Kinda Funny Gamescast: Video Game Podcast - Mortal Kombat 1 Review - Kinda Funny Gamescast

Episode Date: September 21, 2023

Mitchell Saltzman and Kahlief Adams join us to review Mortal Kombat 1. Follow Mitchell https://twitter.com/JurassicRabbit Follow Kahlief here: https://twitter.com/KahliefAdams Run of Show -  - Start - ADS - The future of MK1 - Character Changes Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What's up and welcome back to the kind of funny games cast. Of course, I am Tim Gettys and I'm joined by the new face of video games. Blessing at AOA Jr. Finished Tim. Oh, yeah. Hey. I finished Mortal Kombat one last night. So, of course, I had to get together a crew of people to talk about this video game.

Y'all have even way more experience than I do with the game. But it wasn't just me. It wasn't just blessed. Of course, we also had to ask for my G.N. Mitchell, Saltsman. What's up? How's it going? Thanks for having me. It's going really well. Last time we had you was Sonic Frontiers. So let's see what the conversation lies on this one.

All right. We were high on that one. Y'all were high on that. Oh, yeah. But high as you can be on a okay video game. Exactly. Something tells me there's going to be a little bit more actual enthusiasm for this one. But rounded out the group as well. Last time we saw him on Gamescast, I think was Street Fighter 6, keeping it in the fighting game family here. Can I call these two, the deadly alliance? Oh my God, I like that. Because Mitchell Saltman, of course, is like the fighting game dude at IGN.

Mitchell reviewed Mortal Kombat for IGN. Reviews like pretty much all the fighting games or IGN. And then Khalif is just a killer when it comes to Mortal Kombat. And so can confirm. Oh, thank you. The deadly alliance. Smoking the game, smoke in the studio. It's the perfect match.

It's perfect. There we go. There we go. Of course, this is the kind of funny games cast. We each and every week. We get together to talk about the late. latest in video games and all that we love about them. Of course, uh, normally this show happens once a week, but so many games are coming out. So many things to review. Um, what we do earlier in the week?

That, uh, we had cyberpunk. Oh, yeah. It was a review of cyberpunk, uh, Phantom Liberty that you could check out on games cast, but we decided to take the week off Xcast to get an extra games cast in here to review Mortal Kombat one because, uh, we got codes in for that very late and very limited. Uh, we originally only got one code and it was like two days. before release or something like that. So it's like, let's take a little bit more time, get more thoughts here. And I'm happy we did that because I got the time to play myself.

But of course, you can watch the show on YouTube.com slash kind of funny or rooster teeth.com. You can also get it as a podcast by searching your favorite podcast service for Kind of Funny Gamescast and we'll be right there for you. But if you wanted to go above and beyond, patreon.com slash kind of funny is where you want to be. You can get the show ad free. You can watch it live as we record it.

You get a whole bunch of bonus content. And you can be a Patreon producer like Brave Athos, Jedi Master Deadpool or Delaney 20. Thank you all so very, very much. Today we're brought to you by BetterHelp, but I'll tell you about that later. We've got to get into it. MK1.

Bless, you are the lead reviewer, that kind of funny of Mortal Kombat 1. What did you think about it and what would you give it on the kind of funny scale? Yeah, so I think this is a very fascinating game to review because I almost want to review it from three different angles. I want to review just the game on its own by its own merits. I want to review the story mode.

and I also just want to review it from the sense of how I relate to moral combat in terms of where I'm at with Moral Combat 1 in my relationship with the franchise. And so starting from the top level, I'm going to give this game a four out of five. That's my official review score for Mortal Kombat 1. Talking about this game by its own merits, it is flashy, it is Mortal Kombat, right? It is fun. The combat is there and it's great. The story mode is there.

And I think for what Moral Kombat 1 is as a Mortal Kombat 1 is as a Mortal Kombat game and as a final game in general, it is a full package, right? It's setting that standard in terms of what you want out of a single player content. The story is really fun. The characters are awesome.

The world is still great. If you're a Mortal Kombat fan, you've got so much to look forward to out of Mortal Kombat, the video game. The fighting is dope. The new cameo system works as intended, and I think it's a great addition

to making the combat feel a bit more, even more involved than it has been. You know, the different uses for what the cameo system can do I think are really fascinating and fun, whether it be extending your combo or whether it be repositioning you on the stage because you have a scorpion as your cameo.

And so he'll use the spear to pull you in to get out of the way of an opponent. I think those kinds of uses for the cameo system makes you really fun and really engaging. I think it goes above and beyond. The environments and the characters look great unless you're playing on Switch. But on the consoles that you want to play this game on,

the game looks fantastic, right? The environments are incredible. The violence is there. I think this is the full package of Mortal Conchurchase. combat. I then jump over to the story mode. And again, I think the story mode is a really great time. There are some points of the story mode where I feel like, man, I wish Moral Combat 1 could feel like it had the liberty to go beyond this box of what is Mortal Kombat. You know, it feels like I'm also, I'm almost watching these guys have to reckon with, all right, people expect this to,

people expect these certain characters to behave certain way. People expect Scorpion of Zero to have their fight. So we got to give them a fight, right? We got to make sure there's a God recruiting these dudes. We got to make sure that Shaq Khan is evil and Kwanchi comes through and a deadly alliance comes. It almost feels like I'm watching a franchise look at what we've seen like Marvel do, right? With something

