They include guys like Stung Lao, a combination of Scorpion and Kung Lao: Image: NetherRealm Studios/Warner Bros. And they’re mostly mashups of the Mortal Kombat characters that fans will know and love, but all of them are evil. Some of those alternate-reality fighters become the player’s opponents in a series of battles on the way to defeat Shang Tsung. In the game’s final chapters, Liu Kang and Shang Tsung travel to dozens of other timelines, recruiting the kombatants of those worlds to fight for their causes. While that may be an increasingly tired storytelling trope in the wake of Avengers: Endgame, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, Spider-Man: No Way Home, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, The Flash, and Everything Everywhere All At Once, Mortal Kombat 1 does the funniest thing possible with its multiversal story. Mortal Kombat 1 goes full multiverse from here. And what is initially believed to be two timelines turns out to be infinite timelines. The latter is interfering with Liu Kang’s plans and the two timelines are running in parallel. Liu Kang is rewriting Mortal Kombat history, and so is Shang Tsung. ![]() What Liu Kang doesn’t realize in Mortal Kombat 1 is that both Aftermath endings happen. In an alternate version of that ending, Shang Tsung defeats Liu Kang and becomes all-powerful, conquering Earthrealm, Netherrealm, and Outworld. Liu Kang then defeats Shang Tsung, uses the crown to control the Hourglass, erases his longtime enemy from existence, and ventures back in time to reshape Mortal Kombat history. ![]() In the final moments of that expansion, Shang Tsung defeats the powerful Titan named Kronika, and steals her crown, a powerful temporal magic device, for himself. The whole reason Liu Kang has the ability to rewrite history is explained in the events of Mortal Kombat 11’s story add-on, Aftermath. That’s because there’s a twist that neither Liu Kang or Geras saw coming. Mortal Kombat 1’s Liu Kang does an admirable job of resetting the universe, keeping series villains Shang Tsung, Quan Chi, and Shao Kahn from coming to power, but only up to a point. But it’s nothing compared to the timeline shenanigans NetherRealm pulls off at the end of the game. That’s one of the low-key funniest moments in Mortal Kombat 1’s story. ![]() The actual Mortal Kombat tournament of MK1 kind of glides by rather nonviolently in this version of the story.Īt one point, Liu Kang even comforts a young Raiden as he prepares to represent Earthrealm in the tournament, telling him, “No tournament participant has ever been grievously injured or killed.” You sure about that? Image: NetherRealm Studios/Warner Bros. In his version of Mortal Kombat’s story, Liu Kang does a respectable job of keeping the peace between Earthrealm and Outworld. Mortal Kombat 1 goes harder than ever before in its retelling of the classic Mortal Kombat story, with Liu Kang directly interfering in previous canon events to prevent certain bad guys from coming to power. ![]() Narrative reboots like these give developer NetherRealm Studios a chance to rework core elements of Mortal Kombat lore - bitter ninja rivalries, Earthrealmers battling supernatural monsters and wizards, Outworld royalty and military drama - with a fresh spin. The Mortal Kombat franchise has rejiggered its timeline twice over the past decade, with Raiden altering the course of history starting with 2011’s Mortal Kombat and Liu Kang giving it another go in this week’s Mortal Kombat 1.
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