I'm playing Mortal Kombat 1 for the first time, and have the same chills running down my spine as I did 30 years ago. I almost certainly shouldn't have been playing the ultra-violent beat 'em up in the early 1990s, granted, but the arcade cabinet at my local bowling alley was too enticing to resist when my parents weren't looking.
Fast forward three decades, and as I feel my way into my Mortal Kombat 1 hands-on session at Summer Game Fest 2023, my experience is similar to that of the one I had at seven years old. For one, the game itself still looks drop-dead gorgeous. Sub-Zero still oozes cool (literally), and Sonya Blade is still as badass as ever, spandex and all. What makes this break-neck, bone-shattering, blood-spilling affair more distinguishable, however, is the fact that Sub-Zero and Sonya are fighting side-by-side – with Kitana and Jax sharing their portion of the screen simultaneously opposite.
