PAX East Mortal Kombat Session Brings Back Memories, Provokes Deep Thought

As the first day of the Penny Arcade Expo East kicked off, Dave Oshry and I began to scour the floors in search for some hands on gaming fuel.

One of our first appointments was with Warner Bros. Interactive, and having grown up playing Mortal Kombat in the arcades, it was nice to get some joystick action via the arcade fitted units made available on the show floor.

We hunkered in for some 1v1 action, and while I had narrowed my character selection process down to either Sub Zero or Scorpion, I quickly learned of Dave’s affectionate bond with Johnny Cage. “I always play as Johnny Cage” he said. Well, alright then. I can’t stand Johnny Cage so the idea of freezing him over and over again was appealing, and with that I selected Sub Zero.

The first match ended with a Johnny Cage victory – courtesy of some low blow button mashing, but after getting my kombat wits in order I made quick work of him in the rematch. Neither of us were able to pull off a finishing move, though we both tried desperately only to throw a half-assed barely landing jab.

Disappointed with our Fatality wiffs, the two of us began to toss around a few “what ifs,” with the biggest one being “what if the game had Fatality Failure animations.” The idea would be that as you failed the fatality you would maybe freeze half your own leg instead and hobble around like an idiot or drop down for a split to punch your opponent in the groin only to pull a hamstring. Of course you would only see these if you messed up (like us).

In closing, Mortal Kombat brought back lots of good arcade memories and I am really looking forward to the full release of the game this April.  The End.