The world of Mortal Kombat found itself centered around the eponymous tournament in its earliest installments, with Earth’s greatest fighters stepping forward to prevent an invasion from the realm of Outworld. As the series progressed, the intrigue and history of the characters involved began to take center-stage with the tournament itself no longer factoring into the main plot of the titles as shown by the cinematic story modes of both Mortal Kombat X and Mortal Kombat 11. With MK11‘s method of story-telling, the gateway to a different type of Mortal Kombat game was left ajar, and just like the franchise, one can find the answers for the future in its past.
While Mortal Kombat dabbled in adventure games in the past, their first two efforts (Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero and MK: Special Forces) received a middling reception at best, with Special Forces being considered by many to be the worst game of the franchise, leading to Midway putting the series on a brief hiatus before the release of Deadly Alliance in 2002. Six years after Special Forces, Midway would give the adventure genre one last shot with the co-op focused title, Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks.
Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks took players through a rearranged version of the events of Mortal Kombat II as seen through the eyes of Liu Kang and Kung Lao, allowing players to play either one or play as them together through the game’s co-op gameplay. While the game holds up well as a single-player experience, the game’s co-op gameplay takes the adventure up another notch with combat that takes cues from other action games of the time such as God of War or Devil May Cry, blending the high-impact combat with the style of Mortal Kombat while incentivizing combination attacks with the player’s partner.
How Mortal Kombat 12 Can Include Co-Op
Since the release of Mortal Kombat 11, fans of the series have been given interesting perspective as to what a new co-op adventure title could potentially look like. As the story progresses, the cast is often split into groups of two, letting players see their favorite characters interact with their partners as they carry out their respective missions. Whether it’s the brotherly dynamic of the Shaolin duo or the newfound peace between the “deadliest of enemies” in Scorpion and Sub-Zero, Mortal Kombat 11 gives players enough material in the character interactions to make the idea of a new co-op title all the more enticing, and that is saying nothing about the immense backstory of the franchise as a whole. With a story as rich and swimming in lore as Mortal Kombat, a new Shaolin Monks-styled title would serve the exposition of its backstory well.
Fifteen years have passed since the release of Shaolin Monks, and with the advancements made to the action-adventure genre since then, a new, co-op adventure title following the blueprint of Shaolin Monks would also fill a gap in the genre. A co-op adventure title set in the Mortal Kombat world in the modern era of gaming would allow players from all over the world to experience the adventure together through an online system that wasn’t present in 2005’s title. It would be hard to imagine that the game’s combat system wouldn’t also see improvements with fifteen years of evolution in the genre.
As more adventure titles in the modern era maintain a focus on single-player exploration and combat, a spiritual successor to Shaolin Monks would fill a niche for players looking to play with others, exploring a lore-heavy world while employing an engaging combat system that keeps the pace active and flowing. Even if not a sequel, a remake or remaster of MK‘s previous adventure effort would still work in filling a void within the action-adventure genre, but with the current direction of the Mortal Kombat story, the door has been left open for the potential of new titles built around its expansive world.
