Note: Work in progress, researching. Feel free to request editorship

About

"FINISH HIM!" is an ending message that appears in arcade fighting video game series Mortal Kombat to notify the player to perform a final blow on their opponent so they could win the match. With the popularity of the series and the many gruesome finishing moves, called "Fatality," this message has since became a subject of parody on the internet.

Origin

The fighting game series Mortal Kombat series was created by Midway games and was first released in arcades on October 8th, 1992. Before finishing a match in the game, a fighter can perform many special moves known as "Fatalities" when the message "FINISH HIM/HER!" is spoken by the announcer and appears on the screen, indicating the time for the final strike against their defeated opponent. As the series went on, a variety of special ending messages has been introduced to the series; notably "Brutality," "Animality," "Babylity," and "Friendship."

Spread

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The fame of the catchphrases of these game has expanded to considerable levels que has influenced both the internet like parodies, increasing the popularity of the series and similar techniques in other franchises like the phrase "Executions" pertaining to the "Gears of War " series and the phrase "Claytality" of the "ClayFighter 63⅓" series. The Fatalities were featured in ScrewAttack's "Top 10 OMGWTF Moments" due to the competition it gave to other games including Street Fighter II and how it popularized the arcades^[3], as well as in machinima.com's list of top ten gaming memes^[2].

Controversy

So much the expressions of the game like their images sparked controversy because of its high content of violent and bloody, reaching censorship in number of countries, and several court cases about the extremely violence. Subsequently, the classification by the ESRB for adult audiences, causing the increase in the morbidity of young audiences.

Notable Examples

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Search Interest

External References