Mortal Kombat 1 - Back to the beginning of Boonality

It feels like they’re rarely out to perfect or even iterate. Instead, they want each title to have a strong individual gameplay identity while remaining faithful to the tone and overall franchise vision. And then they layer on some over the topness that is always appreciated. I love that they take big swings with each game, even if it makes for rough spots.

I bought this, but not the premium edition, so I should be able to play tomorrow. I’ll probably go first with Rain and Li Mei, but I’ll try most of the roster later. We’ll see.

Well put. I think X is fine, but it does have a somewhat uncanny art style that’s grating for me. 11 really perfects it. That’s the one I’d tell people to go for first. The only benefit to playing X first is that you get some exposition on some of the characters, but the stories work fine separately.

Playing 11 first, I had no idea what the cowboy man or the Mayan king were doing there, but that only added to the insanity, and I think that actually made it better for me :)

No one had said a word to me about the campaign, so once I realized how bonkers and well-crafted it was, my mouth was on the floor. It’s a soap opera, it’s epic fantasy, it’s time travel shenanigans. Now that character is alive - oh now they’re dead - wait, now they’re alive again, and pissed off.

It’s fricken brilliant. Of all the things I expected to get out of a Mortal Kombat game, that was nowhere on my bingo card.

I’m a little apprehensive going into 1 because I think 11 set the bar really high. But you like you said in your other post, they do want to innovate, and they usually do a great job of it.

I picked this up and I’m looking forward to it. I messed a little a few of the characters while I waited for it to download. Is the Kameos mechanic new to MK1 or was it in 11? I played 10 but I’m pretty sure I skipped 11. And will some of the Kameos become playable?

It seems like the easy-to-start-with characters are Scorpion, Liu Kang, Reptile, and Kung Lao. I think I’ll start with one of them.

This is the best advice I got all week! I have both X and XI because I had to buy them when they were on sale, but I never got very far in either because medium difficulty is too much for me :p
I went back now and having a great time on easy 👍

I enjoyed the story more than I thought I would. It’s the perfect mix of call-backs, over the top fights and insanity. They did a nice job using nearly all the characters in a different way.

Plus, it’s the return of Mime Johnny Cage!

Also side note, also in spoilerish territory (though it’s MK, so not really): the story is a hot mess in the final act. Like, not in a great way. They could have had something special, but then it went bananas-level-multiverse and the final fight itself was nothing special because it was like the 4th time fighting Shang Tsung. Also, Ermac is the absolute worst: he’s a punching bag and nothing more.

Now, Invasion? That’s an odd one. I’m doing it for the unlockables, but I’m not sure I love it.

Btw, I learned tonight the Kameos have fatalities too!

I’m playing it too. Still early in the story, but it’s been fun. And I spent an hour or so in practice mode just trying some different characters to see if I pick a main.

The only bad thing is that I get a bit of stutter when transitioning from cutscenes to fight introduction in story mode. I had that problem in other NRS games, but I thought now that wouldn’t be an issue since the game is installed on an NVME SSD, but I guess I was wrong. Minor thing though.

Yeah same, I think everyone gets that ‘feature’ in the PC port. :P

I just finished the story and yeah, it seems Ed Boon is a big fan of Avengers: Endgame. That went… places. Fun (if silly) places. :)

My main is Li Mei, it seems. It was by far the most enjoyable character for me. I also enjoyed Reptile, Sindel and Rain, but not as much as Li Mei. Now to learn all the strengths and weaknesses and combos. This should be fun. ;)