During the days when people went to arcades, one of the most successful games was Mortal Kombat, a fighting game where two players fight to the death and end in a gross fatality. This game was so violent that when it first came out, parents demanded something to be done to protect their kids. This was the game that created the ESRB, the rating age for video games like the Rated R tag on films. With remarkable characters and gameplay, Mortal Kombat was on top of the world when it first came out in 1992. As suspected, with a successful franchise, NetherRealm Studios (creators of the game) made many more installments. During the early 2000s, though, Mortal Kombat lost a lot of its popularity, so NetherRealm Studios rebooted the franchise with Mortal Kombat (or MK9) which was released in 2011. The game was critically acclaimed by critics and fans all around the world. Four years later, NetherRealm released its second game in the new reboot series called Mortal Kombat X. This was one of the most hyped games for the next generation of consoles and has a lot to live up to with the success with MK9.

The story takes place 20 years after the events of the last game where we see one of the old and original characters, Johnny Cage, talking to his daughter, Cassie Cage, and her squad of Special Forces consisting of her best friend who is the daughter of Jax Briggs, Jacgui Briggs, son of Kenshi and apprentice of the one and only Scorpion, Takeda, and cousin of Kung Lao, Kung Jin. In OutWorld, a Civil War is being held between, Kotal Kahn, the new leader of his Realm, and Mileena, Shao Kahns sorta daughter who wants her rightful title as Kahunas.

The game is really bad with introducing new players to the story; they will be confused and lost. The story is also way too short. With the main story only being four hours long, it leaves a lot more questions than answers. Another part of the story follows Shinnok, a fallen Elder God, who wants to destroy Earth and bring everyone to his knees. With the help of Johnny Cage (and by help I mean he did all the work); Raiden, another one of EarthRealms protectors, seals Shinnok in an amulet that he’s been in for the past 20 years. But one of Shinnoks followers, Quan Chi, and his followers now want to free him from his prison and destroy the world. It’s up to our new heroes to step up and save the world. The story is good, but it’s still too short, leaves a lot of questions, and it really could have been a lot less predictable.

The gameplay is not only great, but it’s the best in any fighting game to date. It’s fast and lots of fun. The game has a total of 24 characters (25 if you count the Downloadable Content [DLC] character Goro), and each character has a total of three different playing styles. This adds to the games competitive aspect because know, there’s a total of 75 different variations counting Goro. The game also borrows things from MK9 and Injustice, another NetherRealm fighting game. From MK9 it borrows the meter bar again. When you deal or take damage, a bar on the lower part of the screen will fill up and you can do things such as: push an enemy away from you if he’s dealing a deadly combo, add some more damage to attacks, or save it all up to do a deadly X-Ray move that deals massive damage.

Borrowing from Injustice is things that you can pick up and throw, or jump on. This adds another layer to the game with more strategy for players to take into mind. As always, at the end of a fight, you can perform a really cool fatality that is not only awesome, but is the most violent thing I’ve seen in a video game period. This game will make you feel sick to your stomach, and it really deserves that M rating. If people were mad about the violence in the first MK game, could you imagine how mad parents would be if they got this game instead? The answer is that they would not have bought it for their kids

Multi-player is also very important to a fighting game, and for right now, it’s okay. As soon as you start, the game makes you pick one of the five factions in the game. Either you choose the Lin Kuei, White Lotus, Brotherhood of Shadow, Special Forces, or Black Dragons. Then you will fight for your faction and try to see if you win by the end of the week. It sounds pretty fun, but here’s the deal: it’s extremely broken. Everyone chooses Lin Kuei, the faction that is lead by one of the most popular characters, Sub-Zero and they wreck the competition all the time. They have sort of fixed this problem due to more players switching factions, so now it’s a fair fight, but still, a mass majority of the time, the Lin Kuei still wins. I don’t mind this too much because I am part of the Lin Kuei and I don’t mind getting free stuff like things for my profile card and Kions, witch is the games source of money.

What you do with your Kions is something that I truly enjoy, the Krypt. The new Krypt is a maze that is covered with grave site, and so much Mortal Kombat nostalgia like Shao Kahn’s tomb, and you can actually walk into the NetherRealm. Going back to the Kions and the graves, every grave has a price and you use your collected Kions you’ve collected from playing the story or in the multiplayer, and you can buy some really cool stuff like more Fatalities, Brutalities, concept art of the game, and more skins for characters. This offers more of a reason to play, to collect everything in the game.

The online is also really cool. Lobbies are awesome and all the modes are really exiting. I guess the only complaint I have with the multi-player is that it takes forever for you to find a match. I’ve heard stories about people having to wait 5 minutes just to get into a match. They need to fix this problem as soon as possible because there are plenty of players playing. This is the best-selling Mortal Kombat to date and probably the best selling fighting game of all time. There is no excuse that there is that long of a wait. But in a match, I’ve experienced very little lag and I’ve had no game crashes so far. The multi-player is still really fast and enjoyable.

The final verdict of Mortal Kombat X is a really strong 9 out of 10 stars. It’s one of the best games so far on the next generation and it’s the best Mortal Kombat game to date. It’s worth every penny if you’re a Mortal Kombat fan. For new fans, it’s a great place to start, and I can’t wait for the DLC characters to come out. I’m really curious to see what NetherRealm does with the next game that will come out maybe in 4 years. This game is going to last me a lot of fun times with my friends. This is truly a Kool time.