Your First MK Experiences!! Everyone, Get Over Here!

My very first MK experience was the month after I turned 8 in September of 1992.
My Mom dropped me and my older brother off @ the local arcade "Play it again" while she went shopping.
I had never heard of MK. We were there to play Street Fighter 2 and laser tag. When I walked over to the SF machine gettin ready to play I noticed the side of a machine with a guy that looked like JCVD from bloodsport. And at 8 years old I was obsessed with TMNT and ninjas and anything martial arts related.
So I threw 50 cents into this new game not knowing what to expect.
It blew my little 8 year old mind to see blood anywhere especially in a game. I was playing as Johnny Cage against Sub-Zero and if the blood wasn't enough when I lost the match my character had his spine ripped out.
I immediately grabbed my brother from the SF2 cabinet and had to show him this game where you could kill people you beat.
I was hooked to say the least and for christmas the next year we got an SNES and MK1. By this time I'm pretty sure MK2 was out and the MK movie was coming soon or had already came out. The first time I saw MK2 @ the same arcade I didn't get to play it. The owner had it opened up so they could just play for free. I was even more impressed by MK2 and how "realistic" it looked. Back then that was one bad ass lookin game. The next week I got my hands on it and played for hours. Gamepro had put out a fatality guide and I sat there trying to do fatalities over and over. I also remember an older player showing me how if you held down both joysticks on the level with ceiling spikes they'd fall back down. Good times! It was insane MK was everywhere back then. If you were a kid and played video games you knew MK. It was a huge controversy and it just blew up. Everyone knew it. The day the MK movie opened there was a huge line going out the door. Which was insane for my small town of JC,TN. Around the time of MK3 Killer Instinct had released and I started playing it more. The graphics on that were unheard of and definite eye candy for a 10 year old. I played MK4 in the arcades but more of my attention went again to KI2 and Tekken was getting big around the time. Then of course PS2 brought the resurgence of MK with Deadly Alliance and I played those games casually. Couldn't get into them because MK2 was always the one I liked the most. Loved Shaolin Monks. Once I saw MK9 I knew they had successfully caught the vibe of MK2 and I was right. IMO its the best MK since MK2. So almost 20 years now I've played this series of games. Its ****in crazy lookin back.


EDIT: Its funny to read
that lot of people who played these games as kids were turned off by the violence. My initial reaction that day at the arcade wasn't really "awesome" or "gross". I just knew that I was seeing something that I probably shouldn't be seeing. And that was sort of the appeal knew it wasn't meant for an 8 year old gamer. And that made me like it and wanna play it even more.
It was the game of the moment for a few good years. At the same arcade they had laser tag. And they would play the MK soundtrack. Not the movie one either. I'm sure older members remember this. It had "The Immortals" doing songs about every character. And in my youth not knowing what "good" music was this was the first CD I ever bought. LOL! How lame is that.
 
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My first MK experience is really hard to remember All I could remember was I was holding a controller and I was watching the special MK2 intro with Kintaro and Shao Kahn. I officially got hooked when My stepmom got me MKsm for Christmas when I was 12.


The intro I was talking about
 
My first experience is probably a bit different from everyone else's; a lot more boring too. I played a single match of MK1 in the arcade (no idea who I picked), lost hard, and later recapped the experience for my mom:

"So I wanted to see what that Mortal Kombat thing was about. I kicked the other guy and blood went flying everywhere (the subtext here being 'eww gross' rather than 'oh awesome'). Then I lost and it showed my skeleton hanging from a wall (my interpretation of the game over screen)."

So yeah, oddly enough, it wasn't love at first sight. I would eventually go back and play it more, which thoroughly changed my attitude. Once I got a chance to rent the Genesis version, my obsession began.
 
DCR said:
My first experience is probably a bit different from everyone else's; a lot more boring too. I played a single match of MK1 in the arcade (no idea who I picked), lost hard, and later recapped the experience for my mom:

"So I wanted to see what that Mortal Kombat thing was about. I kicked the other guy and blood went flying everywhere (the subtext here being 'eww gross' rather than 'oh awesome'). Then I lost and it showed my skeleton hanging from a wall (my interpretation of the game over screen)."

So yeah, oddly enough, it wasn't love at first sight. I would eventually go back and play it more, which thoroughly changed my attitude. Once I got a chance to rent the Genesis version, my obsession began.
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yeah i know how you feel, at first i didnt like the games to much cuz i was little but then i grow up (lol) and i began practicing till i got better :)
 
I first saw MK1 at the arcade at family entertainment center. It was first time I seen such violence in video game. The first fatalities I witnessed were Johnny Cage's and Sub-Zero's. I didn't get around playing until I got the SNES port.
 
