What Killed Mortal Kombat 1?

Upon the next DLC cancellation and the fact that MK11 has more players than MK1 right now, it's safe to assume that Mortal Kombat 1 is killed.

[Terry_B]

Its devs. Totally wrong focus that alienated many of the franchises fans.

[robtion]

I don't want to be the one to say it again but they went with woke design principals. It has been happening gradually for the past few games (they infamously nerfed Wonder Woman's backside in Injustice 2).

The female character's designs and costumes are not appealing compared to other fighters like Street Fighter, Tekken, Guilty Gear, Soul Caliber and so on.I guess American devs are not allowed to put anything sexy in their games for fear of rabid online backlash.

Interesting that they are fine with extreme hyper-violence but if a female shows some skin people freak out.

[tombfan]

Not because of that, that's just our phobia talking. It's because of their approach to "GAAS" while also having micro transactions for everything and everything under a confusing structure.

[PhillyDonJawn]

Bruh no one stopped playing cause sexiness went down 😂 what are you 12

[Army_of_Darkness]

They are both right. Uglifiying the women and the ridiculous amount of micro transactions in their games! It's currently on discount for $30 but I refuse to buy it because what they are doing is repulsive and disrespectful towards gamers and fans of the MK series.

[DarXyde]

Or there are just better fighters out...? People took issue with the controls and feeling MK1 largely. Considering we've got Tekken 8 and Street Fighter 6 which are just better games (more fun, more polished), why would anyone be surprised? I'm doubting very many people are going back to MK11 because it's "not woke". The mechanical differences between these games are quite large.

"Woke" is pretty much a hammer and game underperformances are nails. It's the tool used to explain game failures, and that just seems inappropriate. If we exist in a vacuum online, it sounds like "woke" is a huge deal. Doubtful that it is.

[Terry_B]

Am 44..playing MK and fighting games in general since SF II on the SNES.

The designs are for sure a part of the wrong focus by the devs. Honestly. almost every male in MK1 looks like he is from a g..a..y pron, the females however look nothing like the actresses they are based on.

But these character designs alone are just one of the many bad decisions by the current devs, maybe Warner Bros games n general if you look at the Suicide Squad game.

[MetroidFREAK21]

Yawn... you said woke so automatically wrong

[Yi-Long]

It’s simply not as good as the new Tekken 8, or the new Street Fighter 6, and not as good as Mortal Kombat 11.

On top of that the guest-characters are far worse than those in MK11, while the DLC greed is ridiculous.

Unless you’re a hardcore Mortal Kombat fan, there simply isn’t enough of an argument to invest in it, and if you’re a casual fan, you’d be better off picking up a cheap copy of MK11 including all content.

[Snookies12]

I honestly liked MK 1 better than MK 11. I hated having to choose between special moves with characters in MK 11. That was a poor design choice in my opinion.

[Sgt_Slaughter]

Each Mortal Kombat has gotten harder to enjoy and harder to master, not to mention the atrocious monetization.

MK9 gave the franchise a much needed rebirth, but MK1 might take that all away.

[Babadook7]

So a game selling worse than its predecessor == killed. Oh the hyperbole.

[Deathtracker]

A game that has less players, less game modes, lower sales, and even less characters skins and rewards than its prodecessor.

[TheColbertinator]

Yes that is basically the way many franchises have died.

Saints Row
Medal of Honor
Splatterhouse
Thief

[Babadook7]

Nope. It depends on whether they are profitable. They don’t necessarily die when they sell fewer units than previous versions.

[jznrpg]

Splatterhouse? Hehe, love the reference but it was never a big IP to being with

[Sgt_Slaughter]

You're oversimplifying a subject manner you're not well versed enough to be discussing. This is way more than sales.

Did you not read the part about DLCs being straight up cancelled/stopped? That's not something that happens to a game that's thriving and actively being worked on.

[Babadook7]

I did read that. In what world does a lack of DLC mean a game is killed?

[SegaSaturn669]

I kept telling them, they needed that pizza dude Jeff Sokol from to catch a predator as a dlc character not homelander.

[hollabox]

Wow, I was just looking up Jeff I want to change my name to Sonny last night. Too funny to this comment very next day.

[Green-Smurf]

Buddy system would have worked better if it was tag team. The micro transactions have gotten bad and the characters selection has decreased. SF6 is also suffering right now because of that. Season pass holders should have access to all DLC not some. If they want the game to keep making revenue until their next installation then have a small team develop DLC throughout that time

[CrimsonWing69]

I can only speak for myself, but when I see design decisions that look like they’re influenced by the woke agenda… that’s one thing that halts my interest.

