Mortal Kombat: My Retro Sessions, Fatalities and Whether It's Still Fun

Today I sat down with the Mortal Kombat Legacy Collection and went straight to Mortal Kombat Trilogy inside it, because that is the one I played on Nintendo 64 and I wanted to know if it still feels the same. I tried to get an online match first and nobody showed up, so I ran the ladder on novice instead and went for a quick little dopamine hit. Smoke was my character back then and he still is; my brother quit playing against me because he said I was too good with Smoke and it wasn't fair. I got a stage fatality on Johnny Cage, a brutality on Kano with about ten times as many bones as a body has, then switched to Cyrax and won with nothing but energy nets, including a flawless in sixty-six seconds and a seven-hit, 40% combo I pulled from memory on the first try. Noob Saibot wrecked me, Kabal wrecked me, and Sindel's endurance round ate my last credit. The whole thing fit in the window before the kids get home from school, because that is how I play now: I sneak my video games in. Is it still fun? Yes, exactly as fun as it was, and this time I kept noticing how simple the game really is and wondering whether, with AI, I could build my own version of it and put it on jerrybanfield.com/games next to the games I have already made.

Back in August I played Mortal Kombat Trilogy on the original Nintendo 64 cartridge during a live stream, a copy I bought on eBay that did not work until a game store cleaned it for me. That session ran longer and looser: the pit fatality, an animality that pulled a polar bear out of Smoke, Jade and Reptile beating me twice in a row on easy, and me saying out loud that I'm not bad at this game, believe it or not, it's just hard. I also went off on a side thought I still stand by, that it is strange some people find cussing offensive while watching somebody get killed in a video game is fine with them. Life doesn't fit in a box; it is always changing, always moving. Read the two sessions side by side and the difference is the setting. August was a stream with chat and tangents. Today was a focused ten minutes with the move list turned on, and the game held up either way.

Why do I play retro games in short bursts now instead of sinking whole weekends into them? Because video games are the addiction I have struggled with the longest, and I treat them the way I treat alcohol. I don't play serious games anymore. I quit more than once, sold my Xbox Series X and my PlayStation 5, and replaced the hours with tennis, music, yoga and meetings, and I wrote that whole history in Video Game Addiction: Why Gaming Was My Hardest Habit to Quit. A ten-minute ladder run on novice before school lets out is a different thing. It is play, not an escape, and when I ask myself on camera whether this is a good use of my time, the honest answer is that I'm having a good time, and that is the point. These sessions are also research: a fighting game from 1996 is simple enough that I keep thinking about what my own version would look like, built with AI the way I built my other browser games.

This page collects every Mortal Kombat video I make, newest first, and each new session gets added here instead of scattered across the blog. If you stream or record your own gameplay and want my honest take on how it comes across, I will make you a Personal Video Review of your stream or gameplay.

Mortal Kombat Legacy Collection

From my video published October 21, 2026.

I'm going to play Mortal Kombat Trilogy here within the Mortal Kombat Legacy Collection. I wasn't able to get a match online, unfortunately, but I just need a quick little dopamine hit. We'll see if this is still fun. I played Mortal Kombat Trilogy on Nintendo 64, so this should be pretty similar, but I'm like, is it still the same amount of fun it was before? And how long can I play it? We shall see. We're probably going to use Smoke. I wonder if you played this game or not. And I'm wondering these days, with AI, if I can make my own version of this, because this is a pretty simple game, and I already built my own Vampire Survivors with AI. So let's do Smoke.

This one, Sheeva actually works in it. She didn't work in Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. So I'm excited to see if this is still fun. We'll pick novice, because your boy ain't played in a while. I'm not trying to overpromise and underdeliver. All right, let's go. I'll make myself smaller.

