Mortal Kombat Went From National Panic to Camp

While watching Mortal Kombat II, a cheesy '90s throwback that's essentially a family-friendly fantasy picture with copious R-rated gore, I couldn't help but recall the controversy surrounding the original Mortal Kombat video game. The game was released in the early 1990s, and it was both a runaway hit and a mass cultural panic that approached the level of a national emergency—a matter of congressional inquiry and, eventually, a literal Supreme Court case.