Mortal Kombat fans are doing cartwheels. A little over a week after NetherRealm Studios showed us a mysterious teaser in which a grain of sand exploded (just like that), the official Mortal Kombat account yesterday released another teaser that drops (and loudly) the future of the next installment and the saga itself.
In the teaser posted on Twitter and YouTube, titled “It Is Almost Time”, we can see in very close-up how the second hand of a watch advances from 9, passing through 10 and 11. Just when it seems that the second hand will reach 12, it stops abruptly and ends up skipping the number, thus reaching 1.
Yes, with a little thought you can already imagine where the game is going even if you have never played a Mortal Kombat before: a reboot is coming. The next installment of the series, known by all as Mortal Kombat 12, would not receive this numbering and, instead, would be titled “Mortal Kombat 1”.
As we explained a few days ago, the reason for this supposed (and obvious) reboot is even clearer for Mortal Kombat fans. In Mortal Kombat 11 (spoiler warning), our beloved Raiden ends up ceding his god-like power to Liu Kang, who faces a rejuvenated Shang Tsung who is willing to control time and destiny at his convenience.
After meeting him, we must choose one of the two fighters, thus deciding the ending we will get. While in the “bad” ending the villain Shang Tsung ends up getting his way, and dominating time and destiny, in the “good” ending, a Liu Kang with divine powers and an already mortal Raiden have the mission to restore a new timeline and put order in the universe. Well, the next installment of the saga will take into account this last ending to make a “reset”.
If we consider that the 2011 Mortal Kombat (Mortal Kombat 9) was already a reboot for the saga where time travel played a major role (returning to the events of the beginning of the franchise, albeit in a different way), we can assume almost without fail that Ed Boon has in his hands another reboot of the saga in the purest Doctor Who style.
In addition to the plot itself, the sand that we can see in both teasers reminds us a lot of the sand observed in the Kronika hourglass, the artifact that allows the characters to go back in time (including that characteristic “brilli-brilli”).
Similarly, the 2018 God of War also experienced a kind of “reboot” in which we continued the story of God of War 3, although many years after the events of the end. In this new dulogía, we met a more aged Kratos, whose story had a more serious tone and mechanics that left behind the hack and slash style to focus on a somewhat more leisurely action.
Will we see any big gameplay changes in the next Mortal Kombat? Theoretically, this Mortal Kombat 1 (if it is its final title) should be released before the end of 2023, so it is most likely that we will have more news about the game in a short time.
Will we see anything at Geoff Keighley’s non-E3?
Some of the links added in the article are part of affiliate campaigns and may represent profits for Softonic.
