As more and more horror icons are getting crammed into fighting titles, we explore the relationship between the two
The villains and anti-heroes of our favorite horror franchises have effectively been terrorizing and entertaining audiences (“terrortaining”, to coin a bad phrase) for decades now across numerous franchises. We love these monsters. We need these monsters. But in spite of the constant franchise-ization of horror and the many costumes of these boogeymen that are trotted out every Halloween allowing us to become them, there is still a degree of disconnect going on here. Even though audiences have made it clear that they want to be these monsters, video games have been incredibly slow on the uptake to cater to this wicked whim.
With the recent announcement that the Xenomorph and Leatherface are both soon to join the bloody fray of Mortal Kombat X, some interesting questions have been brought up as a result. With this news causing an avalanche of excitement between Mortal Kombat and horror fans alike, why has this trend been so slow moving? Why haven’t horror icons seen a full invasion into the violent fighting genre of gaming at this point? We’ll examine the progress made in this area through the recent years, as well as how horror could firmly transplant itself in the medium and create a whole new messy playground to invade.
Admittedly, video games haven’t been completely devoid of featuring some of our favorite horror heavyweights through the years. Franchises like Friday the 13th, A Nightmare on Elm Street, and even The Texas Chain Saw Massacre have all seen video game adaptations, but these have been few and far between, not to mention resulting in shoddy titles that are largely superfluous. Only recently, with the release of Alien: Isolation have we seen horror franchises beginning to get respect in the medium with this hopefully becoming a trend of what’s to come. There have been wheels in motion recently to get Jason Voorhes back in the gaming world with a new Friday the 13th title, and the timing couldn’t be better.
With it appearing like (at least for now) that action-adventure and even survival horror angles for horror franchise adaptations aren’t the right direction, what seems like the next logical choice is to turn to the realm of fighting games. This genre distills this mindless carnage of horror films into a medium that revolves around excessive gore. Putting people in control of these psychopaths (as opposed to surviving them), is additionally a fresh twist that gamers are eager for. Adversely, having a bunch of free-range horror icons in one title together becomes a fun mash-up of sorts that allows you to create your own Monster Vs. Monster scenarios, truly indulging and flexing your horror muscle.
Horror franchises allow such an easy transition into fighting games, and it’s likely why there’s already been a good deal of cross-pollination in the field. While not taking iconic horror villains per se, the Killer Instinct and Clay Fighters series were still indulging in these sort of archetypes, featuring fighters that would span everything from werewolves, to headless horsemen, to skeletons, to killer snowmen. In a lot of ways the waters were being tested here to see how palatable characters like this could be in a fighting title.
Flash forward into the more recent generations of gaming and the genesis of the popular trend of “guest characters” in fighting games. I suppose it only makes sense that in a growing time of “system exclusives” and pre-order bonuses that differ depending on your retailer, finding a way to incentivize purchases is the natural progression of things. One of the more famous examples of this has been with Namco’s popular Soul Calibur series. The multi-platform fighting title would feature different guest characters depending on which system you were purchasing for. While they might not be horror franchise icons necessarily, XBOX’s version of Soul Calibur II contains Todd McFarlane’s Spawn, and Soul Calibur IV for the PS3 features Darth Vader, opening the doors for such villainous cameos. If these sort of sweeping experiments could work, then clearly pushing things a little further wouldn’t be that difficult.
Such a push finally happened in the ninth Mortal Kombat title (aptly titled simply, Mortal Kombat), which saw the release of several DLC characters (including Kratos from the God of War video game franchise), which most notably saw the inclusion of Freddy Kreuger. With fans accepting this character with open claws and Freddy quickly becoming one of the most popular characters within the game, clearly this crossover could work. Mortal Kombat might have merely grazed this premise, but the latest game in the series, Mortal Kombat X, has made it their mantra. So Freddy might be absent from the party this time, but Mortal Kombat X does have Jason Voorhes, the Predator, with Leatherface and the Xenomorph from the Alien series on the way. That’s kind of unbelievable. People are going to be reenacting their own personal Alien Vs. Predator fight scenes now, and it’s within a title that exists beyond both of them.
Elsewhere in gaming the boundaries have become increasingly fluid, with multi-property titles like Lego Dimensions bringing stuff on the fringe of horror like Doctor Who, Jurassic World, and even 2001 into play. Valve’s Poker Night surprisingly has Ash Williams from Raimi’s Evil Dead as a character, which is a step in the right direction, even if his inclusion here is mostly useless. Even an iOS game like Car Town Streets has the Ecto-1 from Ghostbusters in it! Our perception of what is acceptable and how sacred these worlds are is broadening every year.
There have been several fighting games at this point that have featured a mélange of all the monsters and kaiju out of the Godzilla franchise, with that seeming to have a somewhat smaller fan base (at least in America) than all of the most popular horror series. If these Godzilla fighters can stand, then why not a horror royal rumble? Sure, licensing could be a pain (the only real obstacle I see), but if Mortal Kombat can already assemble this sort of “talent” while seemingly not even trying, then it must be doable. Mortal Kombat saw itself branching out and crossing over with the DC Universe in their Mortal Kombat Vs. DC Universe game, and with so much of a horror slant already being present in their following titles, why not just go all-in and make your next crossover title be Mortal Kombat Vs. All-Star Slashers? When Shrek can appear in Tony Hawk’s Underground 2 (and Iron Man in its predecessor), pretty much anything is possible.
A fully realized horror franchise fighting game seems like where we should be heading, so naturally it makes sense to touch upon when this very thing did end up happening…kind of. Terrordrome is a fan-made, free-to-download PC/MAC/Linux title that’s a nightmare come true for horror fans. It’s essentially everything we’ve been talking about here, as it provides a fighting game featuring fourteen of horror’s most famous antagonists. Terrordrome is far from perfect, but there’s a ton of attention to detail and love for horror that’s clearly present in the project (plus online play). It’s a far cry from a commercial release in this vein, but any fraction of enjoyment that you experience here is a glimpse of how incredible a major release like this would be.
A very nice blueprint has been set up so far by the likes of Mortal Kombat but just picture the madness that could be had by really scraping the bottom of the murderers’ row of horror villains. Legends like Ash, Hellraiser, Michael Myers, Damien Thorne (in both child and adult-form, like Human and Robot Smoke), or any Murder Santa would be too much. There could even be DLC focusing on certain sizes of characters, with a Tiny Horror Pack containing the likes of Chucky, Leprechaun, and Critters, and a Beasts of Burden Pack featuring more unruly types like The Thing or Pumpkinhead. The sort of variety of fighters present in a title like this, rather than everyone being lumbering men with sharp knives, adds even more value to the concept.
With the release and fallout of Leatherface and the Predator in Mortal Kombat X still having yet to take place, it’s impossible to predict just how much of an influence they’ll end up having. It seems safe to say though that we’ll surely be seeing more of this, and I would honestly be surprised if Mortal Kombat didn’t end up eventually fully giving into this rather than just dishing out more and more guest DLC characters. Whether it’s through Mortal Kombat or some new franchise all onto its own, it likely won’t be long until we’re creating our own horror franchise deleted scenes and acting like a murder pig in murder slop. And don’t we deserve that?
Now, quickly, tell me what Chucky’s fatality would be! Go!