LEADER 03083nam 2200409 450 001 9910647487803321 005 20240117135633.0 024 7 $a10.3998/mpub.11477677 035 $a(CKB)5850000000318625 035 $a(NjHacI)995850000000318625 035 $a(EXLCZ)995850000000318625 100 $a20230516d2022 uy 0 101 0 $aeng 135 $aur||||||||||| 181 $ctxt$2rdacontent 182 $cc$2rdamedia 183 $acr$2rdacarrier 200 10$aMortal Kombat $egames of death /$fDavid Church 210 1$aAnn Arbor :$cUniversity of Michigan Press,$d2022. 210 4$dİ2022 215 $a1 online resource (viii, 162 pages) 225 1 $aLandmark video games 311 $a0-472-05522-4 320 $aIncludes bibliographical references and index. 327 $aIntro -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction: ABACABB -- One. Ludic Precursors and Generic Innovations -- Two. Cinematic Influences and Cultural Politics -- Three. Mortal Kontroversy or, Dispatches from the Console Wars -- Four. Imitation, Derivation, and Reinvention -- Notes -- Glossary -- Mortal Kombat Ludography -- Bibliography -- Index. 330 $aUpon its premiere in 1992, Midway's Mortal Kombat spawned an enormously influential series of fighting games, notorious for their violent "fatality" moves performed by photorealistically rendered characters. Targeted by lawmakers and moral reformers, the series directly inspired the creation of an industrywide rating system for video games and became a referendum on the wide popularity of 16-bit home consoles. Along the way, it became one of the world's most iconic fighting games, and a transmedia franchise that continues to this day. This book traces Mortal Kombat's history as an American product inspired by both Japanese video games and Chinese martial-arts cinema, its successes and struggles in adapting to new market trends, and the ongoing influence of its secret-strewn narrative world. After outlining the specific elements of gameplay that differentiated Mortal Kombat from its competitors in the coin-op market, David Church examines the various martial-arts films that inspired its Orientalist imagery, helping explain its stereotypical uses of race and gender. He also posits the games as a cultural landmark from a moment when public policy attempted to intervene in both the remediation of cinematic aesthetics within interactive digital games and in the transition of public gaming spaces into the domestic sphere. Finally, the book explores how the franchise attempted to conquer other forms of media in the 1990s, lost ground to a new generation of 3D games in the 2000s, and has successfully rebooted itself in the 2010s to reclaim its legacy. 410 0$aLandmark video games. 606 $aVideo games$xSocial aspects 615 0$aVideo games$xSocial aspects. 676 $a794.8 700 $aChurch$b David$f1982-$01255515 801 0$bNjHacI 801 1$bNjHacl 906 $aBOOK 912 $a9910647487803321 996 $aMortal Kombat$93664877 997 $aUNINA