John-ShepardOne might say the violence in Mortal Kombat X is just plain brutal. Perhaps even unnecessary.
But developer NetherRealm Studios sees this as a purely fantastical entertainment product, and the gruesome nature is more tongue-in-cheek than anything else.
In speaking with Polygon , lead game designer John Edwards says they "don't try to get the gore to be too realistic." And after acknowledging that Fatality is just plain gross:
"But then you laugh about it after, because it's so ridiculous. I mean, pulling the guy's organs out? That's not something that's realistic violence, right? It looks realistic, just graphically because of the power of the new consoles, but it's still very tongue-in-cheek and kind of fantastical."
Franchise co-creator Ed Boon told GameSpot that the team actually doesn't want to go too far. He says "there's always a line that you never want to cross" but in all honesty, I can't imagine where that line is. And doesn't the line get pushed farther and farther out with each new installment?
Food for thought, I guess.
Related Game(s): Mortal Kombat X
Kind of what I was sayin yesterday in the MK preview. It's getting really ridiculous now. You could make an argument saying MK has always been pretty goofy and tongue and cheek, but it's just way over the top now. I still like it, but MKII will always be my favorite.
So slicing a guys head in half and watching their face slither off it's bloodied skull like a fleshy sheet with a facial expression on it, or ramming your hand down someones mouth and dragging their glands and entrails out while they choke on their own blood and spew with the use of sloshy audio effects concocted from a toilet is tongue-in-cheek? And what about the bone-splintering X-ray moves? Get your party hats on fellas and invite the kids over because it's all oh so ridiculous you will laugh.
Sounds like a flimsy band-aid excuse to me in an attempt for people not to judge them on their approach to in-game violence, which they will anyway. Just admit it, your game is gory, you won't get ridiculed for it and if you do it will only be from the same old fossils that complain about anything that involves violence and video games.
Slapstick gore is something you would see from a game like Dead Rising, definitely not Mortal Kombat. The gore in MK looks brutal in the extreme and is all the better for it considering this is part of what made MK so recognized as a series. Personally, I am not fussed how much they ratchet up the blood and gore level, if anything i welcome it considering it's a series tradition and adds visceral impact to the fighting but don't make out it's tongue-in-cheek when it clearly isn't. It's sick and nasty and that's how it's meant to be anyway so why hide from that by tossing in the tongue-in-cheek card?
Last edited by Kevin555 on 4/3/2015 2:55:41 AM