Landmark: Let’s talk about finishing

There are many ways to show your opponent what you really have made of – the player can perform beautiful and incredibly long combo, accurately fend off every attack from the opponent, cleverly dodge, elegantly move from an attacking position to the protective, unexpectedly use super tricks and, of course, end battles with brutal finishes. The latter is a cherry on the cake, what makes victory even sweeter and more desirable. Almost every game has unique versions of final tricks with their own characteristics, rules and even names. But did you ever ask a question about their origin? Whether you were interested in their influence on the game industry? Have you thought about how much they have changed in recent years? In this article, I will try to answer all these questions and at the same time I will try to understand the features of final techniques, both fighting and games of completely different genres (but there will be few of the latter here).

Basic information: The final reception/finishing is a special technique that allows the player to kill or send the weakened enemy to the knock of. In some cases, it works as a murder from one blow during the battle (in Guilty Gear, Blazblue, Fist of the North Star on PS2 and T.D.), in others, just beating to the death of an already defeated enemy at the very end of the match (Mortal Kombat, Eternal Champions, Kasumi Ninja and T.D.), and in resing after the execution of such a technique, it is necessary to retain. Naturally, I will try to mention all the games in the Faiting genre where there is at least something outwardly similar to the final reception and at the same time I will definitely determine where it is real, and where it simply seems like that.

Let’s start, perhaps, with stories the occurrence of achievement. Take the starting point of the game for arcade machines called Reikai Doushi: Chinese Exorcist (in the West is known as The Last Apostle Puppet Show) of 1988 release, where the player could make an enemy of the head in the final blow. In order for the decapitation procedure to be successfully not required, no ultra -complicated and incomprehensible combinations are required, it is enough to deliver the last final blow and thereby win the battle. In general, it turns out that this is, as it were, not finishing at all, but simply an alternative version of the knockout. But the player does not know about it. He sees his head flying and does not understand what a wonderful combination of buttons he pressed so that all this happened. Of course he will notice to the third and fourth decapitation that there is no magic, but for the first time he will feel like the king of the world. The developers took a step in the right direction, but the idea with finishing off has not remained up to the end. The real ancestor of all final tricks should be called the game for Nintendo Entertainment System called the 1989 Tecmo World Westling. Here, every battle can be finished beautifully, it is enough to make the opponent have almost no health, after which it will be necessary to perform a special final reception, followed by a cinematic screensaver, where a close -up and in all details will show the incredibly beautiful (we are still talking about the game for nes) finishing off). Tecmo decided to indicate that the battle is coming to its logical conclusion to this screensaver. In my opinion, this is a good reward for the player for his efforts. Many subsequent games dedicated to resing tried to repeat this unusual mechanics (of those that came out immediately after it was worth mentioning the WWF WRSTLEMANIA CHALLENGE of 1990 and the 1992 WWF SUPER WRSTLEMANIA) and develop the idea into something more insanely funny. Now colorful and cinematographic finishing out have become the norm for many games about reselling. Somewhere they cut off the opponent completely, and somewhere else they give a chance to restore, but everywhere they work as a final act of the whole battle. Unfortunately, in such games, a real final reception is retention, because this is the only way you can finish the battle for real (except that we allow us to change the rules of the game, but in Tecmo World Wrestling, alas, there is no). It is impossible not to mention one chess game for the Amiga system called the 1988 Battle Chess in which the battles (capture) of the attacking and defending chess figures are accompanied by a funny/brutal animation of finishing. There is also Moonstone: A Hard Days Knight 1991 release, known primarily for the scene of the murders of enemy adversaries with an incredible amount of blood and divisions, which is extremely cruel for its time. And now, in order to get a great game in the genre of fighting winging with real finishing/final techniques, we just need to combine all of the above games and make one more deadly battle out of them.

The Mortal Kombat series was the first to decide to finish the important element of the gameplay. Ed Bun and John Tobias were inspired by Street Fighter 2 and really wanted to do something similar, but only in their own style. It seemed to them an interesting opportunity to hit the enemy in a state of DIZZY (dizziness). As a rule, in this state, the character will stand still and swing from side to side until stars or birds fly over his head. Unfortunately, in the vanilla version of the SF2 with a character who was difficult to do something interesting, but I would like to, and the guys from Netherrealm Studios thought about it and came to the idea of ​​creating Fatality.

