This story-based DLC is several hours long and basically a completely new game. Ultimate MK11 if you will. It bridges the gap between MK11 and MK1. But really it might as well be MK12. Which makes MK1... MK13. Also it brings back Cary Hiroyuki-Tagawa to play Shang Tsung for one night only, as he reverts to his old form to try and usurp Kronika. Guy is making a legitimate claim to being the series' main villain, regardless of his boss' superior strength.
Things start with Raiden giving Fire God Liu Kang his blessing as the new Protector of Earthrealm. Basically Liu Kang has ascended to godhood and replaced Raiden as the de-facto leader of the good guys.
But wait! Shang Tsung says that the past version of Kronika is still messing around with the timeline, using the crown that allows time-travel. That thing needs to be destroyed before Liu Kang can remake the timeline.
This means our heroes have to go back in time to find her and stop her from further timeline meddling. Yep, this game involves Timey Wimey Stuff. While confusing at times, it isn't nearly as played-out as Multiverse Stuff, at least.
We go back to right before the final battle between Kitana and Shao Kahn. I guess Kronika is trying to change history so that Shao Kahn's side wins.
Kitana (with hips) is leading the good guys. There's another Liu Kang here, and... Baraka is a good guy? Alright, this series has officially become very confusing.
The first character you play as is Nightwolf, and it follows the same format as other late-series story modes. Each chapter has you playing as a different character, they fight a few battles, and then you switch characters for the next chapter.
Shang Tsung is really good at lying. In any case, here's Evil Zombie Sindel.
Apparently she was killed by Nightwolf, and she's quite upset about it.
Here's Shinnok's Severed Head, looking on like the Icon of Sin.
Nightwolf vs Sindel! Unfortunately for her...
...Nightwolf kills her again!
Now we've got two Nightwolfs battling it out! Evil Nightwolf from the past and good guy present-day Nightwolf. I don't even know anymore.
Sheeva and Kitana face off while Sindel gets regenerated in a nearby healing pod. ...yeah, none of this makes a ton of sense, just roll with it. The game looks great and plays well and that's what matters.
Sheeva has this throw attack where she just picks up her foe by the foot and beats them up. Hilarious!
Now fully-regenerated, Sindel is back to normal...and full power. Which our heroes wanted to happen.
But Why?
She's like "what did I miss?" before finding out that Kitana is now the ruler of Outworld and Shao Kahn is imprisoned.
Luckily this is Good Sindel (??) so she teams up with our heroes. So wait, Shang Tsung is really passing for a good guy here? Nobody is at all skeptical of these vile people?
Her and Tsung have a begrudging respect.
What are these two planning? Well, nevermind that, we've found Kronika!
As our heroes confront Past Kronika, Wind God Fujin explains what's going on for people just joining us.
Kronika is skeptical that she's ever going to be defeated.
This is followed by Fujin and Shang Tsung teaming up to defeat her...again...using this giant fire-tornado!
Shang Tsung claims the time-crown... and reluctantly hands it over to Raiden. He was just looking at it!
Sindel is insanely gorgeous in this game. Look at those beautiful, round, sexy cheekbones.
They must have made her an absolute goddess because she's a good guy now and thus is allowed to be attractive.
She communicates with Tsung via hologram. Outworld's technology level is all over the place. They had swords and needed to smuggle in guns for the MK3 invasion of Earth, but here they are using holograms.
Sindel's minions have nothing nice to say about Queen Kitana, and this gets to Sindel. It IS pretty weird seeing her being a subordinate to Kitana.
Sindel with a graceful jump kick!
She also fires PURPLE LASERS. Just a supremely fun character to play as.
She also has the most graceful uppercut in the entire series.
Thanks to the timey-wimey shenanigans afoot, she gets reunited with Shao Kahn. He's still in his weird beast-form from MK11, no pretty-ing him up. This leads to them deciding that it's time to reclaim control of Outworld.
Elsewhere, Johnny Cage got one of Raiden's "thunder hands" massages. This piques Sonya's interest.
For all the fights in this chapter, you can choose whether to play as Sindel or Shao Kahn. As cool as he used to be, this modern version of Kahn just feels less cool and imposing than the OG version. Maybe because he's a weird dragon-man now. I go with Sindel for the fights, starting with Cassie Cage (w/ hips)
Cassie Cage went to the same school of combat as 2A Marian. BLAM BLAM BLAM!
