Mortal Kombat X
| Mortal Kombat X | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Studio |
Netherrealm Studios High Voltage Software (Win) |
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| Publisher | Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment | ||
| Senior Developer | Ed Boon | ||
| Erstveröffent- lichung |
April 14, 2015 | ||
| platform | PlayStation 4 , Xbox One , Microsoft Windows , Android , iOS | ||
| Game engine | Unreal Engine | ||
| genre | Fighting Game | ||
| Game mode | Single player | ||
| medium | Blu-ray , download | ||
| language | English German | ||
| Age rating |
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Mortal Kombat X is a fighting game and the tenth main part of the Mortal Kombat series. The computer game developed by the American Netherrealm Studios was first released in April 2015 for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One game consoles as well as Windows PCs. There is also a game app for iOS and Android smartphones under the same name , which follows a different game principle and can be played independently, but can be linked to the main game. Since March 2016, there has also been a budget version with download extensions called Mortal Kombat XL. All applications were published through Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment , a division of Netherrealm's parent company Time Warner .
Mortal Kombat X was considered the most brutal series offshoot to date when it was released. Contrary to general expectations, however, the Federal Testing Office for Media Harmful to Young People rejected the indexing, which meant that it was the first title in the series to be available unedited in Germany and not subject to any advertising ban. The decision is considered to be a turning point in the assessment practice of the Federal Inspectorate for depictions of violence in computer games.
Gameplay
The player selects a player character from a list of fighters, with whom he competes in arena battles against the other characters. The gameplay requires the player to be quick to react, dexterity and precision when triggering appropriate combat maneuvers using given key combinations. A central part of the game is the brutality and the high level of detail of the depictions of violence, which at the same time are exaggerated and depicted not very realistically. In certain attacks, the so-called "X-Ray Moves", the breaking of the bones is shown in detail in an X-ray view, but without having any direct impact on the character's ability to act. If the player defeats his opponent, he can, under certain circumstances, execute him with particularly spectacular final blows, the series-typical "fatalities".
development
In July 2013, producer Lance Sloane indicated the development of a new serial offshoot of the Mortal Kombat series in parallel with a new film adaptation. After various hints in advance, the title was officially announced as "Mortal Kombat X" in the run-up to the E3 game fair with a trailer . In addition to PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Windows, support for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 was also announced at this time.
In early March 2015, Netherrealm announced the release of a smartphone app for Android and iOS. In the same month Warner Bros. postponed the release of the ports for PS3 and Xbox 360, which were maintained by High Voltage Software, to the summer of the same year. The versions for PS4, Xbox One and Windows were released outside Germany on April 14th, as announced. A publication by Warner Bros. in Germany, on the other hand, did not initially take place due to the lack of USK age approval. On August 28, Warner Bros. finally announced the discontinuation of the work because the ports had not reached the desired quality.
In January 2016, Warner Bros. announced a budget version of the game called Mortal Kombat XL for March 2016. In addition to the main game, all download add-ons published up to that point have been integrated, i. H. the game character expansions Goro , Kombat Pack # 1 and # 2 as well as the cosmetic expansions Apocalypse Skin Pack , Brazil Skin Pack , Kold War Skin Pack , the Samurai Skin Pack and the Kold War Scorpion Skin .
Characters
In Mortal Kombat X there was playable character at the time of publication 24, 9 others were added later as a paid download. In total there are 10 new fighters and 4 from a different franchise. All characters are listed in the following table, new characters are marked in bold, while the guest characters are in italics.
| Basic characters | Kombat Pack 1 | Kombat Pack 2 | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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The mobile version for smartphones also includes five other characters: Baraka, Jade, Shao Kahn, Kintaro and Freddy Krueger.
reception
Ratings, sales figures and awards
Mortal Kombat X received mostly good reviews. The average rating on Metacritic is 86/100 for Xbox One, 83 for PS4 and 77 for Windows. According to the series creator Ed Boon, it had the best sales start in series history. In the UK, the game topped the sales charts in calendar weeks 16 and 17. In the US, the game advanced to the ten best-selling titles of 2015. By October 2015, Warner Bros. had sold more than five million copies of the game, making the title a significant contributor to the quarterly revenue growth of parent company Time Warner. When the XL edition was announced in January 2016, Warner Bros. described the game as the best-selling series part.
Mortal Kombat X was named best fighting game at the Game Awards 2015, as well as at the DICE Awards 2016.
