If you twist a bell pepper in just the right way, it sounds like someone’s chest cavity being ripped open.
A lot of non-gamers may not be aware that Mortal Kombat is still being produced. In the early 90s, the game was at the bleeding edge of realistic digitized violence, and the franchise was so controversial that Congress held hearings about it.
Believe it or not, the series has only gotten more violent since then. The most recent installment, Mortal Kombat 11, features zoomed-in sequences where characters can break spines, bite out chunks of brain, or gouge out eyes.
But try playing it, and it’s not just the sights that will make you ill – it’s the sounds.
Really, the unsung artists’ heroes of Mortal Kombat might just be the sound designers who sit in a room for hours, trying to smash household objects, fruits, and vegetables together in a way that sounds like a convincing disembowelment.
VICE News went to Nether Realms HQ in Chicago to see what it’s like to make the sounds that make gamers squirm in their chairs.
(via Zachary Quarles)
