The Early Days of Mortal Kombat

In the early days of home console gaming all eyes were on Nintendo.  They seemed to have the winning formula for success in the early days, so developers didn't seem to challenge their rules.  While there were many great games out for the Nintendo and Super Nintendo, their strict policies on how violence was portrayed in games kept developers from pushing the envelope.  This policy made many developers to gear their games for children, and made the idea of games with adult themes very taboo.

How did Nintendo not find this good, wholesome fun for the family

The Mortal Kombat series was one that certainly didn't seek Nintendo's approval.  Debuting in 1992 with the original Mortal Kombat arcade game, the 2-dimensional fighting game made waves with it's realistic character models, and extremely violent content.  From the outset this made the series extremely popular.  And by 1995 there were two sequels to the hit out for arcades.

What made the game most shocking to most was the fact that instead of cartoonish characters, MK used real actors to create the models of each character.  Successful strikes against your opponents caused sprays of blood to shoot from their wounds.  At the end of each battle the loser stands dazed and the game proclaims "Finish Him."  From there each character has his or her own unique finishing move called a Fatality.  Mortal Kombat fatalities are gruesome animations of character dismemberment, or maiming.  Each of the three original arcade games had home console counterparts.

Mortal Kombat 3 arcade machine

  

The first two games were available on the SNES and Sega Genesis.  Most gamers remember the Genesis ports the best.  Although the game was toned down from the arcade version, a cheat code could be entered to unlock the blood and gore that the arcade version had.  The Super Nintendo was a different story all together.  Much of the game was altered, the blood was removed, many of the fatalities were altered to limit the violence, and even if you had the cheat codes the blood would be green.  This caused many gamers who didn't have access to a Genesis to cry foul. 

The third game was also ported to the Sony PlayStation.  The PS1 was a great system for the series to grow, and didn't have the same objections to the violent content that the earlier systems did.  The issue that fans had with the third installment was that many of the principal characters were replaced.  Raiden, Scorpion, Mileena, Kitana, and other series regulars were all replaced with new characters.  While still a great Mortal Kombat the omission of many of the series' regulars were too much for fans to take.

Mortal Kombat Trilogy for the Playstation boasted tons of playable characters

In order to solve these issues for the home console market, in 1996 Mortal Kombat Trilogy was developed for the PlayStation and the Nintendo 64.  On the surface they were very solid home console versions of the game, but the PlayStation version boasted 37 playable characters from each of the first three titles.  There were several improvements made to gameplay including the Brutality finishing maneuver, and the Aggressor bar which gave temporary boost in performance.  

The high number of playable characters really set the game apart from any game like it.  Having such a vast number of playable characters gave the game a high replay value.  Another feature that the game had was a cheat code for performing one button Fatalities.  This eliminated the need to perform the complicated inputs previously needed to perform these abilities.  

Tons of characters made for Mortal Kombat heaven

While the PlayStation version was a moderate hit, the Nintendo 64 was a different story.  Limitations in the system caused the developers once again to have to scale back the game.  The N64 version only had 30 characters included, among other limitations.

Mortal Kombat Trilogy also marked the end of 2D gaming for the series (until 2011's Mortal Kombat for PS3 and XBox 360).  Mortal Kombat 4 evolved the series into a 3D fighter.  Beyond that there were several other different style games set in the Mortal Kombat universe that further went away from the originals.    

Retro Review: SimCity - SNES - 1991

I'm not opposed to online gaming, but I don't like being forced into it.  I do get scared that someday that online will be the only way I'm going to be able to play anything new. I can understand big MMO adventure games being exclusively online, but I don't understand why they are extending to games that are outstanding as single player games.  To me there is a lot of risk involved with making games online exclusive.  I always prefer when a game has a viable single player option to keep me occupied.  Even the games of the Call of Duty series has single player modes.  And I also fear the day where I can no longer play a game that I spent money on.  And if you haven't heard the online only version of SimCity was released on March 5th, and on March 30th EA will be looking for a new CEO.

