There’s a workaround but it goes against what the tutorial was trying to teach in the first place…
At this point, it’s been over two years since Mortal Kombat 1 was released on September 19, 2023. Over the these two years, there have been a number of patches applied to the game that fixed issues and adjusted the balance of the characters.
More recently, Mortal Kombat 1: Definitive Edition was released, which culminated all the DLC that had been released for Mortal Kombat 1 over these past two years. Following this announcement, NetherRealm Studios confirmed that post-launch support for MK1 had ended as the development studio had moved on to their next project.
However, NetherRealm Studios assured fans that they would still continue to support Mortal Kombat 1 through balance adjustment and fixes in the form of updates, at least for the foreseeable future.
Shortly after Evo 2025, NRS released a new balance patch in August. Of course, it’s been a few months since then so it’s unknown if NRS will still be able to continue supporting Mortal Kombat 1 in this way.
Regardless, it would seem that some of these balance patches over the years have had an interesting consequence. Like many other fighting games, Mortal Kombat 1 features a tutorial mode that aims to teach players how to play the game.
One of these tutorials intends to show the player that not every getup attack has enough invincibility to be a viable wakeup option against skilled opponents. For example, Sub-Zero’s “Kold Shoulder” Kameo action is meant to be easily interrupted with good timing when used in this way.
At the very least, this was the intention behind the move when Mortal Kombat 1 was first released. Within that aforementioned August update, Sub-Zero’s Kold Shoulder had its wakeup invincibility extended from 11 frames to a whopping 23 frames.
For all intents and purposes, this was probably a good change as it was making one of the less popular Kameos a little more attractive as a choice when compared to many of the top tier Kameos at the time. With better Kameo options, this would theoretically increase the amount of variety in terms of player expression.
Unfortunately, it would seem that NetherRealm Studios had completely forgotten how one of the tutorial segments in Mortal Kombat 1 was built on the premise that Sub-Zero’s Kold Shoulder when used as a wakeup attack would always have no more than 11 frames of invincibility.
As such, it has become impossible to “interrupt” this wakeup action as intended. Instead, players will have to use a neutral jump to bait out the Kold Shoulder and punish the attack in order to pass the trial (as demonstrated by Jerry Elekid on his YouTube channel).
Most fighting game developers keep the tutorial sections the same by having the characters behave based on the base version of the game. This did not seem to happen this time around.
We’ll have to wait and see if this tutorial section will get addressed later on down the road, but considering it’s been a few months since NetherRealm Studios last updated Mortal Kombat 1, that possibility is beginning to look unlikely.
Sent in by: BSkullClad and ShadowGeno.