like end game or Infinity War and go, hey, how do we make sure we're giving as much fan services as we can? And it feels like they're doing that over again in the way that they can do with moral combat. But I think I would have loved it more even if they found newer and fresher stories to tell. I think the story they tell here

is really fun and there are so many hype moments. And if you're a Mortal Kombat fan, there's so much to love here, especially for me, because I'm somebody who I played most of the Mortal Kombat games. I want to say the ones that I haven't played are probably Deadly Alliance. And then I didn't play much DC universe, uh, Mortal Kombat versus DC Universe, but I played pretty much every other Mortal Kombat. My Mortal Kombat's in terms of where my nostalgia mainly lies are the PS2 Mortal Kombat's. And this game and this story mode does so much to honor the PS2 Mortal Kombat's in a way that those ones never get honored. The references they make, the characters they choose to include,

the roster in full gives so much love to the PS2, and I absolutely love that, and that got me hyped. And so, yeah, I think for the most part, the story mode does this job at being this great, this fun time, and being another layer of single player content to keep you going. From there, I then jump into my own personal relationship with Moral Combat, because I've grown up as a Moral Kombat person, right? Like, I had SoulCobber growing up. I played Street Fighter with my friends, but Mortal Kombat was the one that I would always go. go to. And over the years, you know, I've ventured into playing more 2D stuff. In the last five years especially, right, I went from Dragon Ball Fighters to Guilty Gear Strive to Street Fighter 6. And

in Street Fighter 6 especially, I've seen so much done to push the genre of fighting games forward, whether it be with the modern control scheme, whether it be with like the arcade mode, not the arcade mode, but like the mode where you're online and you're running around the arcade and hanging out with people, right? Whether it be with even what they do with, the world tour, right? Which, in my opinion, kind of a swing and a miss, but it was something that was different and fresh, and I think they really tried with the world tour mode. Mortal Kombat one for me almost feels like they're on cruise control.

Where it is, we know what moral combat is. Both spelled with a K. But yeah, cruise control spelled with a K. We know what moral combat is. We know what people expect. It's going to have the X-rays. It's going to have the X-Rex moves, or not the X-moves, but the enhanced moves. It's going to have the roster of fatalities and the brutalities.

and they've found this streamlined version of what the Mortal Kombat format is that is expected and I think works, I would almost want them to push that further, right? I feel like I've now gone into playing somewhat of a similar Mortal Kombat game for maybe the last decade. And with that, I think you get left behind

in the times a little bit where I look at something like the story mode and again, like they've made the story mode the same way they've made the other story modes. And this is something I'm stealing from Mitchell's review from IGN. why when I start a new chapter do I not get the prompts on screen for what my new for what my character specials are right like why isn't there an onboarding process for that

moment to moment even in the story mode why is there like and again this is going to get into what moral combat is versus what it isn't uh there is a level of stiffness and how the game moves that is very mortal combat but is also very not what any other fighting game is right now and if you're jumping from street fighter or guilty or any other fighting game into mortal combat, cool man, it is going to be a struggle for you trying to reactimate to what this game is, right? Like there's a combo system that I think is very aggressive that I think is very brutal to like wrap your mind around that again, this is what mortal combat is. But I think when you're somebody who is into fighting games and you're somebody who is playing a lot of

finding games or you're somebody who's trying to transition in mortal combat, it can feel very unforgiving to get into the mortal combat ecosystem. Once you do, it's a fun time. But yeah, It's been an interesting ride this time around trying to get into Mortal Kombat because coming off of Street Fighter 6, now I'm like, man, after I'm down with this, I think I'm going straight back into Street Fighter because Street Fighter feels more friendly. It feels more open for me getting into it as like a quote unquote newcomer. I'm not newcomer anymore, but you get what I mean. And so my overall score is a four out of five, right?

And again, that is me judging Mortal Kombat by its own merits and what it does and, you know, how much fun I've had with it. But yeah, I think there's a lot to talk about with where Mortal Kombat 1 is at now. So Mitch, going to you then, you reviewed it for IGN. What score did you give it for IGN? And please expand on those thoughts. I gave it an 8 out 10, which is a great on the IGN scale. I think it's a great game.

Blessing touched upon pretty much, pretty much everything. The one thing I want to like kind of dive into is like kind of the difference in philosophy of like Capcom with Street Fire 6 and Nether Realm with Mortal Kombat 1, whereas like with Streetfire 6, Capcom felt like they were trying to pull. push forward the genre of fighting games in terms of like, you know, the battle hub, like, what, what an online game looks like for, for a fighting game, what, you know, a bunch of quality of life improvements, like what, what can a training mode be in a fighting game? What are all the things we can add to training mode to make it the best possible training

mode that it can be? Whereas you look at Mortal Kombat 1, and it really does feel like Nether Realm is just trying to make kind of the best version of MK based on what happened last time. Um, like they are, you know, iterating upon story mode very, very slightly. Uh, the online modes are virtually identical between Mortal Kombat 1 and Mortal Kombat 11. In fact, I would say they're a little less featured in Mortal Kombat 1. Um, and so like, I, I, I don't want to say like there's a lack of ambition, but I do think that cruise control is probably like a good way to put it, like Blessing said.

