History of Mortal Kombat (1992 - 2019)

welcome back everybody my name is Nick 930 and to celebrate the upcoming release of Mortal Kombat 11 I want to share with you the complete history of Mortal Kombat [Music] [Music] [Music] Mortal Kombat is a classic fighting game franchise originally developed by Midway Games in the early 1990s the series became known for its brutal fatality finishers and its unapologetic use of violence sparking many debates regarding the influence of violent video games on society the impact of Mortal Kombat's creation can be found in every spectrum of the gaming industry from its excellent marketing design simple yet effective control scheme add the creation of the ESRB rating board the series has changed a great deal and yet still managed to retain its cultural status with new game releases being somewhat of a phenomenon so the real question is how what is it that works so well with Mortal Kombat and why is it so popular to answer that we need to take it way back to the franchise's creation in the early 90s in 1991 edward john boone and John's abayas were given a project together by Midway Games to develop a fighter game to compete with Capcom's popular Street Fighter series the pair of developers along with Dan Florida and John Bogle began passing ideas around for a ninja themed brawler but this idea was soon shot down by Midway Games as they wanted a movie tie-in game featuring jean-claude Van Damme however after this concept fell through Midway changed her mind and allowed the small team of developers to proceed with their original concept after only a few months a playable prototype of the game released it featured a handful of fighters that used a mixture of standard karate moves like kicks and punches but also could use special magical attacks like fireballs and teleportation it wasn't a common feature in fighting games at the time and helped to define the franchise's unique aesthetic the excessive violence and gore that the series is known for slowly began to take shape as the team expanded on the finisher sequences according to GamePro magazine both Boone and Tobias hated how fighting inspire implemented a dizzying mechanic where your player would be stunned throughout the match to circumvent this the team only featured this dizzying effect at the end of the match giving players an opportunity to throw in one last good punch to humiliate their opponent this eventually evolved to become more elaborate and the fatality was born other elements like blood effects and gruesome gory backdrops were added in only further solidifying the franchise's core identity as for the name there are several conflicting reports about where the name Mortal Kombat with Boone claiming that the name came about from someone jokingly scribbling a K over the sea in combat while Tobias claims they changed the letter to bypass a trademark problem either way the name Mortal Kombat's stuck and the game would go on to be released in arcades in 1992 the original Mortal Kombat game released with very little plot outside of the scrolling text in the arcade cabinets attract mode and these short epilogues after completing the game's character ladders to help expand upon the newly created franchise lore Midway released a mail-in comic book to coincide with the game's release Mortal Kombat's story exists in a universe composed of multiple different realms including the familiar earth realm the more sinister out world and several other realms that will be introduced later each realm is overseen by a number of lesser gods while the universe itself has ruled over by more powerful Elder Gods while generally separate these realms have the capability to conquer and expand into other realms if they invoke the rule of mortal combat the concept of mortal combat is simple if a realm wishes to take over another realm they need to challenge them to a fighting tournament and win ten times in a row one of these realms the out world led by the traitorous leader Shao Kahn began winning several centuries worth of mortal combat dominating other realms and amassing a massive army in preparation for the impending challenge to earth realm the Thunder God Raiden began training an elite team of lawyers to fight in the upcoming Mortal Kombat tournament on the mysterious Shang Tsung Island where most of the action in the game itself takes place a lot of the fighters have their own individual reasons for being at the tournament either to prove themselves in combat seek revenge against rivals or to protein themselves for past failures but the main premise of the first game is that the fighters of earth realm are trying to defeat the monstrous four-armed Goro who's been undefeated in the tournament for five centuries and the evil Shang soon Mortal Kombat's gameplay is based heavily on other popular fighting games at the time with a 2d side-scrolling design and a basic button configuration composed of various types of punches and kicks using the arcade joystick in combination with these attacks could perform slight variations including leg sweeps and uppercuts and two-step directional combos could execute more advanced magical moves like fireballs or scorpions famous get over here attack players will need to chip away at their opponent's health bar using careful combinations of attacks blocks and dodge like most fighting games players would need to defeat their opponent twice to win the match immediately after winning the second round a finisher sequence would begin where the defeated player would be vulnerable to the famous fatality moves players would be randomly matched with the game's fighters and being defeated would result in a continued screen obviously intended to coax players into giving more quarters to the arcade cabinets back in the day after a few fights a minigame called test your might would trigger where players would need to mash buttons and hit the block button at the correct time in order to smash some wooden boards these games added a bit more variety to the experience and provided players with the chance to earn bonus points towards their high score in order to beat the game first we need to successfully defeat every character in the roster in addition to the four armed reigning champion Goro and finally the evil sorcerer Shang soon who could assume the role of other characters and their combat moves the game's roster consisted of seven playable characters including scorpion sub-zero Liu Kang Raiden Kano Sonya Blade and Johnny Cage with both Goro and Shang soon appearing only as unplayable bosses a sacred character named reptile was also available to play and could be unlocked by performing a series of special criteria Mortal Kombat also introduced the world to the juggling mechanic where fighters could continue to deal damage to opponents after being knocked into the air this mechanic has not only become commonplace in the fighting game genre but has also found its way into many other styles of games the original Mortal Kombat utilized an interesting technique to circumvent the ugly pixelated design of typical video game characters at the time in order to provide much more realistic characters actors were placed in front of a high band video 8 camera and were recorded performing basic actions like punching and kicking the frames from this footage were then cropped and turn into sprites that could be controlled against a simple arena backdrop with various layers to help give the scenes more depth this resulted in a far more realistic presentation that was typical for the time making the violent nature of the experience even more controversial while Mortal Kombat was not the first fighting game to utilize excessive gore in this gameplay it popularized the idea and it's blood spewing gameplay soon became a popular topic of debate the realistic imagery used for the game's characters mixed with the excessive over-the-top violence worried parents and discussions about the influence of video game violence on society reached a peak 1993 when the United States federal government required the industry to develop a universal rating system for video games MORTAL KOMBAT along with a few other violent video games at the time are directly attributed to the creation of the ESRB rating system used in the United States today in order to protect their family friendly brand Nintendo also requested that the SNES release of polo combat be completely censored with blood being replaced with less intimidating effects and all the fatality animations reworked into less impressive finisher moves the Sega Genesis version also received a bit of censorship though players craving for the arcade cabinet level of violence could enable the blood and fatalities to a special cheat code in the main menu the original Mortal Kombat was a massive success thanks to its solid fighting controls interesting lore and enticing over the top violent visuals the original cabinet game would go on to spawn a massive international gaming franchise that would not only result in several sequels and spin-offs but even a feature-length film but the original game was not without its faults with its small roster of characters when