Smoke on Novice and a Stage Fatality on Johnny Cage

Oh, get that combo right. There we go. It's easy on this difficulty level. And I think they got a full list of moves on here too. So if you hit the options, you can show the special moves right on the screen, which makes it a little easier. Look at that. Not that I need those for Smoke, but yeah, I actually did forget the invisibility. There you are.

Well, see if we can get a flawless. Y'all think we can get it? I missed. Oh man. No flawless. Crap. All right, so we need to do left, down, forward, up. Ah, crap.

All right, Johnny Cage, see if we can do a fatality on somebody. You're going to be my first volunteer. I want to do a stage fatality here, so make sure not to uppercut until it's over. There we go. All right, y'all think we can get the stage fatality? All right. I got to be able to make a game like this. This is so simple. You might enjoy it. All right, here we go. Where's the stage fatality? Four, four, down, circle. Yeah, get in there. Woo! There we go. Good job. We got the stage fatality. You knock him out. I'm really crushing this novice difficulty. Let's go.

Sheeva, Kano and a Brutality With Ten Times as Many Bones

All right, Sheeva. Kano's next. Still remember him? Yeah. Get thrown. Let's go. That's how you do it. From now on, that's how you win Mortal Kombat. I was going to air throw again. She can make it easier to start off. Okay. What? How did I even do that? I didn't even do that. I almost got a flawless. All right, let's see if we can knock that fatality out. Oh, let's try the brutality. Oh, brutality! Let's go. Dude, I used to have that memorized, but thankfully it's on the screen. Look, there's like ten times as many bones as there need to be, too. That's pretty ridiculous.

Y'all think I should make my own version of this? I got jerrybanfield.com/games, you can see all the games I got, including my Top Jerry Banfield Fan trivia game. It's a good thing I selected novice difficulty here. They'd be doing that a lot more often.

He's trying to drop a flawless on me. Oh my gosh, he wrecked me. That's so bad, bro. Jeez. Dude, they just know what you're going to do in advance. You're cheating. Oh, missed the uppercut. There we go. Dang, he wrecked me. Came in like a wrecking ball. I never... shut up, Miley.

Noob Saibot Is Cheap, Then Cyrax and the Energy Nets

All right, let's try this. We'll do one more time. Who else do I go with? Nobody, Jerry. You got Shao Kahn and all these guys you can play with too. Noob Saibot is always hella cheap. Where is he at? Let's do Noob Saibot. Let's see if we can beat him. Teleport slam. Man, just block my stuff. Ah, missed. Juggle him. I'm trying to do the combo. Oh, yes. Oh, come on. Let me teleport slam you. Dang, he's messing me up in this old outfit. Come on, do the disabler. That's what we really need. Yes. There we go. That's what we need some more of. Up and down like a roller. Get him. Oh, he's going to block that. Oh, come on, get him. No. I can't teleport slam. You know he's going to do that. Ah.

All right, let's go. Another one. Five. We'll get maybe towards ten minutes for this video. A little more time before the kids get home from school, you know what I'm saying? I got to sneak my video games in. I hardly get time to play these days as a single dad; my first Magic: The Gathering Arena game since 2021 got squeezed in the same way.

Cyrax. A little Cyrax. You want some Cyrax action? All right, let's do Cyrax. We'll just go. I got to be able to make my own version of this. This game's hella simple. Just throw hella nets at him. You get caught slipping in that net. Oh, I still remember most of the combos so many years later. All right, jump. Oh, yeah. I hit him up. Yeah, we did a net on him. They can't handle the net. Dude can't handle the truth. Cyrax, knock him out. Cyrax knocked him out with a flawless victory. Sixty-six seconds. Let's go.

You're going to get it again. Just throw hella nets at him. Look at that combo. Ripping off a seven-hit, 40% damage combo from memory, first try. Oh, dang near got a flawless on you again. Oh, finish him. All right, fatality. Oh, I flubbed the fatality. Hey, we got a brutality at least, and a stage fatality, so I'm pretty happy with that.

