Warning: The following article on Mortal Kombat 1 (MK1) contains spoilers for the game, which is a lovable mess like the title’s PS2-era entries.
Mortal Kombat 1 is kind of a strange beast. It’s built on top of everything that made the last three installments roaring successes, but at the same time, it’s been stripped down and reduced to a simpler version of those same games. Mind you, we were totally okay with losing some of the live-service bloat introduced by MK11, but the dwindling solo-play options and unique features worried us a little bit even if the actual gameplay feels more approachable and smooth than ever. And then there’s the Switch port…
Nevertheless, I’ve had a great deal of fun with the game so far. It’s well-presented and delightful to play, plus it’s pure Mortal Kombat through and through, and that includes the equal parts epic and silly Story mode. With MK1 marketed as the “start of a new era”, expectations were understandably high, but we had no clue of where the larger story could go next.
As teased by MK11 and Aftermath’s endings, Fire God Liu Kang created a new timeline that hopefully wouldn’t contain the mistakes of past ones. At some point in this entry’s Story mode, we are reminded that Kronika’s undoing was that she became obsessed with creating a “perfect” timeline, so she ended countless previous ones early. Liu Kang, on the other hand, proposes maintaining a balance of power and minimizing the roles of problematic key players of the past, such as Shao Kahn and the sorcerer Shang Tsung. To the shock of absolutely no one, things get bloody and chaotic again.
Related: Is Kronika in Mortal Kombat 1 (MK1)?
Long story short: Liu Kang didn’t mess up when creating a new timeline, and the new conflict doesn’t stem from a larger universal law/destiny. In fact, we get a solid tease early on that Kronika might’ve survived the reset. It makes sense she’d have a plan B and that she’d want to spiral things out of control to get back at Liu Kang. However, things get much crazier at the end of Mileena’s chapter in the Story mode, when it’s revealed that Shang Tsung – the same one from MK11 and Aftermath – has a timeline of his own, and of course, being a master of deception, he’s started to disrupt Liu Kang’s own timeline (the one we were spending out time in up to this point) by posing as a mysterious benefactor. There’s no Kronika whatsoever.
What?! Two timelines?! Well, you see, the all-mighty clash between Liu Kang and Shang Tsung before the reboot was so powerful that it rippled across time and created two different timelines when the Fire God hit the reset button, one for each of the now-Keepers of Time. Up to a certain point, Shang Tsung wasn’t aware at all of the other’s existence, but now he knows, and of course, he wants to control all of creation. This is an excellent next-level MK set-up for a new era of the series, as it opens up plenty of possibilities when it comes to character rosters and guests with in-universe roles.
At this point, I was expecting the Story mode to hit the brakes, give us a cool battle between Liu Kang and “old” Shang Tsung’s teams and tease the double-timeline war coming next. After all, most of Mortal Kombat 1 had been strangely focused and well-paced so far. But, oh boy, the final three chapters are a doozy. Remember how Raiden was set up as the main hero of the story? Well, never mind that. What about the loose plot threads and unfinished character arcs? Shouldn’t Kitana have her own chapter? Ah, forget about all that.
Related: Who Voices Shang Tsung in Mortal Kombat 1 (MK1)?
Liu Kang and his allies quickly realize there could be more than two timelines out there, especially as it took them so long to learn they weren’t alone in the flow of time (and let’s not forget Liu Kang was the freakin’ Keeper of Time). Well, they’re right, so they start visiting other timelines fast to recruit more warriors against Shang Tsung, who’s probably doing the same. Look, going full Secret Wars is a valid story pitch, but that’s more of a big conclusion for a trilogy/saga, not something you should rush towards to wrap up the first installment of your rebooted continuity. In fact, if NetherRealm wanted to make its own Multiverse Saga, the logical next step would’ve been to make the next game all about the war between Liu Kang and Shang Tsung’s timelines before unveiling the full-blown multiverse for the third one.
The titles of chapters 13 and 15 even let players know this late-game ruse is all about a quick nostalgic recreation of peak PS2-era silliness: Deadly Alliance and Armageddon. I’m surprised chapter 14 wasn’t named Deception. And so we end up in front of what I assume is the same giant pyramid from the end of Mortal Kombat: Armageddon, which is a scenario we’d already revisited in the opening cutscene of 2011’s reboot. Time is a flat circle for sure. The remainder of Story mode is no longer about the characters or a single new timeline, but about confronting the entirety of Mortal Kombat’s history and then some.
In its defense, I’ll say “Armageddon” is an outrageously fun chapter, as you’re free to choose from anyone in the MK1 roster and climb up the pyramid as chaos is unleashed. Here, NetherRealm does a lot of experimentation with “variants” of characters, doing exactly what we saw earlier this year in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. At this point, I was even wondering if they’d managed to hide the Kreate-a-Fighter mode from us until release, since many of the alternate characters we see feel like the products of such a tool. Sadly, that wasn’t mean to be. But still, “Armageddon” at least embraces what made the PS2-era entries so memorable despite their uneven quality: being silly without remorse.
I’ve personally championed a return to Mortal Kombat’s wackier past ahead of MK1, but a last-minute hard turn in an otherwise restrained continuity reboot simply doesn’t feel right. I loved the game’s final stretch as I was playing through it, but there’s no timeline where this is good storytelling. It’s obvious the current trend of multiverses in fiction has seeped into Mortal Kombat, and while the franchise is a perfect fit for this premise, its first foray into clashing universes is the most rushed story development I’ve seen in a while. At least, I think Marvel Studios could learn quite a bit from the madness that ensues in “Armageddon” if they want to deliver big with whatever their fat Secret Wars movie ends up being, as I’m sure fan service will be front and center in the culmination of the MCU’s Multiverse Saga.
