GAME CLEAR No. 146 -- Mortal Kombat 1

Mortal Kombat 1 (2023, Multiplatform)

Developer: NetherRealm Studios
Publisher: Warner Bros. Games
Clear Platform: PS5
Clear Date: 9/26/23

There is no knowledge that is not power

It’s Kombat time, baby. Mortal Kombat is one of those franchises I grew up with and just really can’t let go. I love the goofy cast of characters, I love the insane and ambitious story mode that accompanies each release, and I love that the fatalities keep getting more horrific and bizarre. It’s all comfort food to me.

NetherRealm once again delivered the goods with another wild and compelling story mode. There was the potential that what is essentially the second soft reboot of the series could be pretty lame, but I think they pulled it off well, and I’m excited about who they’ve established as the likely antagonist of the next game. Without spoiling much (although I doubt anyone who reads this cares), the story and roster of Mortal Kombat 1 contain a veritable who’s who of PS2-era randos that I had nearly forgotten from my childhood, and I’m frankly pretty delighted with how they’ve returned. Considering that was arguably the flop era of the series, it’s a bold choice, but it’s one that tickles my nostalgia receptors.

And I guess that’s kind of the deal. I think maybe Mortal Kombat is my sort of Marvel slop. I just like seeing guys I recognize appear in some cutscenes and then fight each other. I gobble that shit up! I’m like “ah, yes, Ashrah: that Mortal Kombat: Deception also-ran with the weird hat who looks radically different now. Thank you, Ed Boon.”

Now that I think about it, maybe that’s also why this game has no new characters. The series has been around for over 30 years, and each previous entry has had them. Sometimes tons of them! This series is chock fuckin’ full of old, boring characters that didn’t need to exist to go back and repurpose in a cool way in this new rebooted timeline!

I suppose that’s also why Mortal Kombat: Armageddon did what it did – that is, include every character from the entire series history as playable and then literally end the world of the game. That gave the erstwhile Midway the opportunity to reboot the series (for the first time) with just the characters everyone loves and rebuild from there.

But now they’ve had their reboot trilogy, and I suppose it’s time to give those old, unloved GameCube guys their time to shine (again).

This, I suppose, is what you do to yourself when you commit to having an actually-good fighting game story and also commit to keep making them forever. You gotta give everybody some screen time.

Speaking of screen time, Johnny Cage (my beloved) is so good in this game. They took away his projectiles and made him a rushdown fighter, and I’m more in love with him than ever before. Oh, also they gave him a Jean-Claude Van Damme skin. What the fuck.

Hope you enjoyed this sloppy stream of consciousness. I was thinking about complaining about how Warner Bros. clearly rushed this game and it sucks that they own NetherRealm, but the kind folks there clearly love to make these games and will surely get this one all fixed up soon, so I’m gonna keep playing it. Maybe I’ll go do that right now. 🐲