#YouDontKnowJax
Mortal Kombat Special Forces is the whipping boy of the fandom, and its easy to see why. The samey mazelike levels that make it hard to navigate, the wonky unarmed kombat system, the jank gunplay, times when enemies get unfair, times when you can just stunlock them, its definitely redeserved its reputation as a bad game.

But it wasn't always this way.

Before release, before the Tobias exodus, it had potential. It was a completely different beast.

It had a full 3D Camera
It had jumping
It had a relatively workable kombat system
It had a control scheme way better suited to the genre it was aiming to be
It had cutscenes
It had Jax as an actual character not a weird sort of funny
It had playable Sonya
It HAD Sonya
It had a deeper plot with bigger lore implications on the level of Mythologies
It had that one other guy from Level 1's Black Dragon lineup pic
It had a lot of potential

#YouDontKnowJax
Well shit, I told you there was a lot to go over. It could be safer to just accept MKSF isn't really canon at all, with maybe only Tremor being canon in some way.

I guess when John Tobias left Midway he took any semblance of solid sensible continuity with him.

Speaking of John Tobias leaving, tomorrow is going to be a very special episode of #YouDontKnowJax.

You see, if your only experience of MKSF that isn't playing it is watching Youtube reviews of it or playthroughs...you don't truly understand Mortal Kombat: Special Forces at all. Hell even if you HAVE played it, your understanding is still limited. There's a tragedy to Special Forces, you see.

To better understand Special Forces, to well and truly form the most educated opinion on it that you can...you're going to have to tune in tomorrow. For if you're going to truly see the sad story behind Special Forces' very existence, you and I are going to have to take a trip further into the past.

You better be here tomorrow...

...because there you'll learn things weren't always this way...

#YouDontKnowJax
There's a lot to go over here

So this game, which is supposedly set before Mortal Kombat 1 the ACTUAL Mortal Kombat 1. And fans will swear up and down it is. But it has Jax casually traveling between realms, and going to Outworld.

But the official AND VERY CANON MK2 prequel comic he shows pure skepticism at Johnny Cage's claims to the existence of Outworld and otherworldly ghoulies. Like right after he and Steve Beran pick up Johnny from the flaming ruins of Shang Tsung's island and Cage tells the story Jax doesn't buy it.

It takes him and Beran getting Sonya's video call showing very real monsters in a very real other world for Jax to accept that Cage was telling the truth, further cemented when Jax takes a Shang Tsung flaming skull to the chest and then goes head-to-head with Kintaro, a giant hulking tiger-man with four arms.

Yet MKSF he's gone through a magical portal that he certainly cannot disbelieve or disprove, and ANOTHER that he somehow knows is another world, one that also happens to be OUTWORLD (though he never learns this ingame.) So really if SF is still canon Jax really shouldn't have trouble believing what Cage had to say.

#YouDontKnowJax
With that, we're only one level away from completing the game. The final level, according to the save screen, is in Outworld and-

oh hang on

Outworld

As in Shao Kahn's Outworld

you know as in the Outworld, the dark other realm that in this timeline is still ruled by the tyrannical emperor Shao Kahn who's been hell bent on conquering our fair realm of Earth since time immemorial

Like you're not just using the term "Outworld" as a catch all term for "realm that is not Earth", this is the very same Outworld we're all thinking right

So Kano's already tight with Shao Kahn even though this is before MK3 where he was on team Shao and was supplying them guns and training?

And we're just gonna casually intrude into Outworld and somehow Shao Kahn's just not gonna wake up and ask who the fuck these pricks are that just casually trespassed into HIS realm?

#YouDontKnowJax
Well at least Jax has time for one last inappropriate flirt session. Also Gem just knows comms will be cut off from realm to realm. I mean I guess its a reasonable assumption, but its easy to think they have been to other worlds before.

Its just funny that even though she's only hearing what Jax is saying and not seeing what he's seeing (I think), she's taking the revelation of magical portals, other dimensions and possible travel between them completely in stride and is only concerned for her beefcake.

But that's that for Gemini, more or less. Don't get too excited about hearing more of her from here on out, as other than the ending, this is her only jaunt.

#YouDontKnowJax
See? This game agrees, Tremor's poser ass is dead!

Jax mentions the magical gateway he's found (and not the one he's just gone through to get to Tremor's room.) He also just happens to know that it leads to another dimension, though considering its a shimmering wall of light I guess its a safe assumption. What's funnier is that Gemini doesn't ask if Jax is feeling okay or altogether sane, or doubt him. She immediately takes Briggs at his word that this is a portal to another dimension.

Her only concern is that Jax might be going on a one way trip. Although at least this SF scanner confirms that there's no record of such a phenomenon occurring.

"This is clearly a suicide mission."

Gem I've survived Mass Effect 2 (#SpaceAdventureMighty never unless I feel like it), I know suicide missions. I've taken one head on and me and my comrades lived to tell the tale. I think I can handle a portal to another world.

#YouDontKnowJax
Well whatever. Once he wakes up and gets unstuck its business as usual. I get a good moment to just X-lock him until he goes down like MK11 Kabal when Kano tells him Susie wrote gullible on the ceiling.

One Super Uppercut and for laughs I finish with the Strong Ground Pound, the concentric rings reducing Tremor to chunky salsa. Since Tremor doesn't appear again in the Midway timeline I'm comfortable saying he did indeed die here because go fuck yourself.

Now anyway we just went through an honest to god magical portal to get here and there's another portal here. I'm pretty sure Jax has something to say about that and conveniently Gemini's ringing up, so...

#YouDontKnowJax
Whereupon Tremor either got caught on the wonky arena hitbox or his AI bugged out as he proceeded to madly throw attacks out at empty space that went absolutely nowhere near me. This level's all about wonky hitboxes. First the valley's explosion hitboxes piss me off because they hit no matter how far away I am, now I'm right in Tremor's face and his attacks are just nowhere close.

Yeah Tremor you superhero, you kick that thin air, show that pissant Fujin who's boss!

Hey, you got some stylish shots out of it though.

#YouDontKnowJax
Nah its just Tremor's boss arena. Jammy fucker gets his own entry portal. Tremor's apparently guarding a "gateway", which I assume is that orange portal there. Kano gives him the important jobs clearly. As a guy with geokinesis powers it makes sense (I think this is before Tremor bullshitted his way into becoming an earth demigod.)

Naturally Tremor has a ground pound, but also a triple fireball shot. Kind of lacking in attacks for someone who got so popular. Though really I think its just because he has the classic MK ninja look. I mean he sure looks like Scorpion but gravel coloured.

At least his fireballs are easily evaded. I don't waste gun ammo or dets on him. Now normally when you get up close he makes like the Three Dirty Dwarves and pounds the earth. Fitting, as this is the gateway we've been looking for. Ignore that and just get right up in his face and mash X like your life depends on it.

I kinda forgot mashing X was a strat and did a full Super Uppercut combo on him...