Mortal Kombat 1 (Zero Punctuation)

[@theescapist]

The Zero Punctuation episode on El Paso, Elsewhere and a mystery game is now available in Early Access for Patreon and KZbin Membership subscribers. Support the channel directly and get early access to all of our premium content for just $2/month!

[@moistlama4047]

oh, you tease

[@NSGrendel]

Could you make your intro less obnoxiously compressed and loud? We are already specifically selecting your channel and content based on your brand. Subjecting us to 1980s grade TV advert compressed audio noise to get our attention is just annoying. Level that stuff out.

[@b0hem1]

@@NSGrendel I can see you're new here. Just press twice forward on the keyboard to skip the intro like everyone else➡➡✌

[@NSGrendel]

I can see you are a perfect triple A consumer. /eyeroll "Shut up and eat your slop". It's been a decade.

[@kguile7832]

​@@NSGrendelI love it the way it is

[@zavi3rz]

There's something endearing about the way Yahtzee says "pathetic". Like a disappointed parent looking at his kid making a mess out of his dinner food.

[@Icebuerger4016]

Well makes sense since he is now a parent XD

[@CalciumChief]

Trying to put in "legit" story killed this franchise. Before we mostly had bits and pieces of what anyone was up to, ending with a big "and then they died". But had to reboot and it got real messy. There's a reason Street Fighter only now advances the story instead of running in circles with its lore.

[@Queckerjeck]

I couldn't help but envision Yahtzee continuing on to go "This is how you do it." and making the entire room look post apocalyptic wielding only food.

[@JonySmith-bb4gx]

He sounds like kiritsugi emiya when he orders to destroy the grail . ( fate reference )

[@DBM013]

I was legit expecting him to talk about Omniman afterwards... disappointed 😔

[@elegantoddity8609]

Kombat (stripped of mortality) really is the word. Because for all its brutality and viscera, Mortal Kombat is utterly lacking in grit. Between multiverses, time travel, and good old fashion magical resurrection, even characters who arent technically immortal basically are.

[@bugjams]

They've gone the 'ol Marvel route of gutting any real sense of serious tone or stakes from the franchise. Seems to be the fate of any 10+ year long continuity trying to find new ways to keep the money machine printing.

[@elegantoddity8609]

​@@bugjams And they did it the same way Marvel did. Fell into the condition of what I call a chronological sandbox. Introduced time travel and multiverses, especially infinite ones, puts franchies at increased risk. Rather than a straight or even branching timeline, you end up going through events so much that you just have a vague mass of events. Here's the area where Batman's parents die which happens somewhere before he fights Joker which happens somewhere before Jason Todd shows up. And I call it a sandbox because all you have are branded toys by the end.

[@Hugsloth]

The open secret that is becoming more and more obvious with time, is that MK is only still around as a AAA mainstream brand because WB bought it, therefore it must live forever to endlessly produce coin. Ed Boon is a cool guy and all but no way would there be 12+ mainline MK games if the IP wasn't passed to WB. It's being farmed for its iconography, and the strain of squeezing blood from this stone is showing through. Also I've always found it really bizarre how American media rails against violent games, but since WB acquisition, MK is suddenly never mentioned as a danger to kids anymore. In fact it became, quite suddenly, one of the hottest IPs in the world, everywhere you looked MK was suddenly in the mainstream being endorsed by celebrities and major brands. Every new game is a millions-seller event. Because it's now a WB pillar IP. So even if they run out of ideas the games must continue to be written and produced.

[@Arcadopocalypse]

You know, in a game series called "MORTAL Kombat" there is really no characters that died permanently. In the ending of MK11 Liu Kang said, that "no more timelines will be twisted by [Shang Tsung's] Evil", erasing sorcerer from existance... Next game, who is the villain? I can count dead characters in the franchise using my fingers.

[@JonySmith-bb4gx]

Remember when it was about mutual Kombat and not time combat

[@Flying_Titor]

It really says something about a game when Yahtzee's big statement about it isn't hyperbolic verbose insults, but just "pathetic".

[@MutantAnomaly]

I was actually really on board with the first half of the story. Plenty to nitpick sure, but I enjoyed how the cast was reimagined and the arcs they were given. I was even open to seeing what they'd do with the time travel/multi-verse shenanigans the opening promised. But it lost me when they threw out all character development for the whole "there's a million of everyone and they must all fight!" shtick. If it was just Shang Tsung's universe from the alternate ending of 11 and we got to focus on how it was different and how its influence corrupted the characters we were following, it would at least have had the opportunity to be interesting.

[@Sweetestsadist]

I enjoyed it up until Outworld. Seeing the characters in a new form but clinging to their old habits was a great idea. For instance, how Shang Tsung powerless still tries to change his appearance and deceive people by claims of magic he doesn't have. I wanted to see him go through the process of going back to his former strength. Instead, they just go, he has powers now. They should have focused on that instead of all this multidimensional, timeline reset garbage. It seems like every franchise gives up good storytelling for pop culture references and meta jokes.

[@T0TALLYAWESOMEGUY]

The ending of the story was completely CRAZED, reaching mugen-tier levels of character mash ups. I guess multiverses are cool because it even teases even more Chaos with that other dude appearing on the stairs.

[@thantoaster6297]

really agree. sure some of the origin stories are contrived (having to find a way for quan chi literally having the melanin sucked out of him to be pale again) but in general the pared-down drama between characters and sindel getting some actual catharsis from the previous games was great. then it's like you installed a different game that's back to timelines and multiverses.

[@repulser93]

@@thantoaster6297 I thought the Armageddon sequence was cool... but I will concur that they should've held off for another game, because I really liked how the Earthrealm champions and their Outworld additions were like an MK-themed D&D party. More characterization-focused stuff in the future.

[@trident042]

Since Yahtzee doesn't state explicitly, the voice "actress" for the demon lady is Megan "Michael Bay Puts Her On Everything" Fox, and as celebrity casting goes it might be the worst one in gaming history. She was so bad in every scene. Also, she didn't or couldn't do combat noises, so they hired actual voice actress Christina Vee to finish the job.

