OOC - Chronicles of a RPG's Junkie

Today taking a break from books I would like to focus on probably the first game that made me realise how important lore and a character's background are to a writer and a good story. This game franchise would become one of the most popular of its kind since its release in 1992 to present. It was also one of the first games I played for hours in arcade format and more than its innovative concept and game play what attracted me to it was the thirst to explore every fighter's end story and how they fitted into the lore that was being developed.
Today we bring you...

MORTAL KOMBAT

The first Mortal Kombat game takes place in Earthrealm (Earth) where seven different warriors with their own reasons for entering participated in the tournament with the eventual prize being the continued freedom of their realm, threatened with a takeover by Outworld. Among the established warriors were Liu Kang, Johnny Cage and Sonya Blade. With the help of the thunder god Raiden, the Earthrealm warriors were victorious and Liu Kang became the new champion of Mortal Kombat. In Mortal Kombat II, unable to deal with his minion Shang Tsung's failure, Outworld Emperor Shao Kahn lures the Earthrealm warriors to the Outworld where the Earthrealm warriors eventually defeat Shao Kahn. By the time of Mortal Kombat 3, Shao Kahn revives Edenia's (now a part of his Outworld domain) former queen Sindel in Earthrealm, combining it with Outworld as well. He then attempts to invade Earthrealm but is ultimately defeated by the Earthrealm warriors again. After Kahn's defeat, Edenia was freed from Kahn's grasp and returned to a peaceful realm, ruled by Princess Kitana. The following game, Mortal Kombat 4, features the former elder god Shinnok attempting to conquer the realms and attempting to kill the thunder god Raiden. However, he is also defeated by the Earthrealm warriors.

The series features scores of player characters (64 as of 2012), including Baraka, Cassie Cage, Cyrax, Ermac, Goro, Jade, Jax Briggs, Johnny Cage, Kabal, Kano, Kenshi, Kitana, Kung Lao, Kurtis Stryker, Liu Kang, Mileena, Motaro, Nightwolf, Noob Saibot, Quan Chi, Raiden, Rain, Reptile, Scorpion, Sektor, Shang Tsung, Shao Kahn, Sheeva, Shinnok, Sindel, Smoke, Sonya Blade, and Sub-Zero. Among them are Earth's humans and cyborgs, good and evil deities, and denizens of Outworld and other realms. There are also some guest and crossover characters, such as several DC Universe heroes and villains, as well as Alien (Xenomorph) from Alien, Freddy Krueger from A Nightmare on Elm Street, Jason Voorhees from Friday the 13th, Kratos from God of War, Leatherface from Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and the Predator from Predator.

The defining and best-known feature of the Mortal Kombat series is its finishing move system called Fatality. An original idea behind it was to give gamers a free hit at the end of the fight. The basic Fatalities are finishing moves that allow the victorious characters to end a match in a special way by murdering their defeated, defenseless opponents in a gruesome manner, usually in the predefined ways exclusive for the given character. The only exception from this is Mortal Kombat: Armageddon, which instead features the Kreate-A-Fatality, allowing the players to perform their own Fatalities by conducting a series of violent moves chosen from a pool that is common for all characters.

Now GET OVER HERE and tell me what games have influenced you to create great characters... :-D