Great Moments in Video Gaming History #3: FINISH HIM
Posted by Michael Joyeux on 08.25.2006
The perfect way to put a full stop in the sentence "You just got your ass kicked".
"Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away"
Martin Luther King
This is "Great Videogame moments in History", where we look at those little moments in videogame history which make being a gamer so fun. The moments which stay with you, the same way that you remember your first kiss, your first day at college or the last time you met a friend.
I've recently moved into my own house, as I trawled through some old boxes in my mother's house I pulled out a tattered old note pad, on the cover was a crudely drawn picture of Mario fighting Sonic. It was my old cheat book! Some of you might not be old enough to remember a time before the internet, but before the internet, cheats and secrets for games spread through word of mouth and monthly magazines. The one page which caught my eye was a page filled with complex joy pad combinations. I looked at the page and thought "Level Select?"… but which game? And then I remembered…
Way back when, again before the internet, before Grand Theft Auto, heck even before the Playstation. Videogames simply weren't as violent, there was very little blood, gore or graphic violence. It was a combination of Nintendo's strict quality control (which reverberated throughout the development world), the lack of photorealistic graphics and the fact it was generally a more innocent age. One game and in particular two words changed all that and that is this week's Great Gaming Moment.
FINISH HIM!
With those words ringing out, I stood stunned looking at the screen, what the hell was I meant to do here? My opponent was still standing!? Err… I just walked over and punched him. He fell over and I'd won…
This new game in the arcade was confusing me, it wasn't like Street Fighter with its colourful cartoon graphics, this had digitized sprites. It looks crap now… But back then, it was awesome! I played this game to death in the arcade and every time I beat some one it asked me to finish them, so I did, with a little punch or kick. How wrong I was…
…Then one day a friend of mine asked me if I'd played Mortal Kombat in the arcades, I said I had, he asked me if I knew any of the finishing moves. I shrugged my shoulders and shook my head, so he took me down and I let him beat me with Sub Zero. Then when he was told to…
FINISH HIM!
Sub Zero then ripped out my spine.
What the hell?
In that one moment my view on life changed, video games stopped being kid's games; this was completely different to anything else ever! This was blood and violence unlike anything else, Mario didn't rip off Turtle Heads! You never saw Claret in Elite! Word of mouth quickly spread the news about this violent game. However no one knew of any moves except Sub Zero's spine ripping fatality. So in the town where I live, Sub Zero became the character of choice for an entire generation of boys. Magazines quickly cottoned onto this game when it came to the consoles and we suddenly knew all the moves. But nothing will ever take away that one moment when my breath was taken away.
The fatality in Mortal Kombat deserves to be a Great Video Gaming moment, because every time you remove some ones limbs, cut them in half, impale them or throw them somewhere, your basically putting a full stop on the sentence which reads:
You just got you ass kicked
Apologies for the slightly shorter than usual article this week, after moving I'm living amongst boxes and dust at the moment. However next week I'm throwing the door open for you the readers to suggest a topic for discussion as a great gaming moment. Give me a shout at MJoyeux at Joyeux.Biz
Oh and I still remember that it's F, D, F, HP (Close)
