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Mortal Kombat
The first Mortal Kombat game came out in Arcades in 1992 and was subsequently ported to every system they could. The graphics were created by using stills of real actors as sprites, which made the game look pretty realistic for its time.
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Mortal Kombat II
Mortal Kombat II was also released first in arcades and then ported to many different consoles.
Like its predecessor, actors were used to produce sprites for the animation. In Mortal Kombat II the actors were recorded on Hi-8 videotape at broadcast-quality, upgraded from the standard-quality used for the first game.
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Mortal Kombat 3
Mortal Kombat III was released in arcades in 1995 and used the same technology as the previous two games with minor improvements. The arcade system used was the newer Midway Wolf Unit but they continued to use sprites from taking video of actors. Many of the actors were new in this game (and the in the upgrade version "Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3") because of royalty disputes and other legal issues.
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Mortal Kombat 4
Mortal Kombat 4 gave us the first major change to the graphics and animation system of the franchise. For the first time they used 3D character models and environments. They also animated these character models so they didn't need actors to produce sprites like the previous games, though they did need some for motion capture. The game was made first for arcades (Midway Zeus) then ported to most current consoles.
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Mortal Kombat Deadly Alliance
Deadly Alliance was the first Mortal Kombat game that went directly to consoles without an arcade release. It was also the first MK game on the next generation of consoles (PS2, Xbox, etc) so the graphics improved quite a lot. As in MK4, animated 3D models and environments are use, with motion capture used for some animations.
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Mortal Kombat Deception
Deception was released first on the Playstation 2, with the same technology as Deadly Alliance. There are some different gameplay mechanics but graphically it is very similar with 3D animated characters and environments with motion capture.
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Mortal Kombat Armageddon
Armageddon is the thrid MK fighting game released on the PS2 and similar consoles, so the graphical technology is, again, pretty similar to Deadly Alliance and Deception. The major changes are just new characters and gameplay features.
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Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe
This was the first MK game released for the most recent generation of consoles, including the PS3 and XBox 360. Graphics quality obviously had notable improvement due to the new hardware, but the delivery stayed pretty much the same. The game continued to use animation of 3D models and motion capture, using the Unreal Engine 3.
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Mortal Kombat (2011)
Gameplay Video - This is the most recent MK game, released for the PS3 and XBOX 360. Between this title and the previous one, Midway went bankrupt and was bought by Warner Bros, but despite this the game was received quite well. The graphics are very nice and animation is smoother than MKvDC. This game abandoned the 3D combat used by the previous 5 games and uses a reworked Unreal Engine 3 with 3D models and motion capture. More attention was given to environmental visuals as well as character injury.