compared to its direct competition and some disappointing ports that failed to match the quality of the original cabinet design as the hyper run the console releases of the original game were reaching a fevered pitch The Mortal Kombat development team had already started production on a sequel simply titled Mortal Kombat 2 the sequel would expand upon the lorem concepts of the original game with more characters more unique stages and of course more fatalities in Mortal Kombat 2 players once again participated in an epic Mortal Kombat tournament that would determine the fate of earth realm but instead of fighting on an island in earth realm like the first game normal combat 2 takes place in the darker out world one of the franchise's lead antagonist Shao Kahn finally makes an appearance in ball Kombat 2 and serves as the game's final boss according to Tobias the concept behind Shao Kahn and his minion Shang soon stems directly from the dynamic use in the original Star Wars trilogy with a mysterious Emperor that wouldn't be revealed until later in the saga Mortal Kombat 2's gameplay was greatly improved with faster movement speeds up up to the roundhouse kick and more fighters to play with the scoring system used in the original game was replaced with a tally system with players earning a token under the name for each consecutive win the fan favored fatalities were also expanded with more than one fatality for each character in addition to new humiliating finisher moves like babies and friendships these new finishers marked as a sting shift in the tone of the series away from the semi serious original concepts and into a series that embrace its absurd premise one of the most recognizable inside jokes in mortal combat is Dan fortin's picture popping up in the corner of the screen after spamming the same cheap move repeatedly and then shouting out toasty in a falsetto voice the joke stemmed from an inside joke dan had with the development team and was thrown into the game just to give around but it's since become the series's longest running gag Mortal Kombat 2's roster saw the return of seven characters including sub-zero scorpion reptile Raiden Liu Kang Johnny Cage and a younger Shang soon however both Sonya Blade and Kano two characters that were rarely chosen in the original game were no longer available to play and can actually be seen tied up in one of the game's arenas in their place were five new playable characters Baraka a hideous mutant with blades that extended from his arms Jax Briggs a US Special Forces officer katana a princess and the adopted daughter of Shao Kahn her twin sister Malina and kun Lao a Shaolin monk with a deadly bladed hat as a follow-up to the well received hidden character feature from the original game Mortal Kombat 2 hosted three hidden characters due to memory limitations of the hardware at the time this large cast of characters were created simply by swapping out colors of pre-existing character models and adding a few unique moves to help them stand apart when designing the visuals for Mortal Kombat 2 Tobias decided to go with a much darker art direction to sell the new Outworld themed environments the game's color depth was expanded slightly but the environments themselves were grimmer and more sinister to promptly capture the animations the actress from the original game were once again recorded only this time in front of a far more expensive sony camera Mortal Kombat 2 was available in arcades in early 1993 and would eventually find its way to home consoles the following year the release of Mortal Kombat 2 broke several records greatly exceeding Midway's expectations and becoming the most popular game of the year it was met with overwhelmingly positive critical reception with many noting the improved visuals movement and the expanded roster even Nintendo was on board with the mature design choice this time around and did not censor SNES release portal combat suit would go on to win several awards including multiple Game of the Year awards in 1994 prompting yet another sequel to begin production after the success of Mortal Kombat 2 Midway Games began to work on the next installment but struggled to find innovative ways to utilize their beloved gameplay mechanics and style after receiving criticism regarding the use of stereotypical Asian soundtracks backgrounds and voice recordings Midway decided to step away from the franchise's established aesthetic and introduce players to a more Western approach the game stages and characters were redesigned to be more urban and modern respectively several the actors from the previous titles left the project after disagreements with the royalties being paid to them and a few actress from rumor to be in hot water with Midway after working on a rival project with a separate development studio this ultimately resulted in the exclusion of fan favorites scorpion and Raiden a mistake that hurt the game's reputation but even after moving to the flagship characters from the game Mortal Kombat 3 release in arcades in spring of 1995 and continued to police fans Mortal Kombat 3 story takes place almost immediately after the events of the second game with Shao Kahn furious after his defeat and seeking another way to invade the earth realm he soon discovers a loophole in the rules by having a long deceased Outworld Queen resurrected in Earth realms that he would be allowed to transfer between realms to recover her this basically starts the apocalypse and earth realm with cities crumbling and monstrous out world entities crossing over and killing innocent humans in order to protect the remains of Earth around Raiden is left behind to hold things together while the rest of the core Mortal Kombat crew were tasked with defeating Shao Kahn and his minions to save the earth realm the story abandoned the traditional Mortal Kombat tournament concept altogether effectively mixing up the formula and building upon the established lore with a much more interesting plot because of the shift in narrative direction the game's characters and environments have seen a distinct shift in style with new modern redesigns for character outfits and a focus on more urban city levels like rooftops subways and streets the gameplay also saw some critical changes that many fans that the original two games were split on in order to address fan complaints about the balance of defensive players in the past games the developers added a new sprint button that would make it difficult for defensive players to maintain dis from their opponent mk3 also saw the introduction of scripted combo attacks that when connected with an enemy could not be interrupted other changes include a few new fatalities a number of brand new characters and a few new finisher types returning characters included Jax Kung Lao Liu Kang sub-zero Shang soon and smoked with original characters Kano and Sonya also making a comeback on top of this MK 3 also added a number of new characters including Cyrax a yellow robotic assassin sector a red robot assassin cabal a hook sword wielding burn victim Nightwolf a Native American warrior with the power to control lightning Sindel the resurrected Queen I mentioned earlier Stryker a police officer and Shiva the answer to the many family quests to make characters like Goro playable while a large cast of characters players did not connect as well with the new additions and many participated by the lack of Raiden scorpion and Jade and the only secret character available in the game was a returning noob saibot the new finishers were the long-rumored ana maladies where players could transform themselves into an animal and ether opponent and a mercy finisher where victorious players could humiliate their opponent by granting them an extra bit of health just to be killed a third time first could also launched her opponent seamlessly into new combat arenas creating much more dynamic environments to fight in MK 3 also saw a slight change to its visual direction due to the game's more urban setting the color palette was lacking with more dull shades on average and less interesting environments the same is true for the character models whose new design choices were too big a departure from the original style and the models themselves look more pixelated than before MK 3 once again was built for the more powerful arcade machines and later ported to the SNES and Sega Genesis but by 1995 sony's new PlayStation console hit the market and Midway Games entered into an exclusive partnership to deliver an accurate port of the arcade title to the new platform the PC received two separate ports a DOS version which is being shown here and a Windows version that more properly emulated the Arcade and PlayStation versions of the game Mortal Kombat 3 was met with positive critical reception but fans expressed several concerns with some of the new design changes that were made the combo options weren't balanced properly and players weren't as excited about the new characters realizing that some fans weren't happy Midway quickly released an edited version of the game in the same year called ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 which