Our first idea was to use them as finishing for the final boss, Shang Zun, which was supposed to pull out the sword and chop off the head of the enemy. Then we thought what would happen if the player could do it with his opponent? When we watched the players react to fatalics, we realized: we had no choice, except how to give them the opportunity to prove themselves.

Fatality – This is, as it were, an alternative to the shock of the hand of the loser at the end of the battle, where we tear off this hand and beat it with it with all our might on the head of its owner. It turns out something like a tender (Taunt) only with death. But this is what is so special about these fatalities? After all, in fact, they are just a small bonus at the end of the match on which the outcome of the battle does not depend. Firstly, finishing off is spectacular. You look at one thing and breathes a spirit, and then they will show friends then and they will be stunned. Secondly, it is not so easy to fulfill these finishing off, not having familiarized yourself with the instructions or a hint in the magazine in advance (the player needs to stand at a certain distance from the enemy and press a certain combination of buttons), which makes the process of their searches exciting, and finding becomes a real event, both for the player and for his acquaintances. Thirdly, all these searches give rise to many rumors and invented stories about non-existent finishing, so that the halo of mystery and understatement always hung over the games where they are present. Well, and is it necessary to say that Fatality is a demonstration of the player’s abilities and humiliation of the enemy. In MK, fatalities do not change the gameplay in any way, but instead they create an image of a serious game with a huge number of secrets. And taking into account the fact that the game also looks like a film (used realistic sprites from digitized movements of living actors), then, in addition to everything for the player, what is happening on the screen is perceived as a steep action movie with martial arts, robots, monsters and a high level of violence, which at that time could not be found in any other similar games.

Due to the cruel fatalities (and in particular, presented above on the animation of the Sab-Ziro, where it pulls out the enemy spine along with his head) in 1994, the ESRB organization was created by the adoption and determination of the ratings for computer video games and other entertainment software in the USA and Canada. An interesting achievement that was able to change the attitude of people to video games and helped create an image of entertainment « not only for children, but also for adults too ». Developers such an attitude from the public, like everything related to the censorship of their games, have amused, and only (glory grew, as on yeast and it does not matter in exactly what way). And the creators of the MK decided to laugh at all this farce, adding to the second part a strange and absurd finishing under the name Friendship, that strongly contrast with the serious mood and cruelty of the game. Having fulfilled the finishing data, the player will not kill his opponent, but, let’s say, he will make fun of him. Dzhaks, for example, will begin to make paper men, the airsiker will help to cross the road to other characters, Johni Cage will leave his autograph, etc.p. It’s funny and, most importantly, original. In addition to all this, you should not forget about Stage Fatality. It should be called « finishing with which even a baby will cope ». It was not that it was so simple to fulfill it, but in fact the player only needed to find the right combination of teams and end the whole thing with an uppercott, and after that the enemy would fly into the sky and will finish what will fly into the ceiling with all his might, or fall into the spikes in the pit (especially successful can even visit acid baths).

And after the usual Fatality and parodies https://nonukcasinosites.co.uk/credit-cards/ on them called Friendship appeared: Babality, Animality, Brutaly, Hara-Kiri, Heroic Brutaly and Kreate-A-Fatality. Partially their introduction to the series games is associated with the advent of a huge number of imitators/parodies Mortal Kombat. For example, Brutaly, which first appeared in the Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 is an obviously wary look from Netherrealm Studios towards Killer Instint (Fiting developed Rareware for arcade machines in 1994), which for some fans was a kind of MK killer. Brutaly – a way to finish off the enemy, through a rather long series (combo) of attacks. Killer Instinct has three types of finishing. First – No Mercy (or Danger Move in the subsequent parts of the series), working according to the same scheme as Fatality in Mortal Kombat, where you need to stand at a certain distance from the enemy, press an incomprehensible combination of buttons and hope that for all this time the opponent will not restore health (another player at the same time presses the entire buttons and tries to resurrect). Also, at some levels, there is an opportunity to dump the enemy outside the arena during finishing. Second – Humiliation, Which, like Friendship in MK, is not a mortal way to complete the battle. Do everything right, and the enemy will begin to dance. But we are interested in the third type of finishing, which is called Ultra Combo -A quick series of blows, which can only be made at the moment when the opponent on the 2nd scale of the indicator of life has almost no health left. As for me so brutaliy – a more complex fatalita in which the player has to skillfully combine different types of attacks. A much deeper study of the main mechanic of the game is required here. Unfortunately, Brutalii in MK, unlike the same Ki, are boring and the same type. Even if the player manages to fulfill them doubt that he will be pleased with the final result. The enemy scattered into small pieces? For the efforts of the player, you need to reward with something more standing. In MKX, the developers have changed brutality for the better: now they are modified versions of ordinary special receptions, which can be fulfilled at the end of the battle, if some specific conditions were met. The last blow in the match turns into finishing, and the enemy dies instantly.

