Mortal Kombat 1

If you're looking forward to a deep and engaging fighting game with great single-player content, and the game you can easily pick up with no prior experience, then we suggest you to try Street Fighter 6. As of right now, Mortal Kombat 1 feels like a game aimed strictly at the fanbase of the franchise, and people who are willing to see how the game will evolve in real time.

Between the extra sparks of mechanical invention and visual humour, Mortal Kombat 1 offers perhaps NetherRealm's most persuasive argument yet to take the plunge. [Issue#390, p.128]

Mortal Kombat 1 gets the gameplay part right but I can't shake the feeling that this game was released way too early. While you do get a full story mode and Invasions mode there are so many small problems that really take away from what should be the best game NetherRealm has made yet.

Unmatched cinematic story mode and core fighting gameplay mechanics marred by baffling content and feature exclusions.

Mortal Kombat 1 is a victory with most of its story, gameplay and presentation; it’s just nowhere near a flawless victory.

Like we said in the beginning, Mortal Kombat 1 is the best and most refreshing entry in the series since Mortal Kombat (2011), but it falls directly into the same traps as those prior entries. The core fighting is great thanks to the excellent Kameo Fighter system and increased pace (as well as ditching the styles and gear-specific moves), and the return of PS2-era fighters is fantastic. But sadly, the selection of modes and character-specific training options feel extremely dated – especially compared to Street Fighter 6.

As someone's first Mortal Kombat game, Mortal Kombat 1 is a perfectly adequate but not ideal place to start (that would still be Mortal Kombat 2011). For returning players who just want to see their favorite characters again, or for anyone itching to hear Johnny Cage come up with great jokes like "Reminds me of a terrible B-movie I was in called The Flesh Pits," while walking around a room that looks just like the old MK level The Flesh Pits, this game will be a must-buy. If you were hoping to see The Great Kung Lao of myth, however, or an entirely new cast of characters, Mortal Kombat 1 isn't essential, and brings very few truly new ideas to the table.

Mortal Kombat 1 is also home to an esoteric, slightly underbaked “Invasions” mode, which injects a dash of RPG-ish grinding – complete with random encounters and variating elemental damage types – to its bread-and-butter brawling mechanics. I found this to be less compelling than either the campaign or the standard multiplayer ladder, but it’s good to see that NetherRealm is, at the very least, considering how they might reinvent the wheel in the future. After all, this is supposed to be a total reimagining of Mortal Kombat oeuvre; a new beginning for all of our twisted, bloodsoaked combatants. I’m happy to have them back in my life, but it’s a shame they didn’t learn a few more tricks during their time away.