I grew up with Mortal Kombat. In fact, I’d easily submit that Mortal Kombat was one of the first arcade games that I was excited to play for extended periods of time. I can specifically remember standing in line the day it was first available at the Wild Waters arcade in Boise Idaho, amazed at all the awesome fatalities. Usually we’d go there to swim all day – but not this day. This day it was all quarters and waiting in line, trying to sneak a peak over the shoulder of the current kid playing to figure out what combo moves he was using and key codes to perform fatalities.
Sadly Wild Waters itself no longer exists. A generation of swimmers robbed! It was torn down to make way for the new connector highway overpass system sometime in the late 90’s (…or early 00’s? I forget to be honest).
Anyways, we always had a great time at Wild Waters, but even more importantly – this is where I really learned how to play Mortal Kombat. I was addicted instantly. Eventually POJOS, another arcade in Boise received a cabinet. They were smart about it. They emptied their snack vending machine and replaced all the food items with fatality combo moves written on note paper so that you could purchase them per character for about a buck each. With childhood friend Kif, we played constantly, and for a certain time in our young lives everything we did revolved around the game.
In the 90’s I remember seeing the original movie trailer for the game. At that time everything unfortunately looked like revamped extended Power Rangers episodes, especially video game movies. So while we were excited about the move, we were also prepared to be let down. Give the original trailer a quick looksy below.
Remember that the original movie was released in 1995 (holy shit 26 years ago now…). So while it did quench a bit of our blood thirst, even at that time we knew there was still more to be desired. Where was the blood? Where were the fatalities?
Come 2021 and we finally have our answer. This trailer has been viewed more than any other trailer recently that I can think of. I don’t know that the studios really grasp what kind of huge audience that this movie is going to have. But the decisions they’ve made, at least aesthetically, look to be exactly on point. The new version is to be released on April 16th on HBOMax. It’s dark, has blood, sticks to the tournament story, and yes – fatalities. Take a gander at the latest trailer below. I’ve watched it more times than I can count.
If that doesn’t get you excited then watch some reactions to the trailer. At first I thought it was just me, the tingle I got in my spine when SubZero froze the blood and made an ice knife (hah!), but no, it was across the board excellent reactions to the trailer release.
I’ve actually seen reactions where people start crying they’re so happy, it’s really quite unbelievable. In any case, I’m excited, and I think if you’re late 30’s or early 40’s you’re probably also excited. Happy watching!!