Last April, I was pleased to review Mortal Kombat X on the PS4 and I really enjoyed it. I had little to complain about but noted that an ‘ultimate’ or ‘definitive’ edition was essentially a sure thing. It didn’t happen in the 2015 calendar year, but here in early 2016 we have what was very obvious to predict. As I typically do these days with a lot of AAA games like MKX, I tend to limit my time with these games post-review because I know there are patches and new content that will be available in the coming months. So I actually haven’t played MKX for around eight months, but getting a chance to review MKXL had me chomping at the bit to get back to one of my favorite videogame franchises of all time.
A lot has changed since MKX, but the core gameplay remains the same. Story mode is still short, no simple Arcade mode is included, and the fighting is as tight as ever. While I rarely played the game after my initial review in anticipation of these re-release, I did keep up with the patches, of which there were a good number of on PS4. These balance tweaks and fixes and enhancements are all included with MKXL, as well as all post-release DLC including the two Kombat Packs (one of which just came out simultaneously with MKXL), skins, a new stage (The Pit X), and the Medieval Costume Pack which applies to Kung Jin, Ferra/Torr, and Kotal Kahn. While I have no idea what specifically changed, developer Ed Boon also tweeted that MKXL features updated netcode to make the online experience better, but I haven’t played enough online to really tell a major difference. In my experience, issues are few and far between, but your mileage may vary.
In addition to that warm fuzzy feeling of having all of the patches and updates pre-installed with MKXL, the other kontent is no joke. The first Kombat Pack includes four new playable characters, and as with the original roster each character has three significantly different Variations. The first Kombat Pack’s characters had Jason Vorhees from the Friday the 13th movies, Predator (’nuff said), and two classic characters in Tanya and Tremor. I immediately jumped into some quick matches to try these characters out as I had not done so previously, and I was impressed with how smoothly they integrated into the MK experience. Jason’s animations are great; his posture is so fitting and appropriately intimidating and Netherrealm has done a great job of bringing this lumbering murderer into the MK universe. Predator is similarly cool with moves like self-detonation and his badass X-Ray attack in which he uses his shoulder-mounted cannon and claw-blade. Tanya isn’t as interesting, but Tremor has become one of my favorites. I actually had to look up Tremor to see what his origin was — turns out his only previous appearance was in Mortal Kombat: Special Forces (where he was not playable) and in the Vita version of 2011’s Mortal Kombat (where he apparently was playable). He’s a giant, towering over practically every other character and his “earth”-based attacks are really neat.
Kombat Pack Two expands the roster by another four, bringing in Alien, Leatherface, Bo Rai Cho, and Triborg. I was skeptical that Alien would be a good fit, but once again Netherrealm has done a really impressive job with these new characters from top to bottom. Their animations, variations, and balance are spot-on, and playing as Alien (a character I’ve never cared about in any medium) is just fun. His low-crawl attack in which you can cover pretty much the full distance of the screen in one move and spin your enemy around in the process is cool. Leatherface surprises as well, his back-down-Triangle attack in which he pops the enemy on the head with a small mallet is a great setup move for a bigger attack and of course his chainsaw is a helluva thing to wield across this different variations. Experiencing Leatherface vs Jason or Alien vs Predator is pretty awesome to see and more importantly the gameplay is great.
These ‘vanity’ or cross-over characters feel a little bit out of place admittedly, but I can’t deny how nice of a job Netherrealm has done in merging them into the roster. On the other hand, bringing Bo Rai Cho back is a much more natural fit and he’s a blast to use. I’ve always loved his Drunken Fist style since his introduction in MK: Deadly Alliance and with his three Variations in MKXL he’s as interesting and fluid as ever. Some of the most visually-pleasing combos come at the hand of Bo Rai Cho. Meanwhile, Triborg brings back Sektor, Smoke, and Cyrax into one, as their Variations feature the Lin Kuei cyborgs at their finest. You can easily unlock a fourth variant too that I won’t spoil for you and I even encountered this fourth version when I stumbled upon a secret battle during a Living Towers challenge. Anyway, the ‘throw’ attack by Triborg looks so awesome, especially as LK-7T2 (Smoke) — Triborg will crouch down after forcing the enemy to their knee and rapidly punch them — sounds simple enough I know, but it looks and sounds super cool.
In addition to the four new characters, The Pit X stage is included which harkens back to the original Pit from 1992’s Mortal Kombat (which I had the pleasure of playing again on an original arcade at an expo recently). Other stage fatalities for all characters are included too, as are new voiceovers in that brief pre-fight period in which the fighters see each other. Hearing the MK characters address Alien and Leatherface is pretty interesting, and adds just another layer of polish to the whole experience.
On that note, MKXL has plenty of polish to go around. It’s incredibly rich in content and plays as tight and balanced as ever. It’s tempting to call this the best Mortal Kombat ever released because it is so fluid in its presentation and gameplay, has so many interesting and enjoyable characters to choose from, and if you count the online modes and challenges, there’s pretty much an endless amount of content. In sum, MKXL takes an already awesome game and improves not only the core experience, but also adds a lot of new, quality content.
