As speculation over Mortal Kombat X's content future defiantly simmers post-MKXL; GameInformer have tapped into the always engaging, often contentious subject of guest characters - past, present and future.
Ed Boon revealed the best selling downloadable characters of the most recent game were Alien and Predator. It follows a trend started by Freddy Kreuger and Scorpion, who topped DLC sales in Mortal Kombat (2011) and Injustice: Gods Among Us respectively.
Mortal Kombat X featured the most downloadable characters of any NetherRealm Studios fighting game to date: eight in total. Four of those were guest fighters, meaning the combative Alien vs Predator mega-franchise trumped classic horror icons Jason Voorhees (Friday the 13th) and Leatherface (Texas Chainsaw Massacre) in latest sales. That fact hasn't stopped Ed Boon being open to the idea of a dedicated horror fighting game [full story].
The super-sized, all-in-one Mortal Kombat XL experience is officially out now! 2015's best selling fighting game gets the komplete edition treatment, jamming in all-new extras including Kombat Pack 2 fighters, Stage Fatalities, and Apocalypse Skins!
Mortal Kombat XL is bringing the komplete experience to home consoles in March! Hot on the heels of the announce trailer, Amazon released cover art and pre-order options.
In 2016, Mortal Kombat X gets even bigger than before with the arrival of Kombat Pack 2! Announced officially in September: the pack will include new character skins, a klassic arena, and as unveiled last week: four new playable characters!
Revealed during NetherRealm's Best Fighting Game acceptance at The Game Awards 2015: the Kombat Pack 2 character trailer launched as many questions as it answered. The full story won't crystallize until next year, but some preliminary questