Kool Stuff [1]: Chasing Scores with Outworld
This post is part of Kool Stuff, a companion book to Long Live Mortal Kombat: Round 1 that contains interviews I was unable to do before hitting Long Live MK’s deadline. Subscribe to Episodic Content to keep up with news on Long Live MK’s Kickstarter (set for March 22) and to follow along with Kool Stuff as new chapters are published.
You can find speed runners everywhere you turn. Games Done Quick shines a spotlight on them twice a year, and they're all over Twitch, breaking down virtually any game you can think of, live for anyone to watch. Speed runners are great at what they do, but I'm consistently more entertained by challenge runners. To them, beating a game as quickly as possible is secondary to pulling off feats that make their games of choice as difficult as possible.
Outworld is, besides being the setting of many Mortal Kombat titles, the online handle of a pro player in the MK "kommunity." He's done speed running in various titles, but he may be more known for chasing the highest possible score in the original Mortal Kombat coin-op.
Posting the highest score in Mortal Kombat is the game's greatest challenge. Every action awards you points, but Outworld and other players in his category have to know the value of every move, and which moves to do, and when. Double flawless victories, earning a fight against Reptile and stuffing the overpowered ninja's heightened speed and doubly dangerous arsenal, knowing how to stick Goro in a corner—these are just some obstacles in Outworld's path.
In July 2021, Outworld posted a score of 25,622,500 on Twin Galaxies, the primo destination for every conceivable world record category in every conceivable video game. His score has yet to be beaten at the time of publication. When he heard about Long Live Mortal Kombat, he reached out to me and asked if I'd be interested in talking to a world record holder.
I scribbled lots of questions as I watched and re-watched his run, and got to talk to him about how he manipulates Mortal Kombat's AI, his strategies for the game's toughest match-ups, why he plays on player two's control panel, the differences between his cabinet in Australia and the model we Americans have been accustomed to since October 1992, and more.
Craddock: What was your introduction to the Mortal Kombat franchise?
Outworld: I was in Melbourne at Tullamarine Airport. There was this big glass wall. I'm not exactly sure where in the airport it was, but I found the original Mortal Kombat arcade cabinet. I think I would have been around nine, 10 years old. This was when it had just been released. I was absolutely mesmerized by it. I actually thought I was watching video footage because I'd never seen digitized graphics before. My father had to drag me away from the cabinet. I was just in awe of it. It was new technology to me. I seriously didn't know what I was seeing. I remember thinking, How are they making the video move in real time like this? How can you control video footage? This is madness!
The closest thing I'd ever seen to it was... do you remember a game called Mad Dog McCree?
“I would love to go for that perfect game. I've never scored a perfect game in Mortal Kombat. I've been playing for decades, and never has the AI given me a perfect game.”
Craddock: I do, yeah.
Outworld: The light gun game? Yeah. I'd seen that game and had the same thought: How is this magic happening? Mortal Kombat stuck with me. I remember the exact angle I saw the arcade cabinet at and everything.
Craddock: How did you go from being a casual fan to taking aim at world records?
Outworld: I started shooting for world records back in 2017 on speedrun.com. I knew about Twin Galaxies, but I wasn't a member of the site and I wasn't interested in chasing scores. Then, a couple of years ago, I looked at a couple of Twin Galaxies' world records [in Mortal Kombat] and thought, Shit, I might be able to compete against these guys. What got me doing it was a desire to push myself further to see how far I could take my skills. Just testing my potential. Once I realized I could do it, I ran the math in my head and thought, I've got a decent shot at this.
I used to work in an arcade, and I'd been playing MK competitively and casually for years. Seeing the scores and thinking, Well, if other people can do it, I probably can as well, and probably even better, made me decide to just jump in. I went and bought myself an arcade machine and went for it.
Craddock: That sounds like another story. I don't know many people who could just go buy an arcade machine. They weigh a ton, costs thousands, and that doesn't include shipping. How'd you go about acquiring a cabinet?
Outworld: Definitely right place, right time. I was scouring the internet for a few weeks, and one popped up on a site called Gumtree. It's sort of like Craigslist for you all over in America. I emailed the dude, and we talked for about a week. I talked him into it, raised the money, sent it across to his bank account, and sent him a little extra so he could buy his missus a bottle of champagne; she had wanted him to get rid of it for ages. I had a mate who worked for a freight company, and the cabinet came from all the way across the country.