came packed with new game modes secrets fatalities tons of balancing tweaks and a greatly improved cast of characters this ultimate version included previously excluded fan favorites like Jade katana scorpion and reptile and added in several secret characters including milena her mech and rain however there were still a few missing characters from the supposed ultimate experience including Johnny Cage Baraka and Raiden this updated version of Mortal Kombat 3 was offered to arcade managers as a free optional upgrade and it would go on to be one of the most beloved entries in the franchise but many fans including Edie Boone himself convinced that they could release an even more ultimate collection of their classic franchise Midway created another compilation pre-release this time called The Mortal Kombat trilogy this title was essentially another Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 only it included every character introduced so far including the previously excluded Raiden Johnny Cage Baraka and even newly playable bosses Goro Kotaro mataró and Shao Kahn since Mortal Kombat trilogy was a pre-release of mk3 the story remains mostly the same but older arenas from past games were added back in to make the trilogy the ultimate 2d Mortal Kombat fighting collection a few minor tweaks were made to the gameplay experience and the visuals remained mostly untouched from the last release the only truly notable addition was the new aggressor bar which would fill whenever a player landed a hit on an opponent and could be unleashed to speed up movement and increased damage again this change was introduced as a way to encourage more aggressive gameplay and prevent players from running away in using range attacks the Mortal Kombat trilogy was unfortunately met with mostly mixed reviews and the classic 2d era of Mortal Kombat fighting games would end on a sour note but before the franchise moved entirely into the 3d era of gaming Midway Games assigned a small team of developers in Chicago a spin-off project called Mortal Kombat mythologies sub-zero unlike past titles mythologies was not a standard arena fighting game but an action-adventure platformer based in the world of Mortal Kombat the game took roughly a year to create and utilize the same design methods used for mk3 but instead of having small simple arenas mythologies featured large linear environments and retrofitted the games fighting controls for more platforming based action it wasn't the best execution however and about the only good thing that could be said about this title was that aid utilized full cinematic sequences to help expand on the franchise's expanding lore MK mythology story is surprisingly an important one and helps to set the events of several of the later games it takes place prior to the events of the original game with Sub Zero being set on a mission by series newcomer Quan Chi Quan Chi is a sorcerer from the nether realm a sort of hell in the Mortal Kombat universe and becomes a significant villain throughout the course of the next several games at the beginning of the game Quan Chi sends sub-zero to retrieve a map that details the location of an incredibly important amulet that could be used by the Fallen Elder God chinook to return to power as sub-zero recovers the map he has a competition with scorpion who is also after the same map sub-zero defeats scorpion and as a result Quan Chi has the members of scorpions clan killed something that scorpion ultimately blames sub-zero for setting up their classic rivalry throughout the series unfortunately the gameplay wasn't nearly as interesting mythology's utilizes a strange hybrid of the classic 2d fighting mechanics and conventional Mortal Kombat games with some poorly implemented platforming controls you can either walk left or right with a flat 2d spite of sub-zero in a semi three-dimensional world with occasional enemy combatants walking up and attacking you the game's combat while reminiscent of Mortal Kombat 3 feels incredibly stiff and awkward and trying to just turn around of course a unique button press to accomplish each of the very few levels in the game featured some basic obstacles that feel poorly conceived and a few collectible items like health potions that could be used to boost your health bar before engaging the next group of enemies Mortal Kombat mythology's was received poorly by fans and critics alike while it provided a more in-depth look at the franchise's lore it failed to provide any memorable or fun gameplay experiences and was clear evidence that the Mortal Kombat series should stick to its arena fighting design in 1996 Midway Games began work on an ambitious new main installments of the Mortal Kombat franchise built entirely with 3d computer animation to compensate for the increased level of effort required to build a 3d game the team decided to focus only on the most important aspects of the Mortal Kombat gameplay experience including the feel of the combat and the design of the iconic fatalities other more silly features like babies friendships and anomalies were left behind both as an effort to make the experience feel more mature and as a way to cut down on development time and cost using basic polygons character models meant that Midway no longer had to rely on using live actors and could easily animate using new motion capture technology this simplified process resulted in far more realistic movement for the game's characters and even greater concern from the Mia who were already up in arms about the impending fourth title still as with most Mortal Kombat games the nonstop news reports and TV specials did nothing but give the game extra spotlight an MK 4 would release in fall of 1997 after a lengthy marketing campaign around the country in Mortal Kombat 4 the Fallen elder God Chinook finally escapes from the nether realm with the help of Quan Chi and attempts to conquer all six of the main realms desperate to stop this from happening Raiden once again has the fighters from earth realm help them out MK force gameplay despite its new 3d environments and characters still feels like the classic 2d titles in fact the 3d identifier for this game is a bit misleading while everything is rendered in 3d the gameplay always takes place in a 2d plane moves like fireballs and scorpions grapples still behave the same way and will always move along the X and y axis but never on the z axis the only true advance to this new 3d design is the camera which allows for a slightly more cinematic and immersive combat experience with different camera angles for certain grapple attacks and finishers the movement felt just as fast-paced and aggressive as MK 3 with combo Tech's special moves sprint blocks and of course plenty of gruesome fatalities MK 4 also introduced weapons which could be equipped once per round and could deal significantly more damage to opponents hitting an enemy holding a weapon would cause them to drop it to the ground which could then be picked up by any fight close enough sages also had a few environmental objects that could be picked up and used as weapons as well waiting from their mistakes with the initial release of MK 3 Mortal Kombat 4 includes most of the fan favorite characters from the past games including scorpion sub-zero Raiden and reptile while also adding a number of brand new characters new characters included Fujin a god that can control the wind jarick replacement for Kino Kai another Shaolin monk raikou one of Chinooks loyal generals Tania a last-minute replacement for katana quan chi and evil sorcerer and probably one of the only characters people liked in MK 4 and shinnok the final boss of the game but these newer characters just weren't as interesting and were replaced almost immediately in the following titles visually Mortal Kombat 4 isn't the most aesthetically pleasing title in the series switching to the new 3d computer graphics resulted in much more basic looking environments and character models than what was possible with the 2d design however the new animations and 3d space added an entirely new level of immersion to the experience that was still very impressive watching scorpion lightest foes on fire with a 3d camera or sub-zero rip someone's spine out looked even more grotesque than before and news outlets began reporting on it right on cue this extra publicity plus the extended road trip tour to promote the game made Mortal Kombat 4 a great financial success but critically it wasn't received as well reviewers noted that the jump to 3d hadn't really resulted in much of a new experience and many the new characters felt uninspired it was still a decent step forward for the 3d fighting game genre but it failed to truly revitalize what was becoming a stale concept Mortal Kombat was beginning to lose its touch and after a few releases like MK gold boom Tobias and the rest of the team decided that they were going to need to move away from developing the series for the arcade cabinets and focus their efforts on developing solely for the home entertainment platforms segno sights on an ambitious next-generation title for the upcoming ps2 but before we get to that let's first talk