Fatalities in black & white: MKII for the Super Famicom

By Levi . August 17, 2007 . 12:06am

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mysUcyxPY1s[/youtube]

 

Any gamer who was around in the early '90's remembers how Mortal Kombat for the SNES was censored by Nintendo. Blood removed, fatalities changed. It was beyond disappointing, really. Felt like you weren't getting the complete MK "experience". Kinda like asking for a Walkman for your birthday and getting a portable radio instead. Then Mortal Kombat II came around and it seemed like Nintendo had wisened up. Blood and fatalities intact and everything. However in Japan, it was a totally different story. Along with bright green blood for all the characters, the strangest change was to the fatalities. When a fatality is executed, the screen goes black & white. Kinda reminiscent of old samurai movies, isn't it?


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  • mikael

    hmmm i dont remember on my snes copy of mortal kombat 2,that fatalities were in black and white,
    they didnt sensor the european version i had,like that :p..
    i better give it a playthrough again,but i remember seeing massive sensored versions which wasnt the same as my copy..

  • mikael

    hmmm i dont remember on my snes copy of mortal kombat 2,that fatalities were in black and white,
    they didnt sensor the european version i had,like that :p..
    i better give it a playthrough again,but i remember seeing massive sensored versions which wasnt the same as my copy..

  • http://twitter.com/matty_125 matty

    I had MK for the Sega Gen and while it had blood and only scaled down a few fatalities, the graphics were really choppy. The SNES version didn’t have blood at all, but look better by comparison. Ehh, give and take.

    Eternal Champions, now that was animated violence in all it’s glory!

  • matty

    I had MK for the Sega Gen and while it had blood and only scaled down a few fatalities, the graphics were really choppy. The SNES version didn’t have blood at all, but look better by comparison. Ehh, give and take.

    Eternal Champions, now that was animated violence in all it’s glory!

  • http://www.siliconera.com Spencer

    The blood… it’s green too! A neat find and the fatalities do remind me of samurai movies. I wonder who came up with that concept for MKII…

  • http://www.siliconera.com Spencer

    The blood… it’s green too! A neat find and the fatalities do remind me of samurai movies. I wonder who came up with that concept for MKII…

  • MIdAS

    I’m the author of that vid and can tell you, it’s all about censorship.

    Whereas MK had made a MASSIVE impact on western audiences, the Japanese weren’t as keen, so while Nintendo Of Amerca (and Europe) learned their lesson when the Full-Gore MK for the Sega consoles outsold the gore-free Nintendo version by about 10-1, In Japan Nintendo were still fiercely protective of their “family friendly” image, and forced the changes you see here to be made.

    Also of interest is WHAT is censored, you can’t burn a man to death without the screen turning monochrome, but you CAN uppercut him onto spikes without the same treatment.

  • MIdAS

    I’m the author of that vid and can tell you, it’s all about censorship.

    Whereas MK had made a MASSIVE impact on western audiences, the Japanese weren’t as keen, so while Nintendo Of Amerca (and Europe) learned their lesson when the Full-Gore MK for the Sega consoles outsold the gore-free Nintendo version by about 10-1, In Japan Nintendo were still fiercely protective of their “family friendly” image, and forced the changes you see here to be made.

    Also of interest is WHAT is censored, you can’t burn a man to death without the screen turning monochrome, but you CAN uppercut him onto spikes without the same treatment.

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