You’d see it in tournaments, where players are more strategic, but the average Mortal Kombat fan likely saved the meter. “In theory” because, well, nobody really did this. In theory, you’d then use this meter to “Enhance” certain moves, doing extra damage or breaking up an opponent’s combo. Starting with 2011’s Mortal Kombat reboot, you’d steadily fill a meter during a fight-small amounts by landing blows on an opponent, larger amounts by taking blows yourself. From that (admittedly underinformed) standpoint, Mortal Kombat 11 is the strongest of the modern trilogy and perhaps the best fighting game NetherRealm’s ever built. Keep in mind I am no pro-level fighting game competitor, just someone hoping to pull off a few combos and have fun. It’s undeniably stupid, and that’s fine! Growing up, I played Mortal Kombat because Scorpion shot a spear out of his arm and I thought, “ that’s frickin’ cool.” That was enough.

This is a series about people drafted into a mystical fight club to protect Earth from demonic invasion. Mortal Kombat’s source material is surface-level dumb, absolutely. It’s proof once again that engaging storytelling stems from characters. That’s about all I can say without getting too heavy into spoiler territory, but there are a plethora of heartfelt moments in Mortal Kombat 11, surprising in a series best known for ripping hearts (or spines) out. This lends itself to interesting situations, like 2011’s young and idealistic Jax squaring off against X’s embittered Jax, or Sonya Blade talking to her yet-to-be-born-in-her-timeline daughter Cassie Cage. Characters appear both as we saw them in the 2011 reboot and as we saw them in X, set 25 years later. It’s one hell of a story, and an excuse for some entertaining timeline shenanigans. Following his fall-from-grace at the end of X, Kronika brands Raiden irredeemable and sets out to erase his very existence from the universe.

Whenever the universe starts to go off-rails, it’s Kronika who brings it back in line. Newcomer Kronika is the one responsible, a god with dominion over time itself.

Mortal kombat 11 pc