Mortal Kombat Should’ve Had Less Buttons | Design Play

The original Mortal Kombat games are arcade classics. They are simple games that didn’t focus on long combos or complicated mechanics or meters to manage. Mortal Kombat 3 and 4 added chain combos or the dial-a-combo system but those games still kept things focused on casual friendly antics. It’s only when you start to get to the competitive scene do you start to see insane juggling, corner combos, and other exploits the game makers surely didn’t intend to put into the game. However, I’ve always felt that the game was never actually as simple as it could’ve been. There are not a lot of normal attacks in the original four games, five or six if you want to separate Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 and include the console exclusive but mechanically similar Mortal Kombat Trilogy. I theorize that the controls and button layout are overdesigned and they all could’ve been consolidated from a five and later six button layout to a three or four button one, preferably three.