Next year will be the 30th anniversary of Mortal Kombat. However, creator Ed Boon is kicking the celebration off early, as this year marks 30 years since it began development. To celebrate, Boon thought it would be fun to share some behind-the-scenes footage of how he and his team made the game. The first video he shared on Twitter showcases the creation of Scorpion’s signature move and catchphrase.
The video shows Boon and John Tobias workshopping animations for Mortal Kombat with Scorpion’s actor. Early in the video, Boon suddenly gets the idea to have Scorpion throw a rope to hook in opponents. In a follow-up Tweet, he explains how some ideas came on the spot during the team’s planned video shoots.
We certainly did a ton of prep for our video shoots, but some ideas came to us while filming. With Scorpion’s spear, it started with “You know what would be a cool ass move?”. From there you can be a fly on the wall and see us working through the details.
Ed Boon
The remainder of the video shows Boon and Tobias working out details of the move with the actor. Boon explains how one important detail was speed. In addition to limited memory, it was important that the move used very few frames to catch opponents by surprise. Another important detail was keeping the spear at chest height, so it would pass over a ducking opponent.
Get over here!
The spontaneous nature in which Scorpion’s spear throw in Mortal Kombat was created is impressive due to how iconic it remains today. Another cool detail in the video shows the origin’s of the catchphrase, “Get over here!” While explaining how the pullback animation should go, Boon ever so casually says the iconic phrase. Seeing the humble beginnings of the sentence that would go on to become synonymous with the Mortal Kombat franchise is truly breathtaking.
Nobody on the Mortal Kombat development team had any idea how legendary the move and phrase would become. In fact, Boon states that they originally never thought the game would even get a sequel. 30 years later, the famous move partnered with the phrase “Get over here!” is one of the first things that come to mind when thinking about Mortal Kombat. It’s featured in every single game and media adaptation to date, including the film released this year. Boon explains the legacy in another follow-up Tweet.
Finally, while there was SO MUCH more involved with us creating this classic move (fx, sounds) it’s still kool to see the germ of an idea that eventually became so synonymous with Mortal Kombat, and duplicated SO MANY TIMES in future games, movies, tv, animation & comics!
Ed Boon
For those of you dying to see more behind-the-scenes videos on the making of Mortal Kombat, Boon has you covered. He states that he plans to continue releasing footage leading up to the 30th anniversary of the game. In fact, Boon also teases Raiden may be the next featured character. Replying to a fan speculating the next character to get a behind-the-scenes video, Boon states, “We got a good Raiden one coming. :)”
As we get closer to the 30th anniversary of Mortal Kombat, it remains exciting to see what content Boon has in store for fans next.
Via CBR
