Here's my dirty little secret: Despite my reputation as a hardcore moralist, truth be told I love the "Mortal Kombat" games. When it's late at night and the kids are in bed, I'll sometimes pull out whichever is the latest title in the series -- surely the bloodiest of the bloody fighting games -- and play until my fingers go numb.
If there is a dividing line between the Japanese and Western game markets, "Mortal Kombat" has figured into the creation of that line. The Japanese market has embraced games such as "Street Fighter II," "Virtua Fighter," "King of Fighters" and "Tekken." But in the United States, the "Mortal Kombat" series reigns supreme.
Why is this? Well, Americans like "Mortal Kombat's" ultra-gory depiction of combat, its hidden moves and its digitized graphics. Hidden moves are popular with Japanese gamers too, but they've never taken to digitized graphics and gratuitously hyperbolic bloodshed.