During Thursday’s Summer Game Fest kickoff show, we got a gnarly new look at the upcoming Mortal Kombat game, Mortal Kombat 1, as well as some in-depth looks at characters, new game mechanics, narrative updates, and of course… FATALITIES.
Following the gameplay footage, Mortal Kombat creator Ed Boon took the stage and gave us more information on the game. Regarding the title, Mortal Kombat 1 serves as a complete series reboot. Following the ending of Mortal Kombat 11, Mortal Kombat 1 takes place in the brand new universe that Liu Kang has created, giving us reimagined versions of the characters everybody loves. For example, in the reimagining, Sub Zero and Scorpion are brothers. Boon also teased that characters who were once rivals will be friends in this reboot and vice versa.
A new system coming to the game is Kameo Fighters. After choosing your fighter during the character select screen, you can pick a secondary fighter to act as your Kameo fighter. The Kameo fighter can be activated at the tap of a single button and be called out multiple times during a fight (with cooldowns, of course). Kameo fighters can be paired with any fighter on the main roster, allowing you to play around with customizable move-sets for unlimited combo possibilities. Some Kameo fighters will also be available on the main roster (allowing you to play double Sub Zeros), but some (such as callbacks to older games) will be exclusive to the Kameo roster.
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Also revealed: Jean Claude Van Damme will take up the mantle of Johnny Cage with full voice acting. With the original Mortal Kombat being heavily inspired by Bloodsport, the franchise has finally come full circle!
Mortal Kombat 1 comes to Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series X/S, and PlayStation 5 on September 14, 2023. Pre-order now to get Shang Tsung as a playable character. Check out the new gameplay footage on YouTube.
Check out all of our Summer Game Fest news here!
