Pro Mortal Kombat player Jarrad Gooden, or NinjaKilla212, demonstrated how absurd Mortal Kombat 1 combos can get by throwing demon warrior Baraka for nearly a full minute. Though the game was only just globally released on September 19, Gooden represents a committed number of players already trying to find the most extreme ways to play. In this case, Gooden was successful, and the clip he posted to Twitter on September 27 freaked everyone else out.
“Your opponent hits you with this in a tournament,” he wrote, “what you doing?”
“Dude 89 hits,” says one popular reply, “I’m def quitting and smacking him with the controller.”
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“This is actually busted,” says another. “Not because of damage. But because of how long the combo is. The round is gonna be over by the time I touch the ground.”
Fighting games like MK have always allowed for torturously long, or even infinite combos, but Gooden’s post is a stunningly spooky reminder of what you can actually do in them.
Gooden uses wicked sorcerer Shang Tsung, who alternates between his older and younger selves, to his fullest capacity, pulling blazing Ground Skulls up from stone and launching them at Baraka’s folded body. Repeatedly, Baraka flops into the air, groaning at the juggling loop he’s stuck in. To keep it going, Gooden uses Scorpion as a Kameo assistant (extra fighters you can choose in character select) a few times, letting the assassin breathe flames onto Baraka. This move launches the warrior higher and higher into the air, extending the time Gooden is able to keep knocking him back with the same upward-movement attack.
Read More: Mortal Kombat 1: The Kotaku Review
It looks impressive, and it’s a little embarrassing for Baraka. But if you find yourself on the receiving end of such a combo, try not to despair. As evidenced in the clip, MK1’s damage scaling prevents Gooden from delivering match-ending pain—when he finally gives up on his Ground Skulls, Baraka is down only 45 percent health—and, if Baraka had used MK1’s Combo Breaker ability, he could have prevented the bulk of the damage anyway. That’s the important part of a clip like Gooden’s, it shows you what’s possible.
MK1 won’t “reinvent the blood-soaked wheel,” Kotaku staffer Zack Zweizen writes in his review, but fans and series newcomers both agree that it reliably provides gore and an at least passable storyline. You can currently play it on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch, and PC.