Mortal Kombat has just announced its 12th mainline entry ahead of its release later this year: Mortal Kombat 1.
Yup, we’re getting another reboot of the franchise, but as the announcement trailer reveals, it’s a soft reboot (the series’ second).
Following on from the events of Mortal Kombat 11, Liu Kang has attained godhood and decided to create a whole new universe, with fresh interpretations of Sub-Zero, Kitana, Mileena, Johnny Cage, Raiden, and the like.
The trailer mostly features a more grounded tone as we see the characters in various locales with some ominous narration, but it isn’t long before we get to see the series’ trademark brutally gory combat kombat, with bodies being cleaved in half with squishy sounding entrails flying everywhere like it was the 1990s.
Gameplay is being kept under wraps for now, but it has been announced that things are being mixed up with the introduction of Kameo Fighters, which are partner characters that can assist you during a fight. The roster of Kameo Fighters will be separate from the main characters.
Of course, fighting games nowadays live or die based on their online communities, and thankfully MK1 will be using rollback netcode for smoother gameplay when fighting against people from around the world.
The PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S versions are the flagship versions developed by the main NetherRealm Studios team, while the PC versions (Steam and Epic Games Store) are being done QLOC, who previously helmed MK11 and MKXL on PC.
And those of you wondering about a Nintendo Switch version will be glad to know that there is one coming. Rather than a stream-only cloud version, this is a full port developed by Shiver Entertainment and Saber Interactive, the latter responsible for the well-received Switch version of The Witcher III.
Mortal Kombat 1 is set for release on September 19 worldwide. If you pre-order on PS5 or Xbox, you’ll get to access the beta in August.
Pre-ordering the Premium Edition on any system lets you play the full game on September 14, as well as giving you access to six new playable characters and five new Kameo Fighters once they are released as DLC (which are heavily rumored to include The Boys‘ Homelander and Peacemaker‘s Peacemaker).
You also get a Jean-Claude Van Damme skin for Johnny Cage, which is amusing considering he was in Street Fighter: The Movie.
There’s also a very expensive Kollector’s Edition for consoles which includes all over the above, plus a 16.5-inch statue of Liu Kang.
Whichever version you pre-order, you’ll get instant access to Shang Tsung as a playable character (whether he’s paid DLC or unlocked through gameplay otherwise is unknown at this point).
Joe Anderton is a freelance news writer at Digital Spy.
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