There are a couple other fighters coming on this list that defined (and redefined) the fighting genre itself, but Mortal Kombat's gore-soaked entry back in 1992 simultaneously became legend through its controversial depictions of blood-soaked fights, and the base fact that it was immensely fun to play. MK may not have had the depth of something like Street Fighter, but in stripping your animations back to just a handful of attacks, it put the focus on timing and blink-n'-you'll-miss-it win/loss ratios. For Midway's second go-round they doubled-down on the controversy-factor and upped the fidelity of their character animations too. No joke, at the time nobody ever thought games could look any better than they did right here, mostly down to the assumption that photographed-in actors portraying characters could never be topped. Combat-wise we got more gory fatalities to end fights with, sped-up animation and one of the best, most varied rosters of Kombatants in the history of the franchise. Many fans still point to MK II as the finest of them all, and when you've got everything from dragon-attack finishers to a story that set in stone one of the most fun video game lores of all time, you'll scarcely be able to argue with them.