I've got one of the original, LAI, Australian-edition cabinets. When Midway was making these things, they didn't ship whole cabinets over to Australia. They just shipped boards over, and they got a company called Leisure Allied Industries to make cabinets, so they're a little different. They've got more red, different control setups, a little smaller on the control panel side, and some different artwork.
Craddock: I'm curious about your cabinet. It looks like an MKII machine. Do you have different ROMs installed?
Outworld: I have all four boards: Mortal Kombat 1, II, 3, Ultimate 3, and MK4 arcade boards. I just switch them out. They run through a JAMMA connection that goes up through the cabinet. All Mortal Kombat cabinets, at least the LAI builds in Australia, are all exactly the same barring artwork. They didn't make proper artwork for Mortal Kombat 3 over here in Australia; they just released kits that would go over top of Mortal Kombat II. That's what I have here because you'll notice I have run buttons. This was a Mortal Kombat 3 cabinet when I bought it, but I peeled off all the kit work, and underneath was this beautiful, untouched MKII artwork.
I went and purchased all the arcade boards, and I switch them over to play different versions of Mortal Kombat games. I think at the moment, I've got it set to Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, but I haven't turned it on in a while.
Craddock: Speed running is in vogue. It's the basis of events like Games Done Quick every winter and summer. But you go for points. How'd you decide to chase a high score in MK1 instead of going for a speed run in a game such as Ultimate MK3?
Outworld: After Mortal Kombat 1, they ditched the points system. Mortal Kombat II, Mortal Kombat 3, and even Mortal Kombat 4, they don't have a scoring system. They go by number of wins. I think that was because of the multiplayer aspect of the games. Mortal Kombat 1 had a score system. I'd been speed running for years, and I'd never thought about [score chasing] until researching world records on Twin Galaxies. That's when I thought, Wait a second... I'd done speed runs and the runs had been optimized. I've broken over 60 world records on speedrun.com, so I thought, Maybe it's time for something a little different.
Craddock: Let's talk about the fine points of your world record run. Of the seven characters, why do you play as Johnny Cage?
Outworld: Johnny Cage has huge juggle potential, and part of score chasing in Mortal Kombat is competing rounds in the fastest possible time; you get 1,000 extra points for each second that's left on the clock. Johnny Cage is the fastest character to use for speed runs, so it makes sense to use him for score chasing so I could get rounds done really quickly. Those extra seconds really add up.
Craddock: Why do you play on player two's panel?
Outworld: Ah, okay. That's an interesting one. Player two's side on Mortal Kombat games seems to get more consistent AI patterns. You'll notice in my run, I do a strategy where I jump-punch the enemy, and they try to counter with a jump-kick, and they get caught, and then I follow up with a shadow kick. They rarely do that when you play on player one's side. I have no idea why. I have no idea why. It must have been when Ed Boon programmed the game, he assumed players would be putting coins into the machine on player one's side. That means that he must have programmed the AI based on it being on player two's side.
Anomalies happen. It doesn't seem like he just copied and pasted [AI routines] from player two's side to player one's. The AI just reacts differently: The AI's patterns are almost identical every single time on player two's side. It seems more vulnerable, and there seems to be more difference in hit boxes as well. If I try my same strategies while playing on player one's side, I'll miss a lot of hits. Sometimes uppercuts even go straight through enemies without connecting.
That trend carried on through all the games except Mortal Kombat II. Speed run tactics for Mortal Kombat 3 on player two's side are easier to pull off against the AI as well. Same for Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 and Mortal Kombat 4. You get more consistent hits and fewer misses, I guess you could say. If I try those same strategies as player one, the computer will block a lot of hits. That means fewer points for me.
Craddock: Typically, when you start a single-player game, the battle plan starts at the top and scrolls down to your first opponent. In your play through, you start at the bottom. Why is that?