It felt like they might have been on cruise control of this game. But even with all that said, the, the big. important thing about Mortal Kombat 1 is this cameo system and how game changing it is for Mortal Kombat and like its actual, uh, it's actual gameplay, which is the most important thing. I think that most fighting game fans are going to be paying attention to that they're going to be, you know, really diving into. Um, the fact that you have these cameos to add that extra level to your, your own personal style of play is just so freeing, especially when you look back at like Mortal Kombat 11.

and like you could figure out a character very, very quickly. It's like, okay, this is my move that's going to launch them. This is my move that's going to catch them. This is my move that's going to finish the combo. And, you know, that's going to be my go-to bread and butter combo. Whereas Mortal Kombat 1, you have to consider all kinds of things like, what cameo am I going to use? Is this cameo better for combo extension or is this cameo better for starting up a combo?

Like Frost has a really, really good, far-hitting, low-freezing combo that can just use that neutral and get a free, you know, 30% damage off of. And then there's all kinds of other things that you have to consider as well. Like, you know, does my cameo have an ambush attack, which basically means that you can use it at any time,

or is it like more of a straight thing that you have to cancel after a certain move? There's just all kinds of things that you have to consider, and it leads to a type of game where you can spend a lot of time in training mode and have a lot of fun figuring your character out, figuring your character combination out. So all that I think is phenomenal with Mortal Kombat 1.

But I do think it kind of drops the ball on online play and basically trying to make Mortal Kombat more than what it was before. Con, I want to get you into this. What would you give it on the kind of funny scale of one to five? And what are your thoughts? I would give it a four, a four out of five. I think the game is pretty fantastic. I think as a, as MK as my main game for most fighters having kind of gone and bounced between Street Fighter 6 and then going back to my baby in MK.

It feels really interesting to go back and bounce between those two because I remember when Street Fighter 6 came out and me having kind of just come off 11, I was struggling a ton to be able to get combos together and get back into that old Street Fighter kind of mode of how those moves kind of interact with each other and timing and all of those things. things. And it's been funny to kind of get back into MK and automatically feel pretty at home in terms of my competency and my ability to kind of like really dig into the minutia of what that game is. I would, I would mirror the sentiments of Bless and Team and Mitch about like it feels like they did play it safe in some areas. And I think the thing that is kind of the most disappointing, even though I'm pretty high on the game, is that for what we've seen across other games right now, It does feel like Nether Realm has decided that the ways that they want to innovate are graphically in terms of the retconning of the story, which I think, you know, once we really dig into that, I think is kind of the most brilliant part of the game. But it does feel like a lot of those quality of life things that we have now kind of an expectation for didn't really come into this version of the game.

Things like how do you pick a new character in between a fight when you have a cameo in combat league? You're kind of stuck with that character until you lose The ability to kind of watch other people play while you play has gotten a little bit worse in terms of King of the Hill matches and things like that so it's like some of those pieces feel like they didn't get the love that we had an expectation for And it feels like it in in totality kind of like makes it feel a little bit older than what we wind up getting and it feels like like you know I'd love to hear the thoughts of the rest of the crew it felt like for as much feature richness there was to the story mode it felt shorter maybe in terms of how long the the mode was but it did give you so much good fan service that maybe that was the thing that balanced it out at least it did for me but again having a ton of a ton of fun with it and it is now again now that i'm getting into that space

and understanding what cameos can do, it is my favorite fighter of the year right now. Ooh, that's super fun. I'm excited to talk about this from a different perspective. I am not a big fighting game guy. I enjoy fighting games, but not really great at them, but I do love a good story mode in a fighting game.

And even going back to the OGs of the original street fighters and the original Mortal Kombat, just playing through doing the whole tower, like facing off in a more now, what's known as arcade mode, getting the fun little ending stories for these characters.

I was always here for that stuff. And like, even to the PS2, Mortal Kombat's with Deadly Alliance and Deception and stuff, I loved renting those games from Blockbuster, just playing through as all the different characters and seeing what they were going to give us. And like, I like how it all felt simultaneously important in canon and just nonsense and just fun.

And who are you playing as? Is it really going to matter or not? The Nether Realm games, I think, deserves so much credit for, like, going above and beyond and honestly creating a brand new experience. when it comes to these single player campaigns, I have been so impressed from Injustice 2

all the way through to Mortal Kombat 1. And I would recommend this game to most gamers. Like I feel like whether or not you care about Mortal Kombat or fighting games, I feel like if you have the means to play this game, you owe it to yourself to try out this campaign because the level of production value and fun to be had from it,

I think is just off the charts. Like to Causepoint, I think that it's about in line with the other. once, if I remember correctly, like I took me about like six and a half hours and I feel like that's normally what they, they are. But I like that. I really like it not overstaying its welcome. I feel like it was so much fun to play the different characters. I get what bless and Mitch are saying about wishing there was like a, here's the combos for these characters that would like kind of teach you a little bit more embedded in the presentation. But in some ways I kind of like

that it taught me to just hit start and look at the combo list because that's the way that you're going to play the game with other characters in other modes. I feel like this game to a, I want to say newcomer, even though I'm not so much a newcomer, but I'm just like still not up on all the stuff when it comes to the advanced techniques. I feel like this game did a really good job of making me feel welcome.

And like holding my hand where I needed it to, but making me feel like I understood what I was doing in a really supportive way. Having said that, sorry, let me take a step back before I even say that part. I love the UI of this game. I think it's just so clean where the health bars are, the bar at the bottom.

