My first date with my future wife was a trip to an arcade called The Malt Shoppe and then to a crazy action movie called Mortal Kombat. We continue this tradition of video games and action movies to this day, but we’ll never forget the one that started it all. We now have 11 games, as well as a much-needed complete reboot of the film franchise. Now we’re looking at a similar reimagining of the Mortal Kombat game with Mortal Kombat 1. We got to play the game at Summer Games Fest, and it was awesome. This may be the best Mortal Kombat yet, and I’m happy to say it’s not the hype talking.
Mortal Kombat 1 is technically the 12th game in the numbered main series. At the end of MK11, Liu Kang became the God of Fire and one of his first acts was to reinvent Earthrealm in its entirety. More than just a story point, this also allowed the team to reinstate the absolutely crazy lore and go back to their roots.
While we don’t know much about the story yet, we got to play as four different characters, with three additional surprise visits (or “Kameos”) from classic fighters from the original game. There are a LOT more fighters to be revealed, as well as a full roster of these new Kameos, as well as some lore-hidden characters, but for starters we’re aiming for Liu Kang, Katana, Kenshi, and Sub-Zero.
What was immediately clear is that these are the fighters we all grew up with and love, but with a great deal of polish and care to make them more accessible, but hiding a massive layer of mastery underneath. Throwing enemies into the air to juggle, smashing your enemies with powerful combinations, and using their craziest powers is as easy as ever, but now they seem to flow with less effort. Animations seamlessly transition from one to the next, looking smooth and natural. With practice and mastery, chaining more of them together, changing direction, juggling sweeps and hooks, only to unleash powerful fatalities to finish off, has never felt better. And then the Kameos appear…
During our time with the demo, we got to see appearances in Kameo from Kano, Sonja Blade, and Jax. Kano has a swagger that made me laugh every time, jumping up at the push of a button to stab my opponent repeatedly only to spit at him as he backs away, opening his arms with a smile as if to say “Yeah, that happened what?” Are you going to do about it?” Sonja’s square wave and pulse attacks kept my opponents grounded, and Jax’s back-breaking mid-air catch combo was the undoing of anyone who started the fight with an immediate 45-degree jump towards me. . There is an extremely short meter to activate them, but you can use them effectively at will. In fact, you can use them more than once during a combo, starting a combo with a Kameo, using double Kenshi to attack from both sides, juggling them straight up with a sword strike, and then catching them in the air with Jax. to hit them. return to dry land. It’s hard to overstate how game-changing these Kameo appearances can be. While they replace environmental attacks that occurred with hanging objects or braziers in the battle space, they make a lot of use of that same environment to hit and turn your enemies into mincemeat.
If you’re a Mortal Kombat fan, chances are you’re already sold on what Team NetherRealm has to offer here, but after playing through all four towers with the available characters, it’s already clear to me that they have something very special coming up for this installment. . Part nostalgia, part reboot, and complete reinvention, there’s a lot to look forward to seeing revealed as we move toward a September 19 release date on Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 5, PC, and somehow, Switch.
Stay tuned here at Gaming Trend for all the MK1 news and additional screenshots from the upcoming closed beta very soon!
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