What I Enjoyed from Mortal Kombat 1

Spoilers for Mortal Kombat 1

I’ve always had a respect for some of the ways Mortal Kombat (MK) has gone about its work. Not many other studios could have a roster where half the characters are pallet swapped versions of each other and it ending up being one of the top fighting game franchises in history. With an interesting group of characters they have now had to reboot their universe twice first with MK9 and now again with the new MK1. Comparing MK1 to the storyline of MK9 through to the previous game in 11 I found myself loving this one so much more and wanted to go over some of the reasons why I felt this story has me interested in the future.

Liu Kang Isn’t a Dumbass

Let’s start with an easy one. You could argue the main character of the past few games has been Raiden. The plot is focused around him in large parts and he seems to be the driving force in a lot do conflict and resolution.

However, the key part is conflict as he always seemed to be the one who causes it. MK9 he sends the vaguest message back and his new timeline self has no idea what to do and ends up killing a lot of people, MKX he ends up in the end turning dark and while I never played MK11 by the end of the game he tries to attack Scoprion because he gets mad not wanting to listen to the situation and Liu Kang is the Elder God protector of Earthrealm by the end of it.

Now if we compare this to Liu Kang in this game. Is he perfect? No, but he is a lot calmer and smarter than Raiden. While you can argue he is more powerful and knows who can become issues he still doesn’t charge recklessly in and also listens to others around him and even asks for their advice at times. You look at when it comes to changing timelines and while Sindel died that was it from Liu Kang whereas Raiden got practically all of Earthrealms fighters killed apart from Johnny Cage & Sonia Blade (as far as the games roster itself goes). I mean one has clearly took the time to thing of the options and seek advice. It was always something that annoyed me with Raiden was he has just stupid and it had an impact on my enjoyment of the story mode so much so I didn’t pick up MK11 (that and Ermac not being in the game). Having a smarter protagonist while still vulnerable to threats but one you can see is not likely to fall at the first hurdle is a step up.

Setting Up a Clear Universe

I think MK1 benefits from the hindsight given to the team from MK9, it allows them to know what worked and what didn’t when developing a new timeline. Case in point they kept nearly all the cast alive (and I’d argue having Mileena as ruler of Outworld with Ermac being Jarrod and Sindel hopefully as a fusion of voices like Firestorm for MK2) opposing MK9 killing nearly everyone. It puts you into a corner one I felt they didn’t know how to write out of which is why all the time travel and rest came to be in MK11 (that and the Kombat Kids not getting the overwhelming response as the new protagonist group). Now we have somewhat a clear idea at the end of this game where some parts are heading and mainly that is due to tower endings and the dialogue before battles. I want to cover a few here.

First of all I wish to cover what I hope is the likely DLC story expansion in that of the Lin Kuei vs. Shirai Ryu. We see the foundation of the Shirai Ryu in the tower endings for Scorpion and Smoke where they meet with Harumi after fleeing from the Lin Kuei and then also taking in Hanzo Hasashi as a young orphan to train him. It sets up a good start combined with Sub-Zero starting the cyber initiative (which I would be fine with it Sektor and Cyrax don’t get turned I just don’t like the robots). It has a good start point I do wonder what happens with Noob Saibot and Frost. I imagine we will get some form of Noob but I would like Bi Han to remain Sub-Zero just for once and have something or someone else be Noob I dunno we have a new timeline let’s do something different. But going back to Hanzo I do wonder his future. Will he just be called Hanzo and have a different moveset maybe he will take Noob’s powers and just be called Hanzo I’m not sure it’s one of the more interesting parts for the future. One a different note please let’s have Harumi as a playable character, one of the biggest names in the MK universe which has never been playable and now would be a good chance to bring her in. 

I am a big fan of Reptile getting an increased presence in the world. From jobber to the emissary of the ruler of Outworld it’s a pretty big increase in stature. I like Reptile and it’s good that he has more character than jobber or henchman it feels like with Reptile and others like Mileena they used the timeline reset to give more prominent roles to popular characters who didn’t get a lot in the last continuity. You see how Outworld begins a new age of peace under Mileena with her aid to Baraka and those afflicted with Tarkat and Reptile no longer being an outcast, it would be good to know what happens with the Shokun (Goro) but as we have no playable Goro I don’t think we will know for a while.

Giving a Chance for The Universe to Build

Somtimes to get positives from world building you have to make bold decisions and I feel MK1 has that in not having Jax, Kano or Sonya Blade as playable characters in the base roster or first DLC package. While these are all fan favourites not rushing into them if you don't have a clear idea I think is a positive. If you bring Sonya in rushed and the payoff is weak (or maybe you're just hoping players forget how bad Ronda Rousey was) then you have to stick with this. You have to save some names for the future and these three make sense, you can have the Army against The Black Dragon be a big part of the next game or who knows we may see Kano be a good guy we just have to wait and see but I can see all of these being key parts of the initial anoucements for MK2 whenever that happens. 

I also really enjoy the use of Kameos in the story it is a good way of bringing characters in but not as fully playable. I look at someone like Sareena who we see in the story and then also in Ashrah's ending where she is saved and becomes a warrior of light. I think seeing her all be it in the background of the story helps add to this, we see what Ashrah is fighting for not just told about it. Another good use is that of Motaro. The centaur will not be playable ever again after the issues of getting him in Armageddon which resulted in changing his design away from having four legs so being a Kameo keeps this unique character in the story (and at least featuring unlike his blink and you miss is MK9 role). I hope that we can at least get some looks at how the DLC kameos function in universe with whatever the DLC story is, while we know Khameleon to be a member of the Umgadi and does feature as a Kameo in the story mode we do not have the same for Tremor, Mavado, and Ferra as of yet it would be interesting to see how they fit into the new universe (personally I want to see Tremor all for adding more lore to another pallet swapped ninja, hopefully Skarlet is announced at some point as well).

All in all I'm very positive in the future of the Mortal Kombat story, I think this is in some places a bold step and in others the correct choice, everything feels more thought out than the previous three games and I hope that trend continues with whatever DLC expansion we get as well as fight intros for the canon DLC characters (as three are third party and I don't believe Takeda to be canon to this main timeline). But this is just speculation at this point and I hope that we can see more of the direction of this new MK timeline in the near future.