2023 looks like it’s shaping up to be one hell of a year for fighting games, andMortal Kombat 1looks like it’s going to have no problem clearing the bar thatStreet Fighter 6has just raised into the sky. After an intriguing, bloody story trailer a few weeks ago,NetherRealm Studiospromised that a full gameplay reveal would be right around the corner, and that time came.
Held up as one of Summer Game Fest’s biggest moments,Mortal Kombat 1recently received its first gameplay trailer and it made quite an immediate impact. Lasting for around four minutes,Mortal Kombat 1’s gameplay reveal trailershowed off some of the most fluid, satisfying gameplay the franchise has ever had, along with the series' best graphics to date. But whileMortal Kombat 1’s gameplay reveal did answer a lot of questions, there’s still a big one lingering in the air.
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Mortal Kombat 1 Still Needs to Confirm Who’s On the Main Roster and Who’s Just a Kameo
During the course ofMortal Kombat 1’s four-minute gameplay reveal, fans got their first glimpse at several of the game’s core mechanics and features. For the most part,Mortal Kombat 1’s fighting gameplay looks fairly similar to the last few entries, albeit somehow even smoother. But the big new addition that took up most of the reveal’s screen-time wasMortal Kombat 1’s new Kameo fighters.
Essentially a rudimentary tag-team system,Mortal Kombat 1’s Kameo fighters are a secondary group of characters that the player can use to unleash special moves during a fight. Much likeMortal Kombat2011’s tag-team partners, these Kameo fighters are activated via a single button press, paired with a direction. Each direction correlates to a different special move, allowing a skilled player to weave specific Kameo moves in between their own combos.Mortal Kombat 1’s gameplay trailer also revealed that theseKameo fighters can also participate in fatalities and X-Ray/Fatal Blows, which is a nice touch.
After a brief bit of gameplay, Ed Boon, who joined Summer Game Fest host Geoff Keighley on stage, gave fans a quick glimpse at what the Kameo roster generally looks like. After choosing their main playable fighter, players will then access a second menu filled with Kameo characters. In the trailer, just three Kameo characters filled this roster, with another 13 icons left blank, presumably hinting that there’ll be at least 16 Kameo fighters in the base game at launch. Currently,Sonya, Kano, Jax, Goro, and Stryker are confirmed to be Kameo characters, with fully playable characters like Scorpion, Sub-Zero, and the newly announced Kenshi also potentially doubling as Kameo fighters.
But the big question left afterMortal Kombat 1’s presentation was just how many of these characters will end up being fully playable as well. During the presentation, Ed Boon was very cagey about which of the Kameos would also be full fighters, and vice versa. Boon also mentioned that the Kameo roster would be mainly focusing on classicMortal Kombatcharacters from the series' past. It seems likely that a lot ofMortal Kombat 1’s Kameo roster will be filled with characters that are fun throwbacks to the rest of the franchise, but not quite worthy of a spot on the full roster.
But that still doesn’t give any concrete answer about the Kameo fighters currently announced, as Goro, Sonya, Kano, and Jax have all been series mainstays that deserve a spot on the main roster, and relegating them to a Kameo seems a little strange. Hopefully, fans won’t have to wait too long to find out, as Boon also mentioned that there’ll be plenty more reveals in the months leading up to release.
Mortal Kombat 1will be released on July 09, 2025, for Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S.
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