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In the Mortal Kombat series of fighting games, a Fatality is a special finishing move that can be used against one's opponent at the end of the final match. When the announcer says "Finish Him/Her," the player can choose to kill him or her through a fatality move.

Unlike special moves, a fatality may require certain distances and quick button sequences in order to achieve the desired result (for example, in Mortal Kombat 3, Sub-Zero's Break Down Fatality requires that he stands close to the opponent and quickly execute Block, Block, Run, Block, Run). Every character has their own special fatality that must be performed at a certain distance from the opponent. The number of fatalities varies depending on the game; while characters in Mortal Kombat and Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance had only one, Mortal Kombat 3 and its updates featured as many as four. Traditionally for the main and important characters of the games (such as Sub-Zero, Raiden, Scorpion etc) their fatalities are usually a reflection of either their storyline or their special abilities- eg, Sub-Zero's fatalities have traditionally involved the use of his powers of ice (though his spine rip was found to be the most infamous of the fatalities), whereas Scorpion's storyline of a hellspawn ninja spectre involves the use of setting someone alight or using his famous spear in a fatality.

Fatality-style finishing moves have also appeared in other fighting games such as Killer Instinct, though they are not named as such; they are called "No Mercy Moves" instead.

Contents 1 Origin 2 Reaction 3 Variations 3.1 Stage fatalities 3.2 Hara Kiri 3.3 Kreate-A-Fatality 4 Fatalities in other games 5 References 6 External links

With Street Fighter II dominating arcades, Mortal Kombat co-creators Ed Boon and John Tobias wanted to create a fighting game that retained Street Fighter's gameplay without being a complete copy. Originally, the project revolved around actor Jean-Claude Van Damme; this idea was eventually dropped and Mortal Kombat was born.

Tobias and Boon started with the idea of Street Fighter II's system and retained many of its conventions (fireball-style projectile attacks, one on one matches, minigames, etc.), but tweaked others (the block button, special endurance matches, juggling, etc.). The most notable additions were graphic blood effects and fatality finishing moves. Traditional fighting games ended with the loser knocked unconscious and the victor posing for the players; characters never died during a match. The idea of a fatality proved very popular with fans.

Mortal Kombat attracted numerous fans because it featured blood and the ability to perform fatalities. The new feature addition helped make Mortal Kombat a successful game franchise that challenged the supremacy of Street Fighter II.

The fatality concept caused considerable controversy, and many parents disapproved of the violence and the brutal endings of the game, deeming it disturbing.

The newly-founded ESRB gave Mortal Kombat a rating of M (for "Mature"), deeming the game too violent for audiences under the age of 17. It's worth noting that, in the United States, the ESRB has no legal standing to prevent the sale of video games to minors, and therefore many people under the suggested age were able to play the game. Although arcade owners were asked to monitor the ages of players, few did.

Mortal Kombat II added some extras when it came to fatalities. The characters were given two or three fatalities each, and the fatalities were more violent. Many angry parents and protestors wrote letters and complained about the content of the game, fearing the violence would negatively influence young children, but since the ESRB had already rated the games, nothing came of the protests.

After the crash of the arcade market, new Mortal Kombat games can no longer be found in arcades; new releases are targeted at the home console and PC markets.

• Animality —This finisher allows the player to morph into an animal and maul or eat their opponent alive. This style of fatality debuted in Mortal Kombat 3. Some say the precursor to the Animality was Liu Kang's Dragon Fatality from Mortal Kombat II, in which he turned into a dragon and ate the upper half of his opponent.
  • Mercy —In order to perform an Animality, the player must first grant his opponent Mercy. This act revives the opponent in lieu of delivering a final blow or performing a Fatality by restoring a small amount of health. Should the opponent be defeated again, an Animality may be performed.

• Babality —The defeated character turns into a baby, sitting on the floor and wearing a miniature version of their adult clothing and accessories and/or a diaper (nappy). In some versions, the sound effect of a baby crying plays, along with a lullaby, and the word "Babality" is spelt out by colored building blocks that fall from the top of the screen. Shao Kahn then announces (albeit unusually and unnervingly gently) "Babality!!"
• Brutality —Introduced in Mortal Kombat Trilogy and the SNES and Sega Genesis ports of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, this finisher allowed players to perform a combo which would cause the opponent to explode. Brutalities were not very popular, as they were extremely difficult to accomplish, requiring the player to memorize and perform a special 11-hit combo. Many felt the pay-off was lacking with the only result being a fiery explosion where the victim disappears and an unrealistic amount of bone and flesh are sent flying and covering most of the screen. In some versions, the bone and flesh flies completely offscreen. This finisher didn't appear in another game until Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks, in which it wasn't explicitly used as a finisher, but rather as a power-up.
• Friendship^[1][2] —The fighter will make a peace offering, such as Sub-Zero using his powers to make a snowman, or Johnny Cage offering a signed photo of himself. This was mostly done to mock the parents and the ESRB who complained about the violence in the game. In Mortal Kombat II Shao Kahn would then announce "Friendship!!... Friendship?!", and in Mortal Kombat III "Friendship!!!... Friendship?! Again?!"
• Hara-Kiri —(See below)
• Multality —Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks also features multalities, which are fatalities performed on multiple enemies at one time.

