Though he initially refuses, Raiden relents when Tarkatans invade Earthrealm as part of Shang Tsung's blackmail against Earthrealm. Raiden attempts to ally with Quan Chi, offering the souls of the deceased heroes as payment (and his own soul if he dies). Mortal Kombat runs on a heavily modified version of the Unreal Engine 3, similar to the engine used by its predecessor, Mortal Kombat vs. The playable characters in bold are new to the series, while the italicized ones represents guest characters.

Upon release, Mortal Kombat received very positive reviews and won several awards for fighting game of the year. A sequel, Mortal Kombat X was released in 2015 with another direct follow-up, Mortal Kombat 11, releasing in April 2019.The gameplay is fast and fluid and, while not requiring any great skill to enjoy, is extremely deep and clearly needs a lot of work to fully master. During the ensuing battle, Jax, Jade, Sub-Zero, Kabal, Stryker and Smoke are easily defeated and killed by Sindel, and Kitana is brutally beaten. Additionally, all four DLC characters are now available from the get-go, along with God of War's Kratos, who was a special character in the PlayStation 3 version of the game.

As you complete the tower and you're your way through the game's other modes, you'll earn Koins that can be spent in the Krypt on new costumes, art, and other unlockables. Unlike previous Mortal Kombat games, four buttons on the game controller represent attacks and are each linked to a corresponding limb. Raiden pleads with Scorpion to spare Sub-Zero in exchange for asking the Elder Gods to resurrect Scorpion’s clan.Joined by police officers Stryker and former Black Dragon member Kabal, the Earthrealm fighters attempt to stop Kahn's invasion. According to Dave Pindara, one of the lead artists for Mortal Kombat, environments were developed to create active objects and effects such as "scripted cinema events", "dynamic lighting effects" and "characters and objects that animated and reacted to the fights. A new feature is the "super meter", which can be charged by various actions during battle such as performing special moves, getting blocked by the opponent, or getting hit by them.