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While the 30th anniversary of Mortal Kombat‘s release may not be until next year, this year marks 30 years since development started on the iconic fighting game, as co-creator Ed Boon pointed out on Twitter. The developer, who also voiced Scorpion in the first few Mortal Kombat games, has used the anniversary to share a behind-the-scenes moment from the classic game.
A video posted by Boon shows filming underway on Scorpion’s movesets, capturing footage that would later be digitised into the game. During the session, Boon can be heard spitballing on a new move, beginning with an excited “you know what would be a cool-ass move?”
What came out of that improvisation was Scorpion’s spear, better known as the “GET OVER HERE” to most players, thanks to Boon’s voice lines. Boon explains that, despite how the video appears, a lot of prep happened before the video shoots, but the developers still sometimes improvised moves on the fly. Throughout the two minute video, you can see the off-the-cuff suggestion quickly being refined into what has become one of the franchise’s most iconic moves.
Boon also elaborates on the development process in the Twitter thread, explaining some of the tricks the team used to try and cut down on memory, which was pretty tight in 1991. The game’s use of palette swaps and recycled animations to save memory is pretty well known, and in this case can be seen in re-using frames for the victim’s reactions–even the dizzy stun animation after the character is pulled in is re-used from fatality animations.
While Boon said he can’t share too much about what’s planned for Mortal Kombat’s 30th anniversary in terms of the actual games, he has said that he hopes to release more behind-the-scenes videos like this one in the lead up to next year’s celebrations.
