Summary
Now thatMortal Kombat 1has been out in the wild for a moment and it’s even making its way to offline tournament events already, it’s exciting to see what competitive players will be able to discern and accomplish from the game’s main and Kameo roster characters. There’s a lot to unpack between everyone included in the base game, for example, even if professional players took every waking hour to lab characters during the beta and early access periods. Knowing thatMortal Kombat’s Kombat Pack is arriving as DLCin the future, that will only become more prevalent.
Mortal Kombat 1will introduceHomelander, Omni-Man, Peacemaker, Ermac, Quan Chi, and Takedain its Kombat Pack, and if recentMortal Kombatgames offer a pattern that can be followed then at least one other Kombat Pack should be anticipated. Leaks have definitely presumed as much, but until official confirmation of new guest characters arrives it is anyone’s guess who will appear. Interestingly, Ed Boon has already ruled out John Wick forMortal Kombat 1, and while Keanu Reeves’ assassin would’ve been a popular character entry it might be for the best that NetherRealm reportedly couldn’t secure him.
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John Wick in Mortal Kombat 1 Wouldn’t Be an Interesting Choice Gameplay-Wise
Mortal Kombatisn’t immune to having characters who are completely human and without some sort of ability enhancement or augmentation, but even a character likeMortal Kombat 1’s Johnny Cageis usually oddly imbued with some sort of power. The less human and more bizarre a character design, however, the more interesting that character is likely to be.
That’s a big reason why someone like John Wick, who is an expert close-quarters combatant and marksman, wouldn’t be necessarily unwelcome in a game as brutal asMortal Kombat 1, but his gameplay would have nothing of merit to offer it, either. John Wick’s martial arts skill would give him decent options in combat, but ultimately the character would boil down to a zoner with how much of an emphasis gunplay has in theJohn Wickmovies’ fight scenes.
It would be difficult to imagine him doing much else inMortal Kombatbesides firing handguns or throwing projectiles from any range on the stage, and the clearest character parallel to him from a previous NetherRealm game would likely beInjustice 2’s Red Hood orMortal Kombat X’s Cassie Cage. It would be fun to see how perhaps John Wick’s bulletproof suit jacket could be integrated into his moveset, yet nearly everything about his character wouldn’t make for particularly remarkable or original gameplay otherwise.
John Wick Wouldn’t Have Fit Mortal Kombat 1’s Proposed DLC Theme
Even if NetherRealm concocted an unprecedented way to make John Wick feel like more than a guy with guns, he still wouldn’t be a good match for the alleged theme of guest charactersMortal Kombat 1is devising. Only three non-Mortal Kombatcharacters have been officially revealed for the game, but each one coexists in the realm of superhero media—Homelander fromThe Boys, Omni-Man fromInvincible, and Peacemaker fromThe Suicide SquadandPeacemaker.
This could be a coincidence with hand-picked characters selected for this Kombat Pack that all share a similar background, though the more pressing theory is that any following guest characters will also belong to a superhero-related media of some sort. Joker is regularly recurring in NetherRealm games now, so seeing him or Harley Quinn is a logical guess.
NetherRealm obviously adores superhero media and DC in particularwith their rich, shared history, so future Kombat Packs with other superheroes or supervillains would be excellent to see. If so, John Wick simply wouldn’t make sense as an inclusion among such characters.
Mortal Kombat 1is available now for PC, PS5, Switch, and Xbox Series X/S.
