Mortal Kombat X: Netherrealm's promising scrapper has us screaming “Finish it!”

After a decade in the doldrums, NetherRealm successfully refreshed the Mortal Kombat series in 2011 with the most literal reboot of all time Raiden using his amulet to wish himself backwards through time, back to the day of the opening Mortal Kombat tournament in the process undoing years of Shao Kahn-inflicted storyline carnage, and years of gimmick inflicted gameplay carnage, too.

NetherRealm’s ‘back to basics’ approach is complemented by a deceptively tight fighting system that makes it simple for even the most casual players to pull off big, crowd pleasing moves, yet also provides enough strategic freedom to make bouts beefy enough for competitive expert play, too. The overall feel, then, is of a fighting series on the up, and NetherRealm aims to build on these solid fundamentals in this, the studio’s first Xbox One offering.

Set several years after the 2011 retelling, Mortal Kombat X sees the core fighting roster return older,wiser and more battleworn so they really won’t be especially happy that the action runs in 1080p at a silky-smooth 60 frames per second, so we can all get a good gawk at those wrinkles, saggy bits and scars.

But there are some fresh faces amidst the more familiar fighters, too our favourite being D'Vorah, an insect/woman hybrid with a complexion akin to that of a bee, and a set of stingers running down her spine to match. Other newbies include Kotal Kahn, a perpetually angry Aztec god with glowy tattoos and an eye on Shao Kahn’s Overworld throne, and Cassie Cage daughter of Johnny Cage and Sonya Blade, who clearly didn't let the wrinkles get in the way of getting down. Fists itching for a Fatality? Expect a full hands-on/spines-out report in the not too distant future.