Why “friendships” became a thing in Mortal Kombat?
The first Mortal Kombat game during the 90s caused outrage from conservative parent groups. ESRB becomes a thing because of the backlash of the Fatality feature. The violence of the fatalities back then is pretty tame. These finishers are too over the top to happen in real life but conservatives thought children will imitate it. Fatality is a fun way to add insult to the injury after you win. Me and my friends use to them when we win as harmless fun and joking around.In Arcade mode I use fatalities against characters who are annoying to fight.
Compare that to present day fatalities that are not for the faint of hearts. It is not something you want to see while eating a warm bowl of spaghetti. They are very gory but they defy the law of physics that it’s impossible in real life.They are very comical to be taken seriously.
In Mortal Kombat 2, Babality and friendships are introduce to mock the complaints. They are also alternatives for people who cant handle fatalities. Babality did not return in Mortal Kombat 11. Mortal Kombat 9 was the last game to use this fun finisher.
Friendships return in Mortal Kombat 11 Aftermath. Friendship is a finisher where your character will befriend your defeated foe in a cute or comical way instead of killing them.
Guest characters are not immune from this hilarity of a feature.
The Terminator
Rambo
Robocop
and the Joker
Recently in an interview from Wired, Ed Boon, The creator of Mortal Kombat breaks down all of the friendships in Mortal Kombat Aftermath. He never left out any single one who are on the roster by far. Some of the Friendships are from the past games while others are new. Ed Boon breaks down every single friendships on the game.