Mortal Kombat 1’s first gameplay was full of great details

By James On Jun 9, 2023

NetherRealm Studios showed the first gameplay of Mortal Kombat 1 on Thursday at Summer Game Fest, revealing more of his roster, teases of a story, and our first look at a new feature called Kameo Fighters.

In an interview with host Geoff Keighley, Mortal Kombat co-creator and NetherRealm chief creative officer Ed Boon also dropped a few new details about MK1showing that basic features such as combo breakers and x-ray moves will return, and gives an idea of how many playable characters will be in the Mortal Kombat 11 follow-up.

Here’s what we learned even more from Mortal Kombat 1‘s gameplay reveal.

The roster of Mortal Kombat 1

Image: Summer Game Fest

The character selection screen shown at Summer Game Fest indicates that Mortal Kombat 1 will feature a base roster of 24 fighters. That is similar to Mortal Kombat 11, which launched with 25 fighters (including pre-order bonus Shang Tsung and unlockable character Frost). So far we’ve seen Scorpion, Sub-Zero, Kitana, Mileena, Liu Kang, Johnny Cage, and Kenshi playable as part of the roster.

Mortal Kombat 1 will have a separate roster of Kameo Fighters, characters that can aid the main roster in battle. The Kameo character selection screen shown at Summer Game Fest indicates that Mortal Kombat 1 will feature at least 16 fighters. Old-school versions of Sonya, Kano, Jax, Sub-Zero, Stryker, Goro and Kung Lao have been shown on the Kameo roster.

Kameo Fighters can be engaged with the press of a button, Boon says, and in gameplay we see them serve as both combo extenders and combo breakers. Looks like they’ll be part of it too MK1‘s version of Fatal Blows, those bloody, bone crushing attacks of MK11.

Finally, it looks like Kameo Fighters will have different costumes. In the gameplay trailer, we see Sonya with both of her classics Mortal Kombat leotard and her sportier outfit from Mortal Kombat 3.

Classic Mortal Kombat stages return

Mileena and Liu Kang fight in the Living Forest stage in a screenshot from Mortal Kombat 1

Gameplay footage shows versions of the Living Forest, first seen in Mortal Kombat 2and the Wu Shi Academy stage of Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance.

Stages will also apparently have day and night variations. NetherRealm showed Johnny Cage’s home in Hollywood both day and night, and the option to select the time of day at Fengjian Teahouse, where Kenshi and Sub-Zero go down, is shown in the menu below – right below Canoe’s snot rocket.

Mortal Kombat 1's character and stage selection screen, featuring Sub-Zero, Sonya, Kano, and Kenshi

New origin stories

Mileena is lying on a doctor's chair in a Mortal Kombat 1 screenshot. Kenshi is nearby.

Datum Mortal Kombat 1‘s attitude in the past, it should not be too surprising that MK is about to change canon. But two characters, Mileena and Kenshi, seem to be going through major changes Mortal Kombat 1. A teaser for the game’s story mode hints that Mileena, hitherto established as a mutant clone of Kitana, may meet a different fate: the gameplay trailer hints that Mileena is suffering from a disease that (presumably) Kitana fears , if discovered, will see her banished from their kingdom.

Kenshi, a famous blind swordsman, also appears to be seen regularly during parts of the story, so we can see him blind during the events of MK1. Maybe it has something to do with Kurtis Stryker and his flashlight/stun gun that seems capable of blinding a god!

Kurtis Stryker blinds Liu Kang with a powerful flashlight in a Mortal Kombat 1 screenshot

The cast of MK has some new moves

Kano fires his Eyebeam at Liu Kang, protecting Sub-Zero in the process, in a screenshot from Mortal Kombat 1

First of all, let’s point out how attentive Kameo fighter Kano is here, keeping his partner’s head down and out of harm’s way when he fires his eye beam.

Sub-Zero slams Kung Lao with an ice club shaped like a skull and spine in a screenshot from Mortal Kombat 1

Second, Sub-Zero loves ripping spines out of people so much that he perfected it by making a skull and spine without ice use it as a mace against his opponents. This guy absolutely loves human spines! And ice cream!

Johnny Cage does a split and slams Kenshi's face against a Hollywood Walk of Fame style tile in a screenshot of a Fatality from Mortal Kombat 1

Finally, in another nice (horrific) touch, one of Johnny Cage’s Fatalities sees him do his signature split while punching his opponent’s face at an off-brand Hollywood Walk of Fame star – wearing the Kenshi name tag! That’s an eye for detail.

Mortal Kombat 1 coming to Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, and Xbox Series X on August 18.