about another spin-off title this time featuring these Special Forces cybernetic arm Jack's it was at this point that the original core group of developers for the Mortal Kombat series began to drift apart and boom stated that he never really participated in Special Forces creation and noted that the game was basically just rushed out the door after a longtime designer John Tobias decided to part ways with the studio it was a sort of side project to keep the lights on in between the long development time record for MK 4 and the upcoming next generation title in MK special forces players assume the role of Jax Briggs in a prequel story that explains the origins of the conflict between the Special Forces and knose black dragon gang the game is played from an isometric viewpoint with players navigating jacks through maze-like levels beating up random bad guys with some awkward melee combat and occasionally firing guns there's some obvious Metal Gear Solid inspired gameplay and Special Forces but without any sort of flushed out stealth mechanics the game boils down to a repetitive and boring experience with poor level designs subpar visuals and an uninteresting narrative it was clear to critics and fans alike that Special Forces didn't deserve the Mortal Kombat title and is still regarded as one of the lower rated games in the entire Mortal Kombat franchise after a failed movie sequel a crappy cartoon TV series and the less than stellar critical reception of both mk4 and now Special Forces it was clear that the MK franchise need to be put on hold and would not return until the core team had completed production of their next-gen project after years of silence hints of a new main installment began to crop up on the internet with many speculating that the next game would simply be called Mortal Kombat 5 and after a few teases on Edie Boone's own promotional website Mortal Kombat Deadly Alliance finally unveiled itself in 2002 Deadly Alliance marked a massive shift in direction for the franchise with completely reworked combat mechanics greatly improved visuals an extensive list of characters and a far more complex storyline deadly alliances storyline begins soon after the events of MK 4 with Quan Chi escaping the NetherRealm and teaming up with Shang soon the pair also known as the deadly alliance established a mutual agreement where Shang soon would benefit from having unlimited souls to regenerate himself with while Quan Chi would have an unstoppable army of the Dead to conquer the realms to ensure their victory the deadly alliance work together to kill both Shao Kahn and Liu Kang and are challenged by Raiden and his team of heroes for the fate of earth realm the plot of Deadly Alliance took some big risks especially killing off longtime series protagonist Liu Kang and antagonist Shao Kahn but these risks feel minimal when compared to the massive changes made to the gameplay Deadly Alliance completely reworked the combat mechanics by introducing distinct fighting styles and taking full advantage of the three-dimensional space rather than having each character share the same basic moves Deadly Alliance features different sets of combat styles giving each fighter a unique feel learning to master characters requires more than just memorizing a few of their special moves adding a significant level of depth to the gameplay each character had three move sets one of which would utilize a signature weapon like a sword or set of blades tail balance the combat each fighting style has its strengths and weaknesses meaning a skilled player could identify an enemy stance and adjust their own stance accordingly Bryce could still initiate combos and special moves but the reworked physics and movement made these moves feels slower and less satisfying scorpions grappling attack for example took much longer to initiate and was significantly easier to dodge than in past games making it less practical special moves were also not as plentiful as past games with these character only having about three or four to utilize the variety in combat now was far more focused on executing combos and transitioning between fighting styles new to Deadly Alliance was the ability to wield a weapon permanently without having to worry about dropping it some of these weapons could even be through into opponents and would become stuck throughout the round causing constant bleed damage in addition to this the game also utilizes 3d environments far more than MK 4 dead butters could now seamlessly walk in and out of the z-axis making for smoother dodges and movement attacks would also more properly register regardless of the layered the player had transitioned to getting fights that true 3d feel however the games fighting would still be limited to be non-stop 2d plane with the camera constantly rotating with the action combat arena's were also slightly more dynamic than they were in MK 4 first could now knock their opponents into various props like statues and even tricked them into saving their dangerous toxic spewing fountains for extra damage however the stage fatalities from past games didn't make the way into deadly alliance in fact fatalities in general were not given nearly as much love unlike past games where each fighter had two to three different fatalities to use deadly alliance limits each fighter to a single fatality to compensate for this deadly alliance featured an extensive cast of characters including many fan favorites like scorpion sub-zero Raiden reptile Kung Lao katana and Kano in addition to a large amount of new characters like buh ray chow frost and kenchi unlike MK 4 these characters were received much better by fans and many have gone on to reappear in even the most recent MK games to unlock even more characters pers had to earn credits throughout the game and then spend them at the Crypt the Crypt is a massive graveyard filled with rows upon rows of grave markers each categorized and priced for a certain amount of coins each crypt houses something different like a new costume for a character concept art developer Diaries or new characters what players would need to grind a great deal if they want to unlock everything in the game visually Mortal Kombat Deadly Alliance was a massive improvement Kurt remodels were highly detailed and not only behaved more naturally but could also be damaged realistically artists worked on multiple layers of textures for each fighter which allowed them to gradually appear more and more damage throughout fights even blood was improved with some really cool blood droplets have been rolled down the character bottles until they splattered on the arena for different attacks would cause different types of damage with bladed weapons resulting in more bleeding effects while punches caused more bruising Deadly Alliance was met with some great press with many praising at first beautiful visual design its well-designed combat mechanic and it's well-rounded roster generally alliance marked a new era in the Mortal Kombat franchise one that would help to revitalize the then stale formula and bring the gory fatalities into a proper 3d environment after the success of deadly Alliance the team and Midway began work on a direct follow-up titled Mortal Kombat deception deception would incorporate most of the design elements used in Deadly Alliance only with several adjustments to speed up the flow and feel the combat [ __ ] wanted to create an experience that was unpredictable and a big part of that was creating far more dynamic arenas to fight in and giving players more opportunities to kill their opponents deception story takes place after the conclusion of deadly alliance with the heroes having been defeated by Shang soon in Quan Chi as they fight over an amulet the all-powerful dragon king of Nagas appears and is so formidable that it forces everyone to team up and try to stop him deceptions gameplay at its core is very similar to Deadly Alliance only the movement speed was improved a great deal bringing it more in line with mp4 bars could still swap between fight styles and to perform the same set of moves like uppercut special texts and use their weapons but everything felt more streamlined and polished on top of this deception stages were far more dynamic allowing for some of the coolest aged fatalities in the series almost every arena featured either yellow zones which could be used as a platform to knock players off or red zones which allowed for an easy instant kill on an opponent usually with the gruesome kill in response to complaints from fans regarding the limited fatalities deception increase that fatality count to a minimum of two per fighter and they were surprisingly much more easy to before and thanks to the extended timer during the finisher sequence to counter this players on the receiving end of a finisher can now initiate a harakiri sequence which essentially Rob's the winning player of a satisfying fatality by committing suicide in a ridiculous way Mortal Kombat deception also featured an impressive 26 characters at least four more than deadly alliance with more fan favorites from past games including night wolf and Sindel deceptions new characters