Interview: Blind Streamer Rattlehead Explains How He Plays Pro Mortal Kombat
Even at a basic level, playing well in a fighting game isn’t just about just memorizing moves, but also being able to react to your opponent. Knowing how to pull off specials and combos will help, but if you can’t mix it up depending on what the other guy is going, you won’t get very far. That level of multitasking is hard enough, so how would you do it without being able to see what the other player is doing?
Carlos Vasquez, also known as Rattlehead, does just that. As a blind gamer, he doesn’t just play Mortal Kombat casually - he’s a pro. Vasquez was recently featured in a PBS documentary series, Subcultured, and absolutely destroyed the host at the game based on audio cues alone.
Related: Mass Effect Shows How Games Should Be Remade To Incorporate Accessibility, Not Remastered
“Mortal Kombat is easier to pick up, and its popularity has a huge influence on it too, but it’s not the only game that’s considered more accessible. There’s a Street Fighter community base of blind players too”, Vasquez says.
“Fighting games, in general, tend to be playable, which is not to say they’re accessible. By playability, what I mean is, somebody can memorize the menu layout of the fighting game and memorize the button sequences and different setups if it’s a 2D platform where the characters move from left to right”.
But when game devs listen to blind players, the experience can evolve beyond merely being playable. Upon consultation, NetherRealm added sound cues to indicate when a player is near an interactable part of the stage, something which Vasquez can now take advantage of in matches.
Just as he does with Mortal Kombat, Vasquez relies on this sound design in other titles too. Sometimes, in ways that other players - and even the
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