Mortal Kombat is the Trope Codifier, if not the Trope Maker, and definitely the Trope Namer, starting with The Pit Fatality in the first game. However, the series didn't start counting stage fatalities as such until the second game, and in certain games you could execute those at any time in the match, provided both players are in the same zone. Behold!
Mortal Kombat (1992)
- Only in one stage (The Pit). The opponent is uppercutted and falls onto a series of spikes. Unlike its successors, there was no unique input needed to accomplish this; a normal uppercut would suffice. By the same token, it wasn't counted as a "true" Fatality by the game, with no points being earned for it and Reptile not being unlocked with it. (However, since Liu Kang's normal Fatality ends in an uppercut, it can trigger the Pit Fatality)
Mortal Kombat II
- Dead Pool: The opponent is uppercutted into the acid pit, and their skin and flesh are removed, leaving a bone husk. This one required a button combination common to all characters, rather than the special inputs used for the Tomb and Pit II. Holding a button also led to Dan Forden letting out an "Aw-wah?" noise after the victim's skeleton surfaces.
- Kombat Tomb: The opponent is uppercutted into the ceiling spikes. With a secret kombination, they also fall from the spikes.
- The Pit II: The opponent is uppercutted into the bottom, which (this time) lacks the spikes. Notably, this made use of specialized sprite cutscenes that shows the victim falling down from the top; due to the unique animations, this Fatality did not return for the stage's later appearance in Mortal Kombat Trilogy.
Mortal Kombat 3
- The Subway (3/U/T): The opponent is uppercutted through the ceiling, landing on the train tracks in the background, where a subway train runs over them.
- Shao Kahn/Bell Tower (3/U/T): The opponent is uppercutted and falls through several floors upon a bed of spikes.
- The Pit 3 (3/U/T): The opponent is uppercutted and falls onto a series of giant spinning blades below.
- Scorpion's Lair (U/T): The opponent is uppercutted through the ceiling into the lava in the stage background, where they're incinerated. Holding certain buttons would lead to either Dan Forden or Shao Kahn (or even both!) to say "Crispy!"
- The Pit 1 (T): The opponent is uppercutted and falls onto a series of spikes. Just like in MK1, a normal uppercut is all that's needed, only now its considered a Fatality.
- Dead Pool (T): The opponent is uppercutted into the acid pit, and their skin and flesh are removed, leaving a bone husk.
- Kombat Tomb (T): The opponent is uppercutted into the ceiling spikes. A secret kombination once more has their corpse slide off of the spikes.
Mortal Kombat 4
- The Prison (4/G): The opponent is grabbed by one arm and one leg and spun around (in a first-person view), and finally tossed into one of the giant fans in the background
- Goro's Lair (4/G): The opponent is uppercutted into the ceiling spikes. With a secret kombination, they also fall from the spikes and another leads to Dan Forden letting out his famous "Toasty!"
- If you have One Button Stage Fatalities on, this Fatality is performed on every stage but the Prison.
Mortal Kombat: Deception
In this game the Stage Fatalities proper are now rechristened as "Death Traps". This game's implementation of the Stage Fatalities allow you to pull these off any point of any round, meaning you could uppercut your opponent into a mass of spinning blades at the end of round one and they'll be back, hale and hearty, at the start of round two. They were marked by a special glowing red line on the floor.- Slaughterhouse: In the lower floor, the opponent can be thrown to a pair of parallel segmented cylinders with spikes laden on them; the spikes will shred the unlucky character and their blood will paint the walls behind them.
- Sky Temple: From the lower balcony, the opponent is pushed to the ground, turning into mush.
- Yin Yang Island: In the Outworld side, a strong attack will send the opponent to the ocean, where they are promptly eaten by piranhas.
- Hell's Foundry: Players can be sent to the foundry press and become part of the metal slabs.
- Falling Cliffs: Stepping onto one of the falling blocks leaves the unfortunate stepper into the spikes below.
- Golden Desert: In the lower level, players can get krushed by falling statues or pulled into the lower level, where they get impaled onto a rock spire.
- The Dark Prison: The opponent is crushed between the two spiked walls in the human compactor.
- Lower Mines: On the upper floor, players can get thrown to the beast's head. On the lower floor, players can get thrown into the steel rock crusher or thrown into a fire pit.
- The Pit: The opponent is uppercutted and falls onto a spike.
- Dead Pool: The opponent is uppercutted into the acid pit, and their skin and flesh are removed, leaving a bone husk. Dan Forden once more says "Aw-wah?" this time regardless of buttons being held.
- Quan Chi's Fortress: The opponent is uppercutted into a laserweb which dissects them into small pieces.
- Kuatan Palace: Players can get pushed into the molten lava surrounding the platform.
- Dragon King's Temple: The opponent is pulled into the spikes surrounding the arena. In Konquest and Arcade modes, you can't throw Onaga into these spikes, but he can do just that to you.
- The Nexus: Players can get thrown through a wall into the dark void of the Nexus itself, lost for all time. Or until the next round.
Mortal Kombat: Armageddon
Same deal as Deception. In addition to those found back in Deception, here are the new stage traps.- The Armory: It has two death traps, one is the molten metal pool, and the other is the rolling rock crusher.
