Our friends at Polygon praised the new Mortal Kombat X in their recent review. I can't wait to give the game a try, but I'm disappointed by this cynical downloadable content strategy. "Easy Fatalities" allow players to trigger a signature Mortal Kombat finishing move at the end of a fight with the tap of two buttons. They are for sale, though not as a persistent option that unlocks after purchase. Rather "Easy Fatalities" must be purchased in five- or 30-use packages. Five Easy Fatalities cost $0.99, while 30 Easy Fatalities cost $4.99.

That's right: once you've used your bundle of Easy Fatalities, you'll need to purchase another bundle. To be clear, this isn't a new piece of post-release content that took months for the developer to create. It's a minor tweak to a game's design that reduces a series of button prompts to a single tap. I'm surprised a developer or publisher has the gall to charge any fee for the option, let alone multiple fees for finite uses of said option. The entire purpose of such an option is to make money off more casual fighting players who struggle to master the special move. What a disappointment.

According to Polygon, the game features unlockable in-game tokens that can be used for Easy Fatalities. So yes, the game works fine without the ability. Yes, many players can and will master fatalities without the mode's assistant. And yet, the downloadable content still feels like the most shallow cash-in in recent memory.

Easy Fatalities are currently purchasable on PSN and Xbox Live. They do not currently appear on the Steam Store.

Gameplay Preview: Mortal Kombat X brutalities montage