Stage fatalities brought a new level of environment interaction within the series. A stage fatality occurs when a player uses a part of the stage or map to execute a fatality that is not a standard character fatality. Some examples of stage fatalities are having the victim fall into a pool of acid or a pit of razor-sharp spikes, or to be run over by a subway train. Stage fatalities are present in the series from Mortal Kombat through Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks and Mortal Kombat: Armageddon, though are absent from Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance.

Mortal Kombat: Deception features more stage fatalities than any previous Mortal Kombat game. Renamed "Death Traps", there are more stages that allow death by stage interaction than not. No longer is a special button combination required as the opponent only needs to be either standing or hit in a particular spot on the stage. Unlike previous stage fatalities, "Death Traps" can be initiated anytime during a round and only require the opponent be hit into them, meaning an instant victory. However, if they are not executed in the decisive round, the fight does not end, going on to the next round. This action acts as a ring out.

The newest kind of fatality is the Hara Kiri. The Hara Kiri (which is Japanese for certain a type of ritual suicide, and literally means belly cut; even though Kenshi is the only character who uses the Hara-Kiri in this form) is a move in which the player kills him/herself upon defeat at the end of the last match, rather than be finished off by his opponent. It is the first and only time in the Mortal Kombat series in which the defeated player is allowed to perform a finishing move. The Hara Kiri made its debut in Deception and seems to be a popular feature with the fans, although is not included in Mortal Kombat Armageddon due to the new Kreate-a-Fatality feature.

Although it was called a fatality in-game, the first example of a suicidal finishing move in Mortal Kombat was Cyrax's "self-destruct" move from Mortal Kombat 3 and Mortal Kombat Gold; Cyrax, a cyborg, enters a code on to his arm panel and moments later explodes along with his opponent in a manner reminiscient of the ending of the first Predator movie. Smoke went farther with his fatality since he destroys the whole planet with his bombs. In Mortal Kombat Gold, Cyrax adopted this Fatality together with his own while Smoke adopted Cyrax's self-destruct as his Hara Kiri in Deception.

For Mortal Kombat: Armageddon, the fatality concept was completely revised. In all previous games, fatalities and finishing moves were in the form of a button combo, activating a scripted animation sequence. For MK:A, there were far too many characters to all have a couple of individual fatalities, therefore the old system was replaced with a new Kreate-A-Fatality, or "custom chain-fatality" system. After defeating an opponent in two rounds (with default settings), players are given a limited amount of time to perform one of several violent moves (such as ripping an organ out) attributed to a button and direction combination. The time then resets and the player can perform a second move, but the timebar decreases more rapidly after each move. The longer a player is able to continue the chain, the higher ranking his fatality receives:

• 1: Fatality
• 2: Deadly Fatality
• 3: Killer Fatality
• 4: Bloody Fatality
• 5: Mortal Fatality
• 6: Brutal Fatality
• 7: Evil Fatality
• 8: Vicious Fatality
• 9: Savage Fatality
• 10: Extreme Fatality
• 11+: Ultimate Fatality

It is possible, with practice, to pull off a fatality of up to ten moves or possibly higher. It is also possible to "fail" the fatality by running out of time before performing a final finishing move (such as ripping the opponent's head off). If time runs out before the player can end the chain with a final fatal move, no rank or reward is given and the fatality is not counted, regardless of how many moves were completed.

This new system required that other forms of finishing moves, such as Deception's popular Hara Kiri fatalities, be left out of Armageddon. This has been met with a mixed reaction, some fans preferring the more interactive nature and freedom of the Kreate-a-Fatality system, and others missing the previous games' character-specific ending moves and alternatives to killing the opponent. Also, originally, there was individual character-specific Kreate-a-Fatality moves for each character, but this feature was dropped when the MK team realized that such moves would only be compatible with the character they were made for, thus preventing them from being accessible to other characters (more specifically, presumably, the Kreate-a-Fighter characters).

As evidenced in the article Finishing move, Mortal Kombat has had a large influence on other games and has inspired many to add the ideas of Fatalities and other varients. Games such as Killer Instinct, Primal Rage, Eternal Champions, Weaponlord and many others both ran with the idea, and created variants. Some games, such as Tattoo Assassins and Thrill Kill took the idea so far that they may have faced being banned before release.

• GameFAQs Mortal Kombat codes, move lists and fatalities

v • d • e Mortal Kombat series
Fighting games	Mortal Kombat · MKII · MK3 / Ultimate MK3 / MK Trilogy · MK4 / MK Gold · Deadly Alliance / Tournament Edition · Deception / Unchained · Armageddon · MK8
Adventure games	Mythologies: Sub-Zero · Special Forces · Shaolin Monks
Information	Main characters · Minor characters · Factions · Realms · Fatalities · Glossary
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