[@CGrascal]

Fox made Rousey sound like a seasoned professional as Sonya in MK 11.

[@CodeXCDM]

Pretty sure he knows it's Fox, but outside the sarcastic follow up reply is it worth noting?

[@fluidthought42]

For the absolute minimum of fairness, Fox was ousted from the Transformers franchise by Bay after the second one. Why isn't clear, but it's suspected that Michael Bay being a cunt had something to do with it.

[@monsterhunter66]

Verosika Mayday deserves better

[@sebastianalhares]

The weird thing is, Fox is actually supposed to be an actual actress.

[@nealmarasinghe7755]

Yahtzee calling Cinema Sins a twat made my morning

[@yutro213]

Or Dartigan too.

[@gargaj]

And rightfully so.

[@anthonyglenn770]

@@yutro213Ey

[@chwytliwanazwa]

@@Joshua_Shadow_Manriguez lol lmfao even

[@Joshua_Shadow_Manriguez]

​@gargaj only if you're an idiot that doesn't understand CinemaSins videos. Plus, that insult is aimed at their imitators in the video games sphere who don't understand that CinemaSins is deliberately a bunch of nitpicky assholes who never claim to be real reviewers, and do the "nitpicky bad reviewer" thing ironically.

[@Psycheitout]

Your SF comparison is really spot on. Street Fighter 6 was trying to onboard you to their game so hard it felt almost like Mavis Beacon teaches fighting at times. While MK1 seems to be targeted squarely at their hardcore fans and no one else.

[@boarfaceswinejaw4516]

personally, if i were a fan of mortal kombat i'd want a consistent story that actually progresses rather than implodes and restarts into something worse every 10 steps.

[@mendeleyev1790]

@@boarfaceswinejaw4516as a fan of mortal Kombat never even played the story mode

[@PsychicWars]

I don't think even the fans had any hopes for this one. People have been giving Ed Boon shit for months over the stuff he's done to the franchise.

[@QGfk1]

I think the difference is that nrs has had huge financial success with their setup for over a decade, whereas Capcom was playing catch up after sfv being disaster that almost destroyed the franchise's position as the king of fighting games. you can think of it less as the "hardcore" mk fans and more as "regular" mk fans comprising millions of people who play the story mode and some other content and never touch the online. until sf6 almost every other fighting game was basically just online versus selling for full price, a setup that is now free-to-play in almost every other genre. serious fighting game players dont care bc that's all they want but casuals don't flock to it the way they do to mk. nrs was way ahead of the Japanese fighting game devs on features (good netcode, single player content) for years but now they've caught up they may not be able to rest on their laurels and the name recognition of the IP as easily

[@gamelord12]

@@PsychicWars This is quite the distortion of the reality of the reception for this game and past entries. And for what it's worth, I thought SF6's heart was in the right place but didn't even succeed at what they were going for, let alone show up MK1's single player offering.

[@DoctorDex]

I hope they add Dave the Drycleaner as DLC. Driven by frustration with the ever changing status quo, Dave leaves his Drycleaning business behind. Joining the tournament to end Mortal Kombat once and for all

[@ihappy1]

If Mortal Kombat is gonna keep rebooting itself the least it could do is make a whole new cast. All the former main characters are off being reality saving Gods so here's a new generation of absolute weirdos doing their own thing. Dave the Drycleaner puts people in a super spin cycle and 5 skulls and 12 ribcages fly out

[@antonhanna2423]

​@@ihappy1 Oh great, now I want a fatality where Dave shoves a wire hanger through someone's lower jaw bone, puts them on the cycling rack, and then the opponent's body is viciously torn apart by dozens of disembodied hands. Then when the camera cuts back to Dave, he'll reveal a tuxedo/dress that was made from the person he just killed.

[@Grizabeebles]

Old continuity was that Stryker, Mokap, and every character in the "Kreate a fighter" mode *was* just some random dude who knew barely enough martial arts to match Shao Kahn's weakest mook.

[@Paul-cu9lu]

Nah, I want a Viscera cleanup detail where you have to clean up the arenas after a fight and dispose of all the fighter chunks.

[@TheMet4lGod]

Fatality move is to press them in a steamer.

[@bionicdragon5]

Yahtzee weaponizing his fatherly disappointment against the triple A gaming industry is a force to be reckoned with!

[@JonySmith-bb4gx]

He sounds like that fate zero protagonist when he orders to destroy the grail

[@markkramer5740]

Eh. Saying that the guy whose favorite genres are Obscure Indie Games and Dad Games is "a force to be reckoned with" because he didn't like a game that he has no aptitude for is a stretch. He's amusing in small doses but that's about it.

[@BenKii]

NeatherRealm must've taken a page out of the Microsoft naming convention. Only they would think that putting a One at the end of their product constitutes as a sequel.

[@VeritabIlIti]

Backwards really, we did MKX two games ago!

[@theelementcarbon9039]

But they didn't put it at the end, they put it in the middle: Mortal One Kombat.

[@orijimi]

Or EA DICE.

[@alexlyster3459]

EA did it with Battlefield 1 as well. As for the Xbox One, I think we're going for "all in One" but, yeah it's not great either was it.

[@chillinflute]

Microsoft have had that particular issue with naming things since the beginning: pressing “start” to turn the computer off, for example

[@Gilthwixt1]

The Johnny Cage = Bojack Horseman analogy had me reeling lmao

[@IAmSeanFleming]

Explain for those not up on MK?

[@PsychicWars]

@@IAmSeanFleming At a guess, I'd assume he's referring to how they made a formerly-popular character into a pathetic, self-doubting whipping boy.

[@ashton7308]

Only similarity between them is that they're washed-up actors

[@antonhanna2423]

​@@ashton7308 Desperate washed-up actors, whose loved ones left them because they got tired of their shit (in some capacity).

[@vinnythewebsurfer]

At least Johnny had a good relationship with his daughter before they deleted the kombat kids from existence.

[@stevieboyXI]

That was harsher than a fatality. Flawless victory.