Babality – This finishing, first appeared in Mortal Kombat II, allows the player to turn his enemy into a baby. If we take into account the comments of the developers (and specifically the composer of the game by Dan Funder), then the idea of ​​creating this absurd finishing came to his head when he tried to find suitable musical tracks and effects and accidentally stumbled upon the child’s cry. A brilliant idea dawned on him and he immediately ran to tell Ed Buna about her. And Buna likes the humorous/frivolous side of MK and therefore he allowed to make real achievement from this joke. In order to perform the Babalitia, the player must press a special combination of buttons and win the last round using only the upper or lower kick (in the Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 and Mortal Kombat Trilogy you need to win the round without using the block buttons). Babality could also appear in Mortal Kombat (2011), judging by the characters found in the games found in the game files, only the developers for some reason changed their minds to add them.

Animality appeared thanks to fans, or more precisely, their inventions that there are fatalities in which characters can turn into animals in the game. Perhaps it all started with a hearing that sub-ziro can turn into a white bear in Mortal Kombat II or all this is due to the fact that Liu Keng during one of his Fatality became a real dragon. As a result, hearing turned into a reality in Mortal Kombat 3, Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 and Mortal Kombat Trilogy (and a little more in other parts, but already as part of the original fatalities). Miracles! My favorite Animality is where Scorpio turns into a penguin. Of course, it is ridiculous, but it’s funny.

Hara-Kiri – This is the suicide of the defeated player, which appeared and was used only in Mortal Kombat: December. In past games of the MK series, suicidal fatalities were also present, such as the self -destruction of Sayrax from Mortal Kombat 3 or Smokok in MK3, where he also destroys the entire planet with his bombs in addition to himself at the same time. There are fatalities in Mortal Kombat (2011), where cyber sub-ziro jumps on the enemy, freezes himself and him, and both breaks into ice fragments. It is only strange that such an original way to kill yourself and deprive the enemy of the chance to hold fatalics is no longer found in any other parts of the series. I am sure that it is very popular among fans, but apparently the developers wanted to be original or (in the case of MK: Armageddon) for Hara-Kiri simply did not find a place. I hope it will return to new parts.

By the way of MK: Armageddon, after all, they added there Kreate-a-Fatality – Watching which the player has to do himself. Correctly using different combinations of attacks and movements, we can beat, trample, chop, tear out into parts of the enemy until there is no empty place from him. On the one hand, the game lost the final techniques unique for each character, but it got something actually unique, something that pushes the player to participate in the process of creating and realizing many of his ideas about how the perfect finishing. Not all fan liked such radical changes in their beloved series, so we will not see this type of finishing anywhere else (except in games dedicated to resing, where to create characters and techniques for them is the norm). As for Heroic Brutaly, What first appeared in Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe, then it is just softer/non -deadly version of ordinary finishing. I don’t think that even the developers themselves like what they did in the end.