Like you totally understand exactly what's going on. I don't think that they overdid the UI, which even something like Street Fighter, I look at nowadays. And I'm just like, there's just a lot of meters. There's a lot of bars. And it's a little unclear what each thing's supposed to be. Whereas this, it's extremely clear where there's the health bar, there's the timer. There's the bar at the bottom left for your specials. And then there's the cameo system that is a bit more of like a cool down.

uh, circle thing totally makes sense to me. And I just feel like it's a joy to look at and it's a joy to play because of just how clean it all is. And in the story mode, transitioning from the gameplay of the fight into the cutscenes is so seamless that every time I went, oh shit. Like it just kept hitting me where I was like, dang man. I was talking to Roger about this. This game reminds me a lot of the uncharted series if you took out all of the climbing. So it's just the shooting monster closet and then a cutscene but replace the shooting with a fun fighting game, right?

And I think that to that extent, it is so worth your time. This is so much fun. I've seen a lot of people say like, oh, it's pure just like Saturday morning cartoon goodness when it comes to the story. I'd go one step further than that. I think that what this is is pure authentic video game. This is just

a video game-ass story that we don't get much of these days because everything's trying so hard to be so serious or so this or so that. so cinematic even. This is just having as much fun with the mortal combat lore as they possibly can. And I was there for it

for every dumbass line that Johnny Cage has that's referencing a movie, which I don't think he can say something without referencing a movie, especially in this, or every other character that literally can't have a sentence without saying the words, mortal combat, or finish him. It's impressive how many times

they got those things into the writing. But it just worked. However, I do think Bless is right. we've seen this before. There was no moment in this game that I, in the story where I was like, whoa, like I can't believe they're doing this.

I could believe they did every single thing that they did. And there was some surprising moments of like nods and homages to things. There was a lot of stuff I didn't get that totally went over my head that I, the amount of characters that would pop up, especially towards an end sequence in the game, I was like, I bet you blessings popping off right now. Were you?

Oh yeah. I mean, I was popping off. The last chapter of this game is insane. That ending sequence is crazy. Yeah. Yeah. And I loved it.

It was fun and it was entertaining. I just didn't know who a lot of the people were. So anyways, I had a blast of this game. And I just wanted to say, I recommend it to everybody to give this thing a shot. I mean, to your point,

I think it's impressive that that Mortal Kombat has gotten to the point where we hold the story to a higher standard. Yes. Like, how insane is that? If this was 2010 or whenever MK9 came out, this would come out and like, it would blow up. our fucking minds the story mode is this good.

But it's been this good now for a while to now we're like, all right, but push it further. I think that's where I'm at with the story where it's like, oh man, even as I watch it from cutscene to cutscene, like, I'm looking at these cutscine and watching what's happening. I'm like, wow, why can't the movies be this good? Right? Like, this is presenting itself in a cinematic way that is even better than what any of the

moral combat movies have done, right? Like, that's how good the story mode is. But yeah, then I have to get into that nitpicking mode of like, oh, yeah, okay, okay, like I'm enjoying this so much, but man, yeah, like we've seen this before, right? Like we've seen this character interactions. We've seen it. There was an article. I forget who wrote this article.

Might have been Washington Post that had an article that was like, um, moral combat. Oh, what it was like essentially calling it saying that moral combat feels old at this point, right? Kind of saying that it's kind of reveling in the fact that it's more of this nostalgic thing as opposed to reveling in like being a new thing, being something that could be with the times, being something that could be fresh and new. I think there's something there that maybe we could see pushed in the next game, but even with that, right? Like, this is still one of the best fighting game stories that we can ask for. Yeah, Mitch, I want to get back to you talking about you, love and Dan. I don't want to spoil anything, but what was your impressions of the story mode?

I like the story mode a lot. I think, like everyone has said, this is a mode that we've seen for the last 15 years, so it's not super surprising that or unexpected that it's as good as it is. But I think it's impressive that Nether Realm has kept a consistent quality in all their story modes throughout all these years pretty much. Like there's no single game that I can point to. Like, oh, yeah, that's the bad Mortal Kombat storyline, the one you don't want to watch. Like they've all been really, really good. And, you know, I think it's just the kind of thing that you have to go into with the idea that this is kind of stupid.

it is a summer blockbuster popcorn movie in video game form. And I think if you go in with that mindset, it's really impossible to not be entertained by what's happening in these story modes. They're just so well choreographed. They're so well directed. The acting is really good with the exception of Megan Foxxas, Nitara. They've been having some struggle with the celebrity casting, I think, for their main story mode.

I will say she didn't stand out to me. Really? Yeah. Like it took me a while to be like, wait, which one was Megan Fox? And then I was like, oh, yeah, okay, yeah. Like, I feel like she was up there with everybody. I had a similar thing with Rhonda Rousey in the last game where like, it wasn't until I finished where I remembered that Ronda Rousey was in the last game. And everybody was like, oh, she was terrible. And I was like, oh, I guess I just didn't realize. Yeah. I think she's, she's probably worse in like the character intros between each fighter when when you're playing. I've seen clips of that where like her voice is like, there's one where her voice kind of break. and it's like, whoa, y'all didn't retake that one? Like, what's going on? It's also worth mentioning, like, they recorded this during the pandemic. So it could have been, like, you know, all the, all the other people that are cast as actors in this are, like, professional voice actors, probably that had their own home situation figured out. Megan Fox, I imagine, like, maybe not so much because she's more of a on-screen actor, maybe didn't have the, you know, the home recording setup to really make it sound as good as it does. you should but i don't know that's just me supposing uh kha you being the mortal combat guy

when i think mortal combat i think about you what do you think this game did for for that for the for the use out there like the is this going to be the mortal combat or it's like oh man this one missed the mark a little well i think the thing that i that i keep coming back to is i think if you if you talk to a lot of folks in the community right towards the end of 11 a lot of folks were kind of disappointed in kind of the balancing of characters and some of the systems that were there. You know, you did get a lot of

folks kind of talking about how the story was good, but also felt a little bit wrote. And the biggest kind of change moving into MK1 was, of course, the naming convention and kind of going back into kind of retconning and doing the multiverse version of

