1. Mortal Kombat 1 Was Originally Planned As An Adaptation Of Universal Soldier
Mortal Kombat turned the fighting game genre on its head when it was first released in arcades due to its use of digitized human models instead of animated sprites. The use of digitized models was mainly proposed as a concept because in early development, Mortal Kombat was originally supposed to be a game adaptation of the 1992 film Universal Soldier, starring Jean Claude Van Damme. The idea was to implement characters directly from images of the actors who portrayed the characters in the film, so that the digitized imagery could retain a huge degree of resemblance and likeliness, which would have looked more authentic compared to anything that could be done with graphics back in 1991. The adaptation deal fell through because Van Damme's schedule was reportedly too busy for him to star in the game himself. The production team had gotten quite far in development and decided to continue on with the project. A reference to this can be found in the form of Johnny Cage's first appearance in Mortal Kombat, which bares a striking resemblance to Jean Claude Van Damme in 1988's Bloodsport.
Sam is an experienced Film, Gaming and Wrestling writer, critic and journalist who was written for a vast number of different entertainment websites. Follow him on twitter at @Sams_Reel_Views.
