Every move is unique, but they all share the same over-the-top, ultra-ridiculous DNA that's sustained Mortal Kombat for the past 27 years. Each game in the series takes advantage of relatively modern graphical power, rendering characters in the most realistic way possible -- only to show their muscles exploding yet still bearing weight, their organs dangling from perfectly circular torso holes, or their bones shattering to dust in a 3D X-ray mode.

At some point, each fatality becomes so gory that it's funny.

"I have it up on my screen while I'm doing testing at work, and people come by and it's equal parts disgust and laughter," said Shannah O'Meara, senior cinematic artist at NetherRealm Studios. She's one of the architects behind Mortal Kombat 11's fatalities, often spending weekdays in a meeting room with a handful of other developers, discussing all of the worst ways to murder people. Fictionally, of course.

O'Meara has been at NetherRealm for more than five years, and before that she worked at Midway Games, the studio where developers Ed Boon and John Tobias first created Mortal Kombat. Midway went bankrupt in 2009, but Warner Bros. bought its assets and kept its Chicago studio running with Boon at the helm, eventually renaming the division NetherRealm. The latest game in the franchise, Mortal Kombat 11, came out for PC, Xbox One, PS4 and Switch on Tuesday.

O'Meara has nearly a decade of experience building NetherRealm and Midway franchises, and the carnival of carnage in Mortal Kombat 11 proves she knows her way around a gruesome death. However, her fascination with gore started much earlier than that.

"I've always been really into gory B-movies," she said. "You know, since I was a kid -- probably too young where I probably shouldn't have been watching them -- but I always was a big fan of practical effects, and I saw it for the art form. I was never scared of them, I just saw them for what they were. It's really great for me to be able to work on that as I'm older."