Principal gameplay involves one-on-one 2.5D-style fighting. Mortal Kombat uses a single two-dimensional fighting plane (at 60 frames per second),[5][6] although characters are rendered in three-dimensional fashion,[7] intended to give depth and range to portrayals of various projectiles.[8] Unlike previous Mortal Kombat games, four buttons on the game controller represent attacks and are each linked to a corresponding limb.
A new feature is the "super meter", which can be charged by various actions during battle such as performing special moves, getting blocked by the opponent, or getting hit by them.[8] The super meter can be charged to three levels, each of them enabling a different action to be performed. At the first level, it can be used to deliver an enhanced version of one of the character's special attacks; two levels can be used to interrupt a combo attack, and the full three levels allow for the delivery of a special attack called an "X-ray move". The X-ray move unleashes a series of attacks during which the game provides an internal view of the character being attacked, which shows their bones and organs being broken or ruptured.[8][9]
Extra features include a story mode during which the player plays as multiple characters,[10] a Fatality training mode (allowing players to practice executing finishing moves),[11] the Challenge Tower, tag team fighting, and an online mode. The Challenge Tower mode is a single-player option that includes 300 specific challenges of various difficulties providing currency rewards upon completion; players have the option of using in-game currency to bypass other difficult challenges, completing them later.[8][11] Among the various challenges are "Test Your Might" (rapidly pressing buttons and using specific timing to destroy blocks of varying difficulty), "Test Your Sight" (following an object hidden under a cup or skull and revealing the object after a shuffle), "Test Your Strike" (destroying a specific block in a stack) and "Test Your Luck" (fighting under certain conditions, such as no jumping[11]). The four-player tag-team feature is an original feature, allowing two players to play together.[12] During tag gameplay, two new types of attacks become available. The first of them is the "tag assist" attack, in which the off-screen character temporarily jumps in and performs certain attacks during the active character's combo. The other is the "tag kombo", in which the active character performs a combo that is finished by the off-screen character as they enter the fight.[8]
The online mode includes a "King of the Hill" option, where up to eight players can act as spectators and play the winner of a fight. Spectators may also rate the fights and use the "forum" to determine how to perform various combos or moves observed during a fight.[10] A single-use online pass is also included with the game which is mandatory to access the online components. Online passes are also available from the PlayStation Store and Xbox Live Marketplace.[13] There is also a PlayStation 3-exclusive 3D display mode, for which 3D glasses are not necessary.[14]
