Over-the-top, bloody, and bursting with content, Mortal Kombat is a return to form for the franchise.

Despite spending about a month in 1993 pouring over magazine shots of the arcade cabinet for Mortal Kombat 2, reading character Bios and memorising movelists, I wouldn’t call myself a Mortal Kombat fan. Sure, I loved the first 2 games but so did everyone. They were amazing!

Luckily for me this latest Mortal Kombat game is rebooting the series in hopes of restoring its former glory and recapturing the essence of what made it an early nineties arcade favourite. With a roster of familiar faces, a simplified but robust combat system and all the gore and fatalities that were missing from its predecessor; MK Vs DC Universe, it’s doing a damn good job.

The combat system feels tight and well balanced and whether you’re a beat-em-up veteran or a genre newbie you’ll be performing blood-splattered fatalities and the bone-crunching X-ray combos in minutes. It’s easy enough that you can jump straight in but has the depth to keep you up half the night coming up with new combos and juggles to take online.

With tutorials, Training modes, a narrative driven Story mode, standard Arcade ladders and Tag Team play as well as an extensive array of challenge matches and old skool “Test Your Might” minigames there’s more than enough to keep you occupied, though thankfully they stopped shot of Mortal Chess or Mahjong Kombat. (Though if you’re reading this Netherrealm, I would totally play Mahjong Kombat)

If you’re just after some post-pub nostalgic button-mashing it doesn’t disappoint but equally, if you’re the type to unlock every last alternate costume and piece of concept art then you’ll definitely be getting your money’s worth.