Mortal Kombat 1 (One: MK1)

[Neo Skimbleshanks]

Mortal Kombat~

Really enjoy these fighting games for their storytelling, such as it is. I don't know if it's good or bad, but I will be consuming it, like latter day Grey's Anatomy. The gameplay is maybe "faster" and "better"(?) than MK11's. I cannot evaluate this and it is irrelevant to me, but I hope everyone else has a nice time. I am bad at fighting games. I finally just played through the whole plot of MK11 now with the Aftermath expansion and I think that's pretty much all I will do. My hope is that there is not much more to the single-player content in MK1 than the story mode and Klassic Towers because I generally find anything else detracts from my fun. I know this will not be the case as long as JPEG gambling can be monetized! Nevertheless.

Reptile is hot now. Tanya is back and still doing fun acrobatic leg shit. As always, there are a bunch of characters longer time fans are really excited for. (I have played MK's consistently since vs. DC, but there is still so much lore I'm unfamiliar with...) Looking forward to this.

 

[Kiyone]

Yeah, I'm pretty excited!

 

[Octopus Prime]

I was on board since “New Mortal Kombat” was implied.

 

[chud_666]

Havik and Ashrah are back. Insanity.

 

[Neo Skimbleshanks]

I will have to take your word for it - before my time - while noting that it's pretty funny that Havik has seemingly had his lips and nose ripped off but still somehow looks very ready for Instagram. Mortal Kombat!

 

[Neo Skimbleshanks]

Beta this weekend. The characters don’t quip at each other when they fight but it looks very nice… I just did a tower with Li Mei and Jax with whom I mostly injured myself. I gotta figure out how to do his fatalities too. Plenty of time…

 

[madhair60]

cannot wait for this.

 

[Kiyone]

Sindel and General Shao, plus some Raiden gameplay.

 

[Neo Skimbleshanks]

Her fatality and fatal blow are disgusting. (fun) In an earlier trailer where Kenshi did his to Johnny Cage, (I think) there were blood stain patterns on his torso related to some act of Fatal Blow sword violence after it was over which tickled me because it was emphasizing the fact that the FB literally happened but also in no way affected Johnny’s combat readiness.

 

[LBD_Nytetrayn]

Huh, I thought Kitana went with Liu Kang into godhood or whatever in MK11?

 

[Neo Skimbleshanks]

I think Aftermath may have overwritten that ending but I don't remember. (I played this a few weeks ago...) I'm sure all will be explained in due time...

 

[YangusKhan]

Megan Fox is voicing Nitara in this game

Also, I've pretty much convinced myself to buy this. I did not play MK11 but I did play MK10 and don't remember most of it. I'm definitely part of the target audience for another reboot.

 

[Neo Skimbleshanks]

One last trailer.

You can preload now. It’s pretty large. The PS5 was inviting me to start playing it now and I thought maybe I’m about to get away with the crime of the next 48 hours. (I wasn’t )

 

[YangusKhan]

I'm still debating if I will succumb to the early access FOMO and buy the $110 premium edition. It's only 5 days earlier! I'm not even that interested in the DLC characters! But that's 5 whole days other people could be playing it without me!

 

[Neo Skimbleshanks]

I don't even know that it makes sense for me to do it because I'll probably beat the story mode, screw around a little in other modes, then stop playing before the first DLC character is released and not pick it up again until the last DLC is long released and everything's deeply discounted. Save your money! Fill your life with things other than Mortal K1mbat until September 19th.

 

[LBD_Nytetrayn]

I'm waiting for a sale, but moreover, I'm also waiting for whatever definitive edition winds up coming out later.

 

[YangusKhan]

It's okay everyone. I resisted the urge and pre-ordered just the regular edition.

 

[Neo Skimbleshanks]

Enjoying the story but test your might suuuuucks. My wrists!!!

 

[Neo Skimbleshanks]

I was almost done with a Tanya tower and the connection was lost for like a second (my internet was fine so I am comfortable blaming the MK servers) and that kicked me out and I will have to do it over again. Charmless! Also, performing fatalities does not unlock them this time; I guess they’re still locked behind some manner of grind. Also, yeah, no quips in towers. Why??! I play Mortal Kombat for the lore and kharakter personalities… I under no circumstances want to play against other human beings who are better than the Medium CPU difficulty.

