Mortal Kombat 1 draws a surprising amount from the series’ PS2 era – and it’s brilliant

The only big difference between Mortal Kombat 1 and what came before, well, what came in the last decade, at least, is the passing game. Much of the game revolves around the gap in the air; The battle screen has even been pulled back slightly to accommodate a lot of the space above your fighters’ heads to ensure there’s room for a nasty little melee or two up there.

“There hasn’t been a proper passing game in Mortal Kombat since Mortal Kombat Armageddon, which was almost 20 years ago,” laughs Derek Kirtzic, lead systems designer at NetherRealm studios. “I’m a huge MK fan, and for me this aerial kombat, which is kombat with a K, was the most exciting thing for me to see players see and get their hands on.” The PS2 game introduced an air combo system and a parry system, neither of which really returned to the series in any significant way. Until now.

Kirtzic goes on to say that many fighting games don’t really lean on this air-based system that much: you might have jumped on Tekken which helps keep an opponent off the ground, and some nasty specials or aerial spreads on Street Fighter. . , but outside of DragonBall FighterZ and a few death touches in Guilty Gear, a lot of fighters keep you glued to the ground these days.

“Between boosting the air stuff and the Kameo system, seeing what you can do by extending your combos in the air and how free it is with extensions and juggling…it’s so refreshing!” Kirtzic’s enthusiasm is contagious; he leads me from the interview room to a booth where the game is set up. We were talking about rushing characters, so he sets up a now very aggressive, high-pressure Sub Zero to show what he’s talking about.

In your hands, you can tell that this game wants you in the air; every character I’ve played (Kenshi, Sub-Zero, Kitana, Liu Kang) has an air get off me, a nice quick move that blows anyone on top of you into the air. From here, each Kameo fighter can fly quite high, keeping your opponent in the air while you recover and set up something else.

This was all I could do without spending time in the lab, but Kirtzic… well, you can tell he’s a master. With a pair of Sub-Zero and Sonya, he managed to push a poor Kenshi into the corner; an ice slide knocked Kenshi down, a projectile from Sonya pushed him into the corner, and a jumping triple punch led the way into an ice ball. It seemed so easy.

“Sub-Zero is kind of a straightforward character right now; if you [heavy up attack]in a [light combo], then you can call Sonya and she will bounce them in the air where you can follow up with another combo, then you can land on a slide and push them into the corner and press them. Seeing him do this, in action, really shows you what NetherRealm wants to do with this game; it’s all about calling those Kameos and figuring out when they can carry chains that their main fighter can’t do on their own due to recovery frames.

But what if you’re the poor idiot who got backed into the corner? You don’t want to spend 30 seconds straight watching your health bar corrode and fade to nothing. Well, that’s where one of Mortal Kombat X’s best features comes in: Kombo Breakers. Just hold the block and press towards your opponent, and you’ll use the meter to get them off your back. No mess, no fuss.

“We need Kombo Breakers in this game,” says Kirtzic. “You are reset to neutral. We’re not using interactive elements or anything like that here, the Kombo Breaker system is what you’ll use to get out of corners and reset to neutral.” Breakers didn’t work like that in MKX: they just took you off a chain, instead of bringing you back to center stage. It’s a very anti-corner tool, here, and the best option you have to launch a counter.

“It’s like we’ve taken some of the best parts from previous MK games, and we’ve also taken the parts that make the most sense,” Kirtzic continues. “MK11 we had the perfect break and block system, then we had the different types of trigger attacks; now we’re doing traditional trigger attacks that have armor, and that kind of thing. Mortal Kombat 1 is a little bit of A, a little bit of B, a little bit of C.”

And it’s a good mix. It feels good in the hands, though I bet it’s perhaps a bit less accessible than other Mortal Kombat games in recent years (which is a strange state, given how beginner-friendly Street Fighter is these days). However, it plays well and also looks absolutely gorgeous. The over-the-top violence is intact, and some of the new character models and animations are buttery smooth and just plain jaw-dropping.

NetherRealm has updated its engine, and when everything is running at full power, it looks like the next-gen fighter we’ve all been waiting for. Between it, Tekken 8, and Street Fighter 6, there’s never been a better time to be a fan of fighting games. There’s a little bit of something for everyone, even those really into the PS2 era of Mortal Kombat.

Mortal Kombat 1 will launch on September 19 for PC, PS5, Switch, and Xbox Series X/S.