Early games in this series were also noted for their realistic digitized sprites and an extensive use of palette swapping to create new characters.

Controversies surrounding Mortal Kombat, in part, led to the creation of the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) video game rating system. The series has a reputation for high levels of graphic violence, including, most notably, its fatalities, which are finishing moves that kill the defeated opponents instead of knocking them out. Mortal Kombat has become the best-selling fighting game franchise worldwide and one of the highest-grossing media franchises of all time. Kasanoff also produced the second movie, animated TV series, live-action TV series movies, the first one million platinum-selling album, and a live-action tour. Movie producer Larry Kasanoff licensed the rights to the game in the early 1990s and produced the first movie of the franchise.

It also has a comic book series and a card game. The original game spawned many sequels with several action-adventure games. The original Mortal Kombat was the first fighting game to introduce a secret fighter, reached if the player fulfilled a set of requirements. Still, the developers paid homage to him with Johnny Cage (one of the main characters in the many games), a fictional film star whose personal style resembles Van Damme's. The development of the first game was originally based on an idea that Ed Boon and John Tobias had of making a video game starring Jean-Claude Van Damme, but when that idea fell through, a science fantasy-themed fighting game was created instead. Mortal Kombat is an American media franchise centered on a series of video games originally developed by Midway Games in 1992.

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