I first saw it at a pizza parlor. I think I might've been 8, judging by doodles I just found in a pile of stuff from back in the day. My teachers must ahve thought I was crazy.

It was MK1 and I played as Sonya. I didn't know what I was doing, and I didn't understand it to be as violent as it was. My little mind didn't grasp the concept of blood or violence or all of that. I think I lost horribly, but whenever blood flew from sonya's face I thought I was winning because I took it to be projectiles she was shooting at the opponent. Ha.

I probably wouldn't have cared much for it if my parents didn't pull me off of the game soon after. It was the first time I can remember being restricted from some kind of game or movie or something. But then I was hooked. I got all into the flavor and the plot and stuff. I still remember picking up the new EGM at the mall, reading about MK3, getting excited about it, and then realizing it was playing in the arcade next-door.
 
I just remember when I was really little like 5 or 6 that there was some "scary" game called Mortal Kombat, that scared me..alot! Before that I remember watching the first movie! My reaction to the game was "gross!" "that's just terrible!"
 
I had a neighbor who had MK1 on the Genesis. We played that a lot when we were around 8 years old. Unfortunately I don't remember anything that vividly stands out about it. I can't remember the first fatality I did because most of the time my neighbor was beating up on me and he was doing the fatality. So when I finally had a chance to do it there was no shock or excitement since I had seen it already.

What stands out the most is when I got MKII and a Genesis for Christmas the next year. Reptile's fatality when he eats your head will always be the fatality I remember the most. I did it on accident while button mashing. That was the first time I had that shock about what was going on in the game. "He actually ate his head! OMG!"
 
My older brother showed me a game could Mortal Kombat and he would show me fatalities and other finishers. At first, I wasn't too interested, but as the years went on, I became more interested in the series.
 
I just now noticed this thread. After reading the posts, I realized Im older than most of you guys. But here is my story.

I had just joined the Navy. I was in my training school and I was getting medically discharged so they had to give me a job and something to do til my discharge was final. I worked right next to an arcade on base (lucky job, I wish I had known about it before the discharge option or I would be retiring from the military next year ... anyhow ...). I was on a downhill slope in life. I was being kicked out of the only career I had ever known. So I started visiting the arcade. Well, this was the year MK was released. I noticed them putting in the machine and I figured I would give it a try. I fell in love instantly. I blew every paycheck on the game til I was discharged. If it wasnt for MK when it was released, I would have seriously lost my mind waiting to get out of the Navy.

Kind of a different story than most but MK saved my sanity back in 93.
 
When I was 9 I went shoppin' with the Mother unit when they rolled this brand new arcade cab in with a jump kicking dude (JC) and a golden dragon background and the words "MORTAL KOMBAT" printed on the front and hooked it up right in front of us, my mom even said: " Figures..., now you wanna play huh?" So she gave me some change and while I was waiting till the boot up was done I was trying to figure out what Mortal Kombat meant, asked my Mom... her reply: "Kombat is spelled wrong" Anyway before she could finish the rest some bleeps got my attention and noticed the game was ready... "Here we go!" I thought. Pushed in the coin and pressed start. Man... the character select music is still one of my favorite tunes to date and I was like "OMG It's with real people, they look awesome!!" While I was admiring the characters the game chose for me cuz I was seriously amazed and ended up with JC... (commence game) ...this blue (WICKED) ninja aka Sub (Hell Yeah) Zero was my opponent... that dude was cool <== see what I did lol... anyways... "FIGHT" I just started mashing the buttons and it turned out to be a bad idea cuz blue dude strolled up , ducked and did something that would later be known as the signature move of the franchise: the uppercut! It had this cool sweeping sound when you did it too and the amount of blood flying through the air was like a wooow moment for me so Sub Ice-balled me back into focus and I went "WTF, cool!" (again) so seconds later I was on the floor waiting for round 2 aka I SUCK part 2... FIGHT... jump kick jump kick jump kick jump kick I WIN YEAH... so simple pfff. Round 3... FIGHT... pretty much a mix of round 1&2 cuz was trying stuff out but I got the upperhand <== (;) and right after the last hit the game displayed those 2 magic words "FINISH HIM" and I was (yes again) WTF? "Well dunno what to do soooo... UPPERCUT!" WOOOW moment nr 2 was seeing Mr Freeze falling off the bridge, passing poles with bodies spiked on them and getting impaled on one of the many spikes at the bottom, some with a head on it (the developers faces, lol) and right there, on that moment I knew it already " I... will... play this game forever!" My mom actually didn't care cuz I watched a lot of horror movies too, so she was used to gore and stuff and she always found it more funny than gruesome. But 20 years later I've turned out just fine and sane and MK IS STILL ALIVE AND KICKING and will be played till the day that I'm finished breathing.
 
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