If you’re like me, you enjoy a good fighting game. You might not be the best or all that great at them, but they’re a good way to release some steam after a long day, or a way to ruin friendships in my case (if I invite you over to play a fighting game, it’s probably means I don’t value your friendship all that much or you made me upset enough to want to hurt you).
Whatever the case if you love them or just casually play them you must be over the moon about the new Mortal Kombat game coming out, Mortal Kombat X. The new gameplay trailer did nothing if not just add an insane amount of fuel to my already blazing excitement.
The gameplay opens up with series staples Subzero and Scorpion going head to head in a cold howling forest setting, with them landing camera shaking blows on one another. With each thump and groan you can see that this new installment does nothing if not intensify an already, perfected formula; with just as much if not more blood and gore, then the past few entries.
Just as my excitement is building up, it cuts to two all new characters, one is a wasp like character, that seems to use insect inspired moves against her tank like advisory, that is actually a two part character, one a tiny creature that rides on the back of a behemoth like monster. I can only assume that this character works as a speed/ tank hybrid; where the wasp like character can be seen to have a speed/range attack set.
The trailer cuts back to Subzero and Scorpion, they can be seen dealing blows back and forth mercilessly. In one instance Subzero produces an ice clone as he’s done numerous times in the history of Mortal Kombat but this time he picks it up and throws it, in a way he has never done before in the series. You can see that these are not your old school Mortal Kombat fighters just re-skinned in an HD setting, but that they have been revamped and retooled to give you an old school feel with new moves and abilities thrown in for good measure.
Just as I thought things couldn’t get more exciting, Scorpion launches Subzero in midair and executes an X-Ray move, these moves are a newer addition to the franchise but are devastating and are known to either make or break a match after execution; they also offer a sadistically bloody, and graphic visual flare to an already especially gruesome franchise.
In the middle of said X-Ray move the trailer cuts back to who we will refer to as Wasp and Tank. They are going head to head, showing no signs of duress or of who could be winning this matchup. Their moves are just as camera jarring and effective as Subzero’s or Scorpion’s. The Tank then enters an X-ray Move of its own. After the move is completed it cuts back to Subzero and Scorpion.
Scorpion has prepared Subzero for a finisher, as he executes this finisher the trailer shows a montage of finishing moves that seem to be not necessarily specific to the fighters in the trailer. The montage ends with Scorpion melting away the core of Subzero’s body exposing his heart dangling by a few arteries, in the series very graphic and gruesome manner. Scorpion then cuts off Subzero’s head and so ends the trailer.
At the announcement of this new game and the short original trailer set to a song by Wiz Khalifa I said to myself “I hope this is just not a re-skinned injustice game”, but after analyzing the new trailer for this video breakdown; I can seriously tell you that this is going to be the next fighting game to define what the fighting genre should be for the new console generation. All I can say is, “Who’s next?”
By: John Almanzar