- Shao Kahn's Arena: It now has four death traps: a meat grinder, an acid pool, a molten lava pool, and a spike pool.
- Bell Tower: The opponents can be knocked down to several floors upon a spike with four sharp edges, with their legs and arms being cut off. A rat carries one of the severed limbs off. Unlike other death traps, this is a proper Stage Fatality in that it can only be done at the "FINISH HIM/HER!" phase of the fight.
- Tekunin Prison: The opponents can be uppercutted to the large overhead steel fan on the ceiling, which will chop the victims into pieces. Similar to Bell Tower above, this can only be done at the "FINISH HIM/HER!" phase of the fight.
- Evil Tower: Players can be thrown to the void in the empty section of the arena.
- Fire Well: The arena is now two-tiered, and the lower level features a conveyor belt with a large wheel at its end. Those unfortunate enough to end on it end up being turn into powder.
- Lumber Mill: The player is thrown to the grinder in order to be teared to shreds.
- The Subway: Players can be thrown onto the subway's rails, and a subway train will run upon them.
- The Wastelands: Players can be thrown onto a catapult and be thrown and smashed upon a wall.
- Outworld Spire: The opponent is knocked down onto a sharp hanging lamp.
Mortal Kombat 9
The Stage Fatalities are back to their klassic form: they can only be executed in certain stages, and only in the "FINISH HIM/HER!" phase.- Living Forest: The opponent is thrown to a tree, who proceeds to eat them.
- Chamber of the Flame: It has three where the opponent: (X) is thrown into flamethrowers and reduced to mush upon crash-landing, (△) sent to crushers which destroy their legs, then their upper torso, then their head, and (O) sent to sharp axes which chop them into pieces.
- Hell: The opponent's face is forced into the lava, burning it off down to the skull. The victim briefly surfaces but gets stomped back down by the winner.
- The Subway: The opponent's face is smashed upon the left subway train, and they're then thrown into the right subway train.
- The Street: The opponent is bodyslammed upon the street, and a taxi smashes their head, decapitating them.
- The Pit (and The Pit Night): The opponent is uppercutted and falls onto a series of spikes.
- Dead Pool: The opponent is uppercutted into the acid pit, and their skin and flesh are removed, leaving a bone husk.
Mortal Kombat X
This game took a bit to implement both Stage Fatalities (available through Kombat Pack 2) and the different updates also added Stage Brutalities. Behold!- The Pit X: The Stage Fatality has the winner uppercutting the loser onto the spikes, as usual. This time, halfway, they also lose an arm to one of the pillar blades midfall.
- Refugee Kamp: The Stage Fatality has the winner uppercutting their opponent and SF soldiers gunning down the loser while they're in mid-air.
- The Kove:
- The Stage Fatality has the winner uppercutting their opponent and a Kraken catching them mid-air, smashing them through the stage and sinking them to the bottom of the sea, mutilating them in the process.
- The first Stage Brutality involves one of the corpses brought by the sea being thrown to the loser, who explodes.
- The second Stage Brutality involves uppercutting the loser into the sea. The loser, beheaded and mutilated, will surface like one of the interactable corpses.
- Outworld Marketplace: Stage Brutality: Blanche can be used as a Stage Brutality in two ways: the first as usual, smashing her into the winner's enemy, and the other also smashes her, but also has Blanche attacking the loser and smashing their head.
- Dark Woods: Stage Brutality: A log can be thrown into an enemy, impaling the loser upon their lower torso.
- Quan Chi's Fortress: Stage Brutality: Shao Kahn's Wrath Hammer can be used to smash the enemy in pieces with a powerful strike.
- Lin Kuei Temple: Stage Brutality: Holding Forward while throwing one of the flames at Jump distance will cause the flame to burn away the skin of the opponent's upper torso.
- Kuatan Jungle: Stage Brutality: The opponent's head is smashed upon one of the statues.
Mortal Kombat 11
Much like MKX, the Stage Fatalities were added later with the Aftermath DLC, while Stage Brutalities were available since the beginning.- Shaolin Trap Dungeon:
- Stage Fatality: The winner uppercuts their opponent and a swinging pendulum slams the loser into the ceiling, who then falls onto spikes that rise from the ground.
- Stage Brutality: The winner shoves the loser into a flaming mouth of the statue, immolating them.
- Tournament: The winner picks up an arcade machine for Deadly Alliance and crushes their opponent with it.
- Dead Pool:
- Stage Fatality: The winner uppercuts their opponent onto a hook, which causes them to sink into the acid.
- Stage Brutality: the winner pours a bowl of acid on the loser, melting their flesh off.
- Black Dragon Fight Club: Stage Brutality: The winner can pick up a chainsaw to cut the enemy in two.
- Sea of Blood: Stage Brutality: A giant starfish can be picked up and thrown at the loser's head to crush it.
- Shinnok's Bone Temple: Stage Brutality: Shinnok's Amulet can be used to blow a hole in the loser's torso.
- Special Forces Desert Kommand: Two Stage Brutalities: A cow skull can be picked up and thrown at the loser's head to crush it, or the winner smashes the loser's head against a humvee with their leg, smashing it.
