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News -
General
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Written by Duff
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Thursday, 28 August 2008 06:24 |
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 The Mortal Kombat Side of Things
Sorry for the slow week in terms of my postings, I have been dealing with some family issues...
With only a few months remaining until the release of Mortal Kombat v. DC Universe for both the Xbox 360 and the Playstation 3, Ed Boon and company are remaining tight lipped on the identities of the remaining characters on the playable roster. Rarely has a fighting game had its roster shrouded in as much secrecy this close to the games release. Theoretically, the game has to go into print within the next 60 days, so it has to be close to being completed... definitely close enough that they know the entire roster of characters and the art process has been completed for all of them. Midway is playing their cards right in doing this though because it is helping to build the anticipation for the game to immense proportions. With only two slots left on the playable roster for each side of the game (MK and DC), let's theorize as to who may fill in those final spots on the Mortal Kombat side of things...
 Though it was originally announced that the game would only include a total of 20 playable characters, it was recently expanded by the producers to 22. The roster will be split evenly amongst the two universes with eleven kombatants from each IP. This number relates strictly to the playable characters available from the start on the selection screen. Ed Boon has stated that there will be a few hidden characters as well as boss entities which are not represented in this number.
As of today, there have been a total of nine characters revealed from both sides of the game; in terms of the Mortal Kombat side of things, the following have been confirmed as being playable in the game: Scorpion, Sub-Zero, Sonya Blade, Shang Tsung, Liu Kang, Jax, Kitana, Raiden, and Kano.
It makes sense to me that the producers of the game would want to create a good balance in the alignment of the characters in order to prevent one side (again, MK or DC) as being good versus the other. With that taken into consideration, the Mortal Kombat side of the roster currently stands at six heroes, two villains, and a wildcard (Scorpion). It would make the most sense if the remaining roster spots would be filled with characters who are generally viewed as being "villains" in the MK universe.
Seeing as though there are only two spots remaining, I am proposing that two of the following four characters will make the final roster, along with why I think they are right for this game:
 Quan Chi
Quan Chi is easily the most popular of the "new breed" of characters in the Mortal Kombat universe (post-MK3). Few characters that have been introduced since the series' jump to 3D have made as much of an impact with the fans nor made as much of a dent in the lore of the game. He is a versatile character who has as much of his fighting style based on magic as he does the hand to hand combat and could be easily interwoven into the storyline / lore that is being created for this game.
 Shao Kahn
I would like to see Shao Kahn appear in the game, but in a different form than we have come to know him as. In the previous MK games that has always been included with, he has played the role as the all mighty emperor... lets scale him back and bring him back down to a level with everyone else. They should leave him his strength and make him the brute character that appears in every game (Zangief, for example). While they are bringing back a classic character that everyone is familiar with they would be treading in new waters because players are not used to playing as him in the series (despite the recent compilation game).
 Reptile
Reptile would make a nice addition to the game if Midway took a page from Namco's playbook. I would like to see them include him and give him the same treatment that Lizardman has undergone in the Soul Calibur series. While Reptile started off in the original game as nothing more than a green pallette swap, he has slowly evolved to show his true form in the series. His inclusion in this game should punctuate his evolution to displaying his true form as a raging beast. When I think of how I would like to see him, I think thoughts of Riptor from the Killer Instinct game(s).
 Goro
This is, without a doubt in my mind, the biggest no brainer for addition to the roster of this game. Goro has yet to be included as a mainstream character in a Mortal Kombat game. Granted, he was included in the Trilogy compilations, but he lacked the same treatment tat other characters got since he didn't have finishing moves and really didn't feel like a full fledged character. He also made an appearance in the Armageddon and the Gamecube version of Deception. Long story short, Goro needs to be a mainstream character from the start for the main version of the game... the fans want it and the game needs it.
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