So I do believe Ed Boon is the creator of Mortal Kombat and all the MK contestants. Sure there are others who contribute, I can’t see how Ed Boon alone makes MK relevant for today’s consumers.

I feel kind of like Bart Simpson or Nelson Muntz, at the arcade playing MK. Too young for us but we played anyway. The cool kids played MK, and other violent gory games similar to MK. But MK was always that one booth that would draw anyone that who was deemed a rebel. I always was Rebel Scum, so help me God.

I downloaded Mortal Kombat Mobile around three years ago. The game is free for apple and android users. However, if you wanna be a badass, you gamers know how it goes- usually that means we the gamers are going to pay the program money to unlock the dopest of dope characters.

Anyhoo. I’ll break down the basics so you can visualize why this game is so cool to many.

There exist character cards. Johnny Cage, Goro, Shao Kahn, Jax Briggs, Kitana… And each card has a bronze, silver, gold, or diamond rank. Levels go from 1 to 60. Each level increase means it also takes more experience points to level up again. Bronze is the most basic rank, diamond the highest. So, each character card has a set of stats. Bronze ranking cards have basic special attributes, such as 10 percent strength for all martial artist characters. That’s the other thing, what tribe each character is of. There’s martial artists, there’s spec ops, there’s netherrealm, outerworld, and elder gods. Some other tribes too but you get the point.

Typically it’s best to have the three character cards match tribes. Also, to add to the nuance, there are varieties of the same character. Same character, different card with different attributes and special skills. Sonya Blade alone has like, five or six different variations, so there exist six different Sonya Blade cards to acquire, level up, and so on.

The fighting is simple- it’s just pressing the screen at the right moments. Or, and I’m not kidding, you can put it on auto pilot, and the cpu will play for you as you just watch. Haha. That’s typically how I play, go ahead and judge me, I’ll play as I please.

Tournaments, Shao Khan tower, other special limited towers- these are all ways to gain souls to then spend souls on new cards. Or, here’s one more thing- each card stacks eleven times. Get the same card eleven times and you’ve got a badass card. Stacking it to the max, and leveling up to the max, gets the character card in question the maximum stats possible- maxed out is what that’s called for all you rubes of video games.

I’ve always thought hand to hand combat was pretty kick-ass. Martial arts, MMA, boxing- all violent sports. I played rugby for a couple years, man- that was a brutal sport too. Anyway, the great thing about the MK game is that it’s a healthy outlet. I do not visualize doing such ungodly combos on people when I’m out and about. But it is fun to play MK the game because I can release the extreme energy I have inside myself. Kind of an adrenaline junky. So I need stuff that’s not mind altering, that also gives me that extreme experience without doing damage to myself like I did when I was playing rugby. There are levels to extreme activities.

These days my extreme activities include MK mobile, and reading extreme horror fiction. Writing extreme stuff as well. But I realize to keep that fiction in my books, put it out into the marketplace for readers to consider reading when that time comes. I’ve got DYSTOPIAN AMERICA out right now, and it’s something else. Not great, but not horrible. At least I’m not god-awful at weaving a yarn or two.

Back to Mortal Kombat.

The other cool thing about MK mobile is you can earn different winner poses for the characters above bronze and silver ranks. Also different victory phrases, like, “your will is weak”, “i’m simply better at this than you”, and “bone chilling”. I love hearing the different phrases, and watching the different victory poses. I love the variety of characters too. Johnny Cage World Cup is one of my favorite cards. Klassic Lu Kang is another favorite. There’s so much going on in this game.

Again, it is free. And yes, characters can be earned without paying a dime to the app. MK mobile does on occasion drop free diamond rank cards, which generally are at least $20 a pop. The more the player plays, the more they will earn. If I’m on every day, I snag a decent amount of free stuff that others might miss due to a lack of activity on the app.

Sometimes I just want to zone out- do nothing. Just be.

Most of the time though, I enjoy mental stimulation of some sort. My physical activities are limited due to a disabled body, but that’s alright. Reading books, spending time with my dogs, writing, time with family, and MK mobile make a solid day most days.