Revealed at Comic Con, Mortal Kombat 1: Khaos Reigns is the fighting game’s year two expansion and its adding more than just a bunch of random licensed characters like Conan the Barbarian. It’s also bringing back Animalities from Mortal Kombat III.
Everyone’s familiar with Fatalities, the brutal, stomach-churning deathblows first popularized in the original Mortal Kombat. But the series has changed things up every once in a while, from Mortal Kombat II’s Babalities which turned opponents into infants, to Mortal Kombat 3’s Animalities where characters transform into animals to reach new levels of carnage.
The latter hasn’t been seen since 1995, but now they’re getting resurrected for last year’s Mortal Kombat 1 in its upcoming expansion. Out September 24, Khaos Reigns is $50 and adds Cyrax, Sektor, Noob Saibot, Terminator 2's T-1000, Ghostface, and Conan the Barbarian. It’ll also include a new fighting system, game modes, and Animalities. So far we’ve gotten a look at six of them from a recent trailer.
Here’s Raiden getting blown up by a puffer fish.
A scorpion pokes holes in Sub-Zero.
Wolves rip apart Johnny Cage.
A T-Rex skeleton launches Quan Chi into space.
Scorpion gets a mouth cleaning from a gorilla.
And Liu Kang getting eaten by a hyena.
What other sleep-disturbing scenes await fans in Khaos Reigns? The latest game doesn’t seem to have had the same legs on it as Street Fighter VI and Tekken 8, but a fighting game renaissance lifts all boats. Fatalities are by far the most popular part of Mortal Kombat 1 and also the perfect way to get players to open their wallets in a microtransaction-laden genre. And who knows what might still get added to the game in Khaos Reigns and beyond? I don’t think Mortal Kombat 1 will be complete until we see a Xenomorph animality explode out of Gandalf.