Kabal, the Last Credits and Sindel's Endurance Round

All right, Kabal. Let's get some action in. I'm energy net. Yeah, we're going to do a lot of energy nets. Pretty much all energy nets can be my whole strategy. I actually found a run button. Oh, can't feel my legs. There we go. And I cannot jump throw him. How do you block that? All right, good. Oh, Lord have mercy on my little robot soul. Dang. Now, Smoke might work better against him. Oh, and then I dropped the combo right when I did it. Jeez. Here we go. Stop throwing that thing at me. All right, I'm done.

All right, let me try Smoke again. I think we're about out of credits, boys and girls. Actually, there are some women that actually watch these videos, believe it or not. Let's try Smoke again on Kabal. I like this shirt. It's for sale on my website. You can wear the exact shirt Jerry Banfield wore playing the stream.

Oh, I didn't get my backpack fast enough. I can't block that, apparently. Holy crap. Gotcha. Oh, and I flubbed the fatality, or what am I saying? I flubbed a combo. It's not looking good for us. I should have held block. You know he's going to do that right away. Oh, I actually blocked him. Yes. No. Why did he uppercut me first? That's so dirty. There we go. Oh, boy. We're done now. Yep. You make me laugh.

Dude, is this my last credit, or does it give you infinite credits? Because this should be my last credit. All right, last one. Let me use Smoke again. I could maybe get Sektor or Noob Saibot, but no, we'll just use Smoke. My brother quit playing after I kept using Smoke on him. He's like, "You're too good with Smoke. It's not fair." Finally, let me get it in. Let's go.

You think this is a good use of my time? I'm having a good time. That's why I make space to play now, even after video games were the hardest habit I ever quit. I'm just constantly holding down block to try and stop him from doing that. But he can get you if you're in the air like that. Gotcha. Got him again. Nice. Yes, get the brutality in. Let's go. Watch me heat it up, beat it up. No, you're tired of the usual. All right, hit him up. Let's go.

Next one. See this endurance round. Sindel can be screaming her head off at me, can't she? I almost wish a woman would scream at me instead of not texting me back at this point. I can't feel my legs. Gotcha. Missed that last button push. All right, Sindel's not looking good. I can't beat the first one. Come on. One-trick pony in here. You sure you're going to block that? Why did you do it twice in a row if you knew she was going to block it, huh? You're getting stuck for that one. Next. Not him.

All right, that's it, y'all. That's it. Go to jerrybanfield.com, hit me up, get a call, send a message. Try out one of my games. Maybe I'll make my own version of this, like my first AI-built game. My Mortal Kombat Trilogy session from August is on this same page, with more retro sessions on my Games playlist. See y'all later.

Mortal Kombat Trilogy

From my video published August 2, 2026.

If you are new to my stream, I'm live almost every day. I play retro games. I'm a variety streamer — I don't know what the hell I'm talking about, and that's exactly why you'll love watching my streams. If you want to hang out with me beyond the streams, you can join the Jerry Banfield Family and be part of what we're doing every day. Today it's Mortal Kombat Trilogy, so let's get all the combo buttons going. There we go.

Fatalities, Brutalities, and Getting My Ass Beat

Oh — gotcha, bitch. We can't go under that one. All right, let's see if we can do the pit fatality: four, down, low kick... into the pit fatality — got him! Oh, come on. Damn, Jade's whooping my ass. Come on, girl. She's gonna block if I do that teleport, so I'm gonna try and make her do something. Oh — she did her whole combo. Good job. Fatality. Dang it.

Oh yeah, now we're on the easy difficulty. There we go — that's how we roll, if we got him on the easiest difficulty. I don't know. It's weird to me that cussing, in some people's minds, is all offensive — but then watching somebody get their ass beat on a video game and get killed, like, that's okay? What? That shit doesn't even make sense.

You want life to just be simple and in a box, but that's not how it is. Life is always changing, always moving.

