8 Times Censorship Almost Ruined Your Favourite Video Games

4. Nintendo Doesn't Understand Why Mortal Kombat Is So Popular

Back when arcades were a big deal, fighting games took the world by storm. With Street Fighter being the competitive king, new releases had to do something different in order to attract a player's attention, and the developers behind Mortal Kombat knew exactly what the genre was missing.

Filling their game with ridiculous amounts of gore, the seminal title was one of the most violent - if not the most violent - game of its time, becoming a huge success in arcades.

When it came time to port the title over to consoles however, Nintendo being Nintendo completely misunderstood why players were flocking to play Mortal Kombat, and released it on the SNES without any of the blood or memorable fatalities.

What does Mortal Kombat have going for it without its over-the-top gore? Especially in those early releases, the combat system was nowhere near as complex or as fun as latest instalments would achieve, and for the most part, players were only there to see a giant four-armed beast rip a man's head off his shoulders.

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Josh has over 11 years of experience as a published writer, having worked nine of those years as a full-time content producer at WhatCulture. In that period he has created hundreds of articles, videos and podcast episodes for multiple WhatCulture channels, specialising in gaming, horror and film & TV. He now primarily works as a senior content producer and presenter on WhatCulture Gaming where he co-hosts the WhatCulture Gaming Podcast, a top 3 UK most listened to gaming podcast that he co-created in 2018. Over the years he has reviewed several high-profile gaming releases, covered industry events with on-site reporting, opined on breaking news, and even kicked off his interviewing career by chatting to childhood hero, Tommy Wiseau.