Fatality (Mortal Kombat)

A Fatality is a gameplay feature in the Mortal Kombat series of fighting video games. It is a finishing move in which the victor of the final round in a match inflicts a brutal and morbid execution on their defeated opponent. Fatalities are performed after the announcer says "Finish Him/Her" by players entering, within a short timeframe, specific button and joystick combinations while positioned a specific distance from the opponent. This feature is one of the most notable features of the Mortal Kombat series and has caused a large cultural impact and controversies.

While creating Mortal Kombat, Ed Boon and John Tobias started with the idea of Street Fighter II-like system and retained many of its conventions but tweaked others. The most notable additions were graphic blood effects, more brutal fighting techniques, and especially the fatal finishing moves (this was a novelty as the traditional fighting games ended with the loser simply knocked unconscious and the victor posing for the players), although the 1987 fighting game Barbarian: The Ultimate Warrior had previously featured blood and beheadings. According to Boon, it started with an idea to enable the player to hit a dizzied opponent at the end of the match with a "free hit", and that idea "quickly evolved into something nasty". According to Tobias: "Our first idea was to use them as a finishing move for final boss Shang Tsung, who was going to pull out his sword and behead his opponent. Then we thought, 'What if the player could do that to his opponent?' When we watched players react to the Fatalities, we knew we had no choice but to give them more." Former Midway Games programmer Mark Turmell stated that initially no one at Midway expected players to find the Fatalities in the game.

Unlike special moves, a Fatality may require certain distances and quick button sequences in order to achieve the desired result. Usually, every character has their own special Fatality that must be performed at a certain distance from the opponent, the three distances being: close (means that the finishing move won't work unless the player is right next to the opponent), sweep (means that the player should stand a step or two away from the opponent, but still within the distance that a sweeping low kick should hit) and far (means at least one jump's length away from the opponent).

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