Summary
- The Mortal Kombat franchise has a lot of traditions, some known by all players and others understood only by die-hard fans.
- Comic book guest characters have been a dominant trend in recent Mortal Kombat games, but they may be starting to feel repetitive.
- Instead of focusing exclusively on comic book characters, Mortal Kombat should consider bringing in a wider range of pop-culture icons from movies, TV shows, and other video game franchises.
The Mortal Kombat franchise has forged a lot of its own traditions over the past 31 years. The vast majority of these traditions are known across the entire gaming landscape, such as the Fatality mechanic coming in at the end of every match, Scorpion saying "Get over here," and series sound designer Dan Forden making a little cameo appearance every once in a while to shout "Toasty." But some of Mortal Kombat's traditions are a little more subtle, likely going over the head of all those playing who aren't die-hard MK fans. With it marketing itself as a celebration of the entire franchise, it seems likely that Mortal Kombat 1 will feature plenty of series traditions.
While most of these franchise traditions are nice little moments of fan-service that otherwise don't get in the way of the standard player-experience, there are a small handful of Mortal Kombat traditions that have a greater impact on the game's overall reception. When it comes to picking which traditions should feature in Mortal Kombat 1, there's one very recent trend that might want to be put aside moving forward.
Mortal Kombat Might Want to Drop Comic Book Guest Characters Moving Forward
By the time Mortal Kombat 1's first Kombat Pack releases, comic book characters will have had a dominant role in Mortal Kombat's guest character roster in the last few years, with them appearing almost as much as characters from horror movies. Mortal Kombat 11 started this trend, with both Spawn and The Joker coming to the game as DLC characters. If the rumors are true, then Mortal Kombat 1 is only going to continue to double down on this trend, bringing DC's Peacemaker, The Boys' Homelander, and Invincible's Omni-Man to the game.
While these comic book characters are pretty great additions to the Mortal Kombat roster, they aren't without drawbacks. One of the biggest criticisms that could be levied against Mortal Kombat 1 when its DLC eventually launches is that a lot of its comic book characters play very similarly. Though Peacemaker's gunslinging moveset will probably be a welcome addition to Mortal Kombat 1's roster, Homelander and Omni-Man have very similar abilities in their source material, and could end up playing much the same, which in turn could end up playing quite similarly to Mortal Kombat 11's Spawn.
Though it's great to bring more pop-culture icons to the Mortal Kombat universe, it might be a good idea for Mortal Kombat 1 and future entries in the series to pull back a little from those found in comic books. If NetherRealm wants to continue celebrating comic book pop-culture specifically, then its Injustice series would be a much better playground for that, with it already being fully entrenched in the DC universe, and fellow comic characters like Hellboy and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles appearing in Injustice 2.
But when it comes to Mortal Kombat, NetherRealm's flagship franchise, it might be a better idea to try and celebrate the entire spectrum of pop-culture, encompassing all types of movies and TV shows that fit with Mortal Kombat's adult nature. Bringing in action icons like Terminator and Rambo was a great decision for Mortal Kombat 11, and the series should continue that trend, but expand it out to even more genres and popular franchises.
For movies, there are still plenty of iconic action heroes, adventurers, and horror monsters that could make an appearance in Mortal Kombat, and the same could be said for iconic TV characters. Mortal Kombat could even start to bring in guest characters from fellow video game franchises, such as Ellie from The Last of Us, Sweet Tooth from Twisted Metal, or Geralt from The Witcher. The options are truly unlimited, and Mortal Kombat shouldn't feel as though it needs to just stick to comic book characters for DLC.
Mortal Kombat 1 releases September 19 on PC, PS5, Switch, and Xbox Series X/S.