MK. And for me, I come back to just what could have happened with that scenario and in knowing how how how kind of thoughtful ed boone and the rest of that team are about kind of moving the story forward and i'm really excited about that because i feel like when you do these retcons and you kind of restart the timeline again um you can botch a lot of stuff within that conversation and i think what is going to happen has maybe more excited because now we have a different version of multiple timelines in multiple characters that we can then go

to and look at and say, well, oh, if this character is doing this now, what does that mean for the things that we knew, you know, previously? Like Johnny Cajun and Sonia were together in a couple. And now they're not in this version of it. You know, what happened? Well, you know what happens to Jack's Jack's, Jack's hand gets handed. So business. But, you know, there are a lot of characters now that have, will have and will come into

their own in a different way. Like even, you know, my main and in Raiden, having now been. kind of chosen in a different way, you get to see some of those characters kind of change their their motives. And, you know, if you go and play that person's, that character's tower, there's even a nod to his old personality in the previous game. So I think it just gives the space a lot of room to grow in a way that story wise gives a lot of space, DLC wise gives a lot of space where you don't really have that conversation of, well, this character doesn't belong in this canon anymore, even though we had a peek at some of the DLC characters that

are coming. Nothing is out of bounds now because of this retcon, which is kind of dope. Yeah. What about from a gameplay perspective? Do you feel like this one's kind of living up with the cameo system? Oh, the cameo system is world changing for the modal combat universe. I think like what Mitch was talking about of like the permutations that you have to think about when you go into a matchup now are so wild because you can even think about it in ways of which characters do I want to go that are off meta that switches up things because it just adds a new wrinkle to the conversation about where you want to play,

how you want to play, and the kind of tools that you have at your disposal, all of those things just makes it so much more fun for when I think about the tournament season that's going to be coming up now. We've seen tournaments every day now in the MK space that people are running offline, and I'm constantly seeing new tech.

And that's not just because of the newness of the game, but just because people are finding stuff every day that goes alongside these new cameo characters and stuff that we haven't seen before. So the game is in a much better spot in a kind of much broader space that I think will also lend to bringing more people into the game that maybe it never played it before.

I want to keep talking about the game, but real quick, I do want to take a word from our sponsors. This episode is brought to you by BetterHelp. I can't even count the amount of nights I lose sleep because I just can't stop thinking and my brain just won't stop talking. It turns out one great way to make those racing thoughts go away is to talk them through.

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Visit betterhelp.com slash Kind of Funny today to get 10% off your first month. That's BetterHelp. H-E-L-P.com slash Kind of Funny. BetterHelp.com slash Kind of Funny. Mitch, what do you think about this as a full package at release? We know there's DLC coming. Are you happy with what we have? as a fighting game and what we're already promised is kind of a roadmap?

I think Mortal Kombat in general is probably one of the most complete fighting games out there just in terms of like this the sheer, you know, variety of modes that they have in terms of like if you want to play online, you got ranked online. There's a really great ranked system called Combat League, which, you know, unlock specific gear for your character that you earn from getting high ranks, which is really, really cool. If you're more of a, you know, casual player and you just want to experience a story,

there's this great story mode that you can go through. And, you know, it's six hours of a great story mode that you can play and then maybe, you know, just put it on a shelf, but you'll have, you know, that great experience. And then if you want to keep on playing, there's Invasion's mode, which, you know, is a mode that's designed for basically unlimited playing.

It's a grind. It's not for me. But I'm sure there are people out there that love just, you know, kind of mindlessly going through that mode, unlocking all kinds of different pieces of gear, customizable items for their characters, you know, art pieces, music tracks. There's so much to unlock in this game that, like, I can't, I can't even see the end of it. And then, you know, there's the, the DLC that's coming down the road that we know is going to be, you know, expansive. not only that, but there's also seasons for invasions mode where every season you get a new seasonal story,

you get new seasonal gear. There's just so much to play in this game that if you're looking for something to just, you know, keep on grinding through for now until like the next Mortal Kombat game, you've got it. So yeah. Bless, kind of the same type of question.

You were saying that once you're done with this, you think you might go back to Street Fighter 6 and have had your time here, but then really your heart's with Street Fighter. How much more time do you think you have here? What are you looking forward to continuing to do with Mortal Kombat before you move back? Yeah, I think the thing that's that is keeping me in, and Mitch kind of touched on this a little bit is unlocking the gear for the characters.

That's one thing that I really am enjoying, right? The customization of it, the more you play, the more, and the more you play specific characters, the more you level up that particular character. And so if I play it, if I main a scorpion and I get my scorpion up, right, like five, 10, 15 levels, I am now unlocking new masks. I'm unlocking new cosmetic gear. I'm also unlocking new brutalities and new fatalities. And that I think is really cool, right?

Like, I have this incentive to want to double down and focus in on a character. And right now, I am between maining Molina and I'm also maintaining Baraka as well. And I play, I want to main Molina, but I'm way better as Baraka. So I'm like, how am I just going on Baraka? But the fact that cool, the more I play Baraka, the more I'm actually leveling up this character, that's super satisfying. And like, I peeked into the invasions mode, too. And I'm like with Mitch that that's not my jam, but I do think it's neat.

how much content there is that can keep you in, right? The fact that you have online towers, invasion, you have a story mode that's going to last you five to six hours, right? You have like enough stuff there to keep you going. And I think for me, that's honestly the stuff that's keeping me in. You know, I think Street Fighter, I kind of want to get to because that's the kind of game where I literally just play ranked online and I have such a blast just with the pure fighting mechanics of it.