Done with MK for the night. I will just fondly meditate on beautiful dumbass Kung Lao looking at a hat and blade and being like, “hmmm… I have an idea.”

 

[madhair60]

MK1, to me, is a disappointment. No quips pre-fight in Invasions or Towers, no interactive stages anymore, and the Kameo thing just makes things messier than the 1v1 I'm here for

 

[gogglebob]

I have the super deluxe version because Mortal Kombat is my jam. I have played through the story mode, and sampled the rest of the single player kontent. I will type up thousands of words on the topic later, but my short reaction is similar to madhair's: Nothing about this is particularly bad, it just feels... muted.

 

[Neo Skimbleshanks]

Story mode over. The first half is stronger but the end did have its pleasures, too.

• Megan Fox... bad performance but that does kind of add a little something to this... She can be great so it's a bit of a shame, though. Her character is like 20 percent hissing which was fun.
• This game like most of the games fully establishes that nothing counts or matters but like only one character (Sindel) dies and even then not really. lol!
• Everyone is so nicecore!! Ermac is a nice guy! This is kind of explicitly boring-ass Liu Kang's fault, though. Much to think about...
• On that note, I love Tanya's new design and she has a lot of great, variable costumes but I wish she were more of a funny asshole like she was in MKX. She can still be heroic and a dick! Her tower ending was very boring and I suspect maybe a lot of them are, perhaps because they're all supposed to kanonically happen or something this time around.
• Didn't mind at all that Mileena was a hero, too. But she also lacked a bit of personality. Tarkat was a weird part of the story which at several points emphasized that if you weren't beautiful there was a problem with your mind and soul. The children's film Shrek knows better than that!
• Johnny's wife come back you were fun for 45 seconds
• No, no, not... Titan Havik!
• Story mode is so much easier than MK11 which I like, as a casual.
• Oh, yeah, she was frustrating in MK11 but I love Kronika's nun look and kind of wish she were really there. Hopefully she shows up in a KP...

I don't know how much else I'll do but I am still finding it fun to play. It is really disappointing and weird that you don't see banter outside of online or local vs. matches. But the banter that exists doesn't seem as flavorful or interesting as what came last round anyway. I haven't gotten to anything really frustrating in invasions yet but I guess I've just started. I want to at least unlock all the Kameos, I guess.

 

[gogglebob]

Please tell me if I am weird for fixating on this:

So the stated concept of the MK1 universe is that Liu Kang was solely responsible for rebooting the universe after MK11. This is literally part of the intro for the game. Spoilers for how the universe shakes out (though something that was already spoiled by trailers)... So Tarkatans, the toothy guys with swords for arms, are no longer a race. Now "Tarkatan" is something you can be afflicted with. Mortal Kombat Lore has always been dodgy on the origins of Tarkatans (different games claim they are Outworld [but not Edenia] "normal people", crossbreeds of humans and demons, or a separate race that was conquered by Shao Kahn a couple centuries back), but now they are 100% established as normal Edenians that have been afflicted with a disease. The disease is fatal, and not only causes bone protrusions all over the place, but also eventually drives the afflicted into a "mindless" berserker state. It is noted that everyone suffers through it differently, and, while there are Tarkatan colonies around, it is clear Tarkatans are not producing Tarkatan offspring. Baraka notes that he used to be a merchant and soldier with a family, and Mileena is afflicted, but keeping the disease inert with various treatments.

So... Liu Kang committed genocide here, right? The "old" Tarkatans were a warlike people, but they were definitely a people, and they cannot have a culture or propagate as a disease. And, while "noted Tarkatans" like Baraka are alive and "normal" in this universe (before being afflicted), isn't that... kind of weird? Like, hey, I didn't like your race, so now you're just a basic dude and can play with others without issue. And, whoops, if you "turn back" into your former-timeline form, it will literally kill you. Try to avoid that! And I kept waiting for there being some kind of "oh the old timeline is reasserting itself, and that is why people are being infected and transformed," but that explanation never comes. So Liu Kang just baked in "maybe you catch Tarkatan" into his otherwise wholesome version of the MK universe? Bizarre choice.

Oh, and one of Baraka's random round win statements is "Should have masked up." I did not need COVID jokes in a 2023 Mortal Kombat title...

 

[LBD_Nytetrayn]

Spoiler

I think Kronika is the one who committed a genocide.

 

[Neo Skimbleshanks]

He sort of vaguely abdicated his power and responsibilities at some point so who can say what happened when? I agree it’s a weird choice.

