With its release approaching rapidly, picking your Mortal Kombat 1 character is critical to being prepared for the tournaments ahead. NetherRealm Studios has been pouring out more and more info and footage ahead of September 19, and through rigorous study we've concluded that there are many ways to eviscerate, vivisect, crush, and be just plain mean to your enemies with Mortal Kombat 1's combatants. Plus there’s the new Kameo system to consider, which lets you call in a separate cast of characters to assist you.
Mortal Kombat 1 is coming in the middle of one of the best years ever for fighting games, and looks like a refinement on the cast from Mortal Kombat 11, which started at 25 and eventually featured 37 fighters by the end of all its DLC. If you’re ready to start practicing your combos and fatalities, prepare yourself for September by checking out what characters we know are coming with Mortal Kombat 1.
Mortal Kombat 1 characters: all the confirmed fighters
Most of the usual suspects are here, but there will probably be more revealed before Mortal Kombat 1's cast start decapitating each other in September. If past success is any guide, there are likely to be expansions and DLC characters as well after release. The team at NetherRealm Studios has talked about reimagining each of the characters and their move-sets, which could make some of these old favorites feel like fresh fighters. While we wait to find out more, the confirmed cast so far is as follows:
- Johnny Cage
- Kenshi
- Kitana
- Kung Lao
- Liu Kang
- Mileena
- Raiden
- Rain
- Scorpion
- Smoke
- Sub-Zero
Mortal Kombat 1 characters: pre-order exclusive fighters
There’s one fighter only available as a pre-order bonus:
- Shang Tsung
If you want to get your hands on the tournament hosting and soul-snatching sorcerer, you’ll have to pre-order Mortal Kombat 1 for the chance. Even ancient villainous sorcerers have to get paid—I guess they don’t accept souls at Golden Corral.
Mortal Kombat 1 Kameo characters
New to MK1 is the Kameo system, which lets you call in an ally from the Mortal Kombat pantheon of past-and-present characters for an assist. Some fighting game veterans may be familiar with similar systems from the Marvel vs. Capcom series and others, but Mortal Kombat 1 isn't a tag fighter where you can swap to controlling your Kameo; they're purely there as a tool for you to call in at the right time. There are even exclusive Kameo fighters that you can’t select as your main fighter.
So far, the confirmed Kameo fighters include the entire main roster, and the following character variants (which can be paired with themselves, because Mortal Kombat loves a paradox):
- Kung Lao
- Scorpion
- Sub-Zero
And then the unique Kameo fighters, which aren’t variants or the main cast:
- Cyrax
- Frost
- Goro
- Jax Briggs
- Kano
- Sektor
- Sonya Blade
- Stryker
