Mortal Kombat 30th anniversary video appears to tease MK 12

Winding back the clock?

NetherRealm Studios has released a video thanking its fans for three decades of devotion to the Mortal Kombat series — The video ends with a cryptic image that appears to be the first tease for a brand new title, presumably Mortal Kombat 12.

Backed by the awesome “Subway” theme from Mortal Kombat 3, the video sees various members of the NetherRealm team offer the community their thanks for sticking by the super-gory fight franchise since its inception way back in 1992. On deck are a plethora of studio names new and old, including graphics dude John Vogel, audio director Dan “Toasty” Forden, designer Derek Kirtzic, art director Steve Beran and, of course, co-creator and NetherRealm director Ed Boon.

The video then ends with a cryptic clip, featuring a torrent of sand trickling from the hourglass of the time-twisting boss of Mortal Kombat 11, Kronika. After the final grain leaves the hourglass, its shatters into endless grains, which would perhaps suggest a full restart of the timeline, or even a shakeup into multiple timelines. While Mortal Kombat‘s reboot, which began in 2011, definitely redefined storytelling in the fighting game genre, there’s no denying that the timeline very quickly painted itself into a corner, struggling through the events of MKX and really hitting the wall in MK11.

MK11‘s visuals, characters, action, motion capture, and vocal performances were stellar, (for the most part), but there was a definite struggle to reconvene the interminable “Revenant” angle, which ended up becoming an anchor around the narrative’s neck. A new start — however the studio wishes to implement it — would definitely be welcomed by many.

And this time around, let’s have way, way fewer guns and PMCs, ah’m beggin’ ya.

Exciting news for MK fans in general and the fighting game community as a whole. We will, of course, keep you fully informed when NRS has more exciting news to reveal.