[@JonySmith-bb4gx]

Old Yahtzee is back . Persona weakened Yahtzee

[@HardCR0W]

Some person on the internet: "This rant was a flawless victory!!!" Players: ... *they don't give a shit about Yahtzee's rant... nor do they know who or what Yahtzee even is*

[@stevieboyXI]

@@HardCR0W Good for them? The rest of us are just here for the funny fast talking man.

[@HaloInverse]

-FATALITY- -BRUTALITY- -BABALITY- -ANIMALITY- REALITY

[@stevieboyXI]

@@HaloInverse I misread that as realty. I imagined Sub Zero selling Scorpion a house.

[@uhobme2028]

Honestly hilarious seeing the monkey's paw curl on Nitara Also someone really needs to take the Multiverse concept away from Warner.

[@Gamer3427]

Honestly, as someone who loves multiverse as a concept when used right, I'd say someone needs to take it away from all the big companies in the entertainment industry. Most of them just use it for either cameos or "death doesn't matter" moments instead of actually being creative with it.

[@IgnicRex]

And the rest of modern media.

[@repulser93]

@@Gamer3427 Its best utilized when it helps with character-building, like in EEAO, No Way Home, the animated Spider-Verse stuff, or the better parts of Rick and Morty. Use it poorly and you get The Flash 2023. (I feel Mortal Kombat's utilization has be alright, though nothing to write home about - save for Liu Kang and Kitana's cute moment.)

[@DanGamingFan2406]

His comparison between SF6 and MK1 is so accurate. The winner between them is more in your face obvious than Kitana's cleavage. Capcom really tried to switch up the formula while making the game interesting and accessible to long time fans and newcomers alike. While NetherRealm just rebooted the universe with all the bland stuff we've come to expect from fighting games and only cared about appealing to old fans.

[@watershipup7101]

A simile that would make Yahtzee proud.

[@genjis5155]

You've got that right.

[@thusnameddigital9397]

One of the rare times Street Fighter triumphs over Mortal Kombat.

[@MizunoKetsuban]

​@@thusnameddigital9397Rare? You sure about that?

[@ironviper72]

makes me wonder what Yahtzee will think about the new Tekken game coming up. He'll probably be pissed that so many fighting games needs his review

[@ethai1]

"I don't give Metal Gear Solid the twin shits..." is my favourite Yahtzee sentence this year

[@needlessToo]

I'm very pleased that MK1 review concluded with a sound recommendation for Street Fighter 6! That game deserves a lot more love.

[@kyletaylor9832]

I do not think so , sure the single player experience might be more engaging and MK did used to have more things like this , but it semi failed then even though it works now and i think will be coming up but on the whole , gameplay wise Mk is a far better game , its just more alive and Street fighter is only now, just starting to compete.

[@needlessToo]

@@kyletaylor9832 Gameplay-wise MK being a better game? Nice joke. Not funny though.

[@screenwriterdave]

I'm a huge Mortal Kombat fan, and this is kinda... how I feel, too.

[@MsDavid47]

You should have kinds see the writing on the wall after 11, when they desexualized all the women and made a boring story. Or made Jax suddenly care about slavery and Shao Khan wanted to made his land GREAT AGAIN. Woketarded imbecils have taken over and buried the francize into the ground.

[@saffakanera]

You hate Asians?

[@JonySmith-bb4gx]

@@saffakanera Asian stereotype . Yes

[@S-treme]

The fact that mk1 is mk11 2.0?

[@butareyoureally1868]

Well, when you built your empire on shock value, it becomes increasingly difficult to keep that ante up enough to retain a viable market.

[@sincereflowers3218]

Hence Liu Kang's fatality being him literally snapping a black hole into existence to kill you.

[@sweskey]

Though they cut back on the mutilation and viscora this time around to avoid giving their animators PTSD again

[@sincereflowers3218]

@@sweskey you thought fucking wrong son 🤣

[@boxtupos7718]

​@@sincereflowers3218Liu Kang's original point was lost lol He was the only who finished his opponent of with a simple uppercut; Also the screen doesn't turn dark. He stood out because he didn't want to kill, but was put in as Earth's strongest defender. But that was immediately changed, because people thought that that was boring; Now Liu Kang is much of a killer as the rest of cast. I forgot which KZbinr it was, but thet summed it up pretty well; That aside from Johnny Cage, character's personality/character usually just boils down to how they kill.

[@sincereflowers3218]

@@boxtupos7718 and it's always been that way because fighting gameplay is incompatible with the concept of a linear story.

[@pickledparsleyparty]

This is the catharsis I needed. MK1's story is the kind of Saturday morning cartoon they show at remedial school but Reddit is talking about it like it's... worth talking about.

[@YolandaPlayne]

It's like "campy" was a bullet point. I kind of liked it at first but it wears thin eventually.

[@Hawkatana]

Well there's your problem, this is *Reddit* you're talking about.

[@mauruhkatigaming4807]

One of the many dumb things about the story that Yahtzee didn't have time to comment on is the way Liu Kang fundamentally breaks it. How can the bad guys pose any kind of threat when the good guys have the literal author of the universe on their side? I know he gave up the hourglass (for reasons which were sensible enough, I guess), but there's no way an enemy could emerge that's strong enough to pose a threat to him without making him look like the dumbest ass in the cosmos for overlooking them. And even if there were, this is a guy so powerful that he was able to give up divine power and STILL have divine power left over. I almost don't blame them for going the multiverse route. Where else is the conflict going to come from? Then again, no one put a gun to their head and made them reboot the timeline AGAIN, and in this specific way no less.

[@invaderchris4898]

Power scaling in Mortal Kombat is a nightmare which i kinda like the idea that some characters “just got lucky” or had enough skill to underdog it but when it comes to reality warpers who are actively aware of their presence its kind of weird. The elder gods in the earlier games could have given a excuse as “we actively level the playing field” instead of “you are now ultra charged”. PS: i dont play the games i just watch the cutscenes on youtube. :)

[@catkaboodle]

Mortal Kombat is owned by the same company that is rebooting Harry Potter, has rebooted DC multiple times, and is probably going to reboot Lord of the Rings. The odds that the c-suite asked Netherrealm to reboot MK as a multiverse are not low.