I do play Kahn for one fight: Kung Lao. Just felt like these two had an ancient score to settle.
Ouch. Sindel is no fan of her ex. Shao Kahn is WAY better at everything, and actually does dishes.
The main event: Sindel vs Kitana for control of Outworld.
The bad guys win, and proceed to round up all the Kitana loyalists.
All hail the new ruler of Outworld, Shao Kahn! ...again! Was weird not having him around for a couple of games.
The final chapter has an Armageddon-like mega-battle between the forces of Kahn/Sindel/Tsung and the Earthrealm brigade. While Kahn is leading the fight, Tsung is going into business for himself:
He's got a new outfit and is young again, thanks to the time crown. His objective now is to absorb as many souls as he can to get more powerful, Cell-style.
After beating down Nightwolf and Raiden, he absorbs their souls and takes their power. My God! Raiden is dead! ...well I'm sure all of this will get reversed
Once the good guys are out of the way, the villains march on Present-Day Kronika.
They quickly get the better of Kronika, then...
...Tsung betrays his cohorts! I did NOT see that coming!
Next we get Tsung versus both of them, as he finally steps out from under Kahn's shadow.
After absorbing Kahn's power, Tsung turns to Kronika, who is now very outmatched by Tsung.
Another fight, where you get to play out Tsung's dreams of conquest by slaying the lame previous villain.
Tsung drains Kronika's soul! Now he's got the power of literally every villain. This has to be the most successful Tsung has ever been. Who can possibly stop him now with all this power?
...Fire God Liu Kang, of course. This guy is an overpowered beast.
In an interesting move, the game actually lets you decide which of these two you want to play as (i.e. win) for the final battle. I went with the good guy because that's canon.
Fire God Liu Kang vs Ultima Shang Tsung (that's what I'm calling him). This is pretty much the ultimate fight of the whole series. Like, there's nowhere to go after this besides a reboot. It's MK7 all over again. In any case, they have a great fight, which is even more epic than the final battle of Lord of the Rings.
With Ultima Shang Tsung slain, all the bad guys are dead and the timeline has been stabilized. Now Liu Kang can work on fixing it. He doesn't do a very good job because MK1 is full of multiverses and retells the story of MK5-7.
Only question is, where can they go from here, since they yet again killed off a bunch of major characters and Liu Kang is so much stronger than everyone else?
Regardless, that was a really good DLC and had a lot more to it than expected. Now for one last thing, we've got... MK Movie DLC Characters. My God!
We've got Christopher Lambert Raiden! It's a little convoluted to activate these DLC characters. You can't just select them, you have to go into Kustomize and change the character appearances manually.
Linden Ashby Johnny Cage! This is where we fall down.
And most importantly, Bridgette Wilson Sonya. All of this cost a measily $3 so that's pretty cool. And the Aftermath DLC only runs about $7 these days, so you're getting a lot of bang for ten dollars. The PS5 version of the game (Ultimate MK11) might even include the DLC, not sure.
Unfortunately, you can't bring the movie skin characters into story mode. Only versus mode and the arcade ladders. Still, pretty awesome.
Here's the iconic Ring Toss move, which now has a little bit of a Hadoken vibe to it.
Sindel asks the important questions.
Perhaps Sonya would like to...share?
"Yes" said Cage when reached for comment.
"No" said Sonya when reached for comment. Also I'm willing to bet Johnny is a terrible lover and Sonya is embarrassed to talk about it.
Between Movie Sonya and Goddess Sindel, this is definitely the hottest MK game. Time for a montage of MK Sonya:
Live to win!
Till you die!
Till the light dies in your eyes!
Liiiive!
Wiiiin!
Liiiiive!
Wiiiiin!
Well, this definitely brings back some 90's memories.
Here's Sindel vs Sonya in action. The hottest fight this game could muster.
All in all, this was a terrific DLC and a good addition to MK11. Heck, the story here was more interesting than the base game. Combine the two of them and I'd rank this game right up there with MK9 as the best in the main series.
Just got word of this. RIP Akira Toriyama. I just did the last Dragonball Z: Kakarot post a couple days ago too. Guy had a huge impact on a lot of lives.
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