Fighting Games Friday: It’s Kombat Time Again, Mortals

Mortal Kombat 11 was part of the rumor mill for long enough that I started to question whether NetherRealm Studios was even working on it.

There were hints that it would be announced at E3 2018, which wouldn’t have been a surprise. The Mortal Kombat 2011 reboot and Mortal Kombat X were announced at prior E3s, and so were NetherRealm’s Injustice games. Instead, the surprise came when it didn’t show, breaking established precedent. Since Evo has become the destination for fighting game news, there was a better chance it could be revealed there. But that also didn’t happen. In addition to the insiders on social media, Ed Boon was intentionally unhelpful here, since he enjoys playing with the emotions of fans on Twitter.

The game was finally announced at The Game Awards, an event that gets larger every year with the quality of game reveals and the number of those watching. It was confirmed through a CG trailer featuring Dark Raiden and Scorpion fighting to the death in true Mortal Kombat fashion: With violence so over the top that you have to wonder if there’s any ceiling for video games. The big twist came after Dark Raiden finished Scorpion, only for a version of Scorpion wearing his Mortal Kombat II outfit to appear and continue the fight to win. The trailer contained hints about the game’s features.

NetherRealm has been mostly tightlipped about MK11’s gameplay features, and will remain that way until the full reveal next month. But some information was mentioned through gaming sites and leaks. The press release described its story as a time-bending one, suggesting that it will star multiple versions of the same characters, as hinted through the trailer. It’s a different spin of what happened to Sub-Zero in the Mortal Kombat 3 games, and they’re expanding it to the rest of the roster. They had to go this route if they wanted to tickle the nostalgia bones of fans, given how many characters were killed in MK 2011’s story. It’s too soon to reboot the franchise again.

Instead of simply bringing back the multiple styles from MKX, the game’s customization system will take more inspiration from Injustice 2’s, which let players adjust characters to their liking. Whether the results will be more balanced wasn’t mentioned, though there weren’t too many game-breaking possibilities with Injustice 2’s system.

In addition to Scorpion and Dark Raiden, iconic villain Shao Khan will be a free downloadable offering for those who preorder the game. It’s difficult not to notice how he’s wearing pants now. Best Buy’s description also leaked Liu Kang and Sub-Zero, two definitely surprising additions. Todd McFarlane hinted that Spawn will be a guest character, which would continue the trend of having identifiable characters from other games that started in MK2011. This has also been a popular trend for fighting games overall for a short while.

Mortal Kombat 11 will release for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC, and — surprisingly enough — Nintendo Switch on April 23, meaning there will be a quick gap between the announcement and release. The full reveal will occur on January 17th, and there should be a constant amount of character reveals between that point and the game’s arrival.

Meanwhile, two more characters were revealed for Dead or Alive 6, and both are returning from previous installments. Chinese Zui Ba Xian Quan (aka drunken kung-fu) fighter Brad Wong is returning, who was introduced in Dead or Alive 3. The other returning character is young British combatant Eliot, also introduced in DOA3. They were revealed together here because they’re travelling with each other now, though while Eliot has officially entered the 6th DOA Tournament, Brad has not. Good thing not entering doesn’t exclude someone from being a fighter here.

Also shown was the “Unforgettable” stage, which includes elements of stages from several previous DOA games, and includes a Danger Zone. It sounds like a better alternative would have been to simply bring back those old stages to have several options, but it’s possible they already have enough.

Dead or Alive 6 will release on February 15th. Nearly every returning character from previous games has been revealed and detailed. Only Momiji and Rachel remain, both of whom were introduced in the Ninja Gaiden series, though there’s no guarantee they’ll return here. There’s also no word on whether this installment will have any guest characters, but it would be a surprise if they didn’t, because they’re popular now.

Fighting EX Layer will receive a series of updates from Arika in early 2019. Sharon Dame will be released as a free character, along with another character who’s almost definitely Area, continuing the trend of generosity through providing Pullum Purna and Vulcano Rosso for free earlier this year. All those characters were introduced in the Street Fighter EX games. Several other developers could learn a lot from this format, especially since Arika isn’t that well off. One more character will arrive as a paid DLC character, who’s likely Fatal Fury guest character Terry Bogard. Balance patches will also be provided in one patch.

In other news: 2B from NieR: Automata will release for Soulcalibur VI on Tuesday. Also, Yuna from Final Fantasy X is now available in Dissidia: Final Fantasy NT.

There’s a big story around the new sponsored content recently implemented in Street Fighter V, which I planned on discussing in this post before realizing it needed its own entry. Something I didn’t mention there is how peculiar it was on Capcom’s part to launch the ad frenzy and the free play initiative when several fighting game players are busy playing Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. This won’t get the level of attention they want because of that, and the Capcom Cup being this weekend is no excuse. Sometimes, I wonder if they’re trying to undermine this game as hard as possible.

That’s all for this week’s Fighting Games Friday. The next week could be a busy one for the genre, given how a possible announcement could happen near the end of the Capcom Cup on Sunday, and new reveals for Jump Force — including Asta from Black Clover there — could happen before and during Jump Festa next weekend. The event is hosted by Shonen Jump, so there are bound to be big characters announced. See you all next week.