This is going to sound like a sponsored issue of Ludology Now!, but I want to make it clear upfront that it’s not. I bought my Mortal Kombat Arcade1UP machine roughly four years ago when it was on sale, and at the time it was a sort of reward for myself. I had a loving partner, wonderful kids, a good job, and a new home. There was both the available space and available money, and the Midway Collection arcade cabinet on offer had Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat II, and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. The stars aligned, and I splurged.
I couldn’t have imagined that I would end up being the person in my home who uses the 1UP arcade machine the least. While we all love playing fighting games with each other, everyone in the house has their own preferred game to play. My son loves playing Rampage and Defender while his mother prefers (and is quite skilled in) Root Beer Tapper. Even our two-year-old enjoys it, gravitating towards Bubbles and Paperboy when not trying to play Mortal Kombat with her siblings. Three years ago, I had all the high scores on all the games that tracked them. Today, I only hold one of them.
The Elephant In My Room
It feels a little weird to be talking about how much I love my Mortal Kombat Arcade1UP machine when I walk over to it and see the little “© WB 2021” text on the same day Warner Bros. closes three separate game studios. It stings especially hard when one of those studios is Monolith Productions, who developed one of my favorite games of all time. You know the one, the one’s no one been able to shut up about all week. That’s right, The Matrix Online.
I am not writing this piece this week to show support for WB Games and all their poor management decisions. Warner Bros. is only involved here because they bought the rights to a bunch of Midway IP when Midway went under, which is why NetherRealm Studios is being forced to milk Mortal Kombat 1 players for DLC skins and Easy Fatality tokens. Mortal Kombat didn’t always belong to WB, though. It used to have a soul.
Everything Old Is New Again
The first three Mortal Kombat games will always live inside a very special place in my heart. I’m not going to explain why specifically that is here, because to do so would take more time than we have and because I wrote and filmed an hour long video essay on Mortal Kombat and why I love it a few years ago, which you can watch below. Watching my children play these games against each other, however, is another thing entirely.
My parents both enjoyed games like Mario, Duck Hunt, and the SNES version of Jurassic Park, but neither of them particularly cared about Mortal Kombat. Crucially, however, neither of them cared about the “violence” in it like other parents I heard about. This was good for me, and for my friends, who could come over to my house to play when they wanted to. I want to do the same for my kids, but the violence in the most recent Mortal Kombat game is a bit of a step up from the violence in the actual Mortal Kombat 1. Right now, I prefer for them to stick with the originals.
Literally, as I write this, my daughter has just walked into the office, pointed at the Mortal Kombat arcade cabinet, and asked “I play game?” in that very specific way only a two-year-old can. She’s picked Toobin’, the inner tube racing game, and is trying to figure out how to stop swimming in a circle. I could tell her that she needs to press the other button to paddle with her other hand, but she hasn’t asked for help yet. You learn to gauge when it is needed.
The Arcade Games Our Family Keeps Playing
My memory tells me that when I bought my Mortal Kombat arcade machine it was technically called the Midway Legacy Collection, but that doesn’t seem to be the case on the official website anymore. Instead it’s called the Mortal Kombat II Deluxe Arcade Machine, which makes sense, as the whole arcade is wrapped in the classic Raiden skin from the actual MKII arcade machines from the early 1990s. Here are all the games included in my collection, with the ones my family plays the most highlighted in bold:
- Mortal Kombat
- Mortal Kombat II
- Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3
- Toobin’
- Rampage
- Joust
- Wizard of War
- Gauntlet
- Root Beer Tapper
- Defender
- Bubbles
- Paperboy
Looking at the official Arcade1UP website today, it seems like the list of games has slightly expanded, with both the original Mortal Kombat 3 and Klax joining the Mortal Kombat II Deluxe Arcade Machine’s roster along with all the previous games. This makes me jealous, as I actually prefer the original MK3 to UMK3, but I’m not going to buy a whole different arcade cabinet over it. Wait, isn’t Klax an Atari game? Why is that here? [Editor’s Note: Klax was included in the game compilation disc Midway Arcade Treasures in 2003.]
Honestly, when I bought my Mortal Kombat Arcade1UP machine I thought it would be something I messed around with for a few months and then rarely touched again. I liked the idea of having a video game arcade machine in my house, but I didn’t think I would use it very much. And, truth be told, I don’t. But the kids do. My wife does. And because I see them playing it, I join in more often. It’s a lovely thing to have — even if now I have to stop writing swear words in the High Scores.
Assembling Your Own Arcade Machine
I don’t know why I expected my Mortal Kombat arcade cabinet to just be in one complete piece when it was delivered, but I did. Instead, when you order an Arcade1Up arcade machine, you have to put it together yourself, IKEA-style. It’s actually much easier than most of the IKEA furniture I have assembled over the course of my life (way easier than any of those cheap Wal-Mart bookshelves) and pretty fun, all things considered. Nothing is overly complicated, not even the wiring, and it feels very satisfying once it all starts coming together.
Maybe one day I’ll buy another one. I hear the NFL Blitz arcade machine has online multiplayer, and that would be very fun. They’re fairly expensive (the machine we’re discussing in this article is $499) and, when I spent that four years ago, I called it “The most money I’ve ever wasted on something just for me.” Now, I think of it as one of the best entertainment investments in our home. Between three kids and two adults, there’s rarely a day that the arcade machine doesn’t get at least fifteen to thirty minutes of use. I can’t say the same for our PS5, that’s for sure.
Post-Script: My Problems With Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3
I don’t think I’ve spoken about this publicly before, so let’s get this on the record. The level order for Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 sucks. It’s so bad. When starting a new multiplayer match after turning it on, the game will always place the fighters in Scorpion’s Lair/Hell, which contains a possible level transition. If any player connects with an uppercut while fighting in this level, the two fighters will be transported to Kahn’s Kave and finish the battle there. In and of itself, this is fine.
However, the problem is that the VERY NEXT arena that appears in order is Kahn’s Kave, which means that you could spend upwards of six rounds in this exact same location if an uppercut is pulled off early. Additionally, UMK3 removes some of my favorite levels from the base Mortal Kombat 3 game, such as the Bell Tower and the Bridge. Yes, Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 has more characters, but MK3 has better vibes and more coherent level organization.
THIS WEEK’S RECOMMENDED MEDIA:
- Bonus Action has already covered the California Fire Relief Bundle, but I’m bringing it up here again because it really is such a good deal AND such a good cause. For just $10 you can get games like TUNIC, Cook, Serve, Delicious! 2!!, SkateBIRD, and hundreds more. You can even get Spaceship Typing and A THIEF’S QUEST, which are two games I made! Check out all 422 games here!
- If you played and enjoyed Animal Well, or just enjoy seeing stories about video games getting made, Second Wind has recently released The Making of Animal Well, a 40-minute documentary and interview with Billy Basso covering the game’s creation and development. Worth checking out.
- They announced a new 2D Terminator game! It’s called Terminator 2D: NO FATE and it’s coming to PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox, and PC. Look, if you weren’t big into games in the early 1990s this might not matter to you, but the side-scrolling Terminator and Alien games of that era were some of the best. Check out the trailer for Terminator 2D: NO FATE to see how cool it looks for yourself!
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