however weren't all that impressive that was Astra who was essentially just a female person of Raiden deru a mercenary with no real distinguishing qualities darius a resistance fighter and a number of other unlockable characters that pretty much never appeared in the franchise after the ps2 generation of game Mortal Kombat deception also featured a number of bonus modes on the main menu chess combat was described as the perfect blend of classic chess and mortal combat essentially this mode what you set up a chess board with your favorite characters and then move them around somewhat like chess pieces in order to defeat your opponent's leader however instead of just knocking pieces over like you normally would chess Kombat has you fighting each piece you run into which as you can already imagine results in some lengthy afternoons with your friend puzzle Kombat was another bonus mode available to play this time putting a spin on the classic game of Tetris here where's would need to drop pairs of colored blocks onto a grid and use colored coins to clear brows doing so would progress your big-headed character and push the opponent closer to a rotating drill these were selling pointless additions but still a fun distraction nonetheless and then there's the conquest mode conquest is a sort of story mode incorporate into the game that lets you play as a rookie fighter and work your way up through the world of Mortal Kombat though it wasn't really the most entertaining mode and only really served as a way to farm more credits to use at the Crypt the crib from deadly alliance return in deception only now it featured keys that could only be acquired by playing through the conquest mode I'm a graphical standpoint deception was a step back the environments while more dynamic feel a bit less detailed the character models featured lower resolution textures and the blood effects while still present and fluid like before feel toned down slightly my guess is that these types of things need to be toned down in order to extend the arena sizes and make the levels feel more dynamic but it's difficult to say for sure still it's a minor degradation in quality and the improvements to the gameplay more than make up for it Mortal Kombat deception was met with good reviews again with critics praising the well rounded characters and the improved feel of the combat design many also admired the new trap scene environment that required players to carefully plan their attacks and added some nice variety to the gameplay deception was another hit and Midway Games would push on with their final entry to the ps2 trilogy but instead of focusing all their time on that final entry the president of Midway Games insisted that there be an annual release of a Mortal Kombat game to help solidify it as a major player in the gaming industry therefore Shaolin monks a game that was previously planned to be a follow-up to the unsuccessful Special Forces begin development and was overseen by series creator Edie Boone the game was inspired heavily by other action games at the time especially Devil May Cry and God of War and would feature liu kang and kung lao as the lead protagonists Shaolin monks takes place during the events of Mortal Kombat 2 with both Liu Kang and Kung Lao fighting their way throughout world to put a stop to Shang Tsung's evil plot it was a refreshing take on the old story and one that seemed to fit in more nicely than the stories typically do in the traditional Mortal Kombat games the gameplay takes many of the combat mechanics used in the main series and implements it into an action-adventure style reach levels linked together through a series of doorways with multiple locations to fight large groups of enemies and test various combos and special moves the fatality is also making appearance and can be triggered after filling up a fatality meter and then executing distinct button combinations in between combat players would also need to complete simple platforming challenges and save the progress at various checkpoints whereas also have the option to team up with a friend in cooperative mode unlocking unique moves and capabilities not available in single-player visually Shaolin monks utilize a slightly different approach than its predecessors with a new engine and enhanced visual design the characters weren't necessarily as detailed as the main Mortal Kombat games were but the environments were larger and far more detailed and the game's movement and controls felt extremely fluid and consistent Shan monks was met with surprisingly high critical acclaim averaging in at around 80% reviewers praised the excellent implementation of Mortal Kombat's iconic controls and fatalities into the action-adventure formula even Ed Boon himself was pleased with the project and claimed that production for a follow-up title featuring Scorpion and sub-zero was planned but was ultimately cancelled when the lead development studio paradox was shut down despite the moderate success of Shaolin monks the Mortal Kombat series for now on would focus solely on production of its main fighting games in 2006 Midway Games released the final entry to the PlayStation 2 saga of MK games with mortal kombat armageddon armageddon is easily the most ambitious title in the entire franchise it was built using the same engine used for both deception and deadly alliance but included every character from each Mortal Kombat fighting game on top of this Armageddon also reworked its combat mechanics tweaked the stage fatalities from deception and introduced a ton of new myzel features in an attempt to make the game the ultimate title in the franchise Armageddon story takes place at the end of the original Mortal Kombat timeline with every combatant from every realm fighting for ultimate control over all the universe it's an insanely epic premise that would ultimately result in complete Armageddon and therefore an ultimate warrior named blaze was created in an attempt to bring balance across the realms according to the storyline in the game's conquest mode two brothers named Haven and Dagon awakened around this time and make their way to the pyramid to defeat blaze themselves and acquire ultimate glory and power but both brothers fail in their mission and instead Shao Kahn is the one to defeat blaze and an epic final showdown between Khan and Raiden begins it's at this point that Raiden sends a message back in time to his younger self creating the alternate timeline that would be used in the most recent Mortal Kombat trilogy Armageddon's gameplay unfortunately wasn't as epic a lot of the game's combat mechanics were scaled back considerably and the new focus on player customization removed a lot of the charm that the franchise had become known for unlike deception and deadly alliance mortal kombat armageddon only featured a maximum of two fighting styles per character one unarmed and one with weapon most the iconic specialness was still available and function mostly the same but the lack of standard combat variety only further exasperated the problem with these slow movement controls the staged fatalities that were highlighted in deception were also toned down a great deal with fewer opportunities in each stage and repetitive stage transitions within rounds but worst of all was the new fatality design rather than having a set of signature fatalities for each character Armageddon featured a new creed a fatality system that would allow players to pick and choose what they once do to an enemy during the finisher sequence double tapping directions followed by a button press would cause the timer to reset yu2 link several different gory dismemberments together but the idea quickly grew stale as each finisher was essentially just ripping limbs and organs out my guess is that this was done to avoid having to create hundreds of fatalities sequences for the absolutely massive cast of characters Armageddon featured every single character in the Mortal Kombat franchise with the exception of the female chameleon who was offered as an exclusive character for the Wii platform the cast included all the classic characters from the original trilogy all the less popular characters from the 3d era and even the bosses like Shao Kahn matoro and the Dragon King even characters who were killed off canonically like Lu King made a returned al biet in a weird undead zombie like form if players were unhappy with these 60 some fighters available to choose from they could create their very own fighter with several sliders to adjust physical attributes and the ability to customize the move set and fighting style the game's conquest mode was also greatly improved with a more meaningful storyline and more interesting environments to explore following the goofy implementation of things like chess Kombat Midway also included a Mortal Kombat spin on the classic kart racer though this minigame is arguably one of the weaker features in the game with some really poor driving controls and boring track designs visually mortal kombat armageddon looked to be another step in the wrong direction the characters appeared less realistic and detailed than they had in the previous