Mortal Kombat controversies

The Mortal Kombat series of fighting games, created by Ed Boon and John Tobias, has been the subject of various controversies since its creation in the 1990s. In particular, Mortal Kombat has often been criticised from a broad spectrum of politicians and other critics for its unrestrained use of graphic and bloody violence (both in the game's regular combat scenes and its Fatalities—finishing moves which allow the player to kill or otherwise maim opponent characters). The violent nature of the series, one of the earliest of its kind, has led to the creation and continued presence of the Entertainment Software Rating Board and other ratings boards for video games. Various Mortal Kombat games have been censored or banned in several countries, and the franchise was the subject of several court cases.

"In the past year, some very violent and offensive games have reached the mark, and of course I'm speaking about Mortal Kombat and Night Trap."

"On a couple of occasions there have been cheats which opened up taboo content and caused concern amongst the devout followers of Mary Whitehouse. Mortal Kombat had bloody violence as a standard feature in the arcades, but when it came home the ketchup needed to be activated with a code. Every version had this feature, with the exception of the versions on Nintendos consoles due to content guidelines. Mortal Kombat became one of the key games leading to the 1993 US Senate hearings on videogame violence, which led to the creation of the ESRB. While Nintendo had proudly trumpeted its less violent Mortal Kombat, the lure of the dollar was too much and Mortal Kombat II was released with blood on all formats."

The Mortal Kombat series' violence, particularly its "Fatalities", was a source of major controversy during the early 1990s. A moral panic over the series, fueled by outrage from the mass media, resulted in a Congressional hearing and helped to pave the way for the creation of the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) game rating system in 1994.

...
Wikipedia