A Spotlight on the Art of Video Games

The Monitor is a weekly column devoted to everything happening in the WIRED world of culture, from movies to memes, TV to Twitter. Next month, Mortal Kombat turns 30. Look back on that 1992 arcade game now and it almost seems quaint. But what many gamers may not remember--or were simply not yet alive to experience--was that Mortal Kombat was the eye in a violence-in-video-games storm. Its spine-ripping gore was the stuff of congressional hearings and contributed to the creation of the Entertainment Software Ratings Board, which to this day puts content and age ratings on games.