The Fatality of a Franchise?

Whether you're a diehard Mortal Kombat fan still clinking quarters in your pocket from the golden age of arcade gaming, a casual gamer that just discovered how smashing the fighter genre can be with Super Smash Bros: Brawl and are itching for more of an in-depth one-on-one virutal showdown, or some average Joe who's a sucker for cinematic violence, the trailer above will make you feel like it's just one of those days that you should've just stayed in bed.

Even if you've never been introduced to the Mortal Kombat franchise, chances are you have some vague notion of who Batman is. If nothing else, the fairly recent media explosion over the mystery of the tragic death of actor Heath Ledger pasted all over every top dog search engine website and news network page imaginable had to have tipped you off to the iconic comic's cast of characters, beginning with the late Ledger's take on the character of the Joker.

How did I get roped into this?

If even that piece of news fails to ring any bells for you, I highly suggest you tune out of The SMOC Network. This new blog is your one-stop-shop for the latest in down-to-earth perspectives on the latest the world of entertainment has to offer, be it in video games, movies, TV, or a good ole book, and if you're not on pop culture, you're not on the Network.

That being said, I won't dawdle any longer on retelling the saga of one of the most famous action hero characters in existence, but I will take short pity on those who call themselves hardcore gamers after spraining a wrist in a heated Wii Sports tennis duel when filling in the blanks on the Mortal Kombat series. Nintendo's now-ubiquitous low-key virtual take on competitive sports is nothing to sneeze at considering its widespread appeal and what it has done for the next-gen system it grandstands, mind you, but it's like your average classic board game -- easy to set up, simple to understand, and open to everyone to enjoy. Not a bad idea, obviously, but it's not something you can really sink your teeth into and expect a symphony of sensation for your tastebuds of recreation.

If you think that was delicious, wait'll you see what I whip up next!

Since the 90's, when arcades were brimming with people that never shuddered over the idea of going toe-to-toe in button-mashing mayhem in person and the first authentic console war between the big N's SNES and the Sega Genesis was in full swing, Mortal Kombat has been a franchise synonymous with the one-on-one fighting genre of video games. MK in particular has stood the test of time in this genre, however, because it is also synonymous with graphic violence, dark humor, and controversey. Violence itself has always been a bone of contention for those who love to point fingers of blame at some third party to hold responsible for inspiring tragic events like the Columbine school shooting, but if you feel like splitting hairs, you could argue that even fundamental classics like the Super Mario Bros. series have featured the theme of violence in one way or another since motherboard lovin' geeks first learned how to mash two pixels together and make them move upon a user's command.

We're only playin'! C'mon!

The difference with Mortal Kombat, of course, is that the violence featured needed no interpretation. With kicks, punchs, and spears flyin' every which way into photorealistic fighters chests, gallons of animated blood gushing from the impact of the slightest flinch, and spines getting ripped out of mutilated noob players everywhere, the legendary brawler seemed to leave little to the imagination when it comes to pondering the worst ways to die. As a response to the comparatively bright, Saturday morning cartoon feel of Street Fighter II skirmishes, Midway pushed the envelope so far at the time that it still rests today, impaled with insufficient postage in the depths of the Pit.

Hey. This doesn't look like the Mushroom Kingdom.
You in the green - can you direct me to --AHHHHHH! Watch the spit!

Here's where responsible parenting comes into play, but that's off-topic. Beneath the shock factor of one of the most visceral display of virtual violence at the time lay indisputable genious: captivating gaming strategy in the then-relatively new genre one-on-one fighting, the introduction of never-before-seen easter eggs in interactive enteratinment (or possibly rarely-before-seen, but I'm hard-pressed to think of an earlier example that compares to the tricks one had to pull in order to earn the secret showdown with Reptile featured in this screenshot), the aforementioned dark humor (i.e. Dan Forden's "Toasty!" trademark), the then-considered wide variety of characters, stages, and abilities to sample and savor, and even some novel attempts to create canonical storylines teeming with righteous revenge or world domination -- all of it jam-packed into one eye-popping ensemble of pulverizing pugilism. So much was packed into this hallmark video game series, it was scary, and I'm not ashamed to admit that I thought just that when Midway's fighter first hit the market when I was little, but as time moved on and the heat of the Scorpion vs. Sub-Zero rivalry was arguably at its peak at the Mortal Kombat II milestone, there was no stopping the spears and iceballs from overtaking the hadokens and psycho crushers.