titles and the game's lighting and shadow effects made the experience feel more like a cartoon than before environments felt less detailed and even the game's core effects and animations were beginning to show their age mortal kombat armageddon despite its many flaws is an incredibly ambitious entry to the series the gigantic roster of characters the new customizable gameplay elements and the epic storyline were all received very well by fans and critics alike but the fatalities one of the staples of The Mortal Kombat franchise were lackluster and the overall visual presentation was disappointing mortal kombat armageddon mark not only the end of the Mortal Kombat storyline but also the end of an era for the franchise as Boone and the Mortal Kombat team looked to the next generation of console hardware after Armageddon Midway Games and the core Mortal Kombat team began to look back at where the series had begun to deviate from its original core design philosophy they identified that the series is becoming too light-hearted and announced that Mortal Kombat 8 would go back to the much darker tones of the original three games but as development progressed through 2007 Midway Games was struggling financially especially after a major stockholder sold their stock to a private investor in the midst of all this Midway Games entered into a partnership with DC Comics and The Mortal Kombat 8 project transition into a new crossover title featuring the DC comic book heroes like Batman Superman and Wonder Woman Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe released in fall of 2008 and is considered to be the eighth entry to the main Mortal Kombat franchise it's difficult to say if MK vs. DC is a part of the canon storyline especially with armageddon introducing the possibility of alternate realities and timelines but based on how the story is introduced it feels as though this eighth game is more of a spin-off title with only very basic elements of Mortal Kombat's law being combined with basic elements from the DC comic lore MK vs. DC seems to take place after Shao Kahn's defeat in Mortal Kombat 3 to punish Khan for violating the rules of Mortal Kombat Raiden opens a portal to banish him for good but in the DC Universe Superman sends the evil villain Darkseid through an interdimensional portal at the same time resulting in a weird mashup that not only merges the two universes together but also creates the evil Dark Khan and all-powerful being that feeds off the conflict between the two universes Mortal Kombat vs. DC is the first game in the franchise to feature a distinct story based ladder with predetermined fights bookmark by cutscenes the story follows either the Mortal Kombat crew or the DC Comics characters depending on which of the two campaigns you decide to play after the two villains Khan and Darkseid are banished the characters from each universe begin to notice strange things happening like people going missing as they fight among themselves they begin to encounter characters from the merging universes and they continue to fight each other as they try to piece together what's happened each campaign follows a character for three different fights before transitioning to a different character from that same universe this not only helps to keep the story interesting but also helps players practice with the game's many mechanics in different environments and with different fighter move sets Mortal Kombat vs. DC marked a significant shift in the direction of the series with many of the more complicated fighting mechanics of the 3d era games being simplified and several new elements introduced to improve the flow of the experience first the fighting style system from the past few games was removed in favor of the classic design with universal standard attacks unique combos and a decent number of special attacks while still a 3d fighter game Mortal Kombat vs. DC was the first sign of the franchise returning to its classic fight mechanics new to MK vs. DC were several different mid fight minigames that would pit fighters against each other and a sort of rock papers Ezra's battle connecting a grapple attack would immediately start one of these minigames and tasks the attacking player was striking their enemy while the defending player tried to cancel the grapple with a counter-attack the arena transition scenes from deception also made a return only now they incorporated similar button-pressing minigames as the characters smash through buildings or drop from the sky and hit the ground below but one of the biggest changes to MK vs. DC's gameplay was the new rage meter this meter appeared as two small yellow boxes underneath each player's health bar and would fill upon receiving damage from an opponent first could use a single bar to execute a combo breaker or could wait until they filled the entire meter to unleash their rage for a short time when enraged players can not be knocked down and therefore have an opportunity to strike back at their opponent with minimal risk this mechanic provided players with a chance to recover after having a bad start to a round mechanic that greatly improved the flow of the experience as the title would suggest MK vs. DC featured a mix of both mortal combat and DC Comics characters to play us to account for the new cast of DC characters the Mortal Kombat roster was reduced to only a few of the most popular fighters including scorpion sub-zero Raiden Jack's Sonya and Baraka meanwhile the DC side included favorites like Batman Superman Wonder Woman and even a few villains like Lex Luthor and the Joker due to the licensed use of the DC comic book characters the developers were forced to aim for a teen rating meaning the iconic fatalities could not feature any form of dismemberment or gore Mortal Kombat characters and the villains of the DC Universe could still perform fatalities but they were tame in comparison to the Past games with characters simply being lit on fire shattered into several ice shards or stabbed to avoid having fighters like Batman or Superman break character their fatalities were called heroic brutalities and did not result in the defeated opponent being killed from a graphical standpoint Mortal Kombat vs. DC was a noticeable improvement over the past several games which can be attributed to the far more powerful PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 console hardware the characters were all given fresh new designs was significantly more detail and the damage models were improved to feature more cuts bruises and tears in the characters clothing the game's many environments were also given a much needed boost equality was significantly more detail and discharge props to help to make the fights more immersive despite the many important design changes that were introduced in this game Mortal Kombat vs. DC received mixed critical reception with many saving the disappointing absence of the franchise's iconic gory fatalities and others finding that they made fight minigames slowed the pacing down too much the game sold better than any of the 3d era Mortal Kombat games but it just wasn't enough to keep Midway Games afloat around the time MK vs. DC had released the financial state of Midway Games had deteriorated significantly and they were forced to file for bankruptcy Warner Brothers having recently worked with the Mortal Kombat developers offered to purchase the franchise and eventually the Chicago offices that housed the core Mortal Kombat Development team were rebranded as nether realm studio the current development team behind the Mortal Kombat series after the lukewarm reception of MK vs. DC the team at the newly founded never realm studio returned to the original idea of bringing back the dark and brutal atmosphere of the original games with Armageddon essentially ending the Canon storyline they decided that the next title would be a complete reboot with enhanced visuals polished gameplay and the most brutal finishing moves that the series has ever seen the game was finally revealed during an e3 conference in 2010 and was given the simple title Mortal Kombat this new game featured a retelling of the original three Mortal Kombat titles only with a bit of a time-traveling twist rather than ignoring the past four or five games the story of The Mortal Kombat reboot takes place in an alternate timeline with Whedon attempting to prevent the apocalyptic vision of the future from coming to pass before Shao Kahn has a chance to kill me Armageddon Raiden sends a message to his past self that existed right before the start of the original Mortal Kombat tournament this past Raiden receives the message and is stuck trying to preserve the events of the timeline while also finding a loophole to avoid confrontation over the realms this not only adds an interesting story dynamic for longtime fans but also allows newcomers to experience the epic story from the beginning with Liu Kang overcoming the tournament the second tournament in Outworld and Shao Kahn's invasion of earth realm much like MK vs. DC the Mortal Kombat reboot features a full story campaign in addition to its classic arcade ladder mode the story campaign