Remember the first time you saw Mortal Kombat at the arcade? Remember how stunningly realistic it looked? Remember the reaction you had to that very first Fatality you saw? The fountains of blood, the rivers of gore? Yeah, you remember. Then, eventually, it was ported to the home systems and at first, uh… no blood? What was the point of punching off someone’s head or watching them explode if there was no geysers of body fluid to go with it? Well, luckily for SEGA owners, like myself, there was a code: ABACABB… and then there was blood. However, if you owned a Super Nintendo (also like me), no soup for you!

Well, times have changed and the bloodiness factor has increased tenfold, as have the elaborate Fatalities that cause it. The systems have gotten more advanced and the graphics far superior. But Mortal Kombat remains the same at its very core. What follows is a list of Fatalities largely considered to be the coolest int he games. Granted, not every one of each of these characters is a masterpiece, but most are. So sit back and watch the blood flow.

Sometimes the Wiki entry is so short, there’s no point in trying to condense it. So here it is: “Dairou was once a highly respected Seidan guardsman, much like Hotaru, but he is imprisoned when he kills the man who he was led to believe murdered his family. He eventually escapes from prison during a riot caused by the resistance led by Darrius. After escaping, he no longer follows the Seiden law and becomes a mercenary. In Deception’s Konquest mode, Dairou is hired to free Shujinko from prison. In the present, he has been hired by Darrius to steal the constitution of Seido and to kill Hotaru. It is unknown if Dairou really did kill Hotaru, but both returned in Armageddon.” Since his rap sheet is fairly short, his Fatality list is only a few moves strong. But it’s the use of his infamous ‘ribs in the eyes’ that lands him on this list.