Mortal Kombat 1: 30 years after its debut, the franchise is still as strong as ever

It cannot be said that the journey and fortunes of the studio that created the Mortal Kombat franchise are exemplary, especially in an uncertain context where the unceremonious liquidation of studios by game publishers is still going strong.

Because for 30 years, NetherRealm Studios, formerly Midway Studios Chicago, before being bought by Warner, managed to survive almost exclusively on one license. Even if the studio offers itself a few breaks from time to time, if not often, like 2013’s successful Injustice: Gods Among Us and its 2017 sequel, which used the Warner-owned DC Comics license. .

Because it’s a fact: the Mortal Kombat license is super strong, with over 80 million copies of the game sold since its inception. It is the most profitable franchise in the Versus fighting game scene, ahead of Smash Bros, Tekken and Street Fighter.

This means that Warner Bros. Games are not ready to let go of their martingale. And that’s a good thing: four years after the very solid Mortal Kombat 11, the publisher and studio are once again throwing their new opus into the bloody arena: Mortal Kombat 1.

Here is the announcement trailer again…

Story mode, a huge added value to Mortal Kombat

In our opinion, the story mode is an added value of the license compared to the competition. Beginning with Cross Over Mortal Kombat Vs DC Universe in 2008, Mortal Kombat’s signature story mode truly began with the 9th installment of the saga, released in 2011.

In its 30 years of existence, the MK franchise has had plenty of time to lay the foundations of its mythology, refine and refine it. From a completely anecdotal background, and primarily with the pretext of giving its combatants an in-depth look, just to stand out a bit from the competition of the time, in this case Street Fighter II, the studio never stopped over the years. Richer background, new characters and antagonists.

Hans Lo, Senior Producer of Mortal Kombat A difficult balancing act: bringing in enough new blood without feeling stagnant, without alienating fans who are still the same as ever.

As a soft reboot and sequel, the title Mortal Kombat 1 rightly emphasizes its dual ambition: to reset the license counter, with an obvious desire to expand the base of potential players. It is in this perspective that we must put this very clever story mode of MK1: if the mythology is rewritten, the story at the same time completely follows in the footsteps of the previous part. Two birds with one stone.

Refinement of the hand

The story set in MK1’s story mode allows all cards to be shuffled. Liu Kang, no longer the guardian of time but the god of fire, rebuilds the kingdoms to bring about overall harmony and peace.

In this new take on the Mortal Kombat mythology, former enemies are now allies or brothers, like the indestructible Scorpion and Sub-Zero, who were once engaged in a merciless battle between their two clans, the Lin-Kuei and the Shirai Ryu.

If Johnny Cage is still an action movie star with a big ego, he’s saddled with debt from his decadent lifestyle, which he wouldn’t give up for the world. The ancient Raiden we’ve always known is no longer the god of thunder and spends most of his time in the fields farming, even if he’s still skilled in martial arts.

And Shan Tsung, License’s historical antagonist? He is now a semi-undercover traveling salesman, but primarily a swindler selling his so-called miracle cure, just like the toothpicks and bogus doctors who roam the western plains in Westerns. Therefore, the new world is placed in the regulated section. At least until a grain of sand obviously mars the picture…

With a fairly generous length and divided into four acts, this story mode feels like a mini-series. With a script that’s always so WTF, blatantly breeding anachronisms, age-old traditions and high-tech gadgets, the script logically seems like a patchwork of empty threads and is completely laughable to the crowd; But it still works incredibly well in reality.

Between bursts of violence and regular bits of humor (and not always good, like I said…), the dose goes by at full speed before we reach the conclusion that we still find the rest of the adventure standing.

Extremely carefully produced, be it the care taken with the Cut Scenes, the camera movements that reveal many times the luxurious panoramic views of MK’s world, the staging of its characters, which the players regularly control in a very fluid time. The transitions are a real treat. To be honest, we had more fun after this long story arc than the last cinematic installment in the franchise.

On the other hand, we are still sorry that it is not possible to follow these adventures in Wostf. VF is imposed. If it stays straight and does the job, the immersion takes a hit and it’s quite confusing that over time the game still doesn’t offer the option to follow the story mode in Vostf. Not that we’d necessarily hear Megan Fox voicing her character, the female vampire Nitara, who returns after a 17-year absence, but still…

Lower fist

After this very hearty appetizer, it’s time for Bloodbath, a rather generous cast of 24-character Kombattants, to launch; Reinforcements are obviously planned later, with guests such as Homelander from the series The Boys or Peacemaker among other things.

The first thing that strikes you, or rather what touches your retinas, is the visual presentation of the title, absolutely brilliant. It’s full of detail in the environments where the combatants clash and the heroes enjoy the royal treatment that leans gently towards photorealism. We thought MK 11 reached some kind of pinnacle in this area, given the expert work done by the wizards of NetherRealm, they were still hard to figure out.

A visual treat that benefits not only from spectacular and ultra-violent shots known as fatal blow, but also, of course, the famous Fatalities and other Brutalities, without which Mortal Kombat is nothing. And in that respect, we’re served: the NetherRealm team demonstrates exemplary refinement in absolute horror. Uninhibited violence so outrageous it’s regularly cartoonish.

The big news in this Versus fighting game is the arrival of the so-called Kombattants Cameo. Drawn from the franchise’s generous gallery of historic characters (in their classic costumes!), but not directly playable, they’ll aid you in the skirmishes. facial Mark Battle In the light version, they can intervene in combat to break your opponent’s combo sequence, extend yours, allowing you to hit your opponent more, etc.

The adage “easy to learn, hard to master” once again takes on its full meaning. The practice phase and tutorial will be absolutely necessary, especially if you want to face player opponents who won’t violently correct you in public…

Not a very convincing invasion

Another new feature of this MK1, playable solo, is a seasonal mode called invasions. In a sort of mini RPG board game style, you move your character through 8 areas. As you progress, you’ll have to tackle various challenges, create/upgrade talismans in the forge to increase your character’s skills and resistance, face several enemies in towers, and so on. It’s pretty long, nice, but eventually gets repetitive pretty quickly. And while the next season will logically introduce new challenges and courses, the gameplay mechanics will be the same…

Even if it means offering small additional games, we think, for example, with happiness what was offered in the game. Mortal Kombat: The Hoax Released in 2004, it featured Puzzle Kombat; A brilliant variant of Tetris tweaked and tweaked with Mortal Kombat sauce of course. There was even a game of chess!

In order to discover the endings for each of the 24 characters in the base roster, you’ll have to resort to tower battles, which actually correspond to the arcade mode that fans are familiar with.

In terms of complaints, we oppose the pure and simple disappearance of the crypt, although adored by fans, in which, sometimes at the end of difficult courses that require small puzzles, we can unlock pieces of artwork with coins won in the game. soundtrack, unlock new Fatalities, alternate costumes, and more. Of course, this is largely “fixed” precisely with the Invasions mode, which gives you this pleasure, but the pleasure is clearly not the same anymore.

The results of the races are sure to come. Contrary to its intentions, this Mortal Kombat 1, in our opinion, is not an ideal entry point for those who want to experience the “simple” joy of a MK game for the first time Versus. his story Instead, we have to turn to Mortal Kombat 11, which seems to us to be more successful in its content, richer and more generous. Even if it means playing after overtime by switching to MK 1.

As for the fans, there is no doubt that they will still attack. And they are wrong if they deprive themselves. Because despite the (real) reservations mentioned above, this Mortal Kombat 1 has some serious and solid assets to offer. Something to tide you over until Mortal Kombat 2’s still-very-distant theatrical release.