Or was there?

Shortly after MK II literally ripped apart the arcade scene, it seemed that there was nowhere to go for the landmark brawler but down, and down it went. With the intial omission of one of its most popular heroes (or anti-heroes, depending on how you look at it) from its roster and not a heck of a lot of fresh new ideas brought to the table, Mortal Kombat III would leave a sour taste in gamer's mouths that arguably would never be tempered throughout the years to come. The series was clearly taking a radical new direction, and one of its founders, John Tobias, opted not to stay on board for the journey that would eventually serve to steer Mortal Kombat away from its no holds barred, tongue-in-cheek roots and push it toward an even more senselessly violent, self-indulgent destiny.

64 characters? Um, 1996 called - it wants its favorite number back.

The latest installment in the Mortal Kombat franchise to date is Armageddon, in which a clumsy story that brings all kombatants ever featured in the series' history together for one apocolyptic slaughterhouse was cobbled together to give fans of the series an excuse to play every possible combination of characters against each other until their heart's content. Worthwhile, yes, but unquestionably nowhere near the revolution it once was, even in spite of Ed Boon and company's feeble attempt to integrate the Wii's hot motion-sensing capabilities in order to make the kombat feel realistic on top of looking realistic. For most fans of the series, the boon (yes, a deliberate word choice) of finally being able to get your hands on every single character developed for the series to date was simply too little, too late, and that's why overall, this installment tanked while relative newcomers like Tekken and Soul Caliber seem to thrive. (Super Smash Bros. is the definitive king of the fighters at the moment, but due to its family-safe appeal, its obviously not fair to compare its market share and attraction value to MK. It'd be like wondering why the Star Wars series owns more cabinet space in the world then the Day of the Dead series does.)

While Street Fighter seems to be reveling in a renaissance with the advent of Street Fighter IV hitting Japan and coming Stateside probably within the year, the recent reveal of the MK vs. DC Comics clash might just be the final nail in the coffin for the franchise for fans and casual gamers new to the series alike. Crossovers have been hot in the world of video game fighters for sometime, sure, but for reasons that seem esoteric, yet somehow readily obvious to anyone at a first glance, these mashups and collaborations need to "make sense" or "feel right" for anyone to be attracted to them. For anyone out there who's never held a controller in their life, this may seem like a geeky, foreign concept, so let's consider this in the realm of music for a minute:

Exhibit A:

Exhibit B:

Which collaboration do you think "feels right"?

I'm personally not a fan of JT and I'm hardly a Madonna aficionado, but having them join forces makes a hell of a lot more sense than pairing one of the most famous old-time crooners around with Ziggy freakin' Stardust.

On the gaming scene, Marvel vs. Capcom probably seemed like an awkward mix when it was initially released, but after a while, nothing was strange about seeing the likes of Mega Man taking on Cyclops perhaps because the two characters are somehow on the same sci-fi wavelength. The real question that developers should've been scratching their heads about, though, is whether or not fans were thirsting for that kind of face-off. Who knows who could debate that one, but there was no debating this:


Here was a brawl over fifteen years in the making, and Brawl finally made this fanboy dream a reality just a few months ago. The clash of these two titans is right up there in entertainment history with the likes of Beatles vs. Stones, Kirk vs. Picard, 1984 vs. Brave New World, and so on.

Bottom line: Watching Sub-Zero pummel the Dark Knight and vice versa fails to get anyone's blood pumping in a fan-fiction frenzy. Ed Boon and DC might have some tricks up their sleeve that'll get fans and noobs jazzed about this latest endeavor, but this trailer ultimately is a bloody uppercut of stale ideas that could mark the fatality of a franchise.

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