Mortal Kombat is a game that needs no introduction. This is the game that made parents worry about the media, and probably caused all that video games make people violent stuff. I chose to run the Genesis version because it's the one I played a lot when I was younger. I was initially going to play as Rayden, but I chose Johnny Cage instead.
Game objectives
- Emulator used: Gens 11a
- Beat the game on Very Hard difficulty as Johnny Cage
- 3 Button controller
- Trades some speed for entertainment
- Luck manipulation
When I was playing MK1 Genesis again, I noticed that Rayden could just keep ramming himself into the enemy with his torpedo attack for an easy win with almost no punishments. I initially wanted to record a TAS of said torpedo ramming, but then I thought, "No one actually wants to watch Rayden slamming into his opponent for 20 minutes."
So, I chose to run Johnny Cage instead. Not really sure why, because I usually play Scorpion, but here we are. I enabled the blood code (ABACABB) for entertainment, even though it would probably save time to not do so.
Let me give a sort of basic rundown of what's happening. Basically, I'm trying to manipulate what the opponent will do (I know, shocker) for my benefit. This can be achieved by throwing fireballs randomly, or walking away from the opponent, for example. What I'm trying to manipulate is the opponent throwing a projectile at me. Every character has a projectile move in this game, and by getting them to throw it, they leave themselves vulnerable for, say, an aerial kick. That's usually what I try to do, but sometimes I do other things for entertainment purposes.
- Johnny Cage's moves
- Fireball: Back, Forward, A
- Shadow Kick: Back, Forward, B
- Fatality: Forward, Forward, Forward, A
- And as much as I'd love to say I didn't, I completely forgot about the Crotch Punch. (Start + A)
I don't feel like I need to go and write something for every stage, because the same strategy is used throughout, and the strategy is pretty self-explanatory. I will, however, go over some interesting things in the run.
- Managed to land 2 uppercuts on Scorpion (plus special fatality)
- Froze myself with final hit on Sub-Zero (wastes time, but I had to)
- Endurance 1 Rayden hit a torpedo attack and put me in a corner, forcing me to duck an undodgeable hit otherwise.
- Glitched Scorpion's spear in Endurance 2. If Scorpion is hit at the same time the spear connects, the spear will play the animation that it's connected, but Scorpion will not pull the opponent closer to him. Minor graphical glitches ensue.
- Froze myself AGAIN in Endurance 3. Unfortunately, I had Sonya to worry about, and had to execute a tight jump to escape. Then, it's projectile fighting time.
- Goro wasn't very difficult. (took 2 tries in fact) His projectile comes out really fast, and you've already hit him by the time he thinks about doing another attack.
- Hello, Reptile (Shang Tsung fight)
- Shang Tsung also wasn't difficult. He turned into Goro in Round 1, allowing for an easy victory. In Round 2, I hit him while he was transforming. ST can't block while transforming, and for whatever reason he likes transforming a lot when you hit him.
I encourage more people to try TASing MK1, as I found this very fun to make. Maybe make a JC TAS with the Crotch Punch, or without the Blood Code. Also, improvements could be made by not bothering with Test Your Might (something I completely forgot about), starting matches on the first frame possible, and better manipulation.
arkiandruski: As
feos pointed out, this run is a few minutes slower than the real time world record, which also uses Johnny Cage, so the difference can't be blamed on character choice. This shows a lack of optimization for the run.
A TAS must beat all known records to be acceptable for the site. Thus, I am rejecting this submission.
