Who plays fighting games for the story?” As gamers, we often ask that rhetorical question when addressing the genre’s requisite narrative. Few people actually care about the story modes of fighting games because they tend to be glorified versions of the corresponding arcade modes, and most of us prefer to play with friends locally or online rather than by ourselves and against a computer. But really, why shouldn’t a story mode be important to a fighting game? When it comes to genres, conventions are king. No one expects a racing game to offer cerebral gameplay or an RPG to skimp on plot and characters. But sometimes games purposely reach beyond convention, and our expectations change as the genre does. Mortal Kombat 9 is one of those games.
