It’s hard to keep a series going strong in the ever-evolving landscapes of video games. The longer a series goes along without changing, the more necessary it is for the creators to hover their fingers above the reboot button. Also, some series go about rebooting a series long buried due to fan appeal, like Nintendo has done with Punch-Out! and the incoming Kid Icarus: Uprising. Some series though should never consider rebooting, because the fan bases that have settled will never let them hear the end of it, like Devil May Cry’s new entry DMC (which I am kind of sad there isn’t more word about this game. I rest easy thinking “Hey, maybe it is an Earth-2 Dante, like his mirror counterpart, and the game will be center around two dimensions” mainly because I find myself floating on the river of D-Nile) and the backlash received from Bionic Commando’s gritty reboot (my bionic arm was made from the soul of my dead wife? And you are Super Joe? –insert Darth Vader nooooo-). Although, one success reboot brought with it a new breath of life into a genre: Street Fighter’s “reboot” with Street Fighter IV. The figures are there, combined from Street Fighter IV and Super Street Fighter IV, Street Fighter’s entry into “3D” fighting brought back the tournament scene’s popularity. Some even compared Street Fighter’s jump to Mortal Kombat’s jump into 3D fighting. Although we make it a point to try and forget Mortal Kombat 4 since Deadly Alliance came out (like we forget Street Fighter EX entirely too), it still enjoyed success to keep the burners hot on the way to Deadly Allaince.

                But now, we’ve gone from Deadly Alliance to Deception to Armageddon to even a clash with the heroes of the DC Universe (with a T rating). Each game has its disappointments, but a lot of backlash comes from the 3D playstyle that has made projectiles near pointless to use and dial-a-combo thrived. And it didn’t help that there was more characters than really necessary in the game (Blaze and Mokap were just throwaway characters and they felt like it, but one wound up being an end-boss and another’s ending made him a constellation) with similar movements and fighting styles across the board (got so bad Armageddon had too many characters to make fatalities for so they just had you dial one up). But now Netherrealm Studios (a new studio made up of the creators of Mortal Kombat since Midway was bought out from Warner Brothers) looks to reboot the entire franchise from playstyle right down to the story. I am really looking forward to seeing this game succeed, because I am quite sure this game will make or break Netherrealm Studios in the eye of Warner Brothers. So let’s get right down to my preview of Mortal Kombat (yeah, just Mortal Kombat, not 9, not 2011, Mortal Kombat).

                I’ll start with the promised story, as it intrigues me the most. It has been promised that Mortal Kombat will figure in the events of Armageddon but the way that they have is awe-inspiring. If anyone is familiar, Raiden kinda went coocoo for the cocoa puffs when Shujinko (the guy you play with in Konquest Mode of Deception) nearly destroyed Earthrealm when Onaga (the Dragon King, boss of Deception) enacted his plan to rise again. He became more willing to go to any lengths to protect Earthrealm, even working with all of the baddies in Armageddon to make sure Earthrealm would be spared if any of the baddies achieved the ultimate power promised when you slay Blaze (told you he was important). Eventually chaos grew as kombatant after kombatant ran up this pyramid to kill Blaze, where even pacts and partnerships were destroyed. Shao Kahn, greedy bastard that he is, is seconds away from killing Raiden on the way up to the pyramid when Raiden decides this really wasn’t how he imagined things turning out (I’m pretty sure 99.9% of people’s last thoughts before dying fall in the same vein) and sends the events that has transpired and what gave them fruition to the past, into the mind of Raiden before Liu Kang won the tournament. With the Raiden of the past imbued with the knowledge of Raiden of the future, he is now wiser about the paths taken to get to Armageddon, and to that end, he seeks to stop it before it could ever reach fruition, actively changing the events to a different outcome.

                With Raiden’s foresight, the game’s characters could receive untold amounts of changes and adjustments. He could warn Sub-Zero that his fellow Lin Kuei ninjas seek to kill him with robotic ninjas made of his former friends and steps could be made to completely change who could be robotic and who couldn’t be (imagine a human Cyrax or Sektor), or he could warn Queen Sindel that Shao Kahn seeks to use the resources of Edenia (another realm in the world of Mortal Kombat, for those playing the home game) to invade Earthrealm, making sure Jade stays on the right side with Kitana. A world of options lays open for Raiden’s epiphany, which allows Mortal Kombat to incorporate a good portion of the cast into this game into a complete retelling of the story. Characters I feel they might be leaving out for whatever reason they made would include the Orderrealm and Chaosrealm characters like Darrius, Dairou, Havik, and Hotaru, as well as the Red Dragon members Mavado and Hsu Hou. Seeing as how this game is set in the umbrella time between Mortal Kombat 1 and Mortal Kombat 3, they might also add characters retconned into the past fights with their new stories, like Bo Rai Cho, Quan Chi, and Noob Saibot being the wraith of the first Sub-Zero who died at Scorpion’s hand.

