I totally get why people say Mortal Kombat basically flipped the script for video games, especially fighting games. Back when the first Mortal Kombat came out, pretty much no games had that ultra-violent style, with all the crazy blood and those wild Fatality moves. I remember hearing about arcades being packed, with kids (and parents) crowding around just to see someone pull off Scorpion’s spine rip.

The big deal is, Mortal Kombat was the reason the ESRB even exists — that's the ratings you see on every game box now. Lawmakers totally freaked out about the violence, so they made those age ratings. Every fighting game after it had to get more creative, because Mortal Kombat made everybody raise their game. Even now, every time a new Mortal Kombat drops, it sets trends, like with the crazy story modes and all the crossovers.

I feel like if Mortal Kombat didn’t go all-out with the violence and stories, we'd probably still be stuck with pretty tame, boring fighting games. It made everyone realize games could push limits. That’s why it changed everything. If you ever get a chance to play the original, you’ll get why it was such a big deal.