This week we’re score chasing the first two Mortal Kombat fighting games: Season 3 Week 17: Mortal Kombat + Mortal Kombat II – How to Join Us, Play, Beat Your Personal Best and what better way to kick off the “new” Tuesday game spotlight by looking more at a fighting game that brought some real blood, sweat and tears to the scene.
Let’s go back to 1992.
It’s kind of wild these days to think that Jean-Claude Van Damme was originally pitched for the game, but he was a huge martial arts star at the time. He’d done a couple iconic movies like Bloodsport (1988) and Kickboxer (1989) and followed up with Lionheart (1990). He would go on later to make even more movies like Universal Soldiers (1992) and Hard Target (1993) and in 1994 Timecop. Yeah, he was kicking butt in those days on the silver screen and just the guy to be in your fighting game.
Only, Van Damme wasn’t interested.
“Ed [Boon] said our idea would never work but liked the idea of a fighting game, so they cancelled ours and pursued a mainstream game with Jean-Claude Van Damme because it would make more money. I was pissed, because I gave a bunch of great kung fu ideas, and they were now going to give them all to Jean-Claude Van Damme.” (Van Damme declined to do the game, but his influence lived on in Johnny Cage, whose general style bore a strong resemblance to the action star.) Though the Van Damme plan fell through, the game was far from KO’d. Tobias re-pitched the original idea and Midway, seeing the success Capcom had found with Street Fighter II: The World Warrior, decided it might be worth a shot.” – The Weird & Wonderful History of Mortal Kombat | Fandom