After plenty of teasing, we’ve finally been shown the next step in the Mortal Kombat franchise – Mortal Kombat 1, a rewind for the storyline of the games and a fresh take on their gory fighting.
We won’t have to wait long until we can play it, either, as this isn’t one where it’s going to take a few years to actually make it to store shelves, so keep reading to find out everything you need to know.
Mortal Kombat 1 release date
It’s pretty rare now for a game to be announced with a firm release date attached, but that’s what we got with Mortal Kombat 1 – it’ll release on 19 September 2023.
Given the game was only announced in mid-May 2023, that’s a really nice timeline.
Of course, that new name is a topic of some interest – for a while everyone assumed the next game would be Mortal Kombat 12, but we’re instead back to 1, for another reboot.
Mortal Kombat 1 pre-orders
You can now pre-order the game if you’re a big fan of the franchise and want to be sure that you’re ready to play it on release date.
Mortal Kombat 1
You can pre-order Mortal Kombat 1 here!
Mortal Kombat 1 platforms
Mortal Kombat 1 is shaping up to arrive on a slightly surprising suite of systems – or at least, on one surprising system.
Firstly, it’ll come as expected to PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S, along with a dedicated PC version.
While it’ll skip PS4 and Xbox One, though, the game will be coming to Nintendo Switch, which is a major surprise. Given that console’s puny power compared to the competition, we’ll be super curious to see how it runs.
Mortal Kombat 1 trailers
The game was announced with a CGI trailer that you can watch below, and it does a pretty good job of situating things.
It looks like we’re stepping back in time and effectively getting a soft reboot of the franchise, but there are plenty of fan favourites visibile in the trailer, along with Mortal Kombat’s trademark gore.
The second trailer for the game, above, is way longer and features extensive amount of gameplay – it’s so gory that you’ll have to click through to watch it on YouTube.
Mortal Kombat 1 roster and story
We’ve had confirmation of a decent number of fighters for Mortal Kombat 1 so far, and you can find that list below.
- Baraka
- Ermac
- Homelander*
- Johnny Cage
- Kenshi
- Kitana
- Kung Lao
- Li Mei
- Liu Kang
- Mileena
- Omni-Man*
- Peacemaker*
- Quan Chi*
- Raiden
- Rain
- Scorpion
- Shang Tsung**
- Smoke
- Sub-Zero
- Takeda*
- Tanya
* Will be available in the first DLC Kombat Pack
** Is a pre-order bonus
Since the game will also include new Kameos that join you for special moves, we’ve also got a list of Kameo fighters that have been confirmed so far:
- Cyrax
- Frost
- Goro
- Jax Briggs
- Kano
- Kung Lao
- Scorpion
- Sektor
- Sub-Zero
- Sonya Blade
- Stryker
From what we can tell from the trailers, Mortal Kombat 1 is taking things back to basics, with Liu Kang summoning fighters to take part in his legendary tournament.
The game’s official FAQ page says that it’ll include a story mode comprised of “a brand-new cinematic narrative featuring unexpected twists on classic rivalries and original backstories for the wide-ranging cast of legendary fighters”, so we might be revisiting the origins of some of our favourite fighters.
Mortal Kombat 1 gameplay
We’ve been able to see a surprising amount of Mortal Kombat 1’s gameplay so far with some obvious conclusions – it’s not going to tear the rule-book up, so expect a side-scrolling fighting game with a focus on fun and accessible combat compared to some more technical alternatives.
There are once again hugely gory Fatality executions for when you want to humiliate an opponent, the series’ trademark, but one new addition is Kameo Fighters.
This basically works like Mortal Kombat’s version of an assist fighter, letting you summon in another character to give you some help if you need to turn the tide in a fight. These fighters will be picked from a separate roster to the main characters, as you’ll have seen from our list up above.
Crucially, Mortal Kombat 1 will have rollback netcode, a feature that massively helps to mitigate the effects of lag and bad connections on your online fights. This should make its online modes more rewarding than ever.
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