[@MusicoftheDamned]

​@@catkaboodleWhile you're probably right about that to at least some degree given current WB, that doesn't make it any less disappointing, especially since I wouldn't put it past NRS to have wanted to do it anyway.

[@flaco3462]

the shoehorned famous actress in place of actual voice actress choice is still the thing that offends me the most

[@breezy3176]

And then they couldn't even fully finish the character so actual voice actress does job anyway

[@flaco3462]

@@breezy3176 never mind the fact that she was so bad she couldn't even do all the exertion grunts so they got an actual voice actress to do that they probably still paid the actress more than they paid all the actual voice actors combined anyway consideirng how this works

[@samlipton7872]

Neat, looks like Street Fighter 6 will be in Yahtzee’s top 5 at the end of the year

[@BomberTM]

And MK1 on the bland or bottom 5

[@theitalianfukr4270]

@@BomberTM naw, I see more shit tier

[@samlipton7872]

@@theitalianfukr4270 I gotta agree, he was pretty ruthless during this review. I’m sensing MK1 in bottom five. Starfield could be a lock for bland 5 as well

[@Mene0]

Nah, I don't think so. He enjoyed SF6's story mode but doesn't like FGs that much. Also this year in general was pretty good for games, any top 5 list is very disputed

[@BP-dn9nv]

@@Mene0 Well he doesn't like JRPGS too much but he gave Persona 5 a spot a few years back.

[@ItsHyomoto]

In this case I'm weirdly obliged to agree. If you are into fighting games maybe there's something here but I was watching part of a Let's Play and I was like, "Oh, this is where the plot is going. Welp, I'm done." And whatever minimal enthusiasm I had pretty much died right there. Contrast that to SF6 where, again, watching a part of a Let's Play I was like, "I kind of want to play that." I'm not entirely sure where the difference lies but I think it's mostly that I had no idea what the World Tour mode was other than a slightly anarchic celebration of Capcom fighting game and beat-em-up history, and I could never have predicted where it would go, whereas MK1 looks like more of the same, more of the same, more of the same. And it's like, okay, well if it's all just obligation at this point I feel comfortable opting out.

[@cheesi]

Yeah, while some fighting game series have been trying to court new players with their latest entries (Guilty Gear, Street Fighter etc) there's others that really just keep on doing the same thing and I'm surprised MK is one of those. They do sell a ton of copies so I suppose they have enough returning buyers that they're not too bothered about appealing to new people.

[@ItsHyomoto]

@@cheesi I definitely don't want to make it sound like MK bad, SF good: after all Capcom thought WT players would get into online ranked matches not realizing the whole appeal is that it wasn't a fighting game. So I can appreciate the purity of spirit. It's more just that they rebooted the whole continuity to do the same thing with it, Liu Kang does a bad thing for a good reason, misunderstandings occur, everyone shuffle into their expected positions and let's do the same plot. I just can't muster enthusiasm for it, maybe precisely because it's a redo. I didn't know what they were going to do with MK X, even if the plot is generic they could surprise. Here we're just putting things back on the shelf.

[@cheesi]

@@ItsHyomoto Oh yeah, as a pretty enfranchised fighting game player on the competitive side I'm not disappointed with either game, I just think it's interesting how they take different approaches these days. For me the single player content is mostly a side dish. It's great if it's good, it won't ruin my meal if it's shit, but I am really interested in how it impacts newer players since I love to see more people take an interest in these games. Definitely feels like MK isn't making many efforts to give itself a bigger reach when compared to other series, but then I'm pretty sure it's already the best selling fg series by a wide margin.

[@dezdedez5180]

Even for fighting game fans, MK1 is lackluster on the gameplay front actually.

[@shawklan27]

Capcom made a risk with world tour and it payed off while nrs done the same thing as before with story that's mixed as fuck with a new invasion mode that's just not as good as the normal krypt. SF6 is definitely a winner in my eyes and I'm definitely going to get that game before MK1

[@CalciumChief]

I already had issues with the story when Liu Kang becamse "god of time", but now they've jumped the shark so hard they crashed on the moon. Now it literally doesn't matter if Raiden is not immortal, cause there's ten more Raidens that are, sever that are evil and two that are burlesque dancers. Doesn't matter if anyone dies, cause we can just get another one of them. And Shang Tsung coming back is beyond dumb. I thought we deleted the guy from all of time, but nah, got that cow to milk.

[@Bluesit32]

Really? I knew from Aftermath's ending that the next big bad would be the Shang Tsung that became a Titan. Who else could it be? One of the random Titans that supposedly exist besides the Titan of Time?

[@mydrillasanjay5397]

i agree with your points but it was obvious from the first trailer that shang would be the big bad, still disappointing but atleast we had months to get over it before release

[@kingsleycy3450]

Multiverse is a worse narrative device than time travelling

[@shawklan27]

​@@kingsleycy3450preach it's just a lazy co out and cheap way of including fan service

[@MusicoftheDamned]

​@@Bluesit32As dumb as the Titans are as a concept, that seemed like they were going since reversing time was implied to not affect the other titans either (despite all of the logical headaches that would bring). Somehow that would have probably been the lesser evil instead of going full multiverse and making pretty much everyone literally infinitely expendable.

[@vasudean]

That last joke before the credits made me laugh pretty hard. I don't know why, but guess I find the idea of a janitor in a hyperviolent game to be rather funny.

[@brunop.8745]

basically the premise of Viscera Cleanup

[@edfreak9001]

@@brunop.8745 too bad they're not still doing those, a small Viscera Cleanup game based on Mortal Kombat would be pretty great.

[@Truzyxx]

You know the guest fighter I want to see now? The Dahaka from Prince of Persia: Warrior Within. All this time fcukery got its attention from two dimensions over and it’s here to sort things out by just killing everyone.

[@Sweetestsadist]

Not a bad choice. I've always wanted Nada from They Live.

[@gregvs.theworld451]

I know it's never going to happen, for a number of reasons, but given that Ed wanted to make a Street Fighter X MK game happen, I think it'd be cool if Capcom threw him a bone and let them use Bison or Akuma (imo preferably Akuma) as a guest for an MK game. Probably my #1 pipe dream pick.

