Fortnite is Missing a Gold Mine For Cameos Without One Fighting Game

Fortnite has 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, Fortnite has 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 the Texas Chain Saw Massacre franchise. 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 Kombat has reigned as one of if not the most popular American-made fighting game series. A 2D-style fighting game, Mortal Kombat first debuted in 1992 as 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.

Unlike Street Fighter, Tekken, or Soulcalibur, Mortal Kombat is 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 of Mortal Kombat’s core recurring elements throughout the franchise and constantly receive new, innovative ways to vanquish foes, such as Mortal Kombat 1’s latest iteration of Animalities.

Fortnite’s Potential Crossover With Mortal Kombat

Fortnite already has a history of crossing over with classic fighting games. In 2020, as a part of Fortnite’s Chapter 2: Season 5, otherwise known as Zero Point, Fortnite crossed over with the Capcom fighting game Street Fighter for 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 acquire Street 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.

With Street Fighter’s crossover as a guideline, Epic Games should be able to crossover with Mortal Kombat in a similar but more expansive form. Since Street Fighter’s crossover only featured six outfits of six characters, Fortnite could do the same with Liu 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 a Fortnite Mortal Kombat crossover, Epic could introduce a new mythic item in the form of Scorpion’s chained kunai. Possibly one of Mortal Kombat’s most iconic weapons, Scorpion famously wields the kunai to 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 in Mortal Kombat.

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Released

July 25, 2017

Multiplayer

Online Multiplayer

Engine

Unreal Engine 5

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ESRB

T for Teen – Violence

Steam Deck Compatibility

N/A

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X|S Optimized

YES

PS Plus Availability

N/A

Split Screen Orientation

Horizontal Only

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Number of Players

1-2

Local Co-Op Support

1-2 Players

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OpenCritic Rating

Mighty

Cross Save

yes

Cross-Platform Play

Mobile, PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One & Xbox Series X|S

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