Mortal Kombat receives a second, much harder reboot with the release of Mortal Kombat 1. Following the events of Mortal Kombat 11, Fire God Lui Kang attempts to rewrite history by giving those deemed worthy a good life and peaceful timeline. However, an unknown threat interferes with the new timeline, and with the threat of a second Deadly Alliance looming, Lui Kang goes across time and the multiverse to stop Titan variants of Shang Tsung, Quan Chi, and the unknown enemy threatening even more sufferable timelines than the previous one.

Mortal Kombat 1 is a 2023 fighting game developed by Nether Realm Studios and published by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. It is currently available for PC, Playstation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch.

Editor’s Note: This review may contain spoilers for Mortal Kombat 1 and the franchise mythos. 

Lui Kang and Earth Realm fight to save the realms once more.

Mortal Kombat’s reboot is in full force following the aftermath of Mortal Kombat 11 and its concluding DLC. Lui Kang has remade the universe into an image meant to better the lives of his old friends. With the aid of Geras, he shapes the timeline to be more peaceful but faces resistance from a new threat who can travel through time creating a potential second Deadly Alliance. Kang with the combined efforts of the New Earth Realm and multiverse variants of his comrades and enemies must work to defeat the new threats and bring peace among realms once and for all.

Allies become enemies, enemies become allies in Mortal Kombat 1.

THE GOOD: Some time has passed since the events of Mortal Kombat 11 and the “Aftermath” DLC. Fire God Lui Kang and Geras have been working together to shape a peaceful Earth Realm writing the lives of those from within as they see fit. The Mortal Kombat tournament once again looms and Lui Kang returns to Earth to gather fighters strong enough to represent Earth Realm in the competition. Having degraded Shang Tsung to nothing more than a powerless con man, Geras detects a disturbance in their efforts to protect the realms as Tsung once again regains the ability to become a sorcerer. Tsung and a new enemy who can travel through time revealed to be a Titan version of Tsung and Quan Chi reunite the former with another version of Quan Chi threatening a revived Deadly Alliance. Fearing the worst, Kang gathers the aid of the renewed Johnny Cage, Kenshi, Scorpion, Sub-Zero, Raiden, and Kung Lao.

Kang and the others travel across the realms to Outerworld to gain favor from Empress Sindel. Internal conflicts and doubts grow within Outworld due to the influence of General Shao Khan and his group of forces who want nothing to do with the Earth Realmers. In addition, Kang and co. contend with Sindel’s distrust of Kang. Following the return of Lui Mei and a quick battle, she convinces the forces of Outworld who still favor Sindel over Shao to join Kang. Now gaining the aid of Outworlders Sindel, Mei, Tanya, Kitana, Reptile, and others Kang gains new confidence in their odds of victory but still has doubts. Present timeline Tsung and Chi join Kang in a temporary alliance and suggest they use variants of themselves to take on Titan Tsung and Chi.

As Kang gathers his multiversal forces he challenges Titan Tsung to Mortal Kombat for the faith of the multiverse. He gets aid from alternate versions of himself, Chi, and Tsung against Titan Tsung and Chi who kill the alternate versions of Chi and Tsung in battle. Leaving himself and the other Lui Kang to face the Titans they’re ultimately victorious with Kang sending the alternative version of himself and others to their respective universes and timelines before the multiverse collapses on itself. Some time has passed since the battle and Kang prepares to focus on being Earth Realm’s protector once more while Johnny Cage returns to film this time as a screenwriter, Kung Lao and Raiden plan to rebuild their clan along with Smoke and Scorpion starting their own, and following Sindel’s death Mileena rules Outworld in her place.

In a post-credits scene, a Titan variant of Havik and other characters discuss the previous battle. Havik says he regrets not playing a role and suggests his plans to start an entirely new multiversal battle of death.

Mortal Kombat 1 brings renewed lore and gameplay mechanics to a storied franchise.

Mortal Kombat 1 is in a lot of ways the classic fighting game we at this point should all be familiar with. Featuring the trademark crazy combos and fatality finishers to dismember and destroy your opponents in a glorious, gory fashion. Additionally,  there are a few notable changes about this entry that help it stand out from the past while shaping up future entries in the series to come. For starters, an incarnation of the tag assist from Mortal Kombat 11’s Towers of Time mode makes a comeback in the form of a tweaked version known as Kameo Fighters. These Kameo Fighters are assists who can give you a bit of an edge in battle or just more damage output during combos. With these Kameos, you choose them at the start of the fight and can either summon them while standing by or have the option to use them at any given point in the fight as long as you have enough of the assist meter to use them. Kameos can also give you a health advantage or even do their fatalities.

For those more focused on online play the game features rollback netcode and for multiplatform owners Mortal Kombat 1 also has crossplay and even cross-progression if you want to transfer save files between platforms. There’s also a King of the Hill mode for online play with ladders and an Invasion mode which features what-if-like story scenarios.

The story continues from Mortal Kombat 11’s timeline reboot arc and has Firegod Lui Kang shaping the world to be more desirable for all the important people in his life. I’ve probably said this in the past, but Mortal Kombat has one of the greatest built worlds in not only fighting games, but video games period. From my personal experience fighting games tend to be pretty weak on the writing side of things with varying degrees of quality. That’s often by design because most people aren’t playing these for the story, but some standouts like Mortal Kombat just continue to prove that even a fighting game deserves a good story and world attached to it. It’s not perfect by any means and there’s a ton of fan-service, but the story provides a successful love letter to nearly any and every fan of the franchise.

THE BAD: The main issue Mortal Kombat 1 faces is that its microtransactions can be rather atrocious. Outside of the mainline DLC for current and past fighters and some guest character content, there’s no reason to be spending outrageous amounts of money for fatalities, costumes, etc. It’s just as ridiculous a practice today as when it was first introduced. Not all of these need to be locked behind a paywall, nor should the ones that are being priced at what they are for a $70 game.

Witness the multiversal clash of Mortal Kombat 1.

OVERALL THOUGHTS: Mortal Kombat 1 provides a fan-service-filled love letter to Klassic and Kurrent Kombatants throughout franchise history. Its campaign somehow manages to fit in a ton of older and newer characters, providing a solid amount of renewed interest in the lore of both and giving old-school and new-school fans of the series something to look forward to revisiting in the not-so-distant future. Regarding its gameplay, there’s a lot of what you expect and some fun tweaks to keep it fresh. Invasion, Arcade, and the choice of DLC guest characters are fun distractions if you need a bit of breathing room from the story mode.