[@igor_kossov]

Isn't there a primordial zerg monster dude named Dahaka in Starcraft? He could fight too, and then eat them for their essence.

[@Sorain1]

@@gregvs.theworld451 Akuma would be fully at home in an MK game. He could finally go fully on the path of Oni without censorship holding back the sheer insanity we all know ought to happen.

[@gregvs.theworld451]

@@Sorain1 Oh I know it, I'd love to see it, but I imagine Capcom would have reservations about allowing one of their iconic characters to get brutally maimed, even if it is one where fighting like that might actually make some sense in character.

[@WolfHreda]

Damn, despite Vampire Lady's being voiced by Megan Fox, the rest of the cast is pretty fuckin' solid.

[@TommyDeonauthsArchives]

Remind me why she's still getting acting gigs? I mean, she was in the recent Expendables film...

[@xdevantx5870]

@@TommyDeonauthsArchives I think The Dictator sums it up perfectly.

[@hanniballahr94]

As a non-fighting game gamer this sounds way less appealing than Street Fighter 6.

[@DetectiveLance]

As a person who was into fighting games, I agree this is less appealing than SF6.

[@hanniballahr94]

@@DetectiveLance I really wish I could get into them but my brain is not wired for quick combo inputs. Soulslikes I can get, but fighting games more complicated than Smash Bros? Nope.

[@conceptualization101]

As a non-fighting game gamer, Sifu and SF6 are incredible if you do ever want to try out the world of quick combo inputs.

[@PandaKnightsFightingDragons]

NRS fighting games are generally accepted by the wider FGC to be bad fighting games. But the success of a fighting game is carried by the interest of casuals, so ontop of NRS games tending to have the best story modes in fighting games, casuals usually aren't bothered by questionable mechanics and animations.

[@cooperlittlehales6268]

Yeah mortal kombat in general has taken a swift downturn as of late. They care more about the graphics and violence than actually having good characters and story

[@Lockdown2102]

Thank you for calling out megan fox's bad voice acting, I couldn't stand it in those cutscenes.

[@Bluesit32]

I mean, it's not a controversial statement, is it? Van Damm did a better job because he at least sounded like he was having fun with it. They could (and have) gotten better work out of an AI voice with Megan Fox.

[@okagron]

@@Bluesit32 It's hilarious watching videos using AI for intro dialogues and the AI voice for Nitara has more life and expression than the one in the actual game.

[@AnotherCraig]

Pre-fight banter peaked long, long ago with Genjuro in Samurai Shodown 4: "You're boring. Die!"

[@cereal_chick2515]

I'm really glad that Yahtzee provided a justification for knowing about this series enough to be able to comment on it in such depth, because I was actually feeling really sorry for him having gone through all those slogs just for the sake of his job.

[@AscendantStoic]

Yahtzee gives Mortal Kombat 1 and Megan Fox's voice acting career a decisive dual fatality, no x-ray required XD

[@toddhowardphillipslovecraf7301]

Deception's Konquest mode is underrated.

[@ducky36F]

My unpopular opinion is they should have doubled down on konquest mode instead of taking it away. Least if they did they might be still making passing interesting games instead of just mortal kombat 9 again, again, again.

[@Electric0eye]

Well at least it's good to know that a new installment of a series with the same name as the original plus a "1" is exactly as good as you'd expect.

[@cdfox85]

It's actually quite good. Yahtzee is taking the piss, as he does, and he doesn't even like fighting games to begin with. But if you do, MK1 is legitimately one of the greatest.

[@Supersmartandfunnyguy]

Mechanically, the game is actually very well done and plays like a dream. There just isn't enough to do quite yet, and the end of the story/quality of life items were clearly quite rushed.

[@ElGalloUltimo]

I thought the story was lame too until I realized "Kronika" was Shang Tsung from an alternate timeline where the two endings of MK11 both happened and that actually even all the tower endings happened. I agree it did get goofy again during the pyramid fight but it felt like self-deprecating fun mixing and matching different fighters together and I was honestly laughing and having too much fun with it to take it too seriously.

[@BlueLiminality]

It didn't occur to me until this review that Liu Kang didn't have to do any of this. Not only did he not have to bring Shang Tsung or Quan Chi in existence, he didn't have to create Mortal Kombat, Earthrealm, outworld, anything. This is a guy who could have just brought heaven on earth if he wanted to, a perfect utopia where kombat isn't even a koncept. Instead, he pretty much copy and pasted the world he came from, with a few minor details. At the very least, make sure Shang Tsung's parents never meet. It would have been so easy to just make sure the most evil guy you've ever known was never born. That would have saved him so much trouble.

[@whomdunit2457]

Wasn't expecting a Bojack Horseman comparison lmao that caught me off-guard

[@ashuggtube]

It’s the intelligent jokes that we’re really here for

[@shun-li8204]

While I do agree that constantly resetting your universe makes it hard to get invested in your characters, I feel its to the benefit of MK1 as many of the returning characters are given new life in ways I never would've liked in the older games. Reptile, Baraka, Mileena, Ashrah are among my favorites story wise. Only character that ate the biggest L in the story was Bi-Han and that's expected of him.

[@TimedRevolver]

Bi-Han is always a selfish little shit, regardless of timeline.

[@lucialambda]

i loved mk1s story and i love all the mk games but my god do i love yahtzee's videos so much. his criticisms are completely valid even if i don't rly care AND the videos are funny af. absolutely amazing way to review games because when i've played and liked a game i can enjoy the comedy of the video regardless of opinion, but if i actually want a reputable review i can come here too. great work, i'm so glad you're still going with this series

[@TheTolnoc]

The biggest problem with the vampire girl (Nitara) is that she used to actually be a really cool character that looked like a vicious vampire pirate dragon woman, who looks a lot better than that description made it sound like. If they're going to just make a new character and slap an old name on it, just make up a new name instead and *let* it be a new character.

[@bobmcbob49]

My favorite plot hole is the part where Sub Zero and Scorpion are walking down a long hallway, stand at the end of it for a while, and then duck to the side for Shao and Rain (I think) to make their entrance from the long hallway the ninjas were just standing in front of

[@yuurou7927]

Funnily enough MK1 does have better mechanics. However, SF6, also have better mechanics. In fact the drive system is among the best FG system in the industry probably only rivaled by Guilty Gear's tension gauge.

