Mortal Kombat 1 - Game Review
so let me know right out the gate WB
Games did send me a code to download
this game for free in which case I then
went bought the physical copy of the
game because I'm a physical copy snob
like that so I feel like the cost
balances itself out double dipping aside
I feel like I should still tell you they
did give me a digital copy of the game
all right in a world where it feels like
it's been forever since I've done a
review on a video game Mortal Kombat is
what I call church we gotta talk about
it
[Music]
so Mortal Kombat 1 is a reset of the
Mortal Kombat universe again it's kind
of what nk9 was really but MK1 is a bit
different because at the end of Mortal
Kombat 11 spoilers for the end of Mortal
Kombat 11 cronica the time Titan is
defeated by Liu Kang Liu Kang becomes
the new time Titan he's like all right
I'm just gonna start everything out from
scratch so he has there's balance
existence seems perfect but in a world
of constants and variables and
manipulations you see
some of the former problems start to
rear their ugly heads and what I like
about this is Mortal Kombat 1 is a
celebration of the 3D era of Mortal
Kombat you know Deadly Alliance
deception Armageddon I was wondering if
they were going to do its own
celebration or just kind of forget that
the 3D era of Mortal Kombat ever
happened and while this is still the 2D
format of the fighting game mechanic it
is a celebration of that 3D era of
Mortal Kombat I'm glad they're
celebrating it because the 3D era did
have some cool stuff as for the story
mode the story mode is great it's
complex it's engaging it's intriguing
whether you're talking about netherrealm
Studios or you go before that just call
it Ed Boone and his team they've always
been next level in storytelling in a
fighting game there are fighting games
out there that have cool stories or
compelling stories but in terms of
execution and hammering that story home
in a cinematic quality experience it's
not even close it's Mortal Kombat tip of
the spear and I thought the story was
great you don't know what's going to
happen it's a completely new universe
it's neat seeing the con constants and
variables things that end up being the
same things that are different they
expand on some characters making
characters important that didn't feel
important in the 3D era of Mortal Kombat
I will say though by the end it does
lean a bit too heavily in
we'll just it's something I can't get
away from I can't turn anywhere in the
world of pop culture and entertainment
not run into some Multiverse storyline I
mean by implication you are dealing with
it here I just don't think they needed
to lean so heavily into it by the end
but the story as a celebration as its
own story is it's still a cool one also
props to their commitment there are
Cameo characters of Sonya Blade and Kano
but Sonya Blade and Kano were heavily
tied into the conflict of outworld and
that's really not happening in this one
so it wouldn't make sense to have them
in this game cameos aside they're not in
this game in a world where netherrealm
Studios ends up killing characters and
then bringing them back as revenants or
whatever it's like they were afraid to
commit to story lines in certain parts
um I I commend them for committing to
this graphically I think Mortal Kombat 1
looks gorgeous but I thought MK 11
looked gorgeous as well PS5 version of
Mortal Kombat 11 and Mortal Kombat 1
look to be of the same graphical caliber
I don't know for sure I'm sure there's
some data out there or you can look into
it yourself go into the character mode
where you can zoom in and out of the
character and get a close-up of them
which who are we kidding we know what
that's there for but this does have some
of the best looking stages in terms of
fight stages I have seen in MK period
they look gorgeous as for the fighting
mechanics it's a Mortal Kombat game if
you're a Mortal Kombat fan you know what
to expect by now it's stiffer combat
than Street Fighter feels more locked
into a box in terms of its combo system
bit unfortunate for Mortal Kombat that
it came out just three months and some
change after Street Fighter 6 dead the
street fighter 6 is smooth we're talking
smoother than cammy's cake smooth that
game is in terms of fighting mechanic
it's it's the game but it never feels as
stiff as say the 3D era of Mortal Kombat
games that came out before in the 2000s
so if you're a Mortal Kombat fan you'll
be fine if Mortal Kombat has not won you
over yet with this fighting mechanic
this isn't going to be the one that
sells you we know it we're clocking into
Mortal Kombat 4. stiffer combat with
some story [ __ ] Edge so for my Mortal
Kombat experience when I get into a new
Mortal Kombat game I try to find the
characters that feel more organic for me
that's Johnny Cage Baraka he's a little
more locked into the box but his moves
are all blade combo moves so just it
feels more fluid smoke is a god online
he's just busted he's [ __ ] up and for
me Lee May Lee May is a bit of a dark
horse for me I really like how she plays
I was actually fighting a dude online
who was Smoke of course lots of smokes
online but I was Lee May and he was like
Lee may I you don't see a lot of lemays
on here I ended up winning against he
was a really cool dude we chatted for a
bit but I won I feel like one of the
main reasons I won is because not a lot
of people choose Lee May so he didn't
know what to expect from Lee May and
that in and of itself is an advantage
and of course the mixed bag which does
lean into the sight of bummer for me is
that every Mortal Kombat edition that
comes out every sequel every game the
characters don't fight the same they
don't play the same that is probably the
first Mortal Kombat game in a very long
time where Molina is just I don't speak
the language of her fighting style in
here she's one of my Mains in mk11 and
here I am kind of lost people online do
a great job with her same with sindel
sindel I ended lives online it was
fantastic she was one of my main go-to's
but this time around I'm like she's not
the same the cameos are fun I thought
