I haven’t played MK in years. Last one I played was MK9, and by that point the extreme violence already bothered me, but when they doubled down on the violence in MK 10 I checked out, and it seems I will remain that way. And the thing is, I kind of liked the Netherrealm formula for fighting games? Controls, etc… Well, maybe I’ll get to play when Injustice 3 arrives.
That said, it’s not like I’m out of fighting games to play. With Strive going strong and Street Fighter 6 coming out in a couple weeks, this is turning out to be a pretty good year for fighting games regardless.
Looking at the Reddit thread, apparently the MK series has an actual plotline. Who knew?
Right there with you. I’m not a huge fighting game person but the realistic looking hypergore is a bit much for me. SF6 is looking to be more up my alley.
Sub Zero, Kitana, etc, all wearing masks way before Fauci told us it was cool.
…aaaaand I’m out
Roster confirmed: Liu Kang, Shang Tsung (preorder bonus), Kitana, Mileena, Raiden, Kung Lao, Scorpion, Sub Zero, Johnny Cage (which will have a Jean-Claude van Damme skin available for purchase at launch, apparently). The game also introduces “Kameo Characters”, which can only be selected as assists (yes, MK1 will introduce an assist mode, as seen in Blazblue Cross Tag Battle, Marvel vs Capcom, etc). And of course there’s a season pass announced with an additional 6 main characters and 5 Kameo characters.
Roster for season pass 1 leaked (spoiler warning):
Main: Quan Chi, Omni Man, Ermac, Peacemaker, Takeda, Homelander
Kameo: Tremor, Johnny Cage, Khameleon, Mavado, Ferra
People now don’t know if Johnny Cage will be a main character — it could be just a Kameo (assist) character, which is an “interesting” choice.
Man that trailer. I know 99% of it is just rendered video but if any of that is actual in game footage (fatality cams). The fatality at sunset looked GOREgous.
I was shocked that I actually enjoyed the story in MK11. It was gloriously stupid trash. People die and are brought back to life, and then they die again. It’s fantastic.
It made me go and watch the Mortal Kombat movies, which weren’t as good. I did like the new one though.
I really enjoyed the game too, that’s the first fighting game I’ve ever gone deep on.
It’s a soap opera with blood. I’m actually kind of impressed they thought ahead enough to make a reboot/sequel make sense.
Gameplay footage
I’m not a fighting game guy since the arcades, but isn’t that level of juggling frustrating to players? It’s CC but in a twitch game, I’d be screaming at the monitor.
The folks who like it will like it. You remember the combo routes with practice and it just becomes rote.
I’m not impressed by any of this- MK is a hard pass from me these days.
New MK1 trailer with Dave Bautista:
It is an homage to a trailer for the first MK, which is a pretty nice touch:
I watched a streamer on Twitch last night play through the early parts of this game and it looks … kinda awesome? It’s more heavily plotted than I would expect from a Mortal Kombat game - almost like playing one of the movies, as you see the team getting assembled to fight the tournament against the Outworld, meeting each in turn and then getting to play some fights as each character. It looks way better than I expected, I’ll say that.
Have you not played the recent MK games? 10 and 11 are awesome and are kind of the Fast and Furious of gaming in their level of cheese, ridiculousness, and yet high budget amazing cinematic wonder.
The last one I played was on the 360, I forget exactly which one that was but I think it was probably ten years ago or so. I thought it was ok as far as controls and options but I don’t really remember any interesting or gonzo storytelling and cinematics.
Oh wow you’ve missed out. While 9 has story elements that lead into X, you can skip it. The story is gonzo enough that you’ll dive in, be lost, but catch up and just go along for the ride. Seriously, play story mode in X and 11 and just enjoy the hell out of it. Put it on easy and let it wash over you.
@Mike_Cathcart and I played for a couple hours today trying out all the playable characters and assist characters. Smoke was pretty lethal as a beginner choice. I quickly figured out how to be decent with Sub-Zero and Shang Tsung too.
My favorite for hilarity was Johnny Cage. Flipping birds. Nut punching with a split. A move just to gain Star Power? Awesome, and so stupidly Mortal Kombat.
Their gameplay has come a very long way since the original. Where I appreciate that Capcom has fought change to some extent with Street Fighter, most of what’s changed with MK has been great.