When it comes to the current slate of Mortal Kombat 1 characters you’ll be able to beat the living shit out of eachother with in one of the most exciting upcoming PS5 games out there right now, Mortal Kombat 1, Johnny Cage is the worst – in the best way possible. Cocksure, arrogant, and overconfident. These are just some of the nicer words you could use to describe the action movie star. However, there are certainly quite a few more people can and will use in MK1. If you’re a Johnny Cage main, though, you’ll be pleased to know that the new Mortal Kombat 1 Hype Meter mechanic will actually reward you for spamming taunts and special moves – but only when you’re playing as this kombatant.
During NetherRealm Studios’ latest Kombat Kast stream, community manager Tyler Lansdown, game designer Derek Kirtzic, and QA lead Stephanie Brownback sat down to detail some of the new features fans of the best fighting games out there can expect to see when they hop into a game of Mortal Kombat 1 as Johnny Cage. You’ll be pleased to know that, for the most part, he has the same moveset as he did last time around.
However, Liu Kang’s timeline reset has taken its toll. He doesn’t have any of his strange green magic anymore. However, NetherRealm has made up for that by introducing the rather interesting mechanic exclusive to Johnny Cage: Hype Meter.
Discussing this, Brownback reveals that “as [Johhny Cage] does special moves and certain taunts, he’ll start build [his Hype Meter] up”. If you hold L2/LT after certain special moves, for example, “he will hold a pose, and look really cool” while doing it. This will start to charge your Hype Meter – located at the bottom of the UI.
Once this is fully charged and you’re ready to go, you can activate it – which triggers a spotlight above Johnny Cage’s head in-game and activates a very interesting limited-time boost. As Brownback explains, while active “this gives you the ability to special-cancel special moves into other special moves”.
We know that might sound a little confusing, but it essentially means that you can chain several special moves – even repeat certain ones – to deal devastating amounts of damage. Want to see what that looks like? Check out the clip below:
We know Mortal Kombat 1’s Scorpion isn’t going to be who you think it is, but Johnny Cage definitely is. He’s going to be a showboating asshole who cares more about himself than everyone around him – at least at first. We’ll miss the mature MK11 Johnny Cage, but we can’t deny that he’s shaping up to be one of the most interesting kombatants in MK1 – one of the most exciting upcoming Xbox games and quite-possibly something that will become one of the best fighting games of all time.