Mortal Kombat 1 planning to fix bug that was unintentionally making Player 1 way stronger

NetherRealm Studios says it's planning to patch a Mortal Kombat 1 bug this week which was leading to certain players gaining a significant advantage over their opponent. The issue allows Player 1  to execute combos that were impossible to pull off for Player 2. 

It was first brought to light by mrAPchem on YouTube, who demonstrated a handful of combos on characters Sub-Zero and Kitana. While Player 1 was able to pull them off on both the left and right side of the screen, the same combos as Player 2 would whiff, missing the opponent by a hair and dropping the whole thing.

It's unclear whether the issue boils down to a difference in hitboxes or gravity between each player, but it certainly throws a spanner in any competitive scenario, where a level playing field is an absolute necessity. Thankfully, mrAPchem's video spread like wildfire and caught the attention of NetherRealm and Ed Boon within a couple of days.

"Once again, THANK YOU for all your feedback with MK1. You are helping us make the game better every day," Boon tweeted shortly after the video blew up. "The Player1 advantage bug has been fixed, and an update is being prepped for release very soon!"

It was followed up by a tweet from the Mortal Kombat account, which revealed that the problem lies with Player 1 having "an unintended advantage." A patch is in the works for Friday, September 29, which should also include "a fix for the issue causing missing inputs when using kameos."

Mollie Taylor
Features Producer

Mollie spent her early childhood deeply invested in games like Killer Instinct, Toontown and Audition Online, which continue to form the pillars of her personality today. She joined PC Gamer in 2020 as a news writer and now lends her expertise to write a wealth of features, guides and reviews with a dash of chaos. She can often be found causing mischief in Final Fantasy 14, using those experiences to write neat things about her favourite MMO. When she's not staring at her bunny girl she can be found sweating out rhythm games, pretending to be good at fighting games or spending far too much money at her local arcade.