Not all bad mind you, just not all great either with the question still up in the air, what is NRS Doing?
NertherRealm Studios, amid the Mortal Kombat franchise's 30th anniversary, announced a new mobile entry for the series, Mortal Kombat Onslaught. Reception, for which has not been great. For many fans of the developer, who are expecting a fully fleshed-out title, be it in the form of a new MK mainline game or even a revival of the Injustice series, the idea of another mobile game seemed to have landed very poorly.
Worth pointing out that Onslaught is not a traditional Mortal Kombat game either. Instead, it's an RPG team-based collection game focusing more on strategy. A generous reading of the situation would say that Onslaught is not meant to be played by the same demographic of players that only enjoy the mechanical fighting gameplay of the series, but perhaps for a subsection of the fanbase that is more interested in its world-building and characters.
But it's not all bad...
Many influencers have tempered the flames and reminded people that, for a studio their size, there is likely more than one development team active at any given time, and there still is a very good chance that a true fully, feature title is being worked on. Ed Boon has said in the past that they are working on multiple projects.
Still, the sting of waiting even longer to see what NRS has been cooking is taking its toll on people. Especially with Street Fighter 6 and Tekken 8 already showing their colors for the next generation of fighting games. Furthermore, it is not like NRS needed to develop a brand new title; they have an extensive library of older games in the franchise that could have certainly been done with a remake for modern systems.
The clock is ticking down for NRS to show the community what they've been working on, and with each passing trailer and gameplay feature from its competitors, lest they be left behind in what seems to be a growing wave of excitement in the Fighting Games space.