I think Mortal Kombat is where it's at in terms of the content with the capital K, right? Like the content is there to keep me. in. And so I honestly don't know how much longer I have with moral combat. I think I'm going until that stuff gets tiring. But that stuff is so good that it could keep me going for another, let's say, 10 to 20 hours. I do want to say shout out to our boy Megaran who did the credit song. Oh, did he? And I was like, holy shit. I didn't even notice. Yeah. I was like watching the credits. I'm like, oh my God. Yes. So that's super awesome. Tim, did you have any favorite parts of the story? I mean, like the whole without spoli, obviously. Without spoli. Like the last hour is kind of just like.

perfect. I keep thinking back to like the Johnny Cage chapter where they're very good character. Yeah. Oh like one of my, I probably just one of my favorite game moments of the year like really well done really cool. Like you mean as a player you already know what's happening right but like the way that they stick with it and the way that they commit to the the gimmick they're doing there I thought was just fucking fantastic. And then I also just really like what they did with Baraka's character because Barack is just that character where like correct me from wrong in previous Mortal Kombat's Baraka's always been evil, right?

Like, he's always been kind of a, like, yeah, in that evil, like, category. He's a hedgeman character, basically. Yeah, like, usually he's like, all right, cool, nobody gives a fuck about Baraka. The way they utilize his character in the story mode, like, actually got me. I thought it was really good. Yeah, so speaking on characters, with y'all being very familiar with Mortal Kombat and this being the, you know, 12th iteration of these characters in some ways, are there any characters that y'all liked the changes of specifically,

or are there any characters that you're like, oh, man, they messed up my girl? I like this question. Good, Mitch. I was just going to say, I kind of like, I would say 90% of the, you know, kind of reinventions of classic characters that I've seen. You know, talking specifically about the 3D era characters,

but I think Lee Mae is definitely a standout. I think, you know, I couldn't care less about Lee Mae during the 3D era, but I think the, the visual, you know, makeover that she got in MK1 and also kind of her role in the story is very, very interesting. I think, let's, who else was there? So I think Scorpion has probably the most interesting and maybe controversial changed and, like, his identity was changed. But I also think, like, he is a very interesting character in particular. Yeah, and particularly his role in the story and like with the Lin Quay clan and like kind of what happens with that clan and how it leads to things that people are expecting out of Scorpion is also really, really cool. The one character that, and God, I hate saying this because paired on top of what I've already said, it's like I'm out to get her. But I don't like, I don't like what they did to Nitaara.

I think I think she looks. she looks like Megan Fox in cosplay and I wish they did something a little different with her. What about from a gameplay perspective, though? From a gameplay perspective in terms of like reinventing the characters? I don't really enjoy Scorpion in this game as much as I normally did. He's very different in terms of how his moves kind of operate. But for everyone else that I've, you know,

gotten to experience, like there's new, new tricks that every character has that make them feel very, very different from previous versions. And it's fun to discover those tricks and kind of relearn a character. It's what I'll say about that. I love Lou Kang, like, being that God character

in this game and like you kind of having, like you feeling like a souped up Luke King. I thought that felt really cool. I will say the moment I started playing as Luke King, I was like, oh, it's over. I'm not playing as anyone else. Oh, yeah, yeah. He's the best.

Because, yeah, it's OPEC. Yeah, it's O.P. As hell and you're like, yeah. Like, especially like, Fire Dragon, where, like, he'll attach this character across the screen and then fucking kick toward them. So sick. Super sick.

I'll give, like, a bit of a hot take, right? I don't necessarily love how much we got lore into Kenchi in this one. Because, like, in previous games, like, obviously, like, the whole thing with Moral Con, by one is that it's a different timeline. So we're going to, like, maybe mix up a bit of their backstories. I liked how little we knew about Kenchi. And, like, we maybe knew a bit about Kenchi in the previous ones.

But, like, I personally just did not know what the fuck was up with this character up until this point. Like, he's a dude with a blindfold and a sword. That's all, and like he has telepathy. That's all I've known about Kenchi up into this point. And in this one, you get more answers on like who he is and what he's up to and then like where he's getting certain things. And I'm like, oh, this is very close to like in the Star Wars prequals when we got

answers to questions that we didn't have. I was fine. I was fine like him being mysterious and me being like, oh, what happened to him? What's his mysterious past? We get answers and I'm like, oh, okay, I didn't need the answers here. That would be, that's me. That's me on my hater raid. that said like I mentioned right

Baraka I think is super cool in this game like what they did with his character reptile in the story I thought was done really cool super cool super cool like had me actually feeling for his character in a way that I've never felt for reptile before

any oh even Molina like Melina's role in the story and like on the opposite side of what I just talked about with with Kenchi I think Molina's explanation for what's going on with her character really fascinating really cool and I like how they connected all together

with like also what's going on with other characters and you know what moral con like what what's going on the moral combat world in a broader way i thought they tied that that stuff really well together call what about you i was just going to say real quick just because i forgot it while blessing was talking uh i feel like we got a we got to give shout to a shout out to shank sung because i think this is probably the best iteration of shang sung in the mortal combat series um i mean i can say from a sheer performance standpoint, homie was going off. If he was on screen,

I was like, I am all in on this. I loved the performance. I love his vibe. I love it. Again, it just delivers what we expect. When Johnny Cage is on screen,

we know we're going to get. When Sheng Song is on screen, we know we're about to get, I'm an evil ass bad guy. And even when I'm on your side, I'm not on your side. And there's like a smarminess to him. Like,

I just, he's always smiling. Everything he says, he's smiling. It's awesome. You kind of hang on every word that he says. Yeah. One more author out there.

