Today is September 13, 2003. It was exactly ten years ago today that Acclaim released Mortal Kombat for the Super NES, Genesis, Game Boy, and Game Gear. Now, some of you may not understand why this is such a big deal, but if you were playing games ten years ago, you remember the impact that this game had on the industry. Sure, it was big in the arcades, but it absolutely exploded when it reached the home consoles. Arguably, this game is what led the game industry towards it's current obsession with "mature" games. Also, it marked it significant milestone in the marketing of games. Mortal Kombat was the first game (that I can remember) where the company actually marketed its launch as an event. I mean, creating hype around its release date in the same way they do for new movie and album releases. Few can forget the incessant hype for "Mortal Monday, September 13, 1993". Nowadays, this is a common practice, but in 1993, it was unheard of. Personally, I remember seeing the ad for Mortal Kombat for the first time in WWF magazine and not caring because I didn't have any of the systems that it was being released for, plus i had no idea what Mortal Kombat was (I was only eight at the time). About two months after the game was released, I actually played it for the first time (the Genesis version). I thought it was the coolest thing I had ever seen. My brother and I got an SNES for Christmas that year, however, and I actually liked the SNES version better than the Genesis MK, unlike just about everyone else in the world. When I was in third grade, it seemed that all anybody ever talked about was Mortal Kombat. Of course, we can't forget about all the hype and controversy in the media over the game's violent content (which is nothing compared to some of today's games) but I was always unwavering in my support of Mortal Kombat. I'm not even a really hardcore MK fan, but the game brings back so many childhood memories that I couldn't help but make this post. Anyone else have memories of "Mortal Monday" and the subsequent national obsession with the game?
By the way, it was also ten years ago today that the Quebecers defeated the Steiners to win their first WWF tag team championship. Plus, in other video game news, it was eighteen years ago that Nintendo unleashed Super Mario Bros. in Japan (it came over to the U.S. the next month).