Mortal Kombat, 1992 Midway (20 From '92 Part 1)
12Timeless classic in the first of a storied, still-running franchise that really pushed the envelope for arcade game violence. This VS. fighter has digitized fighters captured from live actors, which isn't the first game to do so, but it may be the first to make the digitized characters move smoothly! Play as 1 (or 2 in 2-player mode) of 7 characters: Raiden (god of lightning), Kano (mercenary/killer), Liu Kang (Shaolin Monk fighter), Sonya (US Special Forces agent), Johnny Cage (martial arts movie star), Sub Zero (ninja), and Scorpion (ninja). Each fighter has 2 or 3 special moves, and you have 5 buttons: High punch, Low punch, High kick, Low kick, and Block. DON'T FORGET YOU HAVE A BLOCK BUTTON! You will definitely need to start making use of it from about the 4th fighter on. 3 times during a full gameplay you will be offered the chance for extra points by smashing a stack of wood, stone or steel with your bare hand-- just mash the buttons to fill a power meter above the required line, and press Block before the time runs out. After facing all the opponents and your doppelganger, you get to face TWO opponents per match! If you run out of time in these matches, your game ends! You will go though 3 endurance tests before facing the 4-armed half dragon Goro, and then the host of the tournament, Shang Tsung (who morphs into the other fighters and uses their abilities and also uses fireballs against you). Using the fatalities isn't crucial to gameplay by any means but it does give you a nice bonus (and may turn your stomach as well). A couple nice hidden treats are in this game: you can unlock a special menu of features, courtesy of programmed Ed Boon, and you can face the hidden character Reptile when certain criteria are met (unveiling his secret appearance was such a popular goal with players that he was made a permanent playable character later in the series). Mortal Kombat was a landmark in the fighting genre and more games in the series continue to be churned out to this day (all for home consoles at this point).