As your feet pound your foe’s chest, sending ribbons of blood and splintered rib-bone flying, Mortal Kombat 1 should feel at once both wonderfully familiar and utterly fresh, even if you’re a seasoned brawler. Simultaneously respecting the fighting franchise’s storied roots while embracing change, NetherRealm Studios’ new-look fighter is smooth, slick, and doesn’t pull its punches.
Rebooting any series is a gamble, but it takes a particularly steely resolve to reimagine a series as loved and respected as 30-year-old Mortal Kombat. According to art development director Thiago Gomes it’s that respect that sits at the heart of NetherRealm’s decision to overhaul it.
“You have to do it carefully,” Gomes tells us at Play Days 2023, where we get an opportunity to go hands-on. “You have to do it thoughtfully. You have to pay respect to the stuff that was there before and build on it, and not just throw it out.
“It was really important not to lose that heritage, and I feel like we’ve done a really good job of paying respects to all those old games. And there’s a lot of really fun nods to them in this one.”
Gomes isn’t wrong. You don’t have to have played much Mortal Kombat to recognise that the game’s all-new Kameo fatalities (more on those in a sec) are reimagined interpretations of the violent old-school animations that made the series notorious. Even the costumes your Kameo partners are rocking will look familiar.
KONTEMPORARY KLASSIC
Esta historia es de la edición August 2023 de PLAY Magazine UK.
Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 8500 revistas y periódicos.
Ya eres suscriptor ? Conectar
Esta historia es de la edición August 2023 de PLAY Magazine UK.
Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 8500 revistas y periódicos.
Ya eres suscriptor? Conectar
Alone In The Dark: The New Nightmare
Here comes our favourite cartoon character, Daffy Dark
Sleeping Dogs
The PS3 era’s most underrated sandbox
Umurangi Generation VR
Nice to play the Generation game, to play it nice
Tales Of Kenzera: Zau
This year’s 378,992nd metroidvania
Planet Of Lana
Induces a severe case of playja vu
Grounded
Oh no, not another game full of bugs on release
Knights In Tight Spaces
Saturday's Knights all right for fighting. And Sunday's. And Monday's...
Bohemian rhapsody
Kingdom Come: Deliverance II will gallop onto PlayStation 5 later this year
In the ring with Japan's fighting pros
Top players and spectators enjoyed three days of fighting spirit at Evo Japan
Topjobs
Final Fantasy XIV producer and director Naoki Yoshida speaks to Daniella Lucas about what goes into creating new job classes for the MMORPG – from revising old skills through updates to the difficulties of deciding what new ideas to bring to the table