Jump kicking and crouch-kicking were executed in a similar fashion to Street Fighter.

Crouching and hitting either punch resulted in an uppercut, which was the heaviest strike of the game. If the two fighters were close to each other, hitting any of the attack buttons would result in a different strike: a low punch turned into an unblockable throw, a high punch turned into a heavy elbow or backhand, and either kick turned into a knee strike. Even then, characters would take chip damage from any hit while blocking - Sub-Zero's ice projectile is the unique exception. Unlike Street Fighter, characters did not block while retreating or crouching, but required pushing the block button to low block. The controls consisted of five buttons arranged in an 'X' pattern: a high punch, a high kick, a low punch, a low kick, and a block button, as well as an eight-way joystick. However, it used a fighting system different from the Street Fighter formula, which was used in all sequels until Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance. The game was a response by Midway to Capcom's highly successful fighting game Street Fighter II, which spawned a number of sequels and related games.