ART DIRECTOR THIAGO GOMES TALKS MORTAL KOMBAT 1

Now that Mortal Kombat 1 has been out for a while, fans might be interested to know what Thiago Gomes (Art Development Director for NetherRealm Studios) considers his favorite finishing move from the franchise. The latest installment in the acclaimed Mortal Kombat videogame franchise developed by award-winning NetherRealm Studios introduces a reborn Mortal Kombat Universe set in a new story with iconic heroes, and villains reimagined as they've never been seen before. The game features a wide-ranging cast of legendary fighters with all-new backstories, including Liu Kang, Scorpion, Sub-Zero, Raiden, Kung Lao, Kitana, Mileena, Shang Tsung, Johnny Cage, Kenshi, Smoke, Li Mei, Tanya, Baraka, and more, along with a separate roster of Kameo Fighters who can assist during matches.

Gomes at SDCC 2023

During a chat with Retro Cool Nerd, Gomes explained the evolution of the Mortal Kombat franchise's finishing moves.

"My favorite finishing move is the jaw-dropper from Smoke (Yuri Lowenthal), where he puts the grenade in your mouth and blows out just the bottom of your face. With the new generation of consoles, we're able to really push the fidelity of these fatalities way more than we have in the past. Right to the point where if that fatality would have been in a previous game, I feel like the head would have just exploded. But now we can actually go in there and do something a lot more gruesome and concerting by just really kind of pulling out the stops."

He continued with some thoughts on the upcoming Mortal Kombat 1's fatalities:

"There are some truly sick minds at the studio that like to come up with different fatalities. There's a whole group that goes through and they ideate on different fatalities for the different characters. It's always about doing something that is a little comical but is so ridiculous. You would never be able to do this to a real person. It's always about kind of trying to toe that line of not being too gruesome, where it just is off-putting. We always want almost a little bit of a comedic beat."

You can dig the full interview, conducted at San Diego Comic-Con 2023, below. All you have to do is push the button:

Mortal Kombat 1 will be released on September 19, 2023, for PS5, XSX|S, Nintendo Switch, and PC.