having poor image quality with unclear or blocky details —

old-fashioned in a nice or charming way —

to keep something or continue to have it —

a new game, show, or product that comes from an existing one —

to splash drops of liquid (often something messy) in different directions —

fighting during a game or in a war —

causing a lot of discussion or disagreement —

a place with many coin-operated games you can play —

to put parts together to make something —

10.

an electronic device used to play video games —

11.

a death caused by an accident or violence —

12.

very shocking and making you feel afraid —

13.

a strong fear that something is dangerous for society —

14.

very unpleasant and shocking, especially because of blood or injury —

15.

anger or strong annoyance —

16.

moving in sudden, uneven, or rough motions —

17.

to release something new to the public —

18.

something covered in blood or showing a lot of blood —

19.

to help something increase or become better —

20.

the person or team you are playing against —

Answer Key (a):

low-resolution
quaint
retain
spin-off
splatter
combat
controversial
arcade
assemble
console
fatality
horrifying
moral panic
gruesome
ire
jerky
launch
bloody
boost
opponent

b. Complete the sentences

Complete the sentences with words from part a. You might have to change the form of the word.

1.The studio plans to the new game before the end of the year.

2.In the building game, you must your robot before the battle starts.

3.Some players said the horror level was too for younger gamers.

4.The sudden price increase caused a lot of in the gaming community.

5.The character's movements were because of the bad animation.

6.The new game feels like an old game, but with modern graphics.

7.The graphics are to make it look like the classic version of the game.

8.The village in the adventure game feels , with small houses and old lamps.

9.The game lets you your items even if your character dies.

10.The developer released a(n) game with the same main characters.

11.When the monster explodes, green slime all over the screen.

12.I always feel great after winning a game and it can really my confidence.

13.The most popular fighting games often show military .

14.The fighting game shows a short animation when a(n) happens.

15.It is a very game and you can kill the other players in many different ways.

16.It is a really scary game with some sounds.

17.Some news programmes created a(n) by saying the games cause bad behaviour.

18.I don't like it when the computer is the because I always lose.

19.The big game companies sell a new almost every Christmas.

20.The final scenes in the game were and some loved them, but others really complained.

Answer Key (b):

launch
assemble
gruesome
ire
jerky
arcade
low-resolution
quaint
retain
spin-off
splatters
boost
combat
fatality
bloody
horrifying
moral panic
opponent
console
controversial

Comprehension Check

Answer the questions using information from the article. Write in complete sentences.

1.Which two ways of finishing an opponent were described by Joe Lieberman?

2.What form of regulatory mechanism did Joe Lieberman advocate for in the gaming industry?

3.By what process did the creators of Mortal Kombat generate its combat animations?

4.Which fighting game held widespread popularity prior to the emergence of Mortal Kombat?

5.What do you think was meant by 'the MTV version' of a game?

6.How is Mortal Kombat compared to video nasties?

7.What is meant by the term 'console wars'?

8.Why did Sega sell more copies of Mortal Kombat than Nintendo?

9.Which other games have been blamed for affecting young people negatively?

10.According to the article, how did video games change fundamentally in the Mortal Kombat era?

Key Language: Phrasal Verbs

a. Match the verbs to their particles

Use the article to help you find the correct particle for each verb.

1.bring

2.fall

3.get

4.pull

5.rip

Answer Key (a):

c (bring up on)
d (fall through)
e (get away with)
b (pull off)
a (rip out)

b. Complete the table with the verbs below

Place each verb in the correct particle column.

docatchfigureputthink

out	off	up on	through	away with

Answer Key (b): figure out · put off · catch up on · think through · do away with

c. Complete the sentences

Complete the sentences using the verbs and particles from tasks a and b in the correct form.

1.She was classic arcade fighters, so Mortal Kombat was easy for her.

2.The plan to launch a new four-player mode when the company pulled funding.

3.Players quickly learned they could using the same combo move all the time.

4.He was desperate to play and immediately the plastic wrapper from the game.

5.In the second version, they decided to the core moves and create new ones.

6.It took me hours to how to kill the final boss.

7.They had to the release of the game until the console was ready for sale.

8.I spent the weekend all the places I'd missed on the map.

9.The developers had to how the violent content would affect the game's rating.

10.The team decided to the health bar to have more space on the screen.

Answer Key (c):

brought up on
fell through
get away with
ripped off / ripped out
do away with
figure out
put off
catching up on
think through
do away with / pull off

Discussion

Discuss these statements. Give your reasons and refer to your own experiences where possible.

🎮

Video games should be available for everyone to play, irrespective of the degree of violence.

🚫

There is no constructive or beneficial application for video games.

💡

Had Mortal Kombat never existed, no one would have developed games specifically targeted at teenagers.

In Your Own Words

a. Complete the table with the examples of controversial media

Place each item in the correct column: Mortal Kombat by Midway (1992) · The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie (1988) · Big Brother by Banijay Entertainment (2000) · Fountain by Marcel Duchamp (1917) · WAP by Cardi B & Megan Thee Stallion (2020)

Art	Books	Music	TV Programmes	Video Games

b. Add other examples

In groups, add other examples of controversial media to the table above.

c. Choose one example and describe its influence

Try to include phrasal verbs from this lesson. Here is an example to help you.

When Marcel Duchamp pulled a urinal off a bathroom wall and submitted it as art, he forced people brought up on traditional art to see art in new ways. By choosing an object normally meant to only be seen on a bathroom wall, he forced audiences to figure out why context, not skill, might define artistic value. Ultimately, this act did away with the idea that art must be technically brilliant or visually beautiful to be important.

Your response

d. Present to the group

Present the piece of controversial media that you chose and explain its influence. Decide which example was the most influential in the group.

Presentation notes