Finish Him!

Violence. That was the buzz word they used. I reveled in it, violence. There was power in it, and we were thirsty for it. They tried to stem the flow, but it had already burst through the gates. The evening news had my attention for the first time, and I wondered how these people could believe what they were saying. And I wondered if it was true.
This was the start of realizing adults were full of shit. My sixth grade teacher told me that if someone were strong enough, that it was possible to rip some one's heart out through their chest with their bare hands. Shortly after that, all the boys, from every sixth grade class were taken into the library, and told we could no longer draw pictures depicting violence. I grinned, because they really only should have taken two boys away from class, and I was one of them. Because if you needed blood and brutality, you only ever went to me or one other kid; and that other kid's dead now.
And that was fine, I was glad because we had stopped the flow and were granted some strange recognition. I would tell the others, They Told Us To Stop. What I meant was, We Were That Good. We had brought on the attention of some strange censorship because of a game: Mortal Kombat.
The thing is, I wasn't even that good at the game. I never have been that great at fighting games; but I was great with the culture of it. Back then, I knew why Scorpion wore yellow, and just how Baraka was unique.
This game would go on to gain national attention as people used it as a platform to rally votes, it made for a good enemy. It wasn't supposed to be that big of a success, the game play was choppy and the graphics weren't stellar. But the more it was ranted against, the bigger it became until sells warranted a franchise.
Without this game, there would be no Grand Theft Auto, Modern Warfare, Resident Evil...because of all the drum beating from Joseph Lieberman and Tipper Gore, video games had to adopt a rating system to keep trash like Mortal Kombat out of kiddies' hands. Some opposed this censorship, but I was all for it. Because without the rating system, home consoles had to adhere to some friendly middle ground. But now a developer can slap an M for Mature sticker on it and sell whatever they want. Hey, I'm game. Who hasn't gotten a blow job in a stolen car and then beat the prostitute to death with a baseball bat? Just me?

On Monday, September 13th, 1993, Mortal Kombat was released on the home systems. Most notably the Sega Genesis (blood content, fatalities intact) and the Super Nintendo (no blood, "less violent" fatalities). They gave that day a name.

Happy Mortal Monday.