                Before I go into the characters already slated to be included into Mortal Kombat, I want to delve into the biggest change of all: the gameplay mechanics. Gone are the shared move animations some characters had as the game grew too chock-full-of-characters. Each character is promised to have different moves across the board, except maybe the uppercut, because that’s just a staple. You can’t budge a staple. Each face button on the controller is mapped to a corresponding limb, like Tekken’s controls. Combos now must be worked out like in Street Fighter, by deciding what flows better from one button press to another via frames and hitstun. Special moves charge a meter on the bottom of the screen, where it shows you three segments of the meter. For one segment, you can go a Super version of one of your special moves, like sending a projectile whirlwind version of Kitana’s fan lift or a longer version of Sektor’s flamethrower. For two segments, you can break an opponent’s combo from anywhere with a Combo Breaker, which would be crucial because some of the combos of this game can really deplete your lifebar if you are not careful. For three segments, and this is a fun one, you can activate your kombatants’ special X-Ray move. This move takes advantage of the fact each character is essentially a skeleton wrapped around the character’s “skin” (quotes because some just don’t have any, like Cyrax). When you activate the X-Ray move and it connects, you are treated to a small cinematic like an Ultra Move from Super Street Fighter IV, that showcases the exact damage each blow does to the kombatants’ body. For example, Liu Kang starts his X-Ray with a cartwheel. When that hits, he’ll deliver a jaw-crushing uppercut, sending the opponent into the air. He then greets them with a raised foot to break their fall, the foot catching the opponent on the already-heavily-damaged jaw, turning it to powder as the opponent lands full-force on a firm foot. This move will do a number on the lifebar, and the kombatant will look visibly altered by the attack, favoring it as they stand ready. This game is strictly 2-D in regards to movement, so it’s a love letter to the original in the font of an evolving fighting fanbase with an equally deep fighting system to add to the reemergence of fighting games as a popular medium. And that love letter is stained in blood, because there will be a lot of it. It’ll paint you as the fight goes on, and the returning Fatalities do not skimp on the blood in the slightest. For example, Kung Lao spins his hat on the ground like a saw blade and goes Wood Shop Class of Horrors on his beaten opponent with it, holding up the divided halves of what you used to be up like trophies in each hand. Gameplay-wise, you will be impressed.

                Another addition to gameplay is seen in the alternate versus mode where you can play against a team of 2 kombatants with your own team of 2. Gameplay alterations from this mode include using your meter to call in your partner with an assist (like the versus series Capcom has been doing), as well as tagging into your partner mid-combo with a special move. You can also tag in your partner from the ground behind you or have them come in from a jump from your corner of the screen. You can use this to give a character that has a hard time landing a move that’ll start a juggle a partner to assist him/her in the combo. For example, you can use Mileena’s rolling move to bounce the opponent up, and then tag to Raiden who can end an air combo with his Torpedo move. Another addition to Mortal Kombat is the Challenge Tower mode. This mode is 300 separate missions beginning with some advanced training to get you familiar with the game, and then going down the track in the rollercoaster of fun Mortal Kombat alternate modes are known for. Play as Johnny Cage and Stryker as they shoot incoming waves of zombies one after another with their projectile moves. Fight off a Mileena who won’t stop trying to give you a teddy bear she worked hard on. Test Your Might (break through panels of wood or stone) or Sight (find an eyeball under three or five skulls) as well as your Strike (you have to aim your strength to only break a specific brick in the pile), but now you can Test Your Luck. You pick your character, and drop down into an arena. Your opponent and modifiers are randomly selected via slots, and you are challenged to win despite the modifiers. This mode is so popular you can actually choose it as a versus mode and engage your friends in battles of ultimate randomness. Fight a color-coded Shao Kahn as Scorpion and Sub-Zero, where his armor will change to a specific color and you won’t be able to damage him with the opposite colored ninja. Fight a zombie Goro as his stench weakens you. And if you make it to the last mission, Netherrealm Studios promises to make it the most punishing task you’ll ever undertake in the Mortal Kombat universe. All of these modes, as well as the story mode of the game which promises to make the player follow the canon to the letter and online multiplayer makes Mortal Kombat the most engaging gameplay you’ll experience in a fighter.

                The character cast surprises me because for a reboot of the series, they sure stuck a lot of characters into this game. There are 25 visibly confirmed characters, with 5 characters not seen in videos but confirmed by the developers. There is no new characters though, which could be a gift or a curse based on how anybody would look at this game. What is new is the coat of paint on some of the characters. There is no bright color that makes you believe that Scorpion can’t possibly creep up on you. It’s still yellow, but it’s toned down and he is armed with two short swords, so it’s not a matter of if he can sneak up on you, it’s a matter that he is going to teleport behind you covered in hellfire and slice you to ribbons before you even think of a syllable. The characters look like they used to, without going completely overboard with the colors. Reptile has blended his look to look like a reptilian ninja, with his face shaped to look like there is a mask involved but it is actually his face. Johnny Cage looks like he is still the movie star we know him as, but now it looks like he just got off the set of Fight Club, having Johnny tattooed across his torso and his fists wrapped in gauze. The robotic exoskeletons of Cyrax and Sektor look less like a costume and more of a robot, but not much difference exists in them (the exoskeletons, not the moves, believe me, they play completely different) besides color, which is ideal when you look at the story and such.  

All in all, with 30 promised characters and potentially more via DLC, all with a part to play in the story (that they don’t have to add to to fit in a trope. I’m looking at you Nitara, Hotaru, Li Mei, Darrius…alright, I’ll put away the list –rolls up the scroll and pockets it-) that will showcase the dynamic changes expected from Raiden’s Sports Almanac (for the people playing the home game, google Back to the Future Part 2) as well as the new modes added in with the deeper fighting engine that promises new playing styles fusing with the familiar, Mortal Kombat is going to return in a big big way. The fighting game genre is seeing true strength, both in the tournament scene as well as online. Mortal Kombat is going to ride into the summer as the 3D-esque counter to SSFIV and Marvel vs. Capcom 3, rolling into the summer with the strength to get big sales. Netherrealm Studios might be the fallout studio after Midway sank, but they are bringing their A-game with them. They just needed to find it first.