Mortal Kombatisn’t in stores for a few more weeks, but Netherrealm has already revealed the first two characters you’ll be able to add to the game’s already impressive roster asdownload content. The blind swordsman Kenshi will be available along with an interesting piece ofMortal Kombathistory, Scarlet.
As confirmed in an CVG interview with Netherrealm producer Hans Lo, Scarlet will only appear for the first time in this newMortal Kombatgame but originates out of a glitch in the arcade version ofMortal Kombat II. As many of the characters were simply palette-swaps of other characters, occasionally the game would cause these characters to appear in red despite there being no red version. While the male ninja modelwould inspirethe character Ermac (his name a reference to an error counter), the female ninja was left to fan speculation, who named her “Skarlett.”
Netherrealm also offers some reassurance for fans who might remember those palette-swaps and be afraid that they won’t be getting their money’s worth out of DLC characters. “They won’t be copy and pasted from characters already in the game – they’re going to have their own unique fighting styles, moves, fatalities and x-rays – all the good stuff,” says Lo.
All great news, far as I’m concerned. I rarely get excited about fighting games, having no particular talent for them. But the more I see ofMortal Kombatand the more times I play through the demo on my PS3, I can’t help but be interested. It feels like the logical progression of the original arcade trilogy into the modern era and the raw brutality makes me feel giddy in the way it did to a twelve year-old Conrad illicitly playing in the way back of a pizza parlor.
