But when I really wanted to talk trash in the PS2 era, I would brag about beating someone with Kuma.
Basically the launch of any AAA video game back then (like 1994 DOOM or 1996 Quake) would cause a global sink in academic and corporate performance with workers calling in sick and students spending endless nights playing.
It was a great time to be a gamer.
Also what was your character?
"Use the force Luke" - Yoda
For character, I usually just let the game pick a random one for me. I found that after the initial fun of learning everyone's combos and special moves, the basic kicks and punches were all you needed. That was the real secret to MK: Precise use of high kick, sweep, uppercut, and block could pretty much beat anyone who made a mistake. If I wanted to show off (MK3), I'd pick Sindel and not allow one hit against me. I think I was the only person in town who used that character.
Another fun variant was to offer to only use one attack button (high punch, high kick, low punch, or low kick), and allowing your opponent to use all of them. Bonus fun: Let your opponent choose which button you are limited to!
Different game but equally impressive imo. Obviously takes a lot of practice but audio cues are huge for these kind of challenges - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5w6z-h4hoEU
Killer Instinct 2013 unintentionally at first has different sound (and music!) effects for each move as well as every meter so at some points devs were astonished by a letter from actually blind players with a few advices on how to make it even more accessible.
Upcoming Street Fighter 6 has the options needed!
They brought MK in later and it was a solid few years of summer memories.