About the game
Mortal Kombat (also known as Mortal Kombat 9) is a 2011 fighting game developed by NetherRealm Studios and published by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. It is the ninth main game in the Mortal Kombat series and a soft reboot of it. It came out for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in April 2011, with a PlayStation Vita port in May 2012 and an expanded version, Mortal Kombat: Komplete Edition, in February 2012.
The fighting is one on one on a flat 2D plane, often called 2.5D because the characters and arenas are rendered in 3D. Four buttons map to the four limbs. A super meter fills as you use special moves, block or take hits, and it can be spent on enhanced special moves, combo breakers or the X-ray move, which shows the victim's bones and organs breaking. The game also has a Fatality training mode, a 300-challenge Challenge Tower, four-player tag team fights and an online mode with a King of the Hill option. The PlayStation 3 version has an exclusive 3D display mode.
The story retells the events of the first three Mortal Kombat games. After the war in Armageddon leaves only Raiden and Shao Kahn alive, Raiden sends a message to his past self, and the story follows the tournaments and the invasion of Earthrealm that come after. The game launched with 28 playable characters. Kratos from God of War is a guest fighter that only the PlayStation versions have, along with an extra stage from that series called Chamber of the Flame.
The game was built by NetherRealm after Warner Bros. bought the assets of the bankrupt Midway Games Chicago. It runs on a heavily modified Unreal Engine 3, and the team rebuilt the fighting engine so it stays on a two-dimensional plane. Ed Boon said the aim was to return the series to its bloody roots and aim for a Mature rating. The game was officially revealed on June 10, 2010.
It was sold as a Standard Edition, a Kollector's Edition with an art book and Sub-Zero and Scorpion bookends, and a Tournament Edition with a fight stick. A single-use online pass came with new copies and was needed to use the online features. The game was refused classification in Australia, indexed in Germany and banned in South Korea. It was released in Australia on May 1, 2013 after the R18+ rating was introduced.
Mortal Kombat got very positive reviews and several fighting game of the year awards, including from the Spike Video Game Awards, the Golden Joystick Awards and the Interactive Achievement Awards. It sold one million copies in its first month and close to three million by August 2011. By 2013 it had sold closer to four million. Its film-style story mode influenced later NetherRealm games and other fighting games.
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What critics said
Metacritic 84 out of 100 (PS3). Metacritic 77 out of 100 (PS3 (Komplete Edition)). Individual reviews: Game Informer 9.5/10, GameSpot 8.5/10, IGN 8/10, GameZone 9/10, Eurogamer 7/10, GamesRadar 4/5.
Extra content
The Klassic pack added classic outfits and Fatalities on June 7, 2011. Four extra fighters followed: Skarlet, Kenshi, Rain and Freddy Krueger. The Komplete Edition bundles all of it.
- Klassic pack: Classic outfits and Fatalities that were first offered as pre-order bonuses
- Skarlet: New playable fighter
- Kenshi: Playable fighter
- Rain: Playable fighter
- Freddy Krueger: Guest fighter from A Nightmare on Elm Street
Good to know
- Kratos from God of War is a playable guest fighter on the PlayStation versions only, and the PS3 version also has the Chamber of the Flame stage.
- Cyber Sub-Zero and Quan Chi are secret characters in the original release. They are unlocked from the start in the Komplete Edition.
- A single-use online pass came with new copies and was needed for the online features. Used copies had to buy a pass from the PlayStation Store.
- The game was refused classification in Australia in 2011. The Komplete Edition came out there uncensored on May 1, 2013 with an R18+ rating.
- It was indexed in Germany and banned in South Korea for its violence.
- The Platinum trophy needs online trophies, so it can no longer be earned since the servers closed on March 27, 2020.
- Retailers had their own pre-order bonuses, mostly classic skins and Fatalities for Kitana, Mileena, Scorpion, Sub-Zero and Reptile, later sold together as the Klassic pack.
Made by
Director Ed Boon, Producer Hans P. Lo, Producer Adam Urbano, Producer Hector Sanchez, Designer Paulo Garcia, Designer John Edwards, Artist Steve Beran, Artist Pav Kovacic, Writer John Vogel, Writer Brian Chard.
