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How the violent history of Mortal Kombat sparked a moral panic
In the early 1990s, parents and politicians waged war on the bloody fatalities hidden in a video game – and were pummeled into submission
A typical fatality from the 1990s Mortal Kombat game
With one punch, Daniel Pesina’s head was separated from his body. It flew through the air. Behind twinkled an arc of pixelated blood.
“Holy cow!” blurted Pesina. “You just killed me! You can’t do that.”
Seated alongside, Mortal Kombat lead developer Ed Boon smiled. “We can do whatever we want,” he said.
Pesina was a martial arts expert with dreams of cracking Hollywood (he played one of Shredder’s henchmen in Teenager Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze). Now he was on the brink of immortality. All thanks to his starring role in developer Midway’s new martial arts video game, in which, courtesy of the wonders of digitisation, Pesina portrayed fighters Johnny Cage, Sub-Zero and Scorpion