 

[MetManMas]

The universe is way too fucking big, it was inevitable that the formerly mortal Fire God Liu Kang would fuck up some things when recreating it.

 

[Neo Skimbleshanks]

Ultimately I don’t think it’s so easy to cleanly bisect human beings or things that are close enough. (this thought to you by playing the Invasions campaign mostly with Tanya and Kameo Kung Lao)

Invasions is not fun. It’s also not challenging (I do not want to be challenged) which makes the super armor everyone has a bit baffling. Harder to learn kombos but I’m otherwise zoning out and, if I lose a boss battle, paying attention to elements just that once and then forgetting about them. I want to pick up some nice alternate skins but at this time I do not think I am risk of grinding indefinitely, thank g*d.

 

[LBD_Nytetrayn]

According to the launch trailer...

Spoiler

It sounds like Liu Kang can only set things in motion, but how they play out isn't up to him. At least, not in that way.

 

[gogglebob]

I "emergency" slotted Mortal Kombat 1 into my Smash Bros Challenge even though it barely has anything to do with the featured Smash fighter. It is basically a review of the game.

Don't think too hard about gimmicks, just read.

The TLDR on it is that the Mortal Kombat franchise is one based on hype, and MK1 falls short of being... uh... hyper.

And story spoilers response to LBD above:


Liu Kang claims that he abdicates the throne after setting the universe in motion. But, later in story mode, conversations with his boy Friday reveal that he very distinctly set Quan Chi and Shang Tsung on lifepaths that would not lead to death and destruction (which the big bad of the piece screwed up), and implies that Shao Kahn, Havik, and others were similarly directly neutered so they would not be threats to the realms. Additionally, when Liu Kang talks directly to Sindel about the new menace, he notes that he is responsible for Sindel being a benevolent and wise ruler, and not the jerkass version of herself from MK11 DLC. So Liu Kang definitely "set up" some of the current events of this universe beyond just getting things going.

 

[YangusKhan]

Liu Kang claims that he abdicates the throne after setting the universe in motion. But, later in story mode, conversations with his boy Friday reveal that he very distinctly set Quan Chi and Shang Tsung on lifepaths that would not lead to death and destruction (which the big bad of the piece screwed up), and implies that Shao Kahn, Havik, and others were similarly directly neutered so they would not be threats to the realms. Additionally, when Liu Kang talks directly to Sindel about the new menace, he notes that he is responsible for Sindel being a benevolent and wise ruler, and not the jerkass version of herself from MK11 DLC. So Liu Kang definitely "set up" some of the current events of this universe beyond just getting things going.

So, I'm in Chapter 11 of Story Mode right now, and my interpretation of this is that Liu Kang set all of this stuff up all at once as part of "creating the universe." That's obviously not how cause and effect works, but tbh that's handwavy enough for me. Also, I wasn't under the impression that he changed Sindel, rather, since he made Shao Kahn lesser, Kahn's influence on Sindel was not as drastic and so her "natural/peaceful" personality became more dominate.

Mostly what I'm taking away from this is that Liu Kang designed this universe with some very specific tweaks and then abdicated that power rather than keep trying to tweak his new universe like Kronika was doing.

So... Liu Kang committed genocide here, right? The "old" Tarkatans were a warlike people, but they were definitely a people, and they cannot have a culture or propagate as a disease. And, while "noted Tarkatans" like Baraka are alive and "normal" in this universe (before being afflicted), isn't that... kind of weird? Like, hey, I didn't like your race, so now you're just a basic dude and can play with others without issue. And, whoops, if you "turn back" into your former-timeline form, it will literally kill you. Try to avoid that! And I kept waiting for there being some kind of "oh the old timeline is reasserting itself, and that is why people are being infected and transformed," but that explanation never comes. So Liu Kang just baked in "maybe you catch Tarkatan" into his otherwise wholesome version of the MK universe? Bizarre choice.

lol I never would've thought of it this way, but I'm also not deep enough into MK Lore to know what the Tarkatan deal was in previous games.

Actually, on that note, does anyone know of a good YouTube video that does a deep-dive/story/lore explainer for all the games at least through the 3D-era games? I've searched a little bit myself but it's been pretty crowded search results what with all new videos about, well, the new game. I know you've done a ton of writing on the MK series, GoggleBob, but for this I apparently want to consume it as a video.