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 has 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.

Original Iteration[]

Snap0004 qjpreviewth — The original Test Your Might from *MK.*

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. 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.

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:

The text that appears in MKX when you win a Test your Might level.

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 (750,000 in the Genesis version)
Diamond: 2,000,000 points (1,000,000 in the Genesis version)

Later Iterations[]

The mini-game was never featured in any sequel until Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance, where it returned with improved graphics and a similar but longer block sequence (bamboo, coal, oak, brick, redwood, marble, iron, diamond). Whereas in Mortal Kombat Test Your Might was there to earn points, in Deadly Alliance it is used to earn Koins which can be used to unlock contents and features in the Krypt. The character will also react to the player's success or failure.

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.

Test Your Might is a gameplay feature in Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe, but not in its traditional form. Here, the player drives the opponent through a certain amount of walls. In this instance, the player can either cause damage to their opponent, or resist how much damage the opponent causes to them.

Test Your Might makes a return in Mortal Kombat (2011) as a series of minigames in the Challenge Tower, with new additions including Gold, Amber, Sapphire, Titanium, and other such materials. In this version, however, the challenges are stuck to a pre-selected character.

Test Your Might also makes an appearance in Mortal Kombat X as a minigame in many towers, including the Living Towers. In the Traditional Towers, the minigame has its own tower, with a new series of items: Pine Boards, Walnut Carving, Teak Log, Brick Pile, Coal Skull, Tekunin Tin, Golden Beast, Copper Head Vise, Platinum Bust, and Titanium Symbol. Success in destroying all of these items unlocks the Revenant skin for Sub-Zero, as well as the Almighty trophy/achievement.

Other towers that incorporate a Test Your Might stage sometimes utilize unique items shaped like the Kamidogu of the original timeline, e.g., the Earthrealm Emerald (resembling the original Earthrealm Kamidogu), or a circular Relic bearing the symbol of the winning faction, though these special Test Your Might events are only exclusive to War Tower and Invasion Tower runs, usually as the 3rd Challenge in the former tower and the 6th Challenge in the latter.

Unlike previous versions of Test Your Might, when a player fails this challenge in MKX, they will be killed by another character who is spectating the challenge offscreen, all while the narrator laughs at the failed attempt.

There is also a Versus Test Your Might version, where two human players on the same console are pit against each other. The players are not penalized in any way if one completed the task before the other, only if they happen to fail in smashing their target.

The minigame makes its return in Mortal Kombat 1 with each character being given unique attack animations (such as Ashrah slashing the target with her keris, Kenshi telepathically controlling Sento, Shang Tsung using soul magic, and Havik using his own head). It also appeared in Story Mode.

Test Your Might Death List[]

The text that appears in MKX when you fail a Test your Might level.

The following listed can happen at any time:

Kung Lao's hat flies and cuts the failure's head off. In Mortal Kombat 1, he calls out "You never had a chance!".
The failure is blown to pieces by falling Cyrax Bombs.
A hook impales the failure's throat and takes him/her up in the air, and seconds later their blood rains down.
Ermac's telekinesis grabs the failure's head and yanks it off.
The failure's head is eaten by a swarm of D'Vorah's insects.
The failure is burned alive.
The failure is electrocuted by Raiden's lightning until he/she explodes.
The failure is shot to death by arrows.
Kitana's fan cuts the failure's face off and his/her brain pops out.
Mileena's sais pierce the failure's head.
Scorpion's spear pierces the side of the failure's head and yanks it off over the call of "Get over here!"
The failure is riddled by machine gun fire, and when they fall dead, Jax calls out "Gotcha!"
The failure is forced through a Netherrealm portal by Scorpion's spear as he calls "Come here!"
The failure hears Sektor's call out for "Target acquired!" then one of his missiles latches onto them before they are blown up.
Johnny Cage throws an award into the failure's eye calling out "Now that's just embarrassing."
Kano calls out "Party's over, mate!" then slings two blades fatally at the failure.
Nightwolf calls out "Return to the spirit world!" then he fires spirit arrows at the failure before finishing with an axe to the head.
Kenshi reprimands "You shame your ancestors." then uses Sento to cut the failure in two.
Two hammers swing to crush the failure's head as General Shao calls out "Pathetic fool!"
Erron Black calls out "See ya'!" then when the failure tries to shield their face, they get shot through the eyes.