Now, after 11 entries and the creation of almost 100 characters, the current stewards of the franchise over at NetherRealm Studios, still led by Mortal Kombat co-creator Ed Boon, have decided to start fresh. But where does the new story start? “The main protagonist in the Mortal Kombat saga has been a Shaolin Monk named Liu Kang,” explains Boon, co-creator of Mortal Kombat and the many years, Liu Kang has evolved from his humble beginnings as a Shaolin Monk, to a Fire God who eventually (literally) created his own Big Bang, starting a new universe. That new universe is where the story of Mortal Kombat 1 begins.” That isn’t to say some familiar faces won’t show up, as much like when DC did a similar reboot in the landmark crossover comic book event Crisis favourites around — after giving them all a little bit of an update, of course. “There actually aren’t that many games or other forms of media or entertainment that have been running for over 30 years,” muses Boon. “So, there aren’t many examples we could draw inspiration who had done similar rebooting. Star Wars, James Bond, DC, and Marvel are some that have. But for us personally, we felt like it was time to really start over with a new story. At the same time, we are fully aware of how much Mortal Kombat fans love the characters, so we decided to include reimagined versions of them in this brand new story.”
CHOOSE YOUR DESTINY A lot of the rebooted characters are in a drastically remain instantly recognizable. According to Boon, the changes were story-driven, and the team weren’t too precious about it as long as the game felt new. “It was very important for us to keep the Mortal maintain their signature looks and abilities,” explains Boon. “The story obviously played a big part in how we changed their situations and relationships with each other. We were not really looking for “balance” as much as we were looking for change. We did feel that change was important to keep the story fresh and interesting. We also knew we needed to change them a new feel as well.” mechanics, it largely came down to a process of player can tell you that when a new mechanic works, you go ‘oh of course’, and when it doesn’t, it could kill the whole thing faster than a good Fatality move, which was obviously something the studio was looking to avoid happening.
previous games,” says Boon. “We don’t want anyone feeling ‘this is the same as the last game, but with better graphics’. At the same time, we want
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