[@JonySmith-bb4gx]

No it doesn't . It's horrible Street fighter has better

[@ryltair]

I agree, the Drive system is pretty revolutionary and this gets more obvious the more you play the game.

[@crushycrawfishy1765]

Can't blame yahtzee for missing the endings reference. It was a call back to the start of MK Armageddon.

[@huytungnguyen119]

Then again, the appearance of Pyramid of Argus in MK1 is still very much phoned in without any explanation other than "hey, remember Armageddon?". At least in the original game, they explained it in the intro cutscene.

[@invaderchris4898]

No one asked for my opinion but i enjoy that baraka is now part of a leper colony instead of a whole tribe of murder monsters since there is alot of murder monsters. But its weird that: Reptile now looks like a youtuber and got over his family’s death very fast. Ermac is… well look at his face… why did they remove his mask he doesnt need a face hes just a bundle of souls.

[@3dpprofessor]

The one thing about this game I thought clever was how at the end you're fighting multiverse remixed versions of the characters that combines the movesets of two character with a clever name to match. Like a combination of Lin Mei and Scorpion called Firefly, or Nitara and Sub-Zero blend called Frostbite, or Sonya and Kano blended into Kanya. And the multiple Johnny Cages (including the gender bent Janet Cage) fighting together with a mime version of Johnny Cage was pretty silly. Also, I love how whenever it blends a male and female character, they always end up female. It's pretty silly and fun overall. But to get to that point you needed to dredge through something like 8 hours of story that was taking itself way too seriously. And that's the thing. Mortal Kombat was, above all, fun and silly. Johnny Cage's ball buster, friendship moves, and geysers of blood when you backhanded someone. Making people sit though 8 hours of "We need to take seriously the threat of the guy who wears a skull mask for the fate of the multiverse" it's like, do we really? Plus in the story mode you can't do fatalities because each of these characters is important in the story, Like, every Mortal Kombat game should be a clean slate of colorful characters because everyone in the previous game is dead. They started to do that with characters like Cassie Cage and Jacqueline Briggs, but then they didn't have the balls to go "Yeah, because their parents heads are dangingling from a parapet somewhere." I suppose there'd be the question of why anyone's living long enough to have children, but that's besides the point. Blood geisers, silly characters. That's all I want out of Mortal Kombat.

[@SanFran51]

Mortal Kombat 1 is a perfect example of selling out.

[@TommyDeonauthsArchives]

@2:53 and @4:43 I was here for the Megan Fox potshots and i wasn't disappointed.

[@CJusticeHappen21]

Mortal Combat: King James Version (KJV)

[@g0lddustt29]

The whole pyramid fight sequence at the end is a direct reference to the ending of Mortal Kombat: Armageddon.

[@noahguttman7011]

Why anyone should want to reference that piece of cinematic offal is beyond my comprehension.

[@KnightsTaleFan]

@@noahguttman7011 You're thinking of the movie Mortal Kombat: Annihilation

[@huntermcintosh8173]

@@noahguttman7011 Nah, MK:A was the game that had zombie Liu Kang and the badass opening sequence of all the characters battling their way up the pyramid. Forget the plot, but I do remember that it had Mortal Kombat Kart Racing and Chess Mortal Kombat as mini games in it, which was fun.

[@noahguttman7011]

@@KnightsTaleFan that certainly seems possible as I have tried to wipe that movie out of my memory.

[@JoshHenderson16]

It being a reference to another, more beloved game, doesn't automatically make it good or appropriate. I'd argue the opposite since it's just substituting originality with fan servicey what-ifitudes, which are boring AF.

[@tarekmoneimsaid]

I feel the same about the story, honestly. **spoilers below** They talked so much about how "this is a new universe!" and "it's a whole new story!", but quickly enough everyone gets similar origin stories, and after the (admittedly cool) Armageddon final act, everything's pretty much the exact same. Shang Tsung and Quan Chi are back to their evil ways, plotting in the shadows. Sub-Zero and the Lin Kuei are evil, and are Scorpion and the Shirai Ryu's mortal enemies. Earthrealm has to prepare for Mortal Kombat against them.

[@antzpantz]

I'm glad someone said that whole 'all the characters look alike' thing. I remember seeing the story trailer and I honestly could not tell the Asian characters apart, and I'm Asian! The ninjas have manbuns, the Shaolin have hats. Shang Tsung kinda looks different, only because of his grimace. Where's the character creativity?

[@twennysebben]

I watched Max and his pals play through the story and they did a great job calling out all the times NRS just recycled the storyline from the previous games. Yahtzee's review really sums up all of my feelings into one word and I thank him for that. I always preferred SF to MK and this latest entry just solidifies my choice.

[@DANCERcow]

Biased and biased

[@buns9022]

3:55 Nerd here, if you wanna portray a roundhouse kick, have the foot facing front, Facing rear like this appears more as a rear hook kick.

[@joshuaworden274]

I'm kind of surprised reading these comments that so many people even play through the story mode. I'm a long-time fighting game fan, but I think of the story modes in these games as being more like the single-player campaign in an FPS. It's nice that it's there, but it isn't really what sells the game. Judging a fighting game on the merits of its story feels like judging a movie by the quality of its bonus features.

[@HellecticMojo]

You need to play the story mode to unlock characters

[@TiodaniPKM]

When one of the things MK sells itself on is the presentation of the story mode, it makes all the sense to put it into consideration when analysing the game.

[@Fighter600]

You know, it's guys like you are the reason we got Functions Vs Functions: Infinite. And I'm not sure if you remember, that sold like liquid bowel movements.

[@HellecticMojo]

@@Fighter600 Capcom did that on their own and mvci competitively wasn't sound

[@kingofthefallen1567]

Did Yahtzee just confirm he knows about GCN and Dartigan?

[@samueldarman1457]

It would be wild if that was the case.

[@GuyYouMetOnline]

Who and who?

