Mortal Kombat 1 is a new era, but still loves its legacy

destructoid.com:

NetherRealm Studios is rebooting the Mortal Kombat universe again with Mortal Kombat 1. The slightly confusingly named MK takes everything back to its origins, and then twists it. The characters and combat that have become enshrined in pop culture history are still here, but with adjustments both big and small.

This feeling of old nostalgia blending into new ideas kept coming to my mind while playing Mortal Kombat 1. I got a chance to play some matches of MK1 as part of Summer Game Fest 2023, climbing the classic towers with each of the characters available. And while MK is looking ahead to a new future, there’s still a piece of it that loves to honor the past.

The biggest, most obvious addition to Mortal Kombat 1 is its Kameo Fighters. Rather than duking it out one-on-one, each player selects a main fighter—the one they’ll primarily play as—and a tag-in Kameo Fighter. These characters can be called in to perform special attack every so often, with a cooldown in-between uses.

To be clear, Mortal Kombat 1 is not becoming a tag fighter. These fighters don’t have health bars, and can’t be fully subbed in. It’s a less common system, but it’s been used in games like SNK Heroines. In my playtime, I had Sub-Zero, Liu Kang, Kenshi, and Kitana available as main characters. For Kameos, I could choose Kano, Sonya, or Jax.

Calling in Kameos is easy enough. Hit R1, and they’ll hop in to do an assist move. Additionally, different directions and inputs can change things up, like holding R1 to have Sonya charge up her energy projectile. Some can even have effects on both players, like Jax slamming the ground.

These Kameo fighters offer an interesting twist to the usual cadence of Kombat. Picking a certain fighter can help shore up