Over the last 10 years, NetherRealm Studios has gotten into a fairly comfortable pattern, switching between two of the best fighting game franchises ever made. After testing the waters withMortal Kombat Vs. DC Universein 2008, NetherRealm decided to go all out five years later withInjustice: Gods Among Us, the first fully-fledged 2D DC fighting game. And withMortal Kombat 1being next up to bat, it seems fairly likely thatanInjustice 3could pop up soon after.
Rebooting the franchise yet again,Mortal Kombat 1is set to hearken back to the series' bloody roots, all while introducing its own fair share of new mechanics. One of these new mechanics is called the Kameo Fighter system, and though fans have only seen a few brief glimpses of it so far, it could end up being the series' new defining feature, and a feature that could easily make its way toInjustice 3.
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A Kameo Fighter System Would Fit Perfectly With Injustice 3
Mortal Kombat 1’s new Kameo Fighter systemis a fairly easy one for fans to wrap their head around. After selecting a primary fighter inMortal Kombat 1, players will then be presented with a secondary roster of Kameo Fighters. These Kameo Fighters aren’t fully playable, but offer assistance in combat. By pressing a button combined with a direction, the player’s chosen Kameo Fighter will jump out, perform a special move, and dip out of combat again. While the main purpose of these Kameo Fighters is to extend combos, they can also be used to perform unique Fatalities that combine fighters' movesets.
WhileMortal Kombat 1has only announced a handful of Kameo Fightersso far, studio head Ed Boon has confirmed that the roster will include characters from acrossMortal Kombat’s entire history, rewarding long-time fans for sticking through the franchise even through its rougher eras. With these Kameo Fighters only having a handful of moves each, they presumably take much less work for NetherRealm to develop than fully-fledged playable fighters, and as such they act as a perfect bit of fan-service.
Mortal Kombat 1’s Kameo Fighter system would fit perfectly into the nextInjusticegame. The DC Universe is a gigantic one, spanning almost 90 years of comic books, novels, video games, movies, TV shows, and animations, and each one of those individual projects has a plethora of popular characters that deserve a spot onInjustice 3’s roster. While NetherRealm can’t pack all of those DC characters into one game as playable characters, it might be able to bring a good portion of them to the series as Kameo Fighters.
This system would be perfect for those lesser-known DC heroes or villains that don’t quite have enough star-power to fill an entire spot on the playable roster, but have enough to be more than just a small reference. Characters like Plastic Man, Detective Chimp, The Question, and Mister Miracle would all make for excellent Kameo-style fighters inInjustice 3.
On top of just providing fan-service for die-hard DC fans, introducing a Kameo Fighter system toInjustice 3could also give the actual gameplay more diversity than ever before. WhileInjusticeand its sequel had a fairly diverse roster, that could be improved exponentially by the introduction of a Kameo Fighter mechanic, letting players match up wildly different powers and abilities such asSuperman’s heat-visionand Mr. Freeze’s ice ray, or Doctor Fate’s magic and Beast Boy’s animal-based abilities. The combinations could be practically limitless.
Mortal Kombat 1will be released on June 27, 2025, for Nintendo Switch, PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S.
