All of Mortal Kombat's old favourites must be pushing 50 by now, and Mortal Kombat X seems like the first attempt to let them go I expect the four fresh fighters introduced in this game to become the face of future titles. General Blade, for example, looks the same age as her 20-something daughter. And as for the flashbacks, they only serve to remind me that NetherRealm is terrified of making its old characters look their age. If only the campaign weren't chopped up into disorienting flashbacks and inexplicable quick-time events! I don't want to press 'X' every few seconds just to prove that I'm still paying attention to expository dialogue. Flashbacks abound in an hours-long kampaign that spans decades of Mortal Kombat lore.

There's more of a focus on the women, and - I can't emphasise this enough - they get to wear real bras this time. Mortal Kombat 9's story, which depressingly concluded with the white-as-snow duo Johnny and Sonya getting saved by Raiden, has been followed up by a narrative that revolves around a much more diverse cast of four new characters, including Mortal Kombat's first canonical gay character, and also a black woman who survives all the way to the end of the campaign. The embarrassing jiggle physics of Mortal Kombat 9 have been replaced by practical sports bras the cleavage-revealing 'battle damage' mechanic has been axed as well.

Mortal Kombat X introduces a new generation of kombatants in a story that falls a couple of decades after the 2011 Mortal Kombat reboot, during which time the development team has clearly undergone some soul-searching.

(Why would she take her dad's name? The unsolved mysteries abound.) Why would Sonya Blade fall in love with Johnny Cage? Mortal Kombat X does not even attempt to solve this riddle, choosing instead to lean into the sheer impossibility that their union would not only happen but result in a beautiful, bad-ass baby named Cassandra Cage.

Game mortal kombat x