I’ve purchased every release on launch day and while some of the entries pushed me away, others I’ve pumped thousands of hours into. “Friendships?” And who the hell is “Jade”? What a time to be alive. Damn, that intro… and when Liu Kang turned into a fucking dragon… You could be Shang Tsung. From clips glimpsed on TV shows, to rumours printed in magazines, me and my friends were almost shaking with anticipation to get our hands on it. The 1993 launch of Mortal Kombat II was something else, and remains the most exciting video game release I’ve ever experienced. I would draw pictures of the characters – even invent my own – and spend every weekend engaged in battles to the death, culminating in a tediously repeated story where I had the shit kicked out of me for real following a Kano mirror match.

I had a notebook of moves I’d study in efforts to be the best. I was besotted with Midway’s fighter and remember – as if it were yesterday – the first time I ever encountered Goro or saw a Fatality. It dates back to 1992, with your boy plugging credits into an arcade that had so few buttons installed that we didn’t even have Low Kick. In over 30 years of playing video games, there is no franchise I have spent more time with than Mortal Kombat.

Mortal kombat 6 gameplay