Features That Should Be in "Mortal Kombat XI"

This is an article I originally wrote for The Odyssey, but can be found here. This article has been slightly edited in terms of content.

Mortal Kombat XI, which hasn't been announced, but is most likely in development because it's Mortal Kombat, the most popular fighting game franchise of all time. Injustice 2 is currently still in development, but after that, MKXI will probably soon hit the development team. Recently, a video surfaced about Netherrealm Studios doing the "Mannequin Challenge". In this video, there were a few different aspects that showed up: 1) a basic drawing of Raiden doing a lightning attack 2) a digitally rendered Shokan, and 3) motion capture for Scorpion presumably using his kunai. Many different versions have came and went, but it has still remained over multiple decades. "Mortal Kombat XI" should be interesting regardless, but here are just a few features that should be in the game:

Changes to the story mode
A particularly interesting change to the story mode that "Mortal Kombat" could bring to the table is a format where you, the player, chooses the direction of the story. The best example of this is "Until Dawn," which had all of the makings of a game that had not just gore, but great story telling as well, where you could pick any number of where the story would go.

Hara-kiris
In "Mortal Kombat Deception," rather than giving your opponent the satisfaction of performing a Fatality on you, you could beat them to the punch by performing a "Hara-kiri" on yourself, which is suicide (literally). The only problem though is some of these in MKD were unimaginative and just plain awful. Case in point: Sindel's hara-kiri was completely ridiculous. Her hara-kiri move consisted of swan diving straight onto her head. In contrast, Kenshi Takahashi's hara-kiri makes more sense and goes along the lines of what a traditional hara-kiri is. Given how the fatalities and brutalities have improved in MKX, these hara-kiris could be greatly improved as well.

Mini-games

Previous "Mortal Kombat" games have had mini-games, such as Chess Kombat and Tetris Kombat. I would very much like to see these make a comeback, as they would be another nice aspect after you have beaten the Story Mode.

Tag/Handicap Fights

"Mortal Kombat 9" had tag and handicap fights. This would be a nice option to have not just in the story mode, but in the Exhibition Mode as well. Some might see it as challenging; others, like myself, might use this as a way to pick on their least favorite characters. Don't like Stryker? Well, just pick Scorpion and Subzero and have the best of both worlds.

Kreate-A-Fatality

This might function similar to WWE 2K's Create a Finisher. This particular feature would allow players to create their own combination of moves that would ultimately end their opponent with finality. Mortal Kombat doesn't always have the greatest fatalities, so it would be nice to have the option to create fatalities not just for established fighters, but also Kreated Kombatants.

Kreate-A-Kombatant
Traveling a path similar to "WWE 2K" again, players could once again be given the option to customize a fighter, including clothing options, weapons, fighting styles, fighting stances, faction (Shaolin, Lin Quei, Shirai Ryu, Special Forces) and even fatalities as well as brutalities.

Tournament
A criticism of "Mortal Kombat" has been that the tournament itself has little to no structure. A fun feature in exhibition could be being able to create your own tournament, pitting the defenders of Earthrealm against the forces of Outworld, making the tournament as big or small as you wanted to.