Mortal Kombat is pretty much the perfect title for what would be the fighting game over 30 years ago, but there were other names the developers once had in mind.
Series co-creator Ed Boon has just shared an early working project title for the original MK, but since it’s April Fool’s Day, he promises it’s no joke.
“I wouldn’t blame you if you didn’t believe me today. But this was one of the names we were considering before settling on Mortal Kombat,” Boon wrote on Twitter using our guy. BossLogic Fan Made Kumite Poster as a proposed series of Blood Sport.
Kumite is a fairly common name that we’ve seen used in fighting game tournaments over the years, but for those who don’t know what it actually is, Kumite refers to freeform martial arts fighting and/or one of the three main sections. karate
I wouldn’t blame you if you didn’t believe me today. But this was one of the names we were considering before settling on MORTAL KOMBAT.
image by @BossLogic pic.twitter.com/L3NoUfgek4—Ed Boon (@noobde) April 1, 2023
It seems that Boon is telling the truth here considering that he said game informer in 2016, Kumite was high on his list of potential titles, as well as other cutesy martial arts names like Dragon Attack, Death Blow, and Final Fist.
Through more team brainstorming though, the developers came up with the term Combat before adding a K there to make it stand out as something unique.
Now, more than 3 decades later, the series is one of the most iconic of all video games, and we should see the 12th mainline Mortal Kombat announced sometime this year, maybe even this month.