the cameos were going to annoy the
living [ __ ] out of me I thought they
were going to be these busted broken ass
things the people just bring in there
are some cameos that are better than
others they don't feel broken you can't
necessarily spam them some people are
better than others like they're everyone
online is better than I am at using the
Cameo to string into the combo as I move
in the combo but the fact that cameos
have their own brutalities and their own
fatality it just makes them feel like
part of the team they have done away
with the offense and defense meters that
MK 11 had took it back to the meter
system or akin to MKX and MK9 that
offensive meter that just recharged at
an insanely fast rate so an mk-11 it was
just a series of Combos and meter burn
specials you were going up against and
putting against other people annoying to
take fun to dish out that's just kind of
how the online pain of busted fighting
game mechanics go so it looks like they
made this move to make MK1 more balanced
for competitive players sake also seen
with a change that I noticed when I was
fighting some ranked matches did some
ranked matches then went on to do some
Invasion fights some Towers came back to
ranked matches and I just had the same
character in Cameo selected that I had
initially
I didn't know why yeah you choose your
character and your cameo and that's who
you have you have to reselect a new
character and a new Cameo and then go
into the online matches for ranked
matches anyway for casual you pick as
you go into the fight you and your
fighter pick at the same time like any
other Mortal Kombat game that takes a
bit to get used to because it's easy
just to go into a ranked match you're
like [ __ ] I didn't want that character
damn it my first four losses was because
I had the wrong character picked however
I get why they did it because we've all
run into that situation online we're
like all right I'm gonna choose this
character it's almost like I'm gonna
choose that character because you chose
that character you're like well if
you're choosing that character I'm gonna
choose that character and they're like
well if you're doing that I'm gonna
choose that character you just go back
and forth it takes forever to get the
fight started now you go in blind they
go in blind they don't know who they're
fighting against you don't know who
you're fighting against rest assured
you're fighting against smoke and now
elephant in the room uh there is no crap
this time around Crypt has been a staple
since Deadly Alliance and now no Crypt
for the first time in about 20 years oh
for 20 years actually in Mortal Kombat 1
you get gold coins you can smelt them
down if thousand coins a pop and you get
some random piece of something I've
gotten concept art I've gotten the Allen
Grant skin for Johnny Cage but in a
world where we had towers and crypt and
that's how we got stuff we now have
Towers Invasion mode and now smelting
down gold coin so starting it off with
Invasion mode it's a series of Worlds
that you go into and it essentially
looks like a board game every space you
land on it's a new fight you get more
stuff there's some sort of Nerf that
takes place in there maybe the ground's
on fire maybe acids running from the sky
maybe they have that aura around them
that green aura that scrambles all your
buttons around does absolutely the worst
one but you get seasonal currency for
that you also get talismans you can also
you have items you can use for these
fights to make these fights or the tower
fights a little more palatable for all
of these you can only hold a finite
amount of them you can hold quite a few
talismans but that fills up pretty fast
and you keep winning talismans that
aren't as good as the ones you already
have so you just end up your prizes just
feel kind of wastier like thanks for the
Talisman I'm gonna go ahead and [ __ ] can
that because I need to [ __ ] can one of
them because I'm maxed out on what I can
hold but whereas in mk11 you just had an
Echelon of items that helped you out
with these Tower fights in this game in
MK1 you can only hold a few however to
open these hidden treasure chests on the
board in Invasion mode you need a key
you need to buy a key from The Collector
so that does take up one slot so that's
one slot less because you probably want
to have one of those so I play the
living [ __ ] out of invasion mode you're
supposed to have 40 something days to
beat Invasion mode I did it in about
three days you gave me something to
indulge I'm gonna over indulge I am who
I am and by the end man you get so many
serums and things that bump up your
stats and your resistant to certain
elements and I Gotta Give A big thank
you to them for making the currency they
give you a plentiful amount of currency
you know the gear that you can buy from
the seasonal store costs about 1500
seasonal coins I think I have like 70
000 or something right now how however I
just saw the micro transactions for the
premium gear currency and that's some
[ __ ] [ __ ] the thing I would love
for them to patch to make this one a
little better better in terms of what
you get it's not a currency it's XP for
the cameos for you Trophy Hunters out
there the Platinum requires that you
gain Mastery of five Cameo characters
from what I can see that's bringing them
up to level 15. how much xp do I get per
fight
that's gonna take a while for five is it
as bad as trying to grind cat call with
Catwoman and Injustice 2 in order to get
that plot I don't know Injustice 2 at
least gave you the option to build an AI
character that can do the heavy lifting
and do the grinding while you did your
horror movie binge in October no such
option here in fact just done [ __ ]
like this that's probably gonna get
patched and fixed but right now it's
just obnoxious it feels like a backslide
Mortal Kombat 11 and Injustice 2 let you
save a few different visual loadouts per
character here you get one visual
Loadout per character and that's it you
can change how the character looks in
the customization menu but you can't
save five different variations of them
