Lesser-Known Fighting Finishers

When Mortal Kombat hit the arcades in 1992, the ensuing firestorm of controversy wasn't the only thing it sparked. Like any new craze, everyone wanted to jump on the ultra-gory fighter bandwagon. Throughout the early-to-mid 90s, there was a rash of fighters that featured obvious rip-offs of Mortal Kombat's fatalities (if you haven't already, check out our list of MK's best and worst). Some like Killer Instinct and Primal Rage managed to be successful on their own merits, complete with their versions of finishing moves. However, others weren't even pretending to be anything but ripoffs. Here's a look at some of some of their simultaneously amazing and awful finishers.

Tattoo Assassins

Boasting 2,196 fatalities, Tattoo Assassins is the absolute king of finishers. Some are within the realm of reason (by fighting game standards), but others dive head first into the surreal and absurd. You can turn your enemy into a jogging hot dog, drop giant bowling balls on their head, or fart about a dozen turkey dinners into their face,

Blood Storm

Featuring a significantly more cartoon-like art style than the digitized Mortal Kombat characters, Blood Storm featured many fatalities where you couldn't even really tell what was going on. There was a lot of screaming, and a lot of blood, and then there was usually a mangled corpse at the end.

Xenophage: Alien Bloodsport

This 1995 DOS title was made by Apogee Software, the studio that eventually became 3D Realms. Instead of calling their kill moves "fatalities" or something along those lines, it simply showed the word "MEAT" for some reason. These kills aren't the most noteworthy on the list, but the game does have the distinction of looking like the most awkward.

Ultra Vortek

The Atari Jaguar had no shortage of crappy games, and Ultra Vortek fit snugly into that category. Its finishers are fairly run of the mill, except for one hilarious effect. You'll see it in the video above during the first fatality, and it shows up again throughout the montage.

Time Killers

Time Killers had one thing that separated it from the rest of the MK wannabes - you could lop opponent's limbs off mid-match and it would still continue. You'd fight whole rounds with a missing arm or two, and at the end you could perform (surprise!) fatalities. These weren't particularly creative, however, with most being variations on the "chop off all their limbs" template.

Timeslaughter

This is definitely a weird one, as I have no recollection of its supposed 1996 DOS release. Any information I've found on it seems sketchy at best, and the videos I've watched on YouTube don't even seem real. I don't doubt that it's a playable game, but it was either a seriously under-the-radar release in 1996 or a recently-made parody of that era. Either way, check out the Scottish dude playing the bagpipes with another dude's organs above.

Kasumi Ninja

I wasn't kidding when I said the Jaguar had a ton of crappy games. Kasumi Ninja was yet another, and featured a few uninspired (albeit bloody) fatalities. While these mostly fail to impress, I have to give them credit for the Scottish dude's sweet headbutt finisher.

Survival Arts

Sammy published this arcade title hot on the heels of Mortal Kombat's success, but was largely unsuccessful. It attempted to emulate the digitized look of Midway's classic, but everyone had an odd action figure look to them. Plus, most of their fatalities were of the "hit someone really hard and make them fall apart" variety.

Eternal Champions

Mortal Kombat had The Pit, and its sequel expanded upon that concept with a variety of stage fatalities. Eternal Champions decided to take that idea and run with it, and introduced a ton of "sudden death" finishers. These involved elements of the current level, and most were completely absurd. Check out my favorite at the 1:20 mark.

Way of the Warrior

If the only music you listen to is Rob Zombie 24/7, then Way of the Warrior is the crappy 3DO fighter for you. MK-esque fatalities were performed by characters as unique as the Australian Shaky Jake and the ninja named...Ninja.