[@samueldarman1457]

@@GuyYouMetOnline Gamesins channels, which is basically Cinemasins but for videogames.

[@GuyYouMetOnline]

@@samueldarman1457 Ah. I've seen scattered EWW gaming vids, but wasn't aware of any dedicated channels.

[@Shakes-Off-Fear]

Sounds like good candidate for the bland 5

[@MattEldritchHorror]

I was really hoping that this game would've been just about the Mortal Kombat tournament that the original Kung Lao entered, but Liu Kang mentoring him as Raiden did with him. Hell, maybe even have Onaga as the Outworld ruler with Shao Kahn scheming in the background as his Starscream.

[@jayarby8494]

The fact that Street Fighter 6 might actually be one of Yahtzee’s top 5 games of the year is surprising

[@rundown132]

Its a really good game fwiw

[@addi543]

Whereas MK1 will probably be on the Bland 5 (my predictions for that are this, AC: Mirage when he finally plays that, and RE4MAKE)

[@Montesama314]

As much as the backstory for the rebooted characters is kind of interesting (Empress Mileena? Good guy Baraka? That's different and cool), the actual character designs and silhouettes are too similar at a glance for people who are supposed to be iconic and easily recognizable. Individually, I like Sindel's, Kitana's, and Mileena's looks, BUT they look too damn similar at a distance. (I commend Kari Wahlgren for her efforts to keeping Kitana and Mileena's voices distinct.) And there are also split second moments for me where I get Kung Lao (skinny Asian dude with a hat) confused with Raiden (skinny Asian dude with a hat). I go, "wait, Raiden wears white" or "right, Kung Lao's hat has a blade" to refocus. But people shouldn't ever do that. To the contrary I bet I could identify almost any Overwatch or Street Fighter 6 character by silhouette alone. I partly blame the lack of distinction in MK1 fighters on the choice to design characters with more realistic features.

[@LoganArredondo-l5p]

I want a game following the dry cleaner guy now

[@suakeli]

There's Viscera Cleanup Detail

[@KeithFraser82]

Zero Punctuation progressive metal album of the week: *Unexplained Giant Pyramid* by *Symbolic Catharsis*

[@IIIOldSchooLIII]

To be fair, Bi-Han was always a bastard in the original timelines, even when he was Sub-Zero.

[@cybertramon0012]

I still remember how Mortal Kombat X did the whole time skip thing and how it’s up to the next generation of heroes of Earthrealm and Outrealm to continue the fight. And then that all got thrown out the window so that MK 11 can just have the favourites brought back. Those new characters probably don’t even exist anymore if this is a reboot.

[@MungkaeX]

As a fighting game enthusiast from the glory days of the MK vs SF; Mortal Kombat has always been the more shallow fighting experience highlighting the convoluted series of memorized button and directional prompts required to play with additional emphasis on the spectacle of the end of each fight. In a nut shell, Mortal Kombat are the Terrance & Phillip of the Fighting Genre.

[@jrpgsensei4059]

You mean the biggest stars in their country and loved by everyone but the mentally stunted and insane adults? lol Sorry, couldn't resist that one because I get what you are going for but in context Terrance and Phillip are the like the biggest stars ever. Especially in the early days of the series where a whole movie and war was fought over them.

[@Darwingreen5]

yeah, in 11, I found myself doing the Brutalities more than the actual finishers(when I didn't have to jump though too many hoops).

[@andersonklein3587]

I honestly blame Disney. Ever since Endgame, every single game/movie studio is trying to milk the multiverse thing... And it's bad every time. It's like time travel, it can be ok as a plotpoint if it is used in a limited way as an integral part of the story. But studios only care about allowing them to have an expanded universe that doesn't need proper continuity and can generate "hype".

[@hanniballahr94]

For real. I remember reading The Dark Tower series as a kid and having my mind blown that two separate books could exist in the same fictional universe. Now it all feels so tired and quaint.

[@Ashurman666]

Why blame Disney for it? If you want to blame someone, blame the people making inferior copies

[@fieryrebirth]

Imo, resorting to multi-universe/time travel plots is a clear sign the universe of that media franchise has run its course and requires new material. Unfortunately, in this late stage capitalism media industry that treats their artists and writers like shit, this is what we get. It's obvious NR has been digging the bottom of the barrel for MK for quite a while just to stay relevant.

[@xmaracx]

The comparison of sfvi world tour is kinda weird since mk did it before, long before. Hell world tour seems like it lifted most concepts from deception/armageddon and just pushed more.

[@jacksmith-mu3ee]

The old yahtzee is back All it took was a mortal kombat

[@dravenation8428]

You know I don't give a Metal Gear Solid the Twin Shits about fighting game mechanics! Loved it. Haha 😆

[@Askorti]

And where has he supposedly gone?

[@MusicoftheDamned]

​@@AskortiFar too many comments in previous video have claimed he's become soft because he has a wife and at least one kid now, often just because he's not as harsh on something as they expected.

[@ProxyDoug]

@@Askorti This year has been rough for his reviews, don't think I laughed one in the past 3 months. Even the political jabs, which should be easy for someone like him are bland boring, with no bite.

[@martincann5052]

You can tell that NetherRealm are owned by the same people as DC Comics since both their default solutions are 'reboot everything un-necessarily at the drop of a hat with only the most superficial and pointless of changes'.

[@IronCladChicken]

There's not enough Abe Vigoda references in this world.

[@fishpop]

2:47 Well that's what you get when you hire Megan Fox fsr. I knew she sounded off when i watched a cutscene compilation.

[@HumbleBovine]

I never understood why Yahtzee bothers reviewing fighting games when he admits to never engaging with the mechanics in a meaningful way. Yahtz himself has said many times that gameplay is more important to a game than the story and that the mechanics are ultimately what drives a player's interest yet never bothers to learn how to actually play a fighting game. Feels weirdly like engagement baiting because MK1 is a popular game. It feels like reviewing a movie and only talking about the story while completely ignoring the cinematography or editing. I also get that the point of a review is simply to understand that particular reviewer's perspective but it's a fighting game; I already assumed Yahtzee wouldn't like it. That's why the SF6 review is so surprising: he actually liked it and had something to say. Doesn't feel like he really has anything to say here.

