Mortal Kombat X review – 'violent but charmingly hammy'

The blood-splattered fighting legend returns with sophisticated visuals and online play, but also a knowing sneer at its Grand Guignol heritage

The problem with fighting games is that there are players out there who see them in frames. Not strung-together as fluid animations like the rest of us, but broken up into minute clusters of stills.

Many top-level tournament fighters really care that six frames are devoted to a particular character lifting their arm, or that another's leg swinging back after connecting consumes 12 more. Those fleeting moments are windows of opportunity for the best to turn a match.