Mortal Kombat was not always the game we see today. A lot of blood, sweat, programming, and tears went into the game in order to keep it fresh, exciting, and updated. 30 years ago, Ed Boon created the well-known MK fighter Sonya Blade, and today, he takes a look back at that journey with absolute pride and surprise at seeing how far the game has come.
You don't think about Sonya Blade without thinking about getting slammed onto the ground by her infamous leg grab. That move was created and developed little by little, as Boon had a vision for it, but wasn't quite sure how to explain it out loud. Prior to Sonya Blade's appearance, there were only six total fighters within the game, all being male. This is when the team decided they needed to go back to the drawing board, get their programming caps on, and make the seventh fighter.
At first, the team came up with another male character called Curtis Stryker, who was a member of the Special Forces that studied Martial Arts with a Ninjutsu Grandmaster. Soon after the idea came about and they had a sketch drawn up, they realized they would rather make a female fighter, as one had not been implemented in the game before. This is where Lt. Sonya Blade took on the story of Curtis instead and became the fighter we know today.
In Mortal Kombat 2, "Curtis" was introduced to the game, but was renamed Jackson (JAX) Briggs. But, the name Curtis wasn't thrown away completely, because years after his original conception, Kurtis Stryker was brought into Mortal Kombat 3 as the bomb-slinging Riot Control Leader we know as STRYKER.
Boon ends his blast to the past with a fun little fact, where he states,
"Fun Fact: Mortal Kombat characters Sonya and Tanya were named after my sisters of the same names."
Games like thing bring back so many feelings for so many gamers. It's nice to see a creator come back 30 years later and delve deep into the creation of an iconic fighter that we now have the chance to play, due to them deciding to change the script and add in a female character. To see how far the game has come in the last 30 years as a developer and creator that worked on Mortal Kombat must be one of the greatest feelings in the world, and Ed Boon's passion for what he helped create can be felt within his Tweets.
