At the end of Part 1<\/a>, I was explaining how the golden age of arcades was just coming to an end in the early 1990s, just as Mortal Kombat was coming onto the scene. Perhaps things weren\u2019t looking great for the arcade industry, but the future of Mortal Kombat looked as bright as anyone could have hoped. Its runaway success at the arcade started with its 1992 release and there was little doubt it would be a hit when ported over to home consoles. It was decided that the game would go on sale on all 4 major home consoles on the same day, September 13, 1993, a day that would soon become known as Mortal Monday. Soon everyone who owned a Super Nintendo, Sega Genesis, Game Boy or Game Gear, as well as $50 (or the ability to convince their parents to give it to them) could play the hottest game around in their own home.<\/p>\nThe people who stood to make money off the console success of Mortal Kombat were determined to let every kid know that this dream could soon be a reality. While they had advertised the arcade release for the game, Mortal Monday was marketed in an unprecedented fashion. We are now used to seeing video game commercials on TVs, billboards, before movies and most other typical advertising venues, but the industry is much bigger now and these tactics have proven successful. In 1993, it would have been thought of as pretty wild to have a $10 million advertising campaign (not adjusted for inflation!) for a video game release, but that\u2019s exactly what Mortal Kombat did. The airwaves were flooded with commercials that amped up Mortal Monday not just as the day you could buy a certain game, but as a cultural event.<\/p>\n