With time fractured, Kabal’s appearance in Mortal Kombat saw him eventually defeated and killed by Sindel, resurrected as a revenant by Quan Chi and forced to do the bidding of the nefarious sorcerer. He may have been out of action as a playable character in Mortal Kombat X, but you can’t keep a good speedster down as the quickest feet in EarthRealm is racing back into the ring for Mortal Kombat 11. Here’s what Kabal brings to the table.

A Mortal Kombat game without the likes of Scorpion or Sub Zero would feel downright strange, but a new entry in the series that doesn’t feature Australian bogan Kano? That just makes for a poorer Mortal Kombat.

In many ways, fatalities are the very essence of Mortal Kombat. Bloody to the extreme, so vicious that they’re actually hilarious and that little extra dig in the ribs when you’ve beaten a friend and you want to rub your victory in their face. So how does a game like Mortal Kombat 11, which already features Baraka literally ripping the face off of an opponent, come up with those pugilistic punctuation points?

Beyond the character customisation and Fatal Blows that serve as last gasp efforts to even the odds, Mortal Kombat 11 looks a lot more…strategic. That’s not design by accident either, as NetherRealm’s focus on the latest sequel was to scale back on the ruthless aggression of previous games and focus more on redefining that which makes fighting games so special: Space control.

A powerful and loyal servant of Kronika, Geras wields the power to manipulate time. See him in bloody action, in his very own gameplay trailer for Mortal Kombat 11.

Raiden has upset the balance of history with the death of Shinnok. Tired of Earthrealm’s defiance, Kronika, The Keeper of Time will bring order to the universe through any means necessary.

An extra salting of the wound whether your opponent is human or an AI challenger, fatalities are Mortal Kombat’s true trademark. They’re unbelievably bloody, they push console technology to the bleeding edge (pun intended) and they’ll cause a panic when your mom sees them. Don’t believe me? Well then, buckle up and check out Mortal Kombat 11’s new generation of fatalities.

Watch the fighting game genre evolve further, in this first look at the gameplay for Mortal Kombat 11.