The second is the stupid a** monetization. I get with fighting games it’s sort of the norm, but their expansion was 59.99… and apparently you still had to buy Shang Tsung for 7.99.

If the game’s a failure why not try to do the opposite of what you tried here?

[neutralgamer1992]

I agree characters were specifically designed against what fans had been used to. Greed is just on another level in gaming in general. Companies Making more money from micro transactions than actually selling games Is a absurd thing to say but it's true. Now they are all looking for the next cash cow

[Sgt_Slaughter]

The growing number of cuckoo-level comments on N4G about "woke" things that are somehow the big bad that killed entire games is concerning.

This game did not do poorly because of things that were "woke" (something I'm sure 99% of you can't define properly).

[CrimsonWing69]

Awwww so sowwy to trigger you.

Let’s not pretend that ideological influences don’t turn people off from games. Sweet Baby Inc.’s involvement and their focus on pushing ‘socially conscious’ narratives are public knowledge, and it’s clear those influences shaped the game’s design. Many players, myself included, didn’t appreciate how these ideologies influence design decisions.

The idea that ‘woke’ elements have no impact on a game’s success is stupid. Plenty of gamers are tired of having political or social agendas shoehorned into entertainment. Combine that with predatory monetization, and it’s no surprise this game failed to resonate with a broader audience.

So yea, being “woke” definitely has negative impacts on sales. Don’t believe me, look at the sh*t that happened with Dragon Age. But hey, I guess calling out that aspect of design impacting sales is some “cuckoo” level bulll sh*t.

[FunAndGun]

Anything you deem "woke" triggers you. So sowwy you are insecure. :(

[CrimsonWing69]

You don’t have to apologize, I’m not triggered. I simply gave my opinion on why I think it failed 🤷‍♂️.

Which can you explain to me how that makes me “insecure,” because I don’t think you understand how to use that word correctly.

Like, if you’re trying to insult someone who doesn’t particularly enjoy “woke” content in a game, you kinda have to be a little sharper than that. Just sayin’

Here, I’ll put it in another perspective. Let’s use religion to help you out. If a game goes out of its way to make an emphasis on support for a particular religion in a way that comes off so direct and forced, would you say it’s an “insecurity” to claim that’s a turn-off for you to see and could be a reason for why a game could not be selling well?

[Rebel_Scum]

I like MK1 more than MK11. Not sure if it was MK11 or MK10 that brought in the stance mechanic and I really didn't care for that.

[MIDGETonSTILTS17]

I love MK, I’ve played since 1995 when I was 5.

I liked the idea of MK1 a lot, because I think it is brilliant to push the lore forward and evolve the IP. I wish Marvel and DC were brave enough to try this, and creative enough to actually pull it off.

With that said, I skipped MK1 for these reasons:
-Tag team characters were a lame way to squeeze in classic characters without actually making them fully playable. I felt patronized.
-They only added Goro as a tag team character, AND THEY MADE HIM SHORT. If you’re gonna make a half-hearted attempt to nod to classic characters, then at least portray them accurately.
-I didn’t love the Reptile design. Either go ninja or lizard, not somehow magically both bone structures. This showed a lack of creative vision for an IP trying to reboot…
-No improvements to the X-ray system. This is the third entry with this feature, and I t started getting stale in the second entry. Look at an older fighting game like Tao Feng, and you can see that there is plenty of opportunity to have been advancing this feature over the years. Instead, these lengthy pauses in gameplay are more repetitive than shocking after the first viewing.

MK needs to innovate their stale mechanics instead of relying on DLC sales for 80’s action movie franchises to keep them afloat. Right now their game relies on memorization of boring combos, instead of leaving room for improvisation that other fighters have made room for with move sets that are easier to learn while still being deep enough to genuinely master.

All of the legacy fighter IPs are in trouble when Sifu’s developer manages to translate their unique mechanics to a 3D fighter one day (I’d be very surprised if this wasn’t in the oven for them).

I’m waiting for a fighting game with an actual rhythm like the MKX trailer showed off… dare to dream, right?

[The_Klank]

Just wanted to mention Absolver if you are looking for that Sifu mp fix, under rated game imo

[Elronza]

I don't like any of the newer Mortal Kombat games and the StreetFighter series also sucks after four ultimate. We have to move on people.

[P_Bomb]

I bought it and beat it. Just never felt that compelled to keep playing the seasons. Waiting for Injustice 3, really.

[stonecold3]

greed what killed mortal kombat 1 90 aus for story mode gues fighter 30 dollars aus costumes the list goes on.