Damn, you just fucked me up. Brutality! Yes, let's go — let's go get that brutality. I'm finishing him down. It's the exact same energy. Get it — ah shit, we almost had it. All right, there we go. All right, Sektor's going down this time. Finish him — fucking finish him! No! All right, we're gonna do an animality for that. Oh — and let me flip him. Oh shit — what? That was dirty. I don't know why I let me do that. But oh, she ripped me a new butthole that time. That's a full combo. I missed a combo, damn. Faster, mister. There we go, full combo. Oh — animality on her ass! Animality!

Four, down, four, low kick — wait, two of them? Second one of what I've ever said. There we go: four, down, four, low kick. Yeah — and I'm out! Fatality, let's go. Oh yes — tore ass up, bitch.

All right, I'm looking at his fatality: up, down, up, run, block. Bitch — that's rude. All right, that shit — that's too much. Up, down, up, and — oh, you've got to hit up and run — up, down — oh, you've got to hit all those at once. Might need to go in with her. Ah shit, bitch — oh, don't do that to me. Yes! Close call, but got her. Wait, what the hell? I hit low kick and it's not working. Damn, she's beating me like I won't behave right now. She's about to get a flawless — now, there we go, no flawless for you. Shit — do the fatality. Yeah, there you go. Oh, I love that one. I love that one. Right in the dick. Oh yeah.

Life Doesn't Fit in a Box

That reminds me of one night when I was a teenager. My mom gets really pissed at my dad and they're having an argument, and my mom's like, "I sucked your fucking dick last night!" My brother and I were like, "Jesus, Mom. Jesus."

It changes form, but it doesn't die. All right, we're gonna rip him up with Smoke. Oh — oh no. Oh hell, easy block. Oh damn, I paid for that one. I figured — we went a little bit on this one, then we get some success, then we get happy and turn it up. Jeez, dude. Good god, he beat the hell out of me. Oh, he's finished me too. Nice. Oh shit, I didn't need to do that. Come on, finish his ass. I missed my uppercut — hot, let's go, we got him. Damn. Oh, there we go. No, not that. Ah — gotcha, bitch. He got himself. He got himself by sending two of those smoke things in a row. That's funny. Oh, damn. Yes. Good. Keep him jumping — that's when he's vulnerable. Oh, I got thirsty right there. Damn. Finish him. Oh shit, I went in. Oh, that's dirty — he's stuck in the damn corner.

All right — animality. Mercy: let him back in. All right, back, forward, down, low punch. Yeah! Get that polar bear out. Oh, that's fantastic. It looked like he just ate — he ate his dick off right there with a polar bear. That's hardcore. That is real hardcore. Can I? You probably can't do a combo on him. Oh, that's good. If you can do that little knockaway combo like that, that's real good. All right, come on, fucker. Fuck — I knew he was going to grab me. Damn. Good job. That's nice.

Here's something else on my mind: I'm around attractive women all the time. They're often very friendly with me, and I can feel how much, on a physical level, there's desire there. But I don't like it on the emotional and spiritual level — like, there's nothing. I love my wife, and I don't want anybody except my wife.

A Copy Rescued from eBay

Damn her. Yes — he is the easiest-ass combo. All right, Reptile. Oh, you're up. Shit — they beat me twice in a row, dude. What? This is on easy, too. That's what's nuts. This is on easy. I'm not bad at this game, believe it or not — this shit is hard, though. Oh boy, that's the end of me right here. It kind of looks like he's smiling, based on the three pixels on my screen. Oh — we got a couple of hits right there. Come on, fucker — yes, one round! All right, last one — come on, round three. He just grabs the shit out of you, and damn it — oh, there goes my little head.

GGs — I'd been looking forward to playing this one. I'm glad the game store I took this to was able to clean the cartridge after I bought it on eBay and it didn't work. If you enjoyed this session, there's plenty more retro chaos like it on my Games playlist. Thanks for a great one today — love you all.