How long we have been discussing finishing up for so long and have never really mentioned two -dimensional Mortal Kombat clones, of which so many and most of them are not so original that you don’t even know, but is it necessary to talk about them at all. Time Killers, Eternal Champions, One Must Fall: 2097, Kasumi Ninja, Tattoo Assassins, Cosmic Carnage, Primal Rage, Way of the Warrior, Ultra Vortek, Xenophage:Alien BloodSport, WWF In Your House, Double Dragon V: The Shadow Falls, Pray for Death, TimeSlaure, Clayfighter and this list can be continued endlessly. The easiest way will be to devote the time of those games where there are at least some semblance of interesting achievements. Here Time Killers, For example, he tries to be original, although not at the expense of final tricks, but the opportunity to cut/tear off the hands of the enemy during the battle. IN Eternal Champions You will find the most cruel finished off of all that have ever been created. It is very difficult to fulfill them and in fact most often the player has to hope for luck (especially with all Stage Fatality and with their specific requirements for implementation). Tattoo Assassins, Probably the most famous bad clone of MK, which can only interest the player with his huge number of different absurd achievements (which are at least nudealites that you can see above in an animated picture). The game really did not even come out anywhere, as if about its existence carefully tried to forget everything in the world, but thanks to the Internet and emulators, anyone can now play this miracle of nature. Do you only need it? Jackie Chan: The Kung-Fu Master – Game with Jackie Chan and Cruel Fataliy. Here is a combination of not combined you still need to look, my friends. Primal Rage A non -standard example of an attempt to make your version of MK, but with dinosaurs. Cruel, beautiful, but extremely uncomfortable (in terms of management) game. Wwf in your house – Absurrer’s fighting playing dedicated to res of res of the original first part of Mortal Kombat where they did not forget to add finishing (they occur directly while holding). Each of the above games has its own pros and cons, but with regard to the achievements themselves, they, unfortunately, did not go far from Mortal Kombat. It is even strange that everyone is so hard to repeat behind their idol and cannot come up with anything interesting related to the final techniques. In any case, all those whom I managed to mention above.

Three -dimensional clones of MK For the most part of the brainchild of Midway themselves, that they managed to release several video games not related to a series of MK, but trying to be similar to them, both in terms of game mechanics, control, cruelty, and in terms of completing techniques. War Gods, For example, just a budget version of MK4 that was created, most likely, simply because it was necessary to check the new engine. Mace: The Dark Age – This is fighting where all the characters use cold and stupid weapons. Bio F.P.E.A.TO.WITH. – This is MK4 with pistols, automatic machines, firepack flameters and dismemberment Ala Time Killers. Of the three -dimensional fighting endings with finishing, on which Midway did not work, it is worth highlighting Wu-Tang: Shaolin Style where players are given to direct Wu-Tang music team members. I would say that the final tricks in this game are quite unique, but only in the sense that they do not need to make any complex combinations, just press at the end of the battle one of the four main buttons responsible for attacks and, voila, the player will witness the fierce killing of the enemy. Intuitively and understandable, but in my opinion it is too simple. On the same engine was made (but not released) Thrill Kill game where there is no place for anything normal and cruelty was erected to the Absolute. I would never call the game a clone, but they were inspired here obviously by a series of Mortal Combat. In the 21st century there are many games that still repeat behind the old parts of MK that the nineties have not so much ended, and even have not yet had time to begin. Death Cargo, Bikini Karate Babes, The Black Heart and Terrordrome: Rise of the BoogeyMen is one of the few that still want to be like the original Mordall Combat Combat. The last two, however, have been developed by talented people who know what makes Mordobia with a good scammers. But let’s distract with you for a short while clones and look at the games that they are trying to make something new out of any way accessible to them and succeed in this matter.

In the following games about which I will tell you finishing/completing techniques work a little differently, excellent from the MK series and its imitators. To begin with, they do not occur after the battle, when we already know who, won, but in the middle or before the very end (sometimes, but this happens very rarely, they can be performed even in the first round). Secondly, they are more densely connected with the mechanics of fighting and demand from the player to fill out a special scale, perform the necessary combination of movements+attacks and do all this when the enemy cannot deviate or give back. In these games, in order to fulfill the final tricks, you need to devote more time calculation and tactics. In general, the player should approach the matter wisely.

I am a big fan of how in Samurai Shodown finishing up. It is like a separate art that the player must understand, study and correctly implement. You can destroy the enemy’s weapons, cut his throat, cut the body in half (both diagonally and vertically) and even break all its bones. Here every blow seems deadly. You have to evade, suddenly attack and try to be one step ahead of the opponent. In the fourth and subsequent parts, they introduced the final techniques unique for each character, which is essentially the same as the fatalities are, only they need to be performed in the last match 20 seconds before the end of the match. The most interesting thing is techniques such as Near-Death Secrets, which can kill the enemy at any moment of the match (the main thing is that his health strip is blue, and your character is at this moment in a state of rage). In general, the game has a huge amount of finishing, which is interesting and correctly woven into the gameplay.

