Highlights
- Mortal Kombat 1's rebooted universe allows for rejuvenating reinterpretations of characters, including new appearances and alternate skins.
- The emphasis on alternate skins as a main vein of content in previous NetherRealm games may be shifting, with more attention placed on gameplay and default character looks.
- Fans can expect some alternate skins in Mortal Kombat 1, but the focus on iconic default looks is refreshing and ensures high-quality representations of the characters.
One of the clearer advantages that Mortal Kombat 1 has going for it is the fact that it is part of a rebooted universe, with the boon of that decision coming from all the rejuvenating reinterpretations NetherRealm can discern for its characters. The most obvious means of reincarnation for NetherRealm, and probably the most freeing, is how it can choose new ways for its iconic characters to look. Mortal Kombat’s Johnny Cage has been given another drastic appearance change, for instance, and it will be interesting to see what alternate skins look like for different characters.
Interestingly, however, alternate skins have not been a part of the game’s marketing. Mortal Kombat 1’s Premium or Kollector’s purchasers have early access to the game this week, and while not knowing much about alternate skins might not be too alarming, it marks an intriguing turning point for not only Mortal Kombat but NetherRealm games in general lately. Because if skins aren’t one of the game’s primary pieces of content to look forward to, that is arguably a fantastic direction for NetherRealm to be headed.
Recent NetherRealm Games Were All About Alternate Skins
NetherRealm knows that a roster is one of the most important parts of any fighting game, and while it’s debatable that Mortal Kombat’s latest entry had a less-than-superb roster at launch, the emphasis seemed clearly pointed toward skins as a main vein of content that NetherRealm fans could mine. This was true of both Injustice 2 and Mortal Kombat 11 in making a priority of customizable gear pieces for each character, where default skins could blur fully into obscurity after so many gear permutations and color palettes were presented.
That wasn’t necessarily bad, but it was a design direction that couldn’t always be favorable since there would always be as many perceivably disagreeable cosmetics as there were agreeable ones, and that all comes down to each fan’s particular tastes. Either way, knowing that Mortal Kombat 1 won’t be doubling down on skins as heavily could be seen as a wonderful choice if fans weren’t enthused about how much prominence they had in NetherRealm games recently, and instead gameplay with Kameos seems to be an emphasis that players are happy to rally behind.
Mortal Kombat 1 Can Afford to Put Its Attention Elsewhere
Mortal Kombat 1 is likely to feature its own slate of alternate skins for playable characters and such information has already been confirmed to an extent—Johnny Cage has his button-down and dress pants, for example, as well as an athleisure skin seen on Mortal Kombat’s official website and, of course, the divisive Jean-Claude Van Damme skin.
But not having that be where the game’s emphasis is makes a lot of sense, too. It’s actually refreshing to have these characters’ default looks be the ones players will often see since that means that NetherRealm would’ve needed to put more attention into them. Having alternate skins doesn’t mean a default skin can get away with being inferior or of poorer quality, but if a default look is one of the few looks a character will have, there’s more of an onus to have that default skin be an iconic representation of a character.
If for no other reason, it would make sense for licensed characters such as Homelander, Omni-Man, and Peacemaker to not have alternate skins anyway, even though fans are fairly hopeful that other Kombat Pack characters such as Ermac will have alternate skins. Indeed, alternate skins are great for fans who might not prefer a character’s default skin, but it seems like fans will be able to know soon enough whether there are alternate skins that they prefer more to a character’s default.
Mortal Kombat 1 is out on September 19 for PC, PS5, Switch, and Xbox Series X/S, and September 14 for Premium and Kollector’s edition owners in early access.
