Context

The controversies started from the advertisement of the game. This youtube video shows the original advertisement of the game. We can see that the teenagers in the video are like gangsters walking on the street. Will the parents let their children play the game after seeing the advertisement? This video was definitely a negative influence back in the time and people are still getting hyped after watching the advertisement. A year later, 1993, Mortal Kombat 2 was released and the content was much more bloody compared to Mortal Kombat 1. This is when the Appalachian State University did a research on the topic of the effects of violent videogame play on males. They examined 30 males between the ages from 18 - 23 to play the video games Mortal Kombat 1 and Mortal Kombat 2. The result of this research measures the SBP(Systolic Blood Pressure), DBP(Diastolic Blood Pressure, HR(Heart Rate), ACL(Adjective Checklist), BAI(Bell Adjustment Inventory), and BHI(Buss-Durkee Hostility Inventory). The observation to the result is that higher levels of videogame violence (MK1 and MK2 where MK2 is more violent) bring out a greater cardiovascular reactivity and higher scores on hostility measures. This could potentially make the young teenagers adopt violent or aggressive behavior. 

The Australian Classification Board reported that "The game includes over 60 fatalities... which contain explicit depictions of dismemberment, decapitation, disembowelment and other brutal forms of slaughter,"

"Despite the exaggerated conceptual nature of the fatalities and their context within a fighting game set in a fantasy realm, impact is heightened by the use of graphics which are realistically rendered and very detailed.”

"In the opinion of the Board, the game contains violence that exceeds strong in impact and is unsuitable for a minor to see or play."

Eventually, Mortal Kombat was banned in Australia to avoid people who are under the age of 18 seeing brutal actions that they aren’t supposed to see. In Germany, the game was banned because a court says that the descriptive details for every brutal action or death is too realistic with the sound and visual effect. Countries like Indonesia, Japan, and China also banned the game with similar reasons, and mostly because of the gory contents.