Mortal Kombat 1 trailer shows off assist attacks and spinal injuries

So many spines will be destroyed in brutal slow-motion x-ray vision, the first trailer for Mortal Kombat 1 revealed during Geoff Keighley's Level Up Pool Party. "This trailer is literally insane," Keighley warned. Looks like Mortal Kombat to me, though I'm honestly I'm quite curious about this semi-fresh start, especially after heading that Jean-Claude Van Damme stars as the series' moviestar murderman, Johnny Cage. Have a look, though, you know, be warned: literally insane.

I'm more into that than I expected. I quite like the idea of a fresh-ish start, and I like the new assist attacks. These 'Kameo' fighters, who can pop in for attacks before jumping back off, giving you a few of their moves to complement your own. Many Kameo characters are from ye olde timeline too. And yep, it's a new timeline, after Mortal Kombat 11 ended with Liu Kang ascending to godhood and calling a do-over.

"Liu Kang basically graduated to a fire god, and he created a brand new universe, and this universe—this is why we're calling it Mortal Kombat 1 is because this is the beginning of a new timeline," Mortal Kombat big man Ed Boon explained live on stage. "A number of these characters you've seen before, but they're told in a completely different story. And so Sub-Zero and Scorpion are brothers now, and all these things that were rivalries before are now allies, and so mixing the whole thing up, so we're just kinda rebooting, that's what the '1' is for."

Mortal Kombat 1 is due to launch September 19th on Steam and the Epic Games Store. It's also hitting Nintendo Switch, Xbox Xeries SX, and PlayStation 5.

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