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xbox st. columba rural town ps3 ps2 ottawa nostalgia mortal kombat memories live Evil Controllers evil ambassador deception copiozo armageddon

Evil Ambassador Copiozo reflects on Mortal Kombat in his life.

For those of you who don't know, I'm 27 years old, meaning I was born in 1984. Mortal Kombat came out in about 1993 for the Sega Genesis & the SNES (It came out in arcades in 1992 but I didn't have access to it due to my rural Illinois town's arcade had zip). So doing the math, I was about nine years old when MK was reached to the masses via the consoles. I had the SNES version and my friend Tony had the Genesis version. We were hooked and were the bee's knees of our Catholic grade school of St. Columba because had the "cool parents" that got Mortal Kombat for us.

(By the way, Evil Controllers does not support buying Mature games for underage kids. Please follow all ESRB ratings for all video games.)

Anyway, the Mortal Kombat craze caught our young attention at an early age and we began seeing the game everywhere. We started pretending we were the characters during recess (which surprisingly we didn't get in trouble for) and talked non-stop about the game. When Mortal Kombat II came out, it grew even bigger. I recall in the fourth or fifth grade we were making customizable paper bunny rabbits for Easter and several of us made Mortal Kombat bunnies (by the way Chris, stop harping me on making a Reptile bunny because you made a Scorpion bunny first, Josh made a Kano bunny). During that year, we had a new priest that looked exactly like Stryker from MKII. We eventually called him "Father Stryker". The priest actually didn't mind it as he wanted to connect with the kids. He later found out what the game was all about...yet he still accepted the name; it still boggles me to this day. Finally, to top it all off, I think I had my first hint of cosplay, as I remember begging my mom to make me a Raiden costume for Halloween that year. Which she did and it was awesome.

So years passed, we grew up and the video game market matured with us and Mortal Kombat was beginning to be left behind by equally bloody games like Resident Evil and House of the Dead. We all started feigning interest after Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 came and wore out its welcome. Some more years passed and while we did see failures like that Jax and Sonya game that we don't talk about, we found reliving those memories when Mortal Kombat was on XBOX and PS2 with Armageddon and Deception. Then the memories, they phased out again.

Zoom now to 2011, and the series now has been revived and back to its roots in "Mortal Kombat". No more Shaolin monks, no more "meh" story games, just pure giggle while you play action. Playing the game reminds me of those nights back home in my rural town of Ottawa with my friends, arguing about why Kabal is the best or why sweeping endlessly is NOT a legit strategy. Those were the days. I guess they are back again (thanks to XBOX LIVE).

I do wonder where and what Father Stryker is doing these days.