I wish we got more out of smoke in the story. I really like his characters in general. I think the smoke power, like his like his moves, his move set, it's fucking insane. It's been insane for a while. I wish he had a bit more presence, right? Like I understand that, hey, it's the link way. We want to focus on Scorpion and Sub-Zero. I wish we got a bit more smoke.

Yuri Lowndhal, right? Oh, is it really? Yeah. Oh, man. He's busy. He's out there swinging around. He's doing his thing. But Khalif, what about you in terms of like the character changes?

I'm anti-smoke because he has a boy band haircut now, so I can't rock with smoke. He has to get deleted off the entire roster. Shang's performance is brilliant and amazing. Like he's the only cat that would beat your ass with his pinky up, which is fantastic. And I loved reptile. In terms of gameplay, though, I think Shang is amazing being able to morph between old Shang, new Shang, and be able to still take souls, which is fantastic. I think reptiles changes have been really good because they're really digging into his actual, like, lizard bag with him doing alligator rolls and things like that in the game, which is super fun and hard to play against.

General Shao, actually from a story and from a gameplay perspective, has gotten to glow up in a lot of different ways, which I love as well. And I think the new folks in the roster have been really interesting. I think Lee Mae is a character that a lot of folks played in the early betas and has gotten really good with. I think even from a cameo perspective, you know, you know, folks like Darius coming back or, you know, Motaro coming back is wild. Because like, he's just a guy. Darius is like the dude from the boys, the really fast dude from the boys. I can't remember.

Oh, yeah. Basically, but a train. He's basically a train. It's funny. I forget what game they introduced them in. I know I probably played as him in like Armageddon or whatever, but like. deception was he in deceptive god everybody was deception what i when you when i look at darius in like the cameo character selection screen and i use him i'm like what is his power like what is he doing here

like it feels like he's from the he feels like he's in the wrong game it feels like he should be in like some other video game i don't know it's so funny because like he doesn't have any like notable powers yeah but he's also one of the most unique cameos in the game because he's like the only one that like your character interacts with like they'll jump on they'll jump on his back he'll like swing him around this is funny I'm looking up what Darius's powers are in Mortal Kombat and the explanation from an interview is saying that

the whole point of his character was to use abilities that no other character in the game used that's really fun yeah right there you're spot on about it yeah I'm like what the fuck is this character doing in the video game when I when I combo him because basically a lot of folks have been using Jacks with with Raiden because of the combo

potential there I've been using Darius as a as an anti using of Jack's thing and now when I put Raiden and Darius to I just call them black and mild and just have them as that team but but it's fantastic I think I think a lot of those characters that we're seeing that have been pulled into the roster and have been really good even the small changes for like characters like Sindel has been has been really nice to be able to see and I think you know the the main characters that we that we've kind of known to come in love they just have this this this flare to them now

that is just very different and feels good so yeah those those are the the kind of characters I'd love to see more of. And then when we started getting into the conversations around DLC stuff that's coming down the line, like the options there are just going to be nuts when that stuff drops. I have a question there because I finished the campaign and I was like, cool, my time with Mortal Kombat has come to an end.

Then I was like, wait, wait, wait, there's actually some, I want to see peacemaker. I want to see Omni Man. I want to see Homeland and what's going on with this. And then I like went to try to find them because the code we got had the DLC pattern or whatever. So I was like, oh, it'll be. And then it wasn't there. So I was a little sad. about that. What's the deal

with the DLC not being here and is that normal? Is that to be expected? I think that's to be expected. Yeah, I think it's more of a season pass situation. So I think of like the Smash Brothers got it. Okay. Okay. I don't think we have like confirmation on dates or anything like that so you just got to wait to see it. It'll probably be over the course of the next year. They'll release

a new character probably every like two or three months. And by this time next year we'll have all those characters out. With the DLC characters, is there any story sections or is it just here's a character and have fun with it. They'll probably not. There's a tower.

Yeah. Yeah. Every character will have their own tower. So they'll have like, you know, their own kind of ending that basically contextualizes why they're in Mortal Kombat. Um, but that's it. That's enough for me. And honestly, I'm a little bit excited to see that because yeah, the characters like the non-MK characters in the season past are all these comic book anti-heroes characters, right? So it's Peacemaker.

Omneman and then who's the third one? Homelander, right? And so I wonder if it is so like, I guess like the timelines opened into comic books or whatever. I think it's going to be something really corny like that and that could be really fun and so I'm excited to see what that is. At least we'll get an

explanation like we did not get an explanation of by Homelander and the characters when the boys were in Call a Duty. It's funny. It's like Homelander's staying in as Nicky Minage. Yeah, basically right? Like, hey, they'll pull Nikki into MK at some point, right? She'll have a spot. in there somewhere.

Yeah. As we wrap this up, do you guys have any closing thoughts on Mortal Kombat 1? Yeah, I'll go first. I think this sets them up and the Realm up for a really fantastic kind of future.

