Mortal Kombat 1 Review: 7 Ups & 3 Downs

As irritating as the grinding can be, there is no question MK1's reward system is far more structured and reasonable than its predecessor.

In MK11, players needed to dump Koins into a Shrine to receive a gift. The more money they dumped, the greater the reward... in theory. Regardless of how much cash was forked over, the item's quality varied tremendously.

Thankfully, The Shrine in MK1 has been drastically simplified. To receive a reward, 1,000 Koins need to be tossed in. That's all there is to it. It's rudimentary, but fair.

But that's not all. In this instalment, there is no play-to-win gameplay. The convoluted Krypt is gone. Obtaining different types of kurrency is much more tolerable.

Then there's the character bonuses. As previously mentioned, each Kombatant and Kameo unlocks a singular reward every time their rank increases. Rather than offering a random reward, the next few unlockables can be previewed, so players know what to expect. It can be time-consuming to keep Ranking up just to receive a specific reward, but at least players can see when that accolade is coming, which wasn't the case in MK11.