Refusal of indexing in Germany
Due to the high level of violence and the previous assessment practice of the Federal Testing Office for Media Harmful to Young People (BPjM), both manufacturers and the German specialist press (e.g. Computer Bild Spiele ) assumed that the game would be indexed in advance. The explicit depictions of violence in the fatalities were already used as a reason for indexing by all predecessors, and the "X-Ray Moves" added in Mortal Kombat in 2011 reinforced this impression. Mortal Kombat X was considered to be the most brutal series representative to date, which was also discussed controversially in the otherwise much more liberal USA. Warner Bros. therefore did not submit the game for assessment to the entertainment software self-regulation (USK), as it was to be expected that the USK would refuse to grant an age rating that would have made an indexing process impossible under the applicable youth protection law. On July 2, 2015, the game was submitted to the BPjM's 12-person committee for review. Surprisingly, however, the committee decided not to include the game in the list of media harmful to minors. The higher level of detail in the graphics compared to its predecessors was surprisingly interpreted positively, because in the case of Mortal Kombat X, despite more violent details, the fantastic character and the fictional nature of the scenario become clearer than before. In games from other manufacturers, on the other hand, it is not always possible to distance yourself from what is happening in the game due to the increasing realism. The committee of 12 therefore ruled:
"In summary, the committee of 12 points out that" Mortal Kombat X "definitely contains sequences of violence that can be classified as borderline in terms of youth media protection, but that the overall impression of the game is designed in such a way due to the fantasy setting and the many unreal elements that the limit to youth risk is not exceeded. Individual combat scenes in which real weapons are used in the game and the consequences of violence are depicted realistically, especially against human or human-like opponents, might have to be assessed differently if they were distributed separately and not, as here, integrated into the specific framework of the game . "
The game was subsequently given a USK rating of 18 and over on July 14th. The decision was preceded by three previous assessments that had an impact on the rating. In 2014, the Cologne Administrative Court overturned a decision by the BPjM according to which the computer game Sleeping Dogs was placed on List B of the media harmful to minors because of its fatalities. The court ruled that this did not constitute a glorification of violence and that an absolute ban on distribution was therefore not justified. Likewise, the BPjM 2013 saw in the assessment of the game Sniper Elite V2 in the X-ray view no sufficient reason for indexing, whereupon the game appeared with a USK-18 seal. A demo of Mortal Kombat X , which was created especially for the Gamescom game fair in Cologne and which did not dispense with the critically rated fatalities but not the X-Ray moves, was therefore approved by the USK for ages 18 and over.
Critics had already asserted the reasons given for not being indexed for the predecessors that were all indexed. Only with the judgment on Mortal Kombat X was this view accepted. The deputy chairwoman of the BPjM, Petra Meier, commented on the GameStar that "the distancing effect has not yet been established for the earlier publications" and that "the BPjM is also moving with the times".
Web links
- Official website
- Mortal Kombat X at MobyGames (English)
Individual evidence
- ^ New Mortal Kombat game in the works, producer says. In: gamesradar. Retrieved April 24, 2016 .
- ↑ Luke Karmali: Mortal Kombat X Officially Announced With Trailer. In: IGN. Retrieved April 24, 2016 .
- ↑ Mortal Kombat X: Fighting Game is also available for Android and iOS with a different gameplay. In: PC GAMES. Retrieved April 24, 2016 .
- ↑ Luke Karmali: Mortal Kombat X Delayed on PS3 and Xbox 360. In: IGN. Retrieved April 24, 2016 .
- ↑ Mortal Kombat X: No Late April Fool's Joke: DLC Makes Fatalities Easier. In: gamona.de. Retrieved April 24, 2016 .
- ↑ Michael McWhertor: Mortal Kombat X for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 canceled. In: polygon. August 29, 2015, accessed April 24, 2016 .
- ↑ a b Mortal Kombat X: Extended XL version with all DLC packages will be released in March - 4Players.de. In: 4Players. Retrieved April 24, 2016 .
- ^ Mortal Kombat X. In: Metacritic. Retrieved April 24, 2016 .
- ^ Mortal Kombat X. In: Metacritic. Retrieved April 24, 2016 .
- ^ Mortal Kombat X. In: Metacritic. Retrieved April 24, 2016 .
- ↑ Mortal Kombat X Enjoys "Biggest Launch" in Franchise History. In: GameSpot. Retrieved April 24, 2016 .
- ↑ Mortal Kombat X sets record in Great Britain. In: Gamereactor Germany. Retrieved April 24, 2016 .
- ↑ Mortal Kombat continues to top the charts in Great Britain. In: Gamereactor Germany. Retrieved April 24, 2016 .
- ↑ 2015 NPD: The 10 best-selling games of the year. In: VentureBeat. Retrieved April 24, 2016 .
- ↑ Batman: Arkham Knight, Mortal Kombat X Sell 5 Million Each Worldwide, Report Says. In: GameSpot. Retrieved April 24, 2016 .
- ↑ Samit Sarkar: Here are the winners of The Game Awards 2015. In: Polygon. December 4, 2015, accessed April 23, 2016 .
- ^ The 2016 DICE Award Winners [UPDATED]. In: GameSpot. Retrieved April 23, 2016 .
- ↑ Mortal Kombat X: Your lip is thick in no time! In: computerbild.de. Retrieved April 24, 2016 .
- ↑ a b c Mortal Kombat X - Too Brutal To Be Indexed? In: GameStar. Retrieved April 24, 2016 .