Like, we talk about the roadmap in terms of like DLC stuff and potential new modes and things like that. I think where they have left off story-wise gives them the most room to add any wild stuff that we want.

I know Bless and I had been talking about kind of the technical prowess of the team and the gore factor there, which has been ramped up, but also for our twisted minds is not really as sick as we wanted it to be. Me and Kyle were like hanging out on the Discord playing World Combat. And we were like, it's not violent enough. I don't know. Like I kind of want more violence. You know, I agree there with just the the way it's presented, I feel is so normalized at this point that it is a sensitivity thing. Yeah. I didn't know if it was my twisted brain just, yeah, being so used to it or if this game just got less violent.

But I think this is our twisted brain. I think, yeah, I think it's just as violent. It's just like the way it's presented in such a polished way. Yeah, it kind of like, everything just looks so clean. There's an explosion to the blood where it's like, this might as well be Nickelodeon slime. Yeah, straight up. That's a great way to put it. There was, uh, although there was one that that, that Ka, I think, tagged me in where

somebody like got like cut open and then their bot like half their body fell over or whatever. Yeah. And that was the one where I was like, okay, no, they still. got it. Like they still got it, but yeah, you kind of have to search for it a little bit. There is a, like, it's funny because you have the brutalities, which are kind of a weird mashup, because they also feel a little bit like lower resolution, or it feels like you move from the space that is very high-res and really visually fidelity-wise, kind of like what do you have an expectation for. When you do brutality, it feels like it drops like half a

level down in terms of what that looks like to get the animation and stuff together. But that those second brutalities and fatalities, I have an attack, I was like, oh, this is something we were waiting for. I was able to get this kind of stuff. But I think there's also another layer that is just missing, and I don't know if that's coming, is stage fatalities, which is a huge thing for me. There's a thing I'm like,

they've talked a lot about the kind of depth of the backgrounds and building those out into these really beautiful landscapes. And I'm just like, man, that's the thing that's just missing right now for me. It's like, that should, is it part of the canon that I think all MK fans are just waiting for and missing the greater story. So we'll see. too that they that we don't have satiotalities and also like they took out the interactivity between the stages where you could like yeah take a fucking desk that's in the background and throw it out of

enemy and so yeah I'm well I I think there's you know opportunity for them to maybe add that in as dLC or maybe we'll see in the next mortal combat but speaking on that and speaking even to what you're talking about tim with you know what's to be expected out of the dLC the way that the story ends we're going to have a moral combat yeah aftermath situation because yeah like they leave that door open. And so I'm very excited to see what that is. But yeah, I think for my... I'm excited too. Like I will say, like playing through the campaign and for everything that it was and wasn't, whatever, it ended. And I was hoping that we would get a tease and stuff and getting teased. I was like, I can't wait. I will be here for this. But yeah, for my final thoughts,

like, I'm so happy that Moral Combat is back. You know, I'm happy. I'm happy that it is more MK, even though I want to see even more beyond what MK is currently. But that said, you know, it's still such a fun game. And yeah, like, I'm very excited to keep playing it with these guys. Mitch, any final words from you? Yeah, I do think that Mortal Kombat is set up for a very exciting future. My hope, honestly, is that that future is something else other than a fighting game. I think Netherome is capable of really showing what they can do in other spaces. And honestly, that Johnny Cage chapter kind of like cemented that.

Like seeing that like environment that they're walking. through like this really high produced movie set. I was like, man, like they could, they could do so much if they decided to do some sort of character action game within the Mortal Kombat universe or another Shalunx. Like, I just, I don't know, I feel like we've gotten a lot of very similar style Nether Realm fighting games over the last 15 years. And I'm just, I'm, I'm eager to see something else come from them. And I know, I've talked to Ed Boone.

and I know he's eager to do something else too. So I know that there's a desire within the team to kind of branch out. And I just hope that WB kind of gives them that freedom to create something new and exciting in this universe. Hell yeah. I'd be there day one for that for sure. And I do last thing I want to say, this game is beautiful. Oh, this game is so beautiful.

I know we've touched on a little bit, but like I'm even just looking at some of the fatalities and stuff now. I don't know that I've ever seen background environments look this good. Resolution look this just. Chris and the forest level like the mystic forest the shadows of the lights coming through the leaves and like even when you're in johnny cage's house and like through like just where all the different slats are i mean yeah there's a footage up now like it's everything looks this good like i don't this is one of the most visually impressive games i've ever seen yeah i agree yeah some definitely

some of the most impressive stages in any fighting game i ever seen um that that probably includes tech and I know we haven't seen all the Tekkenate stages, but, you know, it's, those two are kind of neck and neck in terms of visual impressiveness. Yeah. All right. Well, thank you all for joining us today.

Let us know in the comments below what your thoughts are on Mortal Kombat 1. Carl, where can people find you? You can check out more Spawn on me, Steph, on all podcast platforms, YouTube.com slash Spon to me, Twitch.TV slash Spawn on me. I'm also co-hosting for a little bit

over on Locked over at IGN as well. so doing a lot of work in that space and kicking NAS on Combat League. Come get at me when you want these hands. And Mitch, where can people find you? You find me on Twitter at Jurassic Rabbit or X if you really, really want to call it that. And yeah, I'm an editorial producer at IGN.

I do a lot of fighting game reviews, a lot of action game reviews. I got a preview that I'm working on that I can't talk about right now, but we'll probably be able to see it next week. And yeah, that's about it. well thank you all for joining us bless you as well of course of course but until next time finish him