Bushido Blade – This is probably one of the most unusual and realistic fights of dedicated to battle on swords. In this game, any blow can be fatal. Seriously, in Bushido Blade, the battle can be finished at the same moment as the sword touching the opponent’s head. But only all this is so unpredictable that it is impossible to predict what kind of blow to the enemy to kill in advance (the battle can only last a couple of seconds). SLAP Happy Rhythm Busters has special super techniques that, when successful, can instantly send enemy to the opponent. They are made in the form of a rhythm game where you need to manage to press the buttons in time, that they flicker on the screen in the Dance Dance Revolution style (and if the player does everything perfectly, then he will be shown as a bonus a separate cat-scene with finishing).

Series Guilty Gear And Blazblue (And at the same time, other games of Arc System, like Hokuto No Ken: Shinpan No Souusosei Kengou Retsuden and Persona 4 Arena) are known for their incredibly epic finishing. Fulfilling them is not so simple, but they will send them to the knockout or to the next world of the enemy almost instantly. However, in Hokuto No Ken: Shinpan No Souusosei Kengou Retsuden Kenshiro has one interesting fatalics. If you use it on the enemy, then he will return to battle for a short time, but with the timer at which the time will be indicated at the end of which he will die. Use to take revenge or die trying.

Last Blade 2 has a character who is called Hibiki Takane. If the player during the passage of the campaign will use her super technique at the end of the battle at the end of the battle, then by the end of the game Hibiki Takane from a sweet girl who is afraid to fight a cold killer who is only interested in revenge. It is unusual to meet in fighting in the fighting such a character that can be achieved only with the help of final techniques. Even Soulcalibur IV I could not pass by finishing up and put them into the game by calling the criticism with the finish and putting the harsh conditions for fulfilling as if created only so that no one could ever apply these final methods in this battle.

Given all of the above, it should also be noted as The finishing has changed a lot lately. For example, Stage Fatality at Mortal Kombat Deception gives the player the opportunity to kill the enemy instantly, without waiting for the end of the match, the main thing is to shove the character for the zone marked on the floor and that instantly go to the other world. In Mortal Kombat X, the developers went further and put on the arenas many small traps and objects that are not only convenient to use in battle to reduce the life of an opponent, but it will be more convenient to turn them into brutality. And again, you do not need to wait for the end of the match, the main thing is to bring down the opponent’s health to a minimum and make it so that he did not understand that you started. Even MK began to change and fatalics after him. In the player’s fighting players, they began to reward for an interesting and unusual completion of the duel with different bonuses, like the Victory icon under the scale of life (Street Fighter Alpha 2) or a slightly modified pose of the character who won the battle (Soul Calibur IV). It seems to me that all finishing has long become part of super techniques. Take and look at the X-ray of the last two parts of Mortal Kombat or at supercs from Injustice (which are improved versions of Heroic Brutaly) and tell me, are they not similar to fatalics? In Street Fighter 4,. Such cinematographic beating of the enemy became the norm for the genre, and they replaced the final tricks without any problems, made them useless.

Other genres also like to use finishing off, though the cruelty of Mortal Combat is usually combined with Quick Time Events with mechanics, where after capturing the enemy and successful pressing on the buttons that suddenly appeared on the screen, we will be shown a particularly bloody scene of beating/piercing the villain. This can be found in The Punisher, God of War, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Madworld, The Warriors, No More Heroes and T.D. Chopping can sometimes be seen in stealth games, for example, in the Hitman, Tenchu ​​or Manhunt series, and sometimes even in strategies like Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War. In many shooters (a good example will be the thoughts of 2016) also like to use final tricks, though they are needed there so that the player not only kill the adversaries from afar, but also tried to break them into pieces at close range. That is, so that he fits to the enemy, not from him. In general, all genres began to use finishing off, and the fighting winging was completely forgotten about them.

TO.ABOUT.: Finishing/completing techniques have changed a lot over the past years, they were replaced by cinematic superns, which are in no way inferior in the level of cruelty to the most bloody final techniques from MK. Now bloody finishing off is only a brutal game of the Hack and Slash/Beat ‘Em Up genre and Mortal Kombat series. And those who are still trying to introduce them into the game, forget that it is necessary to do it original, as they did, for example, in the Guilty Gear and Samurai Shodown series, otherwise you will be remembered as an ordinary unremarkable imitator.

I hope this small article is useful for you or at least a little informative. Please tell us in the comments about the games about which I forgot to mention and share your favorite finished offs.