It's been a while since I've enjoyed a Mortal Kombat game. 10 & 11 failed to hold my interest for too long. Through a comedy of errors with their respective gameplay feel(s), story modes, & DLC rosters (I don't think I even played 11 long enough to touch the DLC or the second campaign). My love for the franchise started to wane & I was well prepared to give up the ghost and drop the franchise and watch from the sidelines. Even Injustice 2 failed to hold my attention for very long. Both it and MK11 felt far too dull & sluggish.
Suffice it to say, I didn't think I'd say this after how their last 3 big fighting games sat with me. But NRS did a pretty bang-up job with MK1. The game feels responsive and alive, every hit feels like it matters and combos are genuinely fun to perform. The core cast of playable and kameo characters feels well-rounded at launch, they all look amazing and it feels like a revitalization of the older aesthetic in some places (specifically the kameos, also very happy to see the classic cyborg character designs again). However, some designs leave a bit to be desired. I think de-gothing Nitara is a cardinal sin in itself and once again Reiko feels like he's not enough of a character to justify his own existence. The limited customization is a little jarring, for some characters you can replace the masks, for others it's the hats or weapons. I just feel like it's a little inconsistent, and would rather take simple unlockable costumes with unlockable color palettes instead. I was surprised to find the story mode is actually quite enjoyable. It felt more like a popcorn movie than the previous MK story modes before it, even if the tie-in to the previous game felt a little pointless. Let this new universe stand on its own before you introduce a multiverse into the mix. It messes with the threat scale that could already exist within this new setting. Invasion Mode feels large enough to keep me invested for a long enough period that I'll actually learn the game indirectly before plain mashing, though the armor every fighter you go up against gets feels more like it to fluff the difficulty more than it is anything else (though it has been getting me into the habit of blocking more which is nice).
Much like the last Mortal Kombat reboot way back in 2011, this is a step in the right direction in a major way. Let's hope Ed Boon & NRS gets it right this time.
Suffice it to say, I didn't think I'd say this after how their last 3 big fighting games sat with me. But NRS did a pretty bang-up job with MK1. The game feels responsive and alive, every hit feels like it matters and combos are genuinely fun to perform. The core cast of playable and kameo characters feels well-rounded at launch, they all look amazing and it feels like a revitalization of the older aesthetic in some places (specifically the kameos, also very happy to see the classic cyborg character designs again). However, some designs leave a bit to be desired. I think de-gothing Nitara is a cardinal sin in itself and once again Reiko feels like he's not enough of a character to justify his own existence. The limited customization is a little jarring, for some characters you can replace the masks, for others it's the hats or weapons. I just feel like it's a little inconsistent, and would rather take simple unlockable costumes with unlockable color palettes instead. I was surprised to find the story mode is actually quite enjoyable. It felt more like a popcorn movie than the previous MK story modes before it, even if the tie-in to the previous game felt a little pointless. Let this new universe stand on its own before you introduce a multiverse into the mix. It messes with the threat scale that could already exist within this new setting. Invasion Mode feels large enough to keep me invested for a long enough period that I'll actually learn the game indirectly before plain mashing, though the armor every fighter you go up against gets feels more like it to fluff the difficulty more than it is anything else (though it has been getting me into the habit of blocking more which is nice).
Much like the last Mortal Kombat reboot way back in 2011, this is a step in the right direction in a major way. Let's hope Ed Boon & NRS gets it right this time.