The simple fact is that on the release date SimCity didn't work.  Many people bought the game, only few could play.  It was an absolute nightmare for them. I don't know if it was the sole reason that the CEO is stepping down, but it seems to be the straw that broke the camel's back.   It got so ugly that even their forums were using the filter usually used to block people from swearing, to censor their customer support number.  The fact is that the once proud SimCity franchise is now at the mercy of EA's overworked servers, and Adam DeVine's underpants.

It appears that EA fixed the problem relatively quickly, and others figured out a work around in the event that something like this happens again.  The whole ugly episode makes me ask why did this need to be a problem in the first place?  Is the temptation to put all games out on an online format really that great that now even strategy games must be done   I can assure you that many of us would have been very happy with a more traditional update to the series.  With that being said I decided that if I really wanted to play SimCity I would go to one that I knew I could count on working.

Cover art for SimCity for the SNES

That is where my Super Nintendo came in handy.  Back in 1991 long before online gaming was a viable option came a SimCity that worked straight out of the box.  SimCity was really a triumph for the time.  In a time where console games were much more about platforming, action, adventure, and sports games, a good strategy game was rare.  Most good strategy games found their way to the PC. What made the SNES SimCity such a rare game at the time was the fact it was a playable console version of a game that was generally played with a keyboard and mouse.  For me it really introduced me to an entire different gaming experience than I was used to as a kid, and grew to love as an adult.  

In the main sandbox version of the game you are the mayor of a bare piece of land.  From there you need to build a power plant and then off you go.  As mayor your first objective is zoning.  Your population needs places to live, work, and shop.  You need to carefully plot your zones among various public services and means of transportation.  Secondly you are in charge of the finances.  You decide how your government funding is dispersed, and the tax rates on your citizens.

A very neat birds eye view of a well made SimCity

It is a beautifully addicting game, and a horribly frustrating game all wrapped into one.  You get sucked into watching your fluctuation of population as time passes by.  After you get a town built and your population grows you will begin to get bombarded with issues.  And no matter what you can never seem to keep your people quiet about their issues.  If you make an effort to solve an issue, it generally creates another issue.  If your people demand an airport, they complain about the pollution.  If your people want a stadium, they bitch about the traffic around it.  They don't want to pay taxes, yet can't handle budget cuts to your worthless police force and fire department.  And it goes on and on.

If you become convinced of the fact your people will never be happy you can also choose to destroy them in the worst ways possible.  You can cause a random fire to break out somewhere, have a tornado rip though town, or even unleash Bowser upon your town in an effort to steal Godzilla's thunder with a Nintendo plug.

The green haired fellow is Dr. Wright.  He generally pops up when your people are mad about something.  But occasionally he will show up with some good news.

If genocide isn't your idea of a good time, the ultimate goal is to have a population of over 500,000 people.  Even with cheat codes this is a very difficult task to complete.  To achieve 500,000 you need to use every single pixel of land that you have access to.  It also helps to utilize the gifts that are given out throughout the game properly, and also make it a police state.  If you can keep the people happy enough, and you constantly tweak your under performing areas you will be ultimately rewarded with a statue of Mario to commemorate your achievement.  

The second mode was called the scenario mode.  It featured different pre-built SimCities that represented real cities around the world.  In each scenario you need to save the day for a city.  In San Francisco you need to save the city from the 1906 earthquake.  There is flooding in Rio, a nuclear meltdown in Boston, crime in Detroit, pollution in Bern, and a Bowser attack in Japan.  And there are bonuses to unlock if all of those are beaten as well.

The SNES version was incredibly similar to the original PC version of SimCity shown here

The SNES SimCity is revered by many fans of the series.  It made good use of the controller to create a computer game experience fun and easy on our consoles for one of the first times ever.  Many PC titles struggle on this even to this day.  It also allowed the series itself to continue branching out to different platforms of gaming.  The Nintendo DS, Wii, iPad , Android, and Blackberry Playbook all have SimCity games available to them.

