10 Amazing Video Game Sequels That Won Back The Fans

5. Mortal Kombat (2011)

Pretty much no fighting series went through the 2000s without running into trouble. There was pressure on each new sequel to be bigger and better than what came before, and it got to the point where having solid fighting mechanics wasn't good enough, you needed fully 3D environments, gimmicks and a whole host of modes to convince players to buy more copies.

Mortal Kombat succumbed to this mentality even more than others, though. Over the course of Deadly Alliance, Deception and Armageddon, the bloody fighting series became bloated, crushed under the weight of its ever-expanding lore, cast of characters and fetishistic desire to include daft mini-games like Mortal Kombat Chess (which I actually loved, by the way) into every game.

It was a bit of a mess, and while a core fanbase nodded along through each wacky entry, what made MK so special had been lost along the way.

A reset was in order, and that's where Mortal Kombat 2011 came in. The ninth entry in the series essentially rebooted everything, wiping the timeline, discarding the additive fluff from the sequels, and returned to a focus on violent 2.5D combat.

It made for a visceral, streamlined experience, and kicked off perhaps the most creatively rich run of games in the studio's history.