[Trilithon]

franchise needs to go back to its routs and make a dark, less cartoony game like the OG 1 and 2

[Me1ody2323]

What they did to Cyrax and Sektor really did not sit well with me. But what really blew it was the crazy greed not only on the crappy DLC but even going out and charging for fatalities. Let it rot.

[ActualWhiteMan]

Remake Shaolin Monks already… or give a legacy collection ffs.

[P_Bomb]

I regret selling my copy of Shaolin Monks. That was a keeper!

[Deathtracker]

Shaolin Monks Remake or Sequel = Take all my money, pleassssseeee!

[Armaggedon]

The one thing I appreciated about it is how the directional input for their games is actually normal. I could not press forward or back on stick without jumping or something else stupid in their past games.

[Tedakin]

A lot of things. They removed the Krypt and MK11's Towers of Time, both of which were great, and replaced them with one of the worst, most boring, most repetitive modes ever created in any game, Invasions, where you had to grind the same thing over and over every season to unlock skins. All of the good skins were now overpriced paid content in a store in a game you already paid 100 bucks for at launch. The Khaos Reigns DLC was overpriced at 50 dollars, and the story was absolutely abysmal and basically pointless. And worst of all to me, they took some of the most classic characters in gaming and changed them and their stories. For some dumb reason Kuai Liang (Sub-Zero) is now Scorpion, and Hanzo Hasashi is nowhere to be found. Sektor and Cyrax are women and they're not even cyborgs. Baraka and Mileena are not Tarkatans, but instead are humans who became infected with a disease. How Noob Saibot was created was dumb. How Ermac was created was dumb. Raiden is a child who doesn't even have lightning powers, but instead gets them from Liu just handing him an amulet. So much was bad and MK1 was a massive misfire in every way for this franchise. Netherrealm really needs to throw out the "New Era" and go back to the classic timeline in the next game, with classic versions of characters. Bring back the Krypt, bring back Kuai Liang Sub-Zero, bring back Hanzo Scorpion. Pretend MK1 was just Liu Kang's fever dream.

[Me1ody2323]

Couldn’t have said it better. 100% agree.

[PhillyDonJawn]

Built it on a bad foundation. Should've just updated MK11. The forced assist characters and bad direction killed it.

[Elda]

I enjoyed both campaigns. I like MK 1.

[Fonsecap]

Publishers and developers don't develop games anymore, they develop products that are designed to make profit, because of this they're soulless and are made without passion, that's why these so called videogame products don't appeal to anyone.

[gold_drake]

id rather play tekken or street firghter tbh.

and i guess others do the same.

[PCgamer98]

Greed pretty much. Imagine buying a 70 dollar game and you have to pay another 70 dollars for the dlc's. Lol!

[Terry_B]

Thats happening since almost 10 years for fighting games.

2016, February and Street Fighter V happened with a yearly season pass for 30 bucks and 6 characters.

And its even worse with SF 6, Guilty Gear and Tekken 8 that offer only 4 characters now for the same price.

[FlameWater]

The storyline was completely incoherent

[Agent75]

They should've knocked out on big complete collection game. Every fighter from the series. Hammered it with paid DLC, so the full game would've cost £200. Also knock out a limited edition controller for £100. That's what most gamers love these days.

[Terry_B]

More important..its 2025 and Mortal Kombat is the most viewed and commented submission on N4G for a day.

First time a fighting game made it to the top since ages ;)

[Toecutter00]

They should have stuck to their cycle of an Injustice game and a MK game. Two of them in a row was too soon. No one wanted it.

[46player]

The single player story and finale are terrible. Worst in the recent series by far.

[DivineHand125]

I didn't buy it, or SF 6 or Tekken for 2 reasons. I prefer to buy those games when all the characters have been released in an ultimate type edition. I am not a fan of paying a high up front cost only to be drop fed content over a few years while being charged for it.

This leads into my second issue. Because I wait to play these games, all the persons who are at my level have stopped playing by the time I pick the game up. If I decide to start playing online, I will be matched with people who have hundreds of hours of playtime. Not a good experience unless I choose to stay offline for a while.

[IAMRealHooman]

I hated having to relearn characters. scorpion from mk9 does not play like mkx, which in turn does not play like mk11, who does not play like mk1 scorpion.

If i played king in tekken 3 i can take that knowledge through each tekken after, adding whatever new system they implement.

gets exhausting starting from 0 over and over.

and paying for everything.

[MetroidFREAK21]

Out of universe DLC killed my desire to evem own the game... same with every other modern MK game