Not really, as the Titans are the MK9/MK11 version of characters. The midway versions were things like Mileena being a 10 thousand year old clone (and not created in the time of the events of MK2).
BUT at this point we might as well have the OG Midway timeline having titans crashing into other timelines and fucking things up even further.
Honestly, it’s kind of exhausting to think about, and I don’t even want to try making sense of it anymore.
NRS has broken Mortal Kombat. I’d say it’s beyond repair, though they could always reboot it. That being said, I’ve lost faith in their ability to handle the story.
Mortal Kombat’s story has always been flawed, with retcons and what feel like knee-jerk reactions. The narrative wasn’t always perfect, but there was a progression you could follow, and the logic made sense.
Take Scorpion, for example. He starts off on a revenge quest hunting Bi-Han and achieves his revenge, only to find out Kuai Liang exists and that he is seemingly no better than his own killer. By the end of
MK3, he's a "wildcard" who helps defeat the villain, but then gets manipulated again into hunting Kuai Liang in the next game. But eventually, he pieces it all together and finally hunts his true enemy.
Then there's Kung Lao, who alternates between being a humble monk and a brash young upstart (thanks to the two personalities they gave him in the original timeline). Either he’s a pacifist who wants to avoid the tournament, or he’s driven by a desire to prove himself as great as his ancestor. Regardless, he ends up fighting alongside his cousin Liu Kang in the final battle against Shao Kahn in
MK3. His death is what motivates Liu to find the strength to defeat Shao Kahn. Later, Kung Lao resurfaces, having faked his death to live a peaceful life, but is inevitably dragged back into the fight. Eventually, he witnesses Liu Kang’s death, and destiny falls on him. But in the end, he still fails and dies. Brutal.
I could keep going with Scorpion and Kung Lao’s stories, or so many other characters, but the point is, the story used to be fun. Now, it feels dull. I think the movie-like format is part of the problem—it limits the kinds of stories they can tell.
This is why I loved the open-world Konquest mode. It allowed them to tell multiple short, complete stories around different characters, while still weaving in an overarching narrative. Mortal Kombat thrives on the small, individual stories that let each character grow as they move forward. But now, there’s little to no growth. They just recycle old material. And when we do see character growth, it’s almost always at the expense of another character, turning former champions and powerhouses into jobbers.
