Mortal Kombat is going back to the beginning, for a reboot that casts fire god Liu Kang as the central figure, and makes some serious revisions.
Test your might
The long-awaited twelfth Mortal Kombat title is finally confirmed, and will actually be coming out this year. But if you thought it’d be a simple continuation of MK11, well you might want to think again.
While that’s technically true, Mortal Kombat 1 (that’s the title) is something else too. It’s a restart in every way for the venerable fighting game series, and that includes a new story, new elements, and presumably a new fighter or two.
Here’s the first look, posted to Twitter by MK’s Ed Boon, that debuted yesterday:
As you can see there, there’s quite a bit in MK1 that should make for a pretty different Mortal Kombat experience. For one thing, Raiden is gone, replaced by Liu Kang, who rose to godhood in MK11 as the new fire god.
He’ll be playing the role that the former god of thunder and lightning did in a new MK universe, which is a timeline that he himself triggered at the close of the last game. It also looks like Kung Lao will play a big part in things as his protege, and there might be some new alliances on tap too. It certainly seems as though (a possibly living) Scorpion and Sub-Zero aren’t foes this time around, for example.
There’s plenty more to come on Mortal Kombat 1 for sure, though the launch isn’t far off. According to NetherRealm, fans can expect to playing this September the 19th.
As you might imagine too, pre-orders are open now, and doing so with any version of the title will nab you Shang Tsung as a playable fighter. Wait, does that mean he’s not really going to be? Is he the boss again? So many questions…