Highlights
- Mortal Kombat 1 is considered a great entry in the franchise, with impressive graphics, a diverse roster, and an exciting story mode.
- The game's Fatalities are incredibly realistic and gruesome, but it lacks the variety of previous entries with no Animalities, Babalities, Friendships, or Stage Fatalities.
- While the absence of these extra Fatalities is not a major issue, fans have come to expect them in each new entry, and their inclusion would enhance Mortal Kombat 1 as a celebration of the franchise.
By all accounts, Mortal Kombat 1 is yet another great entry in the long-running fighting game franchise. While some hardcore Mortal Kombat fans might still be yearning for a different roster, or pointing out some issues with the game's balancing, many players are still really enjoying Mortal Kombat 1, and it's generally considered to be an improvement over its predecessors in a number of ways.
Mortal Kombat 1 is the best-looking game in the entire franchise without question, and potentially even one of the best-looking fighting games overall. On top of its impressive technical features, Mortal Kombat 1 also brings an exciting story mode to the table, along with a pretty diverse Kameo system, and an incredibly varied roster featuring characters from across the franchise's 30-year history. But while Mortal Kombat 1 is a good game, there's one area in particular in which it doesn't hold a candle to its predecessors, and that's its Fatalities.
Mortal Kombat 1's Fatalities Don't Hold a Candle to Previous Entries
Each of Mortal Kombat 1's 23 fighters has two unique Fatalities, and generally speaking, they're all pretty great. With the best graphics in the franchise, Mortal Kombat 1 contains some of the most realistic, gruesome Fatalities in the series, and they've never been quite as satisfying to pull off. Whether it's a simple dismemberment and explosion like Smoke's, or a full-on shredding of an opponent's entire body like Liu Kang's black hole Fatality, there's a dark pleasure to be found with each of Mortal Kombat 1's Fatalities, even if some of them don't entirely fit the character, like General Shao's midair spin.
But Mortal Kombat 1 is severely lacking when it comes to other forms of Fatality. Over the last few decades, the Mortal Kombat series has dabbled in bringing new types of Fatality to the game. These have ranged from Babalities, which turn the opponent into a literal baby, to Animalities, where the player transforms themselves into an animal and rips apart their opponent, to Friendships, which see the two fighters end the match peacefully. Over the years, fans have come to expect at least one of these extra Fatality types in every new entry, but Mortal Kombat 1 doesn't feature any of them.
Mortal Kombat 1 has no Animalities, Babalities, Friendships, or even any Stage Fatalities, which have been a staple of the franchise for quite some time. While Mortal Kombat 1 still gives each Kombatant two Fatalities - along with a unique Fatality for each Kameo fighter - and that's technically the standard amount for an entry, this doesn't feel like a lot when those are the only types of Fatality in the entire game. Each Mortal Kombat 1 fighter does have a slew of different Brutalities as well, which does help to numb the pain.
But just because these extra Fatalities aren't currently in Mortal Kombat 1 doesn't mean that they won't ever come to the game. NetherRealm has made it repeatedly clear in the last few weeks that it plans on supporting Mortal Kombat 1 for a while yet. Along with at least one already-confirmed Kombat Pack DLC, NetherRealm has also teased some kind of story expansion for Mortal Kombat 1. On top of these additions, it's not out of the realm of possibility that new Fatality types could be added to Mortal Kombat 1. It's really not a major issue in the grand scheme of things, but there's no denying that more Fatalities would help to make Mortal Kombat 1 feel even more like the ultimate franchise celebration that it's really trying to be.
Mortal Kombat 1 is available now on PC, PS5, Switch, and Xbox Series X/S.