follows the events of the original games while also expanding on them with extended cut scenes and dialogue before and after each fight making for one of them more interesting stories that the franchise has ever offered the Mortal Kombat reboot also feature completely reword gameplay mechanics that combine the fast-paced simple controls of the original trilogy with the years of gameplay enhancements that the Mortal Kombat team have experimented with over the past decade to help keep the gameplay as smooth and consistent as the original trilogy of games it was decided early on that the Mortal Kombat reboot would return to the 2d style of gameplay only with three-dimensional visuals to bring it into the next generation this made the gameplay far more accessible and consistent an absolute must for a successful fighting game the game's roster was extensive featuring 26 of the most popular characters including scorpion sub-zero Baraka Cyrax Johnny Cage Nightwolf Sindel smoke and even striker additional characters like Freddy Krueger Ken Cheese scarlet rain and Kratos were made available as downloadable content with Cueto's only being available to PlayStation players each of the 30 some fighters featured their own distinct set of animations to help them stand apart in addition to unique combos special moves and the welcome return of signature fatalities boon described the design philosophy of the Mortal Kombat reboot as being more accessible to newcomers to the genre character moves were straightforward with Universal commands like uppercuts leg sweeps and a balanced set of special moves however more experienced players would benefit from skillfully linking special moves and pro combos to deal some significant damage an absolute must for that more challenging difficulties the rage meter from the previous game was transformed into the super meter and was extended to include a third bar filling the first bar allows players to enhance any of their special attacks increasing their damage output and transforming the attack itself filling up to the second bar allows the player to either use to enhance attacks or use both bars for a combo breaker and reaching three full bars allows the player to execute an xray attack an x-ray attack is a devastating grappling attack that can't be interrupted it showcases the attacking player striking their opponent in slow motion with a close-up of what the hits are doing to the characters bone and muscular structure this attack replaced the rage attack from the past game and added a brutal way to recover from a slow start to around but the x-ray attacks are nothing compared to the grotesque new take on fatalities with the DC heroes safely back in their own universe NetherRealm Studios went all out with the iconic fatality sequences and introduced the world to the most gross and disturbing finishing sequences of all time the enhanced visuals coupled with the imagination of the lead designers that never Realms a lot for highly realistic Gore effects pushed to the absolute extreme considering violence and gore had become commonplace in the video game industry never arms sought to reclaim their rightful place as the king of over-the-top gore and violence something that I think they easily succeeded at but if your stomach couldn't handle any more for headings you could also perform bait bounties again a feature that has been long absent from the franchise other elements from the classic series returned including test your might and test your site minigames but new to the reboot for a series of other bonus modes like test your luck where you spin a slot machine and be given a random opponent and a few random gameplay modifiers other new features included tag-team combat where you could seamlessly tag in another fighter in a two-on-two fight either with a simple swap or a transitionary attack these features were designed mainly to benefit the games online focused approach according to boon the team wanted to add in these fun game modes and social media implementations as a way to bring the classic feel of talking to your friends on the couch back into the experience it wasn't the first game in the series to offer online gameplay but it was certainly a major focus in the design visually The Mortal Kombat reboot looked incredible using the same engine as the MK vs. DC game the MK reboot featured most of the classic characters all with redesign outfits inspired heavily by the original concepts the damage model degradation was expanded even further appearing even more fluid and dynamic and the game's environments felt alive with moving trees cars driving by and even demonic dragons destroying the city in the background it was a true next generation take on the classic series and one that still manages to hold up pretty well today The Mortal Kombat reboot was met with massive critical acclaim and is one of the most popular Mortal Kombat games of all time this game not only recaptured the magic of the original Chill Chi but it also introduced a ton of game teaching elements to the formula that greatly improved the flow of the action the story while just as cheesy as it was back in the 90s had a classic charm to it that makes it a joy to play and the absolutely disturbing level of quality in the game's new fatality sequences brought back the thrill that fans felt back when the series was first introduced Mortal Kombat was finally back on track and the newly-formed never realm studios successfully proved their worth with mortal combat having been rebooted successfully never rums continue to expand and hired new designers and animators in 2012 work began immediately on the next installment a game that was being called Mortal Kombat 2 in its early phases but at e3 2014 the new title was confirmed to be Mortal Kombat X as it was the 10th main installments of the long-running fighting game franchise the games reveal showcased a classic rivalry between sub-zero and scorpion as they fought in the frozen forest and used various environmental objects to gain the upper hand with the aid of the next generation hardware MK X was aiming to set a new graphical standard for the franchise with incredibly realistic character models animations and of course vomit-inducing fatality sequences in 2015 Mortal Kombat X hit store shelves and this time it was so violent even video game journalists began to question if the gore had gone too far but of course as with every Mortal Kombat game never arms response is that it hasn't gone far enough Mortal Kombat X's story takes place several years at the events of the Mortal Kombat reboot which Shao Kahn having finally been defeated and the invasion of earth realm stopped but just like the original timeline quan chi frees the evil elder god shinnok and the to embark on a plan to conquer the universe the fighters who were killed during the events of the last game have been transformed into quan chi's puppets as shinnok attempts to drain the life force from the secret jinsei chamber Johnny Cage and Sonya managed to defeat him and Raiden trapped shinnok inside of the amulet the storyline then leaps forward 25 years with several huge changes to fan favorite characters Johnny Cage for example ends up with Sonya Blade and conceives a child named Casey Cage Scorpion and sub-zero also finally end their rivalry and have an uneasy alliance instead Outworld previously ruled over by Shao Kahn is now unstable with a new ruler Kotal Kahn taking power and a full-blown revolution threatening his claim to the throne as Earth realm and Outworld work on a mutual agreement Quan Chi and his allies continue to wreak havoc releasing shinnok from his amulet and once again threatening to destroy all of the realms the story is very reminiscent of the events from Mortal Kombat 4 only with a far more impressive narrative that feels on par with something like an Avengers film the new characters Cassie cage Jackie Briggs and Takeda at a new dimension to the decade-old plot and unlike previous games helped to push the franchise forward especially with a big cliffhanger post-credits sequence the gameplay while still relying heavily on the framework from the Mortal Kombat reboot received a number of changes Mortal Kombat X retained its old-school 2d arena design along with its smooth fighting mechanics and grotesque takedowns but unlike the reboot MK X felt a bit more complex character combos were not as simple to execute and players would now need to choose from a set of character variations to utilize certain attacks while this sounds similar to the fighting style mechanic used in the deadly alliance era the variations can not be swap mid fight and also had an impact on the character special moves in addition to combos and weapons the popular x-ray mechanic also made a return and function mostly the same but new to Mortal Kombat X is the stamina meter a meter like the one introduced in MK 3 this bar could be used to sprint at opponents or alternatively could be used to interact with the environment directly with cool new grapple attacks or evasive maneuvers to make the fights feel more immersive and of course the fan-favorite fatalities also made of a turn and