you just get the one also in a world
where you size up mk11 to MK1 you're
like I do feel like 11 did do that
better I like the towers in mk11 I like
being able to see all the towers on
screen at one time you pick your little
floating island you cycle the towers you
see what your prize is going to be and
you proceed accordingly choose whatever
Tower you want this is formatted like
the board game format that is Invasion
mode you gotta walk around this board
game find the tower you might want to do
on that particular day if you find a
tower maybe you don't want to do that
tower now that you're looking at it you
got to walk across the board find
another one it just takes a lot longer
to get to the Tower fight you do start
learning the layout and it starts going
by a little quicker but man when sizing
that up next to the MK 11 Towers where
you're like it's all right there I'll
take that one also an mk11 you saw the
prize that that Tower provided if you
beat that Tower it helps in determining
which Tower you want to take on that day
and MK1 there is no such information the
tower fights did not hold a candle to
The Invasion invasion's more fun secret
areas to explore are secret areas to
unlock you got to use a certain
character in a certain fight and do a
fatality and that'll unlock A New Path
or unlock a new chest Towers just felt
boring by comparison actually you know
what here's a tower story it's the
seasonal Tower you go up to the seasonal
Tower it's like don't do this unless you
can this is Hardcore end game [ __ ] do it
if you're sure I wasn't sure but I
thought I'd give it a shot I got to the
end the end of this ball numbing cheap
ass game mechanic grind of 18 floors
every other floor is a survive minigame
so we'll call it nine fights in the very
end the last thing was to test your
might and I whiffed on the test your
might the tower more or less said to me
yes
you can get the [ __ ] out of my sight man
kick me out I lost I lost the tower was
it my lack of fighting game Talent no it
was test your might that is so trollish
selected
there's another room just trolling their
fans that's [ __ ] up a big thing I do
feel the loss on are the uh the specific
character dialogue intros the character
dialogue is in here but it seems to be
only in a versus match as someone who
spent the bulk of his single player
experience in invasion you never see it
there you just go into the fight Dragon
symbol round one fight makes you feel
like you're missing out it's a strange
call when the invasion is the new format
that the single player experienced from
Mortal Kombat 1 revolves around also in
versus mode the characters seem to have
a couple of different intros most of the
time they have their dialogue they break
away and they do this martial arts Power
stance and then we go to fight I thought
the character intros in Mortal Kombat 11
felt far more cinematic probably helps
that they're woven into the character
dialogue experience the outro Victory
stances for the character is also
another funny call it's the same camera
angle same shot so it feels like it
lacks variety whereas you look at Mortal
Kombat 11 cinematic if not some of the
most epic outros I'd seen in a fighting
game so in the end Mortal Kombat one
it's fun it's a fun Mortal Kombat
experience the story Mode's deep the
fighting mechanics are what you expect
from Mortal Kombat at this point the
fatalities range from okay that's fine
they're dead to brilliant Invasion
Mode's an awesome addition but I can't
help but feel the loss of the crypt as
much as you can make the argument the
end result is the same you still spend
currency to get gear the crypto was a
Zone I was like opening a booster pack
or something there's something about
that intermittent reinforcement I think
they call that gambling addiction I'm
just saying it was fun I've come to
really enjoy the extras that netherrealm
puts into their games like Injustice 2
Mortal Kombat 11. I feel like this was
lacking in that respect I feel like you
get less out of this than Mortal Kombat
11 has granted it might be a little
unfair you're comparing a vanilla
release to Mortal Kombat 11 ultimate but
I have heard from competitive fighting
game players that this is more balanced
they prefer this over Mortal Kombat 11
so it all comes down to what you want as
much fun as the multiple World Invasion
board game fighting game was I have to
ask myself what am I going to do now
that I've completed that season am I
going to fight in the towers am I going
to fight online or in a world where this
is a pretty stacked year for video games
am I going to go on to other stuff and
come back when the new season drops I'll
probably do that third option that's not
the MK addiction I'm used to so I gotta
say I prefer Mortal Kombat 11 to this if
netherrealms taught me anything in terms
of their fighting game experience is
that the experience does improve with
their updates just feels kind of like an
incomplete game right now for me however
it is still Mortal Kombat so unless it's
a Mortal Kombat mythologies game you can
count it being pretty fun so if you're a
hardcore MK fan you've already bought
this at full price who are we kidding
but if you haven't bought Mortal Kombat
1 if you're waiting to see what people
say if you're still having fun with
Mortal Kombat 11 or even Injustice 2 at
this point I'd say wait to buy the sale
price I will say if I'm putting
something on my wish list so Carl
Urban's been cast as Johnny Cage in the
sequel to the new Mortal Kombat movie
that came out a couple years ago if
homelander is coming to Mortal Kombat I
would love to see a Johnny Cage skin
that's Karl Urban as Johnny Cage with
Carl Urban voicing him kind of like they
did with Mortal Kombat X when they
brought in Predator they gave a Carl
weatherskin to Jax I don't want to put
it all on my wish list but if I had a
wish list that's the wish also Mortal
Kombat 1 have you played it what did you
think about it whatever you thought
comment below let me know and as always
if you like what you've seen here and
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