Following some teases and even a few leaks, Netherealm has officially announced a new entry in the long-running Mortal Kombat series titled Mortal Kombat 1. A delightfully gory trailer confirmed that the new game will be launching on September 19th of this year for Xbox Series S/X, Playstation 5, Nintendo Switch and PC.
I love having just a few months between the game being announced and it being playable. It’s far nicer than the typical triple-A nonsense where a game is often revealed years before it’s ever going to be launched.
Due to the series’ affinity for timeline-altering buggery the new Mortal Kombat is both a sequel and a reboot of sorts. The trailer clearly indicates that we’re picking up the story after the end of Mortal Kombat 11’s fantastic Aftermath DLC which (spoiler warning) saw Liu Kang become a God and gain control of Kronika’s giant hourglass, granting him the ability to rewrite history. There was a lot more nonsense in the actual story involving time-travelling insanity, but that’s the gist of it.
Mortal Kombat 1’s new trailer shows us a glimpse of Liu Kang’s new world where he claims people can make the choice “whether to live in quiet serenity or bloody strife.” We get hints of this being a slightly more chilled-out Mortal Kombat with long-time rivals Scorpion and Sub-Zero seemingly setting aside their differences and Mileena and Katana managing to be in the same carriage without trying to rip each other to pieces.
Of course, peace and prosperity would make for a shite Mortal Kombat game so everyone’s favourite dickhead sorcerer Shang Tsung shows up. Cue some seriously gruesome fatalities that are so photo-realistic it might actually make you throw up.
The official website drops some very small hints at what we can expect, mentioning a new fighting system and new game modes. Perhaps the most intriguing piece of information is the new Kameo system, which the game describes as “Choose from a unique roster of Kameo fighting partners to assist you in battle.”
An “immersive” campaign is also promised, which could be a tricky proposition because Mortal Kombat 11’s meaty singleplayer was already pretty freaking awesome. Can Netherealm top it?
I cannot explain how excited I am to rip out some spines again.