[@boshwa20]

Yeah. People always whine about reviewers who review games they're not fans of, so why does Yathz do it?

[@Potidaon]

He's said before that his main interest is narrative design, and thus, he'll review it if it has a story mode.

[@BoboMagroto26]

Alternate title of MK1, Mortal Kombat: Into the Kombat-verse… given what’s in the story later on

[@metaloverlord7465]

Wait a minute, you mean to tell me Megan Fox got work as a VOICE OVER?! WHY?!?

[@Solqueen86]

At least here Johnny and Kenshi's bromance survived 3 time resets even though they ain't co-parenting 4 kids anymore

[@tairyu2574]

If they’re going to keep resetting their own universe, they should provide a complimentary comic book series to go with each reset.

[@shawklan27]

Or you know not cram multiverse bullshit into it?

[@AnotherCraig]

They kinda have to reset all the time, don't they? When everyone's supposed to be fighting to the death every time? Otherwise each new game would have to invent a new roster of fighters and we all know that ain't gonna happen... as interesting as it might sound

[@bakto2122]

Its a common misconception that the eleventh mortal combat game is called "mortal eleven combat". It is actually called "mortal combat two". The roman numeral is only placed in the middle for extra style points.

[@lemonlordminecraft]

Hope they pull a Lion King and release titles with fractions in them

[@seanmc2999]

Love a Metal Gear Solid Twin Snakes reference

[@nicklager1666]

It really does take me back to the series origins playing MK1 on Switch. I mean litteraly the graphics are virtually the same. I am curious what tattooe yahtzee choosed from the selection inside the PC box.

[@EpicLebaneseNerd]

with a 114gb update as by ver 1.04, i kinda gave up on the game and thinking of selling it, thank goodness for physical editions.

[@theatomiclemon1]

They rebooted themselves AGAIN? Good god, at this point I will not be surprised if they release two Mortal Combat 1's back to back.

[@juanjuri6127]

You're onto something, sequel to MK1 will be MC1, where the only change is they've changed all the silly K words back to C's. You no longer """K"""nock out your enemies (🙄), you Cnock them out.

[@ihappy1]

They'll do another reboot and call it mortal Kombat 1-1

[@CodecrafterArtemis]

Regarding "generically Asian dark man". I have watched a combo video today, with combos being performed on a dude in red, and thought that the dude was Scorpion. Only after a couple re-watches I glanced at the top right corner and saw that the opponent was, in fact, Sub-Zero.

[@TheBlargMarg]

Wait, I thought the first iteration of Subzero was originally a bad guy, thus turned into Noob Sabbot when he was killed off...

[@Ashurman666]

No. It was when he turned into Noob that he became evil. Bi-Han(The first Sub-Zero) was never evil to begin with. A bit of a jerk sometimes sure but never outright evil

[@Bluesit32]

@@Ashurman666 No, he was pretty bad. You don't get chosen by some chalk white necromancer to become a shadow ninja if you're not already a bastard.

[@Bluesit32]

It's a reboot. That never happened because the second Sub-Zero is now Scorpion. So they're brothers, not mortal enemies. Lui Kang was trying REAL hard to make sure things weren't evil in his timeline.

[@Ashurman666]

@@Bluesit32 No he was not. He was an assassin for hire, he was neither evil nor good. Because he killed people he had a degree of "evil" in his heart(Subjective really) thus him being chosen. He was never this way though, he never betrayed his clan, his principles or his younger brother

[@Ashurman666]

@@Bluesit32 And yet he failed. And he failed BIG TIME

[@myownego]

Ok, just blatantly writing "MILF" on Sindel's forehead got me giggling!

[@wildheartproductions94]

Honestly I don't even play the MK games anymore I haven't since 10. I just watch the cutscene compilations on KZbin, laugh a little, roll my eyes a little more, and then move on with my life. Saves me several hours and seventy bucks

[@MsAlliwannadoisdance]

Yahtzee, I need an Extra Punctuations for "Do fighting games even NEED a story?"

[@tyrannicpuppy]

Never really understood the fighting game model. It's like FIFA releasing a new game every single year. Nothing about the sport has changed except maybe the roster. And surely those changes can just be DLC on the original one. I really can't understand why they ever release a second game. Just make expansion packs for the first one.

[@doifhg]

I thought I was going crazy because for some reason I saw a lack of people acknowledging that MK resets its timeline pretty routinely, and all the ads where trying to sell it like it was a new thing that hadn't been done before

[@GameAlicornLuna]

To be fair, Bi-Han was always sort of a villain. It's just trying to determine if Sub-Zero is Bi-Han or Kuai Liang. This game throws a wrench into the system, though, because Kuai Liang is Scorpion in MK1 while Scorpion was always Hanzo Hasashi who is notably missing from this story. He is likely the son of Kuai Liang.

[@thomaschitham3487]

3:16 In my opinion, running up the stairs menacingly is fine. Running *down* the stairs, however, if fucking hilarious. The villains looked so goofy-looking like that.

[@BalgaBear]

Yeah, Mortal Kombat 1 is cheesy as hell, in a bad way.

[@nono9543]

It really does make the Universe feel smaller when everything is determined between martial artists

[@Fusionater]

Oh no, more CinemaSins discourse. 😂

[@velvet_Overkill]

Lmao i didn't expect a Dartigan shout-out

[@RGcrasyRG]

It was interesting for me to watch cutscenes in this one and follow the story.

[@ElGalloUltimo]

While I keep up with the story in NRS games and usually find it entertaining, I just watch it on KZbin. I think the most enjoyment in fighting games comes from completely ignoring all the extra BS in a personal playthrough and focusing on the fighters and fighting mechanics. I know that's probably pretty hard to do in a 1 week playthrough as a reviewer covering all types of games other than FGC material. I usually spend weeks or months mastering a character.

[@connorharnage6697]

Dunno what's worse. That he's right or that it's STILL better than the last 3 games

[@Aculeus20]

There are a lot of quality of life features missing that exist in previous games. Unlike SF6, they did not add or improve any features from past games. features.