Test Your Might

Test Your Might is a mini-game that first appeared in the original Mortal Kombat as an interlude between battles, similar to breaking. The minigame consists of the player's character standing above one of five blocks of increasing hardness, depending on how far the player have progressed in Test Your Might. The player would have to hammer multiple buttons until the gauge next to their character passed a certain point, and then would have to press the Block button to strike. If they were above this point, their character would break the block in front of them. Otherwise, their hand would bounce off the object sitting in front of them. The player starts off on wood, and after breaking it would move up to stone, steel, ruby, and diamond, then back to wood after diamond is broken. The breaking point on the gauge is raised with the increasing hardness of each block.

The minigame appears at different intervals depending on whether the game is played in one-player or two-player mode. In one-player mode, it appears after every three battle victories, no matter how many battles take place.

However, since the one-player mode ends after the twelfth battle victory (against Shang Tsung), this mode gives players only three chances to test their might before their game is over. This means that the two hardest blocks of the five (ruby and diamond) are reachable only after a player wins at least two Test Your Might minigames in two-player mode.

The mini-game also appears after every five consecutive two-player battles, with each player's progress maintained individually.

Breaking each block rewards points as follows:


 * Wood: 100,000 points, equivalent to a Fatality bonus
 * Stone: 200,000 points, equivalent to a Flawless Victory bonus
 * Steel: 500,000 points, equivalent to a Double Flawless bonus
 * Ruby: 1,000,000 points
 * Diamond: 2,000,000 points

The mini-game was never featured in any sequel until Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance, where it returned with improved graphics, a similar but longer block sequence (bamboo, coal, oak, brick, redwood, marble, iron, then diamond). Whereas in Mortal Kombat Test Your Might was there to earn points, it is in Deadly Alliance to earn Koins with which to unlock special features in the Krypt.

The Test Your Might mini-game never returned in Mortal Kombat: Deception or Mortal Kombat: Armageddon. However, in Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks, the minigame appears whenever the player needs to perform some feat of strength, and at times, even during specific parts of boss battles.