Outworld: I'm actually continuing from a two-player game when I start that run. I've got two runs on the Twin Galaxies website, and one of them starts from the top of the ladder and scrolls all the way down. The one with the higher score is from the Reptile category. What I'm doing is manipulating the AI to start the Test Your Might mini games on steel instead of wood. The Test Your Might games give you a score depending on what element you're breaking. I think it's 100,000 for wood, 200,000 for stone, and then 500,000 for steel, 1,000,000 for ruby, and 2,000,000 for diamond. If I start on a steel Test Your Might, I'm getting half a million points from the first mini game. There's a certain way to do that, and it requires you to start from a two-player game. When you do that, and if you lost the match before that, your score resets to zero.
“I think Mortal Kombat has a unique art style going for it. The island setting, especially the courtyard stage with all the monks watching and the grandmaster sitting high up in his chair—it's straight out of Enter the Dragon, and I absolutely love that.”
There's some controversy on Twin Galaxies. One of the site's rules is that continues are not to be used as a general rule across all arcade games. The previous world record runner, the guy whose score I beat, used that strategy. It was frowned upon and caused a stir over there, but the only way to get the score I got was to use the same technique. When you do that, you're starting a brand-new game, but you're not scrolling down from the top of the ladder.
In order to fight Reptile, you must complete 40 matches on that machine. What I do is complete two full runs of the game, then play a bunch of two-player matches, and then in one of those matches, I'll make sure I'm losing, and then continue from the side where I lost, which is always player two's side.
Craddock: Watching your matches was interesting because you're constantly manipulating the AI. What are some of those tricks?
Outworld: The most obvious one is to trick them into doing a jumping attack, then counter that with a jumping punch and juggling them from there. Every second round, you'll notice I lose that to the opponent. That's to squeeze as many points from each match as possible by going to round three. I do that by jumping over the AI and hitting a knee, which nets you 5,000 points each time.
The objective of each match is to drag it out for as long as possible and cram in as many points as possible. The game plan is to get a flawless victory on round one, get as many points as possible during round two, but get as many points as possible first, and then get another flawless for round three with a fatality. That gives you a double flawless and fatality for your score.
Craddock: You often use the jumping punch over the jumping kick. What is it about that move that makes it so effective?
Outworld: Some characters don't handle jumping kicks as well. Sonya and Liu Kang can knock you out of the jumping-kick animation. Johnny Cage can do it, too, although it's possible to jump-kick him. I'm still refining my technique. But the gist is that many characters cannot be jump-kicked. It comes down to hit boxes. Jumping kicks extend the hit box horizontally, but Cage's jumping punch aims downward.
Craddock: Reptile still intimidates me. I might have beaten him once or twice as a kid. For your run, getting 10 million points from him makes or breaks your score. What are your strategies to ensure you win?
Outworld: The strategy for Reptile isn't much different. AI-wise, he acts the same as Scorpion or Sub-Zero, but one difference is he's got a very fast walk animation. Instead of walking toward him, I jump in toward him. I'll never walk toward him after that first jumping attack into my shadow kick because his walk speed is so fast he can catch you off-guard and throw you. That denies you the 500,000 points for a double flawless. He is quite intimidating.
Here's another advantage to add to player two's side. If you fight Reptile when you're on player one's side and defeat him, the game will tell you that you earned 10 million points, but you don't actually get them. You get nothing, no bonus points for defeating Reptile. I'm not sure if that's a bug Ed Boon never fixed because it existed through all revisions, but you won't get any points if you're on player one's side.
But the strategies for defeating Reptile are essentially the same as fighting Sub-Zero or Scorpion, depending on whose move set he wants to throw at you. He's just faster. I try to push Reptile into a corner so I can juggle him there, just to keep him off the ground and negate his walk speed.
Craddock: Goro seems to be a different beast since it's harder to knock him down. How do you approach that fight?
Outworld: The easiest way to deal with Goro is push him into a corner and stun-lock him with jump-punches. He is a different beast. He's vulnerable to the jump-punch-shadow-kick-juggle strategy, but because he's not easily knocked down, he's always coming at you, and he's got a longer reach. If he catches you, he does amazing damage. You get a vitality bonus at the end of each round, and that affects your final score as well. The more damage does to you, the lower your final score.
You want to get him over to the left side of the arena as quickly as possible, and then stun-lock him in a jump-punch loop; that works because as he's staggering back, you can jump-punch him again and again.
Craddock: What are some things you're thinking about during a world record attempt that observers might not even know to think about?
