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Hands-On With Cyrax, Kitana, And More In MK's Bloody Reboot
There’s no denying Mortal Kombat is as violent as its notorious predecessors. Decapitations don’t impress you anymore? Try one of Reptile’s fatalities on for size. After beating his opponent, the cold-blooded one pries open their jaws, vomits green acid into their mouth, and then punches through their midsection. After a few seconds, Reptile pulls his hand out and a prize: a blackened stomach.
So, no, Mortal Kombat hasn’t gotten soft.
During our hands on time with the game at GamesCom, we tested out a few returning favorites, Cyrax and Kitana. As with the other characters we’ve seen on the roster, Cyrax is at once familiar and fresh. His remote bombs are still there, though he can use them as melee weapons, too. His stun net looks great in 3D, and it looks as though enemies trapped inside are struggling against it, trying to escape, rather than simply having a graphic superimposed over them.
Kitana is quick, and her fans are as deadly as ever. We tested her out in the newly revealed Desert level, which fans should recognize from Mortal Kombat 3. We didn’t see her fatality, but Cyrax was happy to oblige. After transforming his arm into a circular saw, he whips his deadly appendage across his victim’s chest a few times. Things look as good as they can for the other guy until Cyrax plants a boot on their chest and pushes them back. At that point, the scored flesh seperates and the limbs scatter in a shower of blood.
NetherRealm says the bodies can be dismembered along 12 points, and we believe it. Not all of the fatalities will be that bloody, though. NetherRealm says that fans of more character-specific finishers will have something to look forward to, too. We’re not expecting anything as crazy as robot Smoke blowing up the entire world from MK3, but some of the funnier moves would be a welcome addition. At this point, we already know that Mortal Kombat still has a handle on the ultraviolent.
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