Over the last 10 years, NetherRealm Studios has gotten into a fairly comfortable pattern, switching between two of the best fighting game franchises ever made. After testing the waters with Mortal Kombat Vs. DC Universe in 2008, NetherRealm decided to go all out five years later with Injustice: Gods Among Us, the first fully-fledged 2D DC fighting game. And with Mortal Kombat 1 being next up to bat, it seems fairly likely that an Injustice 3 could pop up soon after.
Rebooting the franchise yet again, Mortal Kombat 1 is set to hearken back to the series' bloody roots, all while introducing its own fair share of new mechanics. One of these new mechanics is called the Kameo Fighter system, and though fans have only seen a few brief glimpses of it so far, it could end up being the series' new defining feature, and a feature that could easily make its way to Injustice 3.
A Kameo Fighter System Would Fit Perfectly With Injustice 3
Mortal Kombat 1's new Kameo Fighter system is a fairly easy one for fans to wrap their head around. After selecting a primary fighter in Mortal Kombat 1, players will then be presented with a secondary roster of Kameo Fighters. These Kameo Fighters aren't fully playable, but offer assistance in combat. By pressing a button combined with a direction, the player's chosen Kameo Fighter will jump out, perform a special move, and dip out of combat again. While the main purpose of these Kameo Fighters is to extend combos, they can also be used to perform unique Fatalities that combine fighters' movesets.
While Mortal Kombat 1 has only announced a handful of Kameo Fighters so far, studio head Ed Boon has confirmed that the roster will include characters from across Mortal Kombat's entire history, rewarding long-time fans for sticking through the franchise even through its rougher eras. With these Kameo Fighters only having a handful of moves each, they presumably take much less work for NetherRealm to develop than fully-fledged playable fighters, and as such they act as a perfect bit of fan-service.
Mortal Kombat 1's Kameo Fighter system would fit perfectly into the next Injustice game. The DC Universe is a gigantic one, spanning almost 90 years of comic books, novels, video games, movies, TV shows, and animations, and each one of those individual projects has a plethora of popular characters that deserve a spot on Injustice 3's roster. While NetherRealm can't pack all of those DC characters into one game as playable characters, it might be able to bring a good portion of them to the series as Kameo Fighters.
This system would be perfect for those lesser-known DC heroes or villains that don't quite have enough star-power to fill an entire spot on the playable roster, but have enough to be more than just a small reference. Characters like Plastic Man, Detective Chimp, The Question, and Mister Miracle would all make for excellent Kameo-style fighters in Injustice 3.
On top of just providing fan-service for die-hard DC fans, introducing a Kameo Fighter system to Injustice 3 could also give the actual gameplay more diversity than ever before. While Injustice and its sequel had a fairly diverse roster, that could be improved exponentially by the introduction of a Kameo Fighter mechanic, letting players match up wildly different powers and abilities such as Superman's heat-vision and Mr. Freeze's ice ray, or Doctor Fate's magic and Beast Boy's animal-based abilities. The combinations could be practically limitless.
Mortal Kombat 1 will be released on September 19, 2023, for Nintendo Switch, PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S.