The controls consist of five buttons arranged in an 'X' pattern: four buttons for high and low punches and kicks with a block button at the center, as well as an eight-way joystick. The game also distinguished itself from other fighting games of the time with its unique control scheme. Whereas other fighting games had characters with considerable differences in speed, height, attacks, strength, jumping heights and distances, the playable characters in Mortal Kombat are virtually identical to one another with only minimal differences in their moves' range and speed. The player that depletes the opponent's health bar first wins the round and the first player to win two rounds wins the match. Mortal Kombat is a fighting game in which players battle opponents in one-on-one matches. It also sparked much controversy for its depiction of extreme violence and gore using realistic digitized graphics, resulting in the introduction of age-specific content descriptor ratings for video games. Mortal Kombat became a best-selling game and remains one of the most popular fighting games in the genre's history, spawning numerous sequels and spin-offs over the following years and decades, beginning with Mortal Kombat II in 1993, and together with the first sequel was the subject of a successful film adaptation in 1995. The game focuses on the journey of the monk Liu Kang to save Earth from the evil sorcerer Shang Tsung, ending with their confrontation in the tournament known as Mortal Kombat. The game introduced many key aspects of the Mortal Kombat series, including the unique five-button control scheme and gory finishing moves. It was subsequently released by Acclaim Entertainment for nearly every home video game platform of the time.

Mortal Kombat is an arcade fighting game developed and published by Midway Games in 1992 as the first title in the Mortal Kombat series.

This game can be played also in a versions for SMS, Genesis, SNES and DOS. If you think that the game in your browser doesn't work as it should, try to choose another online emulator from this table.

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