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.  

Read more
Tekken 8
Tekken 8 has finally reinstated the time-honoured tradition of deathmatching your foes for hours on end
Monster Hunter Wilds palico
The next Monster Hunter Wilds update is set to launch on March 10 and will ensure that when you chop off monster parts, the right monster parts get chopped off
Marvel Rivals tier list - Black Panther
Marvel Rivals' FPS bug puts players with potato PCs at a disadvantage, and that's not the only optimisation issue happening right now
Marvel Rivals codes - Venom and other heroes
'A developer who actually listens': Marvel Rivals' devs fix accidental Peni Parker nerf just 9 short hours after saying they would
hela marvel rivals
Marvel Rivals' first balance patch targets two popular Duelists and Jeff's ultimate
The Cloud of Darkness (Chaotic) in Final Fantasy 14.
Final Fantasy 14's chaotic alliance raid lives up to the name by swapping around 2 wrongly labeled attacks an entire month after everyone's already learned them
Latest in Action
Assassin's Creed Shadows promo image
Ubisoft scores a legendary ratio against Elon Musk on his own platform—which hopefully marks a final end to all the Assassin's Creed Shadows' culture war nonsense
Assassin's Creed Shadows immersive mode - Naoe holding a tanto in her hand as two guards fall to the ground behind her.
Assassin's Creed Shadows' first hotfix addresses stability issues and a photo mode crash
A plastic duck dressed like a circus weightlifter
The 5th highest-rated game on Steam in 2022 is back with a multiplayer sequel
Ragnarok Battle Offline
After punishing my graphics card with Monster Hunter Wilds, I've returned to the rock-solid frame rates of my old hunting grounds: Windows XP
A unique aspect of Japanese architecture turned out to be a key reason the Like a Dragon games can reuse assets so effectively—and deliver more compact, memorable open worlds than western cities
Naoe looking at the wrist blade in Assassin's Creed Shadows
Ubisoft says don't compare Assassin's Creed Shadows' success to Valhalla: The latter launched in Covid's 'perfect storm' and feedback on platforms 'less affected by review bombing' is stellar
Latest in News
Assassin's Creed Shadows promo image
Ubisoft scores a legendary ratio against Elon Musk on his own platform—which hopefully marks a final end to all the Assassin's Creed Shadows' culture war nonsense
Tzarina Katarin Bokha, the Ice Queen of Kislev
Total War: Warhammer 3 rolls out a cool Kislev overhaul, changes befitting Tzeench’s magic, new projectile units and creakier skeletal horses
An image of a golden first place award from Geoguessr
'We're actually getting GeoGuessr on Steam before GTA 6': the Google Street View puzzler arrives on Valve's platform this April
Napster client circa 1999
Former music-pirating platform Napster to be reborn rather ironically as a metaverse for musicians to connect with their fans after $207 million deal
The snazzy red and black HyperX Cloud Alpha wireless headphones float in a teal void. The microphone is attached to the headset.
The best wireless gaming headset is now even better in the Amazon Big Spring Sale, boasting a more than $50 discount
A chip being held up in an Intel fab
Intel is reportedly 'working to finalize commitments from Nvidia' as a foundry partner, suggesting gaming potential for the 18A node