
The release of Mortal Kombat X is swiftly approaching. Set to release on April 14th across most platforms (though delayed till summer on the PS3 and 360, and unsurprisingly Nintendo isn’t in on it), there is no doubt that many hardcore fans of the series—and even some newbs looking to try it out for the first time—are bringing their wallets, ready to throw down the standard $60 to buy the newest edition of one of the bloodiest fighting franchises there is.
Since 1992, Mortal Kombat has been a favorite amongst gamers and a classic in its own right, but no game series, no matter how venerable, is immune to changing times. These changing times bring overpriced season passes, and at $30, it looks like the Mortal Kombat X Kombat Pack may be one of them.
What You Can Expect For $30

Tremor (left), and Tanya making a return from previous Mortal Kombat entries.
The Kombat Pack season pass includes four new characters and 15 additional skins: pretty standard for a fighting game. Jason Voorhees and Predator are among the four characters, as well as Tremor and Tanya from previous games.
While it’s pretty cool to be able to add new characters to the core gameplay, $30 seems a bit too steep a price tag for only four characters and 15 skins. The Kombat Pack will be available upon the release of the game; if you want to purchase the character packs individually, you’ll need to wait a bit longer.
How Does The Cost Break Down?
$30 for four characters and 15 skins. Whatever value skins and characters have is totally subjective, but from where I’m standing, skins should be a given. Unlockables.
While I have no problem with developers selling supplemental skins for a game, I personally would never purchase individual character skins for any fighting game, regardless of how much I like it. So as far as I’m concerned, we can put the skins on the back burner for now and look at just the characters.
For $30 you get 4 characters, which breaks down to about $7.50 per character. Consider that for $60, you get a full game with 20+ characters. Make of it what you will, but even considering the 15 skins as a mitigating factor, about $6 dollars per character is incredibly lopsided, and frankly, it smells like a rip off.
Paying For The Privilege Of Novelty Characters

Bad-ass horror movie icons set to face off for the first time in Mortal Kombat X.
While the pack does include two characters from previous games, it seems like the real draw of the Kombat Pack is the classic horror movie characters. Undoubtedly, both Jason and Predator would seem to fit the cast of characters very well, but to pay such a high price for the ability to play as them is absurd.
Once again, this is a matter of personal taste. There are probably a lot of people that find this to be quite the deal. These are people that would get more than their money’s worth of enjoyment out of this extra content, but at the same time, these most certainly aren’t the casual Mortal Kombat players, and there’s nothing wrong with that.
There’s nothing wrong with trying to provide cool characters to people that are willing to fork over what, at first glance, seems to be a hefty price tag. Four characters, 15 skins, and it might be possible that future DLC would be included, though I personally wouldn’t count on it.
The Verdict
The game itself looks great. The DLC doesn’t even look that bad. Considering the current market, overly expensive and under-delivering season passes are pretty common, so the Kombat Pack isn’t especially bad. I intend to buy the game but not the Kombat Pack, because I don’t imagine that I’m going to put enough time into the game to justify spending $90 for a more complete experience.
It pretty much boils down to this: even if you are a die-hard Mortal Kombat fan, and you intend to play this game into the ground and extract as much fun as you possibly can, $30 still seems a bit excessive.

They want all of your money.
You can buy a couple full length games for that much money if you get them used; you can even buy some great arcade titles for less. That being said, if you’re absolutely intent on buying the Kombat Pack, you can probably get your money’s worth, but only if you’re truly dedicated. To anyone less than an absolutely die-hard fan, I wouldn’t suggest buying it.
Those that want to get the Pack are already planning to get it, and those that feel its a rip off probably won’t be. I’m just throwing in my two cents because there are certainly some people that aren’t sure whether or not they want to buy it, yet.
If you are undecided, then the Kombat Pack probably isn’t for you anyways, but far be it from me to tell you how to spend your hard earned cash.
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