Fortnitehas enthralled players for over seven yearswith its variety of game modes and near-endless customization options. A player’s presentation can be customized to their liking by acquiring various outfit variants, emotes, pickaxes, gliders, wraps, and back bling. In recent years, however,Fortnitehas quickly become a celebration of all pop culture media by featuring skins of famous film, video game, and music icons such as the recently revealed Leatherface from theTexas Chain Saw Massacrefranchise. Despite these crossovers, there’s one classic fighting series that Epic Games still needs to crossover with:Mortal Kombat.
Mortal Kombat Explained
For over 30 years,Mortal Kombathas reigned as one of if not the most popular American-made fighting game series. A 2D-style fighting game,Mortal Kombatfirst debuted in 1992as an arcade cabinet produced by Midway Games but later transitioned to appear on home and mobile consoles and received numerous book, comic, and film adaptations.
UnlikeStreet Fighter,Tekken, orSoulcalibur,Mortal Kombatis particularly known for its often grotesque displays of violence in its gameplay, even going on to inspire the creation of the ESRB rating system in 1994. Most gore displayed came from fighters' complex finishing moves called fatalities, such as Sub-Zero’s ability to rip out opponents' spines or Raiden’s ability to blow up opponents’ heads with electricity. Fatalities along with other unique, brutal moves have remained one ofMortal Kombat’s core recurring elements throughout the franchise and constantly receive new, innovative ways to vanquish foes, such asMortal Kombat 1’s latest iteration of Animalities.
Over the course ofMortal Kombat’s 32-year-long existence, there have been 25Mortal Kombatgames released.
Fortnite’s Potential Crossover With Mortal Kombat
Fortnitealready has a history of crossing over with classic fighting games. In 2020, as a part ofFortnite’s Chapter 2: Season 5, otherwise known as Zero Point,Fortnitecrossed over with the Capcom fighting gameStreet Fighterfor that series’ 30th anniversary. Initially, players could only acquire skins of Ryu and Chun-Li, with Cammy, Guile, Sakura, and Blanka skins becoming available later in 2021 and 2022. Players were also able to acquireStreet Fighter-themed loading screens, pickaxes, back bling, and emotes such as Ryu’s iconic Shoryuken uppercut move. All of these cosmetics are no longer available for purchase.
WithStreet Fighter’s crossover as a guideline, Epic Games should be able to crossover withMortal Kombatin a similar but more expansive form. SinceStreet Fighter’s crossover only featured six outfits of six characters,Fortnitecould do the same withLiu Kang, Sub-Zero, Scorpion, Kitana, Raiden, and Shao Kahn.
Epic could additionally make a new outfit for Jonesy to have him look like Johnny Cage since the two characters have similar personalities. In terms of other cosmetics, some pickaxes could be made to look like Kitana’s fans, Shao Kahn’s hammer, or Sub-Zero’s ice sword, while some back bling could be based on Raiden’s conical hat, Kung Lao’s razor-rimmed hat, or Shinnok’s Amulet.
Fortnite’s Mortal Kombat Mythic Item
To better intrigue players in aFortniteMortal Kombatcrossover, Epic could introduce a new mythic item in the form of Scorpion’s chained kunai. Possibly one ofMortal Kombat’s most iconic weapons,Scorpion famously wields the kunaito drag opponents close to him while shouting “Get over here!”
Epic could implement the kunai similar to the Spider-Man Web-Shooters and allow players to use the kunai to travel far distances and as weapons for close-quarter combat. Additionally, Epic could introduce Sub-Zero-themed gloves to allow players to briefly freeze opponents and nearby areas just as the Lin Kuei grandmaster could inMortal Kombat.
