When making the original Mortal Kombat arcade game, creators Ed Boon and John Tobias decided to create two palette-swapped characters, in order to save valuable space. Those two ninjas became Scorpion and Sub-Zero, and Boon and Tobias looked for a number of small ways to make them feel different to players. In a behind-the-scenes video Boon shared to Twitter today, we can see the actor that plays Scorpion and Sub-Zero trying out different stances, following suggestions from Boon and Tobias. The decision required an extra seven frames of animation, but the move helped to further distinguish the two fighters.
The video can be found in the Tweet embedded below.
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In follow-up Tweets, Boon revealed that the video above was very early into the game’s development process; we can actually hear him refer to Sub-Zero as “the cold guy,” as neither character had a name yet! The idea to add different stances for the two characters was made during the actual shoot, which is why there are multiple attempts to find something that works for each character. As Boon points out on Twitter, the stances had to be different enough, but they also had to work with the existing kicks and punches that the two characters would share.
Boon shared the video above in celebration of the 30th anniversary of the original Mortal Kombat. Clearly, a lot has changed since 1992! Mortal Kombat would end up being a massive success, spawning a number of sequels, spin-offs, live-action movies, toys, and more. It’s almost hard to believe when looking back at the game’s humble beginnings! The video game industry is notoriously bad at preserving its own history, and a lot of early footage and concept art has been lost to time. Given that, it’s really great to see this footage has managed to survive the last 30 years. Hopefully, Boon will have a lot more to showcase throughout the year, as the game’s anniversary celebration continues!
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