Through the 1990s, the developer and publisher Midway Games kept their single-styled fighting moves with four attack buttons for a different array of punches, kicks and blocks. Characters in the early Mortal Kombat games play virtually identically to one another, with the only major differences being their special moves. The arcade cabinet versions of the first two used a joystick and five buttons: high punch, low punch, high kick, low kick, and block Mortal Kombat 3 and its updates added a sixth 'run' button.

The original three games and their updates, Mortal Kombat (1992), Mortal Kombat II (1993), Mortal Kombat 3 (1995), Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 (1995), and Mortal Kombat Trilogy (1996), were 2D fighting games. Mortal Kombat II arcade cabinet's control board Entertainment and reestablished as NetherRealm Studios. Following Midway's bankruptcy, the MK development team was acquired by Warner Bros. Early games in this series were also noted for their realistic digitized sprites and an extensive use of palette swapping to create new characters. Controversies surrounding Mortal Kombat, in part, led to the creation of the Entertainment Software Rating Board video game rating system.

The series has a reputation for high levels of graphic violence, including, most notably, its Fatalities which are finishing moves that kill. Mortal Kombat has become the best-selling fighting game franchise worldwide and one of the highest-grossing media franchises of all time. Kasanoff also produced the second movie, animated TV series, live-action TV series movies, the first one million platinum-selling album and a live-action tour. Movie producer Larry Kasanoff licensed the rights to the game in the early 1990s and produced the first movie of the franchise. The original game has spawned many sequels and spin-offs consisting of several action-adventure games, as well as a comic book series and a card game.

The original Mortal Kombat was the first fighting game to introduce a secret fighter, reached if the player fulfilled a set of requirements. Still the developers paid homage to him with Johnny Cage, a fictional film star whose personal style resembles Van Damme's.

The development of the first game was originally based on an idea that Ed Boon and John Tobias had of making a video game starring Jean-Claude Van Damme, but as that idea fell through, a science fantasy-themed fighting game was created instead. Mortal Kombat is an American media franchise centered on a series of video games, originally developed by Midway Games in 1992.

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