Guest fighters have been popular in NetherRealm Studios’ Mortal Kombat series for some time now and the positive reception to the new characters coming in the Mortal Kombat 1 Kombat Pack suggests that this is set to continue. Following on from horror icons like Leatherface in MKX, and 80s action stars like Rambo and Terminator in MK11, MK1 sees superheroes like The Boys’ Homelander and Omni-Man join the roster. While exciting, it still seems as though NetherRealm Studios is shying away from introducing characters from other videogames to its fighting game franchise. This new Mortal Kombat 1 Kratos mod, however, proves it should change that.
Mortal Kombat 1 is one of the best fighting games out there now, despite complaints about the game’s microtransactions and the lack of single player content, and the reaction to the recent Mortal Kombat 1 Omni-Man release date proves that there’s a huge appetite for guest fighters – even though there’s a long list of canon characters we would love to see in Mortal Kombat 1 (cough Jade cough). It’s certainly far from a bad thing that the Mortal Kombat 1 Homelander release date and Mortal Kombat 1 Peacemaker release date are on the way, but PC players have been taking matters into their own hands as of late and modding their favorite characters into the fighting game. If NetherRealm Studios should take anything away from looking at the MK1 modding scene, it’s this: PS5 icon Kratos, from Santa Monica Studios’ God of War series, would be the perfect addition to the roster.
As you can see in this gameplay footage below, or the gameplay footage below that, the Kratos mod for Mortal Kombat 1 is essentially a skin for General Shao – a fighter that uses a long-handled blunt weapon of war not too dissimilar to Kratos’ Leviathan Axe. So, while what you see isn’t exactly what a Kratos fighter would look like in MK1, it’s just about as close as it’s going to get without a development team creating an entirely unique set of combos and special attacks – which isn’t something you see from fighting game mods very often.
Much like General Shao, Kratos is known to take full advantage of the otherwordly weight of the Leviathan Axe and his raw godlike strength to crush his opponents with long, dramatic sweeping blows from above. In both God of War 2018 and God of War Ragnarok, Kratos also utilizes the brute force of his bare fists – something Mortal Kombat 1’s General Shao can also be seen enjoying.
We know it’s not quite perfect, and some Mortal Kombat 1 mods are turning this fighting game into a weird fan-made Marvel vs Capcom sequel – which is equal parts silly and amusing – mods like this really are too cool to ignore. It’s just a shame that the PC version of Mortal Kombat 1 is the only version that supports mods; very few Xbox and PS5 games support mods, with Bethesda’s Skyrim and Fallout 4 two of a handful that do, and we don’t think Mortal Kombat 1 will get mod support any time soon – if ever.
If you’re a PC player and you want to check this mod out yourself, you can find it on Nexus Mods here. If you’re a PS5 player or someone enjoying Mortal Kombat 1 on an Xbox console, you’re just going to have to settle for the current crop of Mortal Kombat 1 characters for the time being. It’s a bit of a shame, we know, but it’s not all bad – some of the best Mortal Kombat 1 characters really are a lot of fun to play with.
It’s also worth remembering that we still have the Mortal Kombat 1 Quan Chi release date, the Mortal Kombat 1 Ermac release date, and the Mortal Kombat 1 Takeda release date to look forward to in the coming months. They’re not guest fighters, but all three should add an interesting new dynamic to the roster; Ermac and Quan Chi are both powerful sorcerers and Takeda’s bladed whips make him a menace at middling ranges.
While Mortal Kombat 1 leaks already seem to suggest that MK1 Terminator DLC is coming alongside 80s icon Conan the Barbarian, there’s nothing to say we won’t see characters like Kratos added to the roster at some point in the future; although, this is wishful thinking given the fact that NetherRealm Studios has never really dabbled in crossover content with other videogames before. Still, there’s a first time for everything and Mortal Kombat 1 is the perfect place for a first like that.