Until next time, build yourself a city.

Retro Review: Lemmings - Multi-platform - 1991

If I told you there was a video game based on an urban legend perpetuated by the mass murder of cute little arctic rodents by the Disney company in the 1950's would you think I was crazy.  However it is true.  The game is called Lemmings, and before getting into the game I should explain the backstory.

This is a real live non-suicidal lemming.  

     A lemming is a small rodent that lives in Arctic regions of the world.  A popular misconception arose about lemmings, that during migration they would commit mass suicide by jumping off the edge of a cliff into the sea.  In 1958 Disney released "White Wilderness" a nature documentary in which they showed lemmings plunging off of cliff sides to their eventual death.  Sadly this was only an attempt to romanticize these legends and led to many people believing that the lemming stories were true.  The footage of the lemming suicide was staged and the poor little creatures were either pushed or launched into achieve the footage that was in the  documentary.  Then the poor little bastards tried to swim away from the Disney masochists, not realizing that they weren't just in the lake.  I have included that footage below and you can see for yourself.

However the idea of little creatures walking blindly into impending doom did tum out to inspire a pretty good video game.  The original 1991 version was released for the Amiga due to the fact it had a mouse which really is the logical way to play the game.  However the game was so much fun, there has been a version released for damn near every game system I've ever owned.  There is a version for the following systems: Amiga, Atari ST, PC, Mac, NES, SNES, Turbo Grafx CD, Sega Master System, Atari Lynx, Sega Genesis, Commodore 64, Sega Game Gear, Game Boy, PSP, PS1, PS2, 3DO, CD-i, and a bunch more for some obscure old systems.

Several of our brave lemming friends must explode to allow the herd to make  it to safety in this level.

Lemmings worked on a simple platformer basis.  The lemmings would pop out of a trap door into some type of peril.  Left to their own devices the lemmings will just walk until they hit something and turn around and walk the other way, even if that path will lead to their doom.  There was a goal at the end of the level and your job was to teach several lemmings a particular skill to help pave the way for the others to reach the goal safely.

The entire name of the game is strategy and using the jobs that are given correctly.  Climbers obviously climb things.  Floaters deploy an umbrella to avoid death from falling from a distance.  Bombers blow up and destroy everything within a certain radius.  Blockers stay put and keep other lemmings from passing.  Builders build 12 stairs.  And Bashers, Miners, and Diggers all just dig in different directions.

The original version came with its own side effect warning label.

The developers were very keen on keeping the learning curve manageable.  The first few levels are designed to familiarize yourself with the games controls and jobs.  As the game goes on the challenges get more and more severe.  Each level has its own specific goals, many of the levels will only require the saving of a percentage of the lovable little scamps.  Unfortunately these levels require you to use either blockers or bombers in your strategy to martyr themselves for the greater good.  And if you see that you need to save 100% of the lemmings you know that you have failed immediately after one dies.

The nuke button made Lemmings the best game to screw up ever.

And what did the developers do in those tricky situations where we were completely stuck with no hope of success?  Well they gave us the nuke button of course (Thank god Disney hasn't featured lemmings in any more recent nature films).  Instead of allowing the level to just end with some downer jingle and sad times that you screwed up, you got to blow all of your little friends to smithereens, just like this guy who sings his rather joyous lemmings song the whole time (They start exploding at about 1:20 if you want to spare yourself from hearing the song the whole time)...

  
Thankfully the real soundtrack for Lemmings doesn't quite pack the same punch.  It's hard to believe that Lemmings has now been around for over two decades.  And obviously it still has demand, I believe it is currently on sale for digital download on the PSN and will be coming up on its 25th anniversary within the next few years so I expect to see the title make a return in the future.  In my opinion it is still one of the all time greats as far as strategy games goes.  So unless the Sega Dreamcast is your last working game system, find a copy of Lemmings and have some fun.

Also thankfully YouTubers like to upload themselves playing games without singing along.  Here is some Lemmings gameplay to enjoy.  The second one is particularly amazing check them out.