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January 17, 2019 11:45 AM   Subscribe

Mortal Kombat 11 [YouTube] [Gameplay Trailer] [Story Trailer] A new level of brutality, plus a peek at the roster.
posted by Fizz (15 comments total) 3 users marked this as a favorite
 
It boggles my mind that we have 11 of these games now. I mean, just in case you forgot, this is what gameplay from the first game looked like.
posted by Fizz at 11:50 AM on January 17, 2019 [1 favorite]


The fatalaties were hilariously over the top.
posted by oddman at 12:09 PM on January 17, 2019 [1 favorite]


There’s a bit more than 11, not even counting spinoffs like Mythologies and Shaolin Monks.

My favorite story is the one behind Ultimate MK3, which was released as a free upgrade to MK3. This was done in part to appease pissed-off arcade owners. Sony, wanting to make a big splash, paid eight figures and got temporary exclusive rights to a 32-bit version of the game they promised would be arcade-perfect. They more or less succeeded and released the PlayStation version six months after the arcade version came out, collapsing demand in the arcade and making a lot of people who paid a lot of money for MK3 machines pretty mad.
posted by griphus at 12:09 PM on January 17, 2019 [3 favorites]


The new Mortal Kombat sounds incredible (Twitter, joke in image)
posted by Etrigan at 12:13 PM on January 17, 2019 [1 favorite]


The fatalaties were hilariously over the top.

If a recipe works, don't fuck with it. Just ask New Coke.
posted by Fizz at 12:33 PM on January 17, 2019


The fatalaties were hilariously over the top.

So much so that it put me in mind of the Black Knight scene from Monty Python and the Holy Grail ("It's just a flesh wound!") and now I just really want someone to make a funny, ultra-violent medieval fighting game using the voice-over talents of all the remaining members of Python.
posted by Atom Eyes at 12:38 PM on January 17, 2019 [3 favorites]


I can still remember playing the very first Mortal Combat, back in 1992. it lasted all of twenty seconds, as some kid who couldn't have been more than twelve whipped through an intricate series of joystick moves and button presses, all so he could rip out my avatar's spine, and show it to me. That was when I knew my arcade gaming days were well and truly over.

I never liked that game, at all. I loathed its emphasis on rote memorization over improvisation and skill, on having the 'right' character, and all those goddamn 'fatalities'. They're entertaining in their over-the-top ridiculousness, I suppose, but only when they happen to someone else. I didn't like the players it attracted, either, who only seemed to enjoy themselves when someone else wasn't having any fun. I remember how they all stood around the machine, silent and intense, nothing at all like the kids who whooped and cheered around the likes of Tempest and Galaga and Defender.

I hope that twelve year old is all grown up, has kids of his own, that he buys this game for them, and that they utterly, completely, humiliatingly destroy him.
posted by KHAAAN! at 12:50 PM on January 17, 2019 [10 favorites]


II never liked that game, at all. I loathed its emphasis on rote memorization over improvisation and skill, on having the 'right' character, and all those goddamn 'fatalities'. .

You should give Dragonball FighterZ a look, it's one of the most accessible fighting games out there and I love how embraced it is by the fighting eSports community. You don't have to be amazing to enjoy this game. I find it far more approachable than a game like Mortal Kombat. Hell, Smash Bros. Ultimate is more approachable than Mortal Kombat.
posted by Fizz at 1:14 PM on January 17, 2019 [2 favorites]


There’s a bit more than 11, not even counting spinoffs like Mythologies and Shaolin Monks.

Wikipedia lists 24 titles, though a number are updates, ports and variations on prior titles.


The fatalaties were hilariously over the top.

Isn't that the point? Look at the list of fatality-variants, including animality, babality and friendship (on the *huh, why not* end) to brutality, stage fatality, and Kreate-A-Fatality (on the *how can we amp the gore?* end).

Ah, maybe you were singing their praises. /readfail
posted by filthy light thief at 1:44 PM on January 17, 2019 [1 favorite]


I haven't played a MK game since MK2 in the arcade (or, more likely, the take-away), but I always love watching the fatality anthologies on YouTube.
posted by turbid dahlia at 2:01 PM on January 17, 2019


I'm still waiting for them to make a more extreme variation on the friendships, and have matches end with weddings. "Flawless Matrimony!"
posted by subocoyne at 2:37 PM on January 17, 2019 [12 favorites]


Have never played and never will, but I clicked through for a peek at the rooster.
Am disappointed.
posted by evilmomlady at 3:14 PM on January 17, 2019


The fatalaties were hilariously over the top.

Isn't that the point?


I guess I'm an old now, because I remember thinking the fatalities were funny way back when MK I was around, but watching the trailer now just fills me with a vague sense of disgust and an uneasiness that we depict this type of creative brutality as entertainment.

I'll go back inside now, you kids make sure you clean up the skulls, eyeballs, and entrails from the lawn when you're done.
posted by nubs at 5:41 PM on January 17, 2019 [8 favorites]


I guess I'm an old now, because I remember thinking the fatalities were funny way back when MK I was around, but watching the trailer now just fills me with a vague sense of disgust and an uneasiness that we depict this type of creative brutality as entertainment.

I think this is because the gore is far too real now and graphics/sound technology has allowed for the inclusion of more detail than most people want in terms of violence and suffering. The originals were honestly really goofy and cartoonish even if the fighter models were real people. That and the game never really took itself TOO seriously so there was a wink of "isn't this ridiculous?"

The newer games seriously look designed for people who enjoy vicariously murdering people.
posted by Young Kullervo at 5:28 AM on January 18, 2019 [4 favorites]


The originals were honestly really goofy and cartoonish even if the fighter models were real people. That and the game never really took itself TOO seriously so there was a wink of "isn't this ridiculous?"

The newer games seriously look designed for people who enjoy vicariously murdering people.


Hmm, not sure I fully agree. The graphics have been updated and yes there is more detail and gore but the violence is over the top and feels cartoonish. There is a kind of excessive pornographic feel to it, that doesn't seem to be in question but I've never looked at their more recent games and thought that this is about realistic murder/violence.

I mean at one point in the gameplay trailer someone uses a metal chain to slice a person in half, at another point a woman wills a spear of blood to form and throws it into the throat of a man who has scorpion like powers.

I understand how these games can turn people off, but it still feels very much divorced from our reality.
posted by Fizz at 10:47 AM on January 19, 2019 [1 favorite]


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