Mortal Kombat 1 has suffered a rough launch period due to a number of serious bugs or issues but a more recent discovery shows that players on one side of the battlefield have a natural advantage.
Over the last day, players from around the world have compiled clips and evidence suggesting there are certain combos and motions that can be performed in the Player One slot of the match and not by the person manning Player Two. And it isn’t a bug limited to just one character either.
YouTuber mrAPchem released a detailed video on Sept. 26 showcasing how characters like Sub-Zero can perform the same combo from both sides of the screen and in either stance, but once you swap to the P2 character it becomes impossible to do.
Since the initial video dropped, the kommunity has tested and proven that P1 does have a hit-box advantage of some kind in MK1 regardless of where you perform a combo and on at least PS5 and PC versions of the game. And, while not every character has been thoroughly tested yet, it can theoretically impact the entire roster.
Not only is the entire roster likely suffering from this disadvantage, but players testing the issue have confirmed it is affecting online matches too. This means if you are ever in the P2 slot you are going to drop more combos, and potentially deal less damage, than the opponent regardless of your skill level even in ranked matches.
This issue has a lot of players rethinking their approach to MK1, whether it be in how much time they plan to spend playing until it is fixed or how many of their losses were due to playing from a near-invisible disadvantage.
Some fighting game historians have brought up past examples of one player having a clear advantage in older games such as port priority in Super Smash Bros. and even MK9 to a lesser extent back in 2011. That extends to games like Tekken 7 having a slight side advantage for certain moves, but rarely does something as drastic as this MK1 appear—especially in a game the size of MK with a focus on online play.
Thankfully, it appears NetherRealm Studios is aware of the issue as a card labeled “Player 1 advantage” has been listed on the MK1 bug reporting page and marked with “Investigation in Progress” though it has not received an official announcement yet. Some of the in-progress reports have been open since the game launched early on Sept. 14, however, so a fix could take some time.
Update Sept. 28 1:20am CT: NetherRealm Studios and Warner Bros. Games did not respond to request for comment, however, Mortal Kombat co-creator Ed Boon has publicly acknowledged the Player 1 advantage issue in MK1.
According to Boon, the Player 1 advantage issue has already been fixed. A patch for the gamebreaking bug is targeting a Sept. 29 release, which could also include other bug fixes like other recent updates.