are so insanely violent that I can't even show them here without performing them on characters like reptile or try Borg fatalities along with all the other moves are now much easier to perform thanks to the handy moves menu that lets you pin moves to the heads-up display and hide them with a simple press of a button other finishers like B Valdez were once again removed and staged takedowns were added post release but MKX did introduce a new take on brutalities where players could instantly destroy an opponent with a special move before the finisher sequence even began Mortal Kombat X is roster once again accounted for most of the fan favorites though there were some interesting exclusions Baraka a fan favorite since Mortal Kombat 2 was only featured as a non-playable opponent in the game story mode the same is true for both Sindel and rain Mortal Kombat X introduced a number of brand new characters including Devorah a nasty-looking bug assassin ferret or a giant ogre with the tiny female sidekick riding on his back Coble Kahn the new Emperor of Outworld Aran black a mysterious mercenary gunslinger working for out world and a squad of characters who also happen to be related to classic characters include Sonne and Johnny's daughter Cassie checks his daughter Jackie Ken she's son Takeda and Kung Laos cousin Kang Jin these characters not only add some more fresh faces to the game but also are a testament to how far the series has come considering gamers who played as Kung Lao Jackson Sonya back in the 90s like we have children of their own now who are playing Mortal Kombat MKX also continued the trend of including unusual guest characters including a xenomorph from the Alien franchise leather-faced from the Texas Chainsaw Massacre Jason Voorhees from Friday the 13th and the predator additional characters like Tania Goro bull ray Cho and tribe ork were also batted in along with a brand new character tremor just like the previous game MKX featured a full story campaign mode only this time the challenging tag-team fighting mechanics were removed instead MKX featured QuickTime event story sequences in between fights with basic button prompts appearing on screen to make players feel more immersed in the action reporters looking to just pick up and play the game's classic ladder system returned along with a new single fight option for players short on time features like test your might and test your luck also returned in addition to full online capabilities also Mortal Kombat X had the affection more meta game that allowed players to pledge allegiance to different factions from the Mortal Kombat universe from a graphical standpoint Mortal Kombat X was a huge leap forward from its predecessor with the help of the next generation console hardware of the ps4 and Xbox one MK X featured incredibly high quality character models that appeared nearly indistinguishable from the pre-rendered cutscenes environments were also improved substantially with new dynamic props and fluid background scenes Mortal Kombat X did mark a distinct shift in the visual tone everything in MK X has a much darker aesthetic than previous entries from rainy backdrops to desolate frozen woods it's an impressive design choice but one that gives the game a more mature approach this shift in art direction also affected the character models mainly the female combatants who are now showing less skin and had more realistic proportions Mortal Kombat X received high scores from the press with many applauding the improved visuals and polish of the games already excellent combat mechanics though many expressed concerns over the heavy emphasis on the downloadable with popular Mortal Kombat characters being withheld from the original game in the hopes that fans would purchase more through the online store this along with the shorter overall campaign kept the 10th main entry from reaching the same love and adoration of the reboot title and now after 27 years we finally arrived at this year's new Mortal Kombat 11 Mortal Kombat 11 aims to expand on the design of the past few games with even more advanced graphics a continuation of the story from MK X and a rework of the games variation systems the game was revealed at the Game Awards in December 2018 and showcased a CGI trailer with scorpion and dark Raiden fighting each other with some of the franchise's iconic over-the-top violence but fans were not pleased with the choice of music use in the trailer fans also began to express disappointment in the recasting of many of the game's characters still despite these arguably minor issues MK 11 is set to release later this month and there's already been some positive buzz coming from players who have managed to test the game in its beta phases Mortal Kombat 11 story continues where MK X left off with Raiden angry with having to deal with earth realm being under constant threat and taking the battle directly to other realms however Raiden's tampering with the space-time continuum draws the attention of a goddess named chronica who aims to stop Raven and restore the timeline by any means necessary even if it means combining both the original timeline and the current timeline together this should introduce a very interesting dynamic to the narrative with characters previously thought to be dead making their triumphant return including longtime antagonist Shao Kahn Mortal Kombat 11s gameplay seems to once again aim for a 2d style gameplay with the same fluid combat controls and the over-the-top violence but the popular X ray attacks appear to have been altered slightly and are now called fatal blows fatal blows appear to be even more violent than X ray attacks almost making the fatality sequences a part of the actual gameplay this time however unlike X ray attacks fatal blows cannot be triggered unless the players health breaches below the 30% threshold preventing the annoying issue where players would immediately trade X ray attacks at the start of rounds in addition to this MK 11 also introduces crushing blows a sort of extension of boot out from the past game other changes include a rework of the variation system where players will be able to customize their own fighting style with different moves and abilities rather than just being limited to only choosing from three presets the returning characters announced so far includes scorpion sub-zero Sonya Kano Jax Johnny Cage and some of the newer characters like Cassie cage Devorah and Aaron black MK 11 also will be introducing at least three new playable characters including Jairus the right-hand man of the time-traveling goddess Kalika who uses sand based attacks Centurion and elder goddess that has a series of elemental based attacks and the collector a multi-armed Outworld creature as always with mortal combat the game's fatalities appear to be insanely violent but you'll just have to take my word on it for now Mortal Kombat 11 will be releasing next week for most platforms and is set to be released for the Nintendo switch a month later and I'll be sure to cover everything from visual comparisons to a full game review when the time comes Mortal Kombat has persevered through decades of videogame history from its modest beginnings in the 1990s to its experimental mid 2000s phase all the way to its triumphant return in the 2010s this franchise has had an absolutely massive impact on the industry and is often regarded as the franchise that created the ESRB rating system but I've argued that this game is so much more than that games like the Mortal Kombat reboot have proven that this franchise stands apart from its competitors not because of its blood and dismemberment but because of its easily accessible combat controls and it's interesting high-quality story content hopefully ed boon and the rest of never realm Studios will continue this iconic video game franchise for many more years to come but what do you guys think are you excited for Mortal Kombat 11 which games in the series rig your favorite let me know in the comment section and be sure to stay tuned for detailed comparisons and a full review in the coming week also please if you enjoy this documentary consider supporting this channel by donating at the link provided in the description the donations here will go directly into this video series and I could really use your help to make this possible if you'd like to support me further you can always subscribe and become a member of my patreon which would be a huge help as but either way I hope you all enjoyed this video and expect to see another major franchise covered sometime next month and of course don't forget to Like and subscribe for more videos posted every week [Music] [Music]

Channel: Nick930

Views: 192,623

Rating: 4.9177966 out of 5

Keywords: Mortal Kombat, Scorpion, Sub-Zero, History, Retrospective, Midway, NetherRealm, Ed Boon, Development, Story, Gameplay, Features, Review, Impression, Summary, Full, Analysis, Fan, Favorite, Best, professional, High Quality, Mortal Kombat 11, Fatality, Sonya, Jax, Barakka, Mileena, Mortal Kombat Movie, Movie, Film

Id: Izegp2mDGcA

Length: 64min 36sec (3876 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 19 2019