Monster World IV (モンスターワールドIV, Monsutā Wārudo Fō?) is an adventure platform game, developed by Westone and released exclusively in Japan by Sega for the Mega Drive in April 1994. It is the sixth and final game in the Wonder Boy/Monster World series. It was later released for the PlayStation 2 as part of the Sega Ages 2500 series under the name Sega Ages 2500 Series Vol. 29: Monster World Complete Collection (セガエイジス2500シリーズ Vol.29 モンスターワールド コンプリートコレクション, Sega Eijisu Nisengohyaku Shirīzu Boryūmu Nijūkyū: Monsutā Wārudo Konpurīto Korekushon?). It was released on the Wii's Virtual Console service in Japan on January 15, 2008. An English-language version was released in North America and Europe for Virtual Console on May 10, 2012, with a release on Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network to follow on May 22, 2012.

Mortal Kombat (commonly abbreviated "MK") is an American video game franchise series created by Ed Boon and John Tobias. The first four renditions and their updates were developed by Midway Games and initially released on arcade machines, and later to home consoles. The arcade titles were later picked up by Acclaim Entertainment for the home console conversions. Beginning with Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance, Midway Games exclusively created home versions of Mortal Kombat up until Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe. Following Midway's bankruptcy, the franchise was picked up by Warner Bros. in July 2009 and became a part of the Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. The development of the first game was originally based on an idea of making a video game (according to Ed Boon, the game was originally meant to be a fast experiment) starring Jean-Claude Van Damme, but that idea fell through and Mortal Kombat was created instead and released in 1992. The original game has spawned many sequels and has been spun off into several action-adventure games, films (animated and live-action with its own sequel), and television series (animated and live-action). Other spin-offs include various comic book series, a card game and a live-action tour. Along with Capcom's Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat has become one of the most successful and influential fighting franchises in the history of video games. The series is known for its high levels of bloody violence, including, most notably, its Fatalities—finishing moves, requiring a sequence of buttons to perform, which, in part, led to the creation of the ESRB. The series name itself is also known for using the letter "K" in place of "C" for the hard C sound, thus intentionally misspelling the word "combat", as well as other words with the hard C sound within later games in the series. Early games in the series were especially noted for its realistic digitized sprites (which differentiated it from its contemporaries' hand-drawn sprites), as well as an extensive use of palette swapping to create new characters.

Mortal Kombat 3 (MK3) is a fighting game developed by Midway Games and first released into arcades in 1995 as the third game in the Mortal Kombat series. As in the previous games, it has a cast of characters that players choose from and guide through a series of battles against other opponents. The game avoids the tournament storyline of its predecessors, as various warriors instead fight against the returning Shao Kahn, who has resurrected his bride Sindel and started an invasion of Earthrealm. The third installment of Mortal Kombat retains the blood and gory attacks that defined the series. It introduces new types of the Fatality finishing moves, including Animalities. Other features new to the series were combos, predefined sequences used to perform a series of consecutive attacks. A "Run" button was also added, allowing players to briefly dash toward the opponent, as were "Kombat Kodes", an unlockable content system using various symbols that can be entered before two-player matches to achieve certain effects. Some characters from the previous games returned and new characters were introduced into the series. Mortal Kombat 3 notably omitted popular characters from previous games, some of whom were added in an update, Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, released later in 1995. The home console-exclusive Mortal Kombat Trilogy (1996) added even more characters, as well as other new features.