Friendships Make Their Return in Mortal Kombat 11 and It’s All I’ve Ever Wanted

Real talk: Fighting games are all about the one-upmanship of out-playing another person. No matter if you’re talking about the heyday of the arcades where it was literally your money versus someone else’s in a one-on-one duel or the harsh competition of online play today and attempting to school a rando, fighting games boil down to outsmarting and out-playing the person across the screen. This is exactly why I’m so thrilled that Friendships have made their return to the Mortal Kombat series, revealed in yesterday’s DLC story trailer for Mortal Kombat 11. For those uninitiated, Friendships are the nicer, more humiliating version of the franchise’s gory Fatalities. Instead of decapitation and dismemberment, you’re likely to find balloons, silly animations, or another very non-Mortal Kombat expressions of humiliation against your opponent.

While only one friendship was shown in the trailer–Scorpion using his iconic spear grab to get a teddy bear to “get over here”–the above tweet by NetherRealms esports commentator @Mitsuownes reveals a whole heaping helping of goofy finishers. Hands-down, my favorite is Sub-Zero and his icecream cart trolley of togetherness, complete with a cartooney Sub-Zero logo and a jaunty ice cream truck tune. Honestly, it all just fits together too well. Special shout-out as well for Noob Saibot doing the dance of friendship. “NUMFAR! DO THE DANCE OF FRIENDSHIP!”

Friendships have been missing from the franchise since Mortal Kombat Trilogy but in an era where the game’s art design has become more and more realistic and gritty, the inclusion of friendships feels absolutely needed as a complete dichotomy to that dark, gritty, gory game. It brings back some of the silliness of Mortal Kombat of old. Don’t get me wrong, I love fatalities more than anyone. But there’s a special humiliation that comes along with not only being beaten by another player but then being offered a friendly hug instead of a hand through the chest.

Friendships are being added with a free update, so players will not need to pay for the Mortal Kombat: Aftermath DLC to get those, the new stages, and stage fatalities.

What’s your favorite friendship? More importantly, what should Robocop and Terminator get for theirs? Find out soon as the Mortal Kombat 11: Aftermath story DLC and free update hits on May 26th.