Outworld: Ladder order. I'm really anxious about who the first opponent is because round 1's AI is never consistent. It's always a little random. I think the way Ed Boon designed it is so you have a more fair and balanced fight when you put your coin in, but as the difficulty scales up as you move up the ladder, the harder difficulties are actually easier. AI patterns become more consistent as the game gets harder, especially if you're on player two's side. If I'm facing Sub-Zero for my first match, he can often catch me off-guard with freezes and throws. Sometimes he won't try to counter my jump-punch at all. The AI seems fairer and more balanced; I think that's just to give the player a fair go before they take your coin. [laughs]
Craddock: I also noticed that you jump at and over your opponent from a certain position, and that somehow baits them into doing a special move, which leaves them vulnerable with their back to you when you land.
Outworld: Definitely. When they're doing their projectile, I'm already behind them and ready to hit them with a knee. The knee gives you more points for less damage in each round, but it takes a little longer to do. I'm always walking toward opponents and jumping at the right moment so they throw a projectile. Sometimes they won't. They might do a neutral jumping kick, and you're out a flawless.
Craddock: There's something special about Mortal Kombat. The popular opinion has always been that MKII is better, but I wondered which you prefer.
Outworld: Recently, my opinion has changed. I think Mortal Kombat has a unique art style going for it. The colors aren't as pronounced; the palette isn't as bold, and there's not as much contrast in it. I think my favorite MK between the first two is MKII just because it's faster and slicker. It's a more refined version of MK1, but MK1's sprites are a little larger, and they look—dare I say—more photorealistic, less touched up.
Maybe it's all the skin tones because of the shirtless characters, but MK1's blacks aren't as black because there's less contrast. The game really has quite a photorealistic look compared to MKII. I love the color palette in MKII, but it looks cartoonish compared to the first game. MK1 has this unique visual style, and I love that. It reeks of movies like Enter the Dragon. The island setting, especially the courtyard stage with all the monks watching and the grandmaster sitting high up in his chair—it's straight out of Enter the Dragon, and I absolutely love that.
Craddock: I think I'm with you. I prefer Mortal Kombat II, but Mortal Kombat 1, despite being slower and clunkier, has a great sense of feedback. Every punch and kick feels powerful. That's something I don't think any sequel has duplicated.
Outworld: I definitely agree with you on that, and I think it comes down to the sound design. There's a real SMACK when hits land in MK1, especially that uppercut. I think that's what they were going for in arcades: The rule of thumb was the louder your machine, the bigger the audience you'd attract to it. I've often had people in Twitch chat say, "Man, Mortal Kombat 1 is really loud. What's going on?" It's just the way the game is.
Craddock: If you could target any areas of your world record run for improvement, what would they be?
Outworld: Fewer jump-punches. They net you fewer points. I want to refine the run so I can land as many jump-kicks as possible. And I would love to go for that perfect game. I've never scored a perfect game in Mortal Kombat. I've been playing for decades, and never has the AI given me a perfect game—double flawless every single match. It almost knows, like it's sentient. It finds a way to cheap you out of it, even if it's giving you cheeky little love taps. In the Goro run, you saw that Goro sometimes just grabs you out of a move, like, "Nah, sorry, mate, Midway's taking your money today." A couple of characters such as Kano and Liu Kang are notorious for that. They'll always find a way to give you a cheeky little tap.
I'd love to refine my run for a perfect game, and get into a rhythm so I don't have to use jump-punches anymore. It's all about risk, in the end. Risking it for the biscuits, throwing myself at the mercy of the AI to see if I can win attack exchanges without getting hit.Craddock: What is another world record from Mortal Kombat's arcade era you'd like to set?
Outworld: I guess I would love to set a world record on Mortal Kombat 4. I've never set one before. I was speed running the game for a long time, and I set speed records for MK1, MKII, MK3, and Ultimate, but never Mortal Kombat 4. I've never taken a decent crack at it. I can, now that I've got the arcade board, but I never have. Real life has been getting in the way for a while.
This post is part of Kool Stuff, a companion book to Long Live Mortal Kombat: Round 1 that contains interviews I was unable to do before hitting Long Live MK’s deadline. Subscribe to Episodic Content to keep up with news on Long Live MK’s Kickstarter (set for March 8) and to follow along with Kool Stuff as new chapters are published.