Mortal Kombat X
Producer: WB Games Chicago
Release Date: April 14, 2015
Platform: PS4, PS3, Xbox One, Xbox 360, PC
Rating: Mature
Genre: Fighting
Brutal Beauty
Written by Jesse Seilhan
In the world of fighting games, there is Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat. Both helped define the genre, but more games ended up stealing the SF DNA instead of MK’s. This is mostly due to the former’s global popularity, but Mortal Kombat never slowed down, getting increasingly more violent and insane, adding dozens and dozens of characters while testing the limits of single-player campaigns. But after 2011’s reboot (simply dubbed Mortal Kombat), the team at NetherRealm made sure to give Mortal Kombat X all the time and love it needed to re-emerge as the premiere fighting game on the market. With a new engine, new characters, and buckets of blood, does MKX live up to its predecessor or is it just a corpse of its former self?
The first thing you’ll notice when booting up this iteration of NetherRealm’s fighter is how smooth everything is. The main menu offers a dozen different ways to play, but hitting the shoulder buttons takes you to either the new Tower options or their new metagame dubbed Faction War. Starting with Faction War, the game forces you to choose between five different in-game groups, all represented by some members of the cast. If you’re a Sub Zero guy, you’re going to pick the Lin Kuei, but fans of Sonya Blade of Jax might choose Special Forces. Nothing changes for you based on your pick, except for a weekly set of challenges that gives one faction some bragging rights over the other. Essentially, all the combined wins and points for the week is totalled against the other factions, and the winning factions gets some currency buffs and a few cosmetic unlocks. This resets every week and you can freely switch between factions at any time to try and win the war.
As for the Towers, they are a timed set of challenges, with new towers appearing every hour, day, and week. Completing the towers unlocks more goodies, and sometimes a hidden boss or two will show up along the way. Traditional towers include the button-mashing Test Your Might or sweat-inducing Infinite Tower, but Test Your Luck makes its debut this year. This mode randomly assigns modifiers to the match, some good, some bad, but all usually a bit crazy. From missile volleys to instant kills, the 100+ modifiers can make for some insane matches.
But how does it play? I’d wager to say the feel of the fighting is as good as ever. The biggest wrinkle this year is the addition of character variations. Every fighter has three different versions of themselves, each one focusing on a different talent or skill. Take Scorpion, whose three variations cover the mystical arts, swordplay skills, or summoning a demon to help fight. The variety and depth of this game is intense when you start thinking about match-up combinations and counter characters, and the game’s awesome training and practice modes will help any newcomer find their path.
Mortal Kombat has a long legacy of stuffing content on top of content, from the weird (Motor Kombat) to the awesome (Chess Kombat), but this game does away with those crazy ideas for a streamlined story mode, tons of towers to fight through, and the beloved Krypt. This time, the Krypt is fully 3D and interactive, with hidden areas, a gambling section, and even beasts that try and attack you while exploring. The whole package is pretty slick, even if so much cool content is hidden away, like second fatalities, most brutalities, and extra costumes.
All in all, MKX tops its predecessor in nearly every way. While the story narrative isn’t as compelling as the retelling of the early days of the franchise, it does a great job introducing new characters and giving players a feel for the overall mythology. While some will still say Street Fighter is the king of the genre, until they deliver a story mode, bonus features, and reasons to keep playing as MK does time after time, Capcom has a lot to live up to when SFV hits shelves next year. Pick up this game without delay, and invest in another controller so you and some buddies can have fun for years to come.