Mortal Kombat 11 the newest to the bloody franchise developed by NetherRealm Studios has amped up the hype and gore was showcase this past Thursday, January 17th, 2019 both in London and Los Angeles. Trailer at The Game Awards 2018 with a release date of April 23, 2019, for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One and finally returning to Nintendo on the Nintendo Switch console. The gameplay reveals a polish and amazing graphics running on the Unreal Engine 4, as always fashionably late welcome to the Unreal Engine 4 party literally and figuratively.

The gameplay reveals event was to showcase some new features or mechanic to the game such as the “Krushing Blow,” “Fatal Blow,” “Perfect Block,” Defensive and Offensive meters. Krushing Blow is triggered when certain criteria are met during gameplay provide cinematic effects close up and add certain bonus like a combo set up or additional damage; I call it micro x-ray a la MK IX/XL. Fatal blow in the other hand is specific in requirement. It is activated when health bar hits 30% or less and is performed the same way as previous installation X-rays supers also providing hyper gore and cinematic effects of close-ups and slowdowns. A fatal blow can only be performed once per match not one per round. Now, for the defensive mechanic, the perfect block was introduced to those who can have the skills to press the block precisely. A perfect block will allow a window to reverse, evade, punish or to reduce chip damage to hit(s). Replacing the classic three-bar horizontal meters are the defensive/offensive meter which is built through time (Notice the theme of “time”) instead of specials and block strings combos and damages. Defensive meters are two vertical meters adjacent to two offensive meters. Respective meters provide players to enhance, evade, wake-up attack to either expedite, increase damages, provide combo set-ups.

But enough about the gameplay! Let us get to the juicy or gory stuff that had made Mortal Kombat famous (infamous) enough to enact the ESRB rating. Let go through the Klassic checklist: Blood(Check), Fatality (Check), moves that normally kill/blind/maim/ or incapacitate a person are plain walk-offs (Check) ahhh the Good ole klassics. Kharacters that are shown at the gameplay are the MKX returning Scorpion, Sub-Zero, Rayden, Sonya Blade, also making their return Skarlet and Baraka MK9. Only new Kharacter was a Geras, who can control time respectively and is sand-base of arsenals akin to a Naruto character. Much like MKX, kharacters are filled with customization and variations.

Of course, the hype is in the mystery of possible celebs, returning characters and other modes of gameplay that were miss(Please return Tag Mode! ). The internet is abuzz cause by fanboys speculating or wishful thinking just enough to create a youtube channel, and clickbait me on the latest news but in reality their guess is good as what the can make up to get likes and views and yes this is a run on sentence since this is the only chance of me running in anything MK11 related. Overall Stunning graphics and footsies heavy gameplay is a nice change, and the hype meter is like their new meter system, its growth over time until the Fatal Blow of the much-anticipated release. , And Yes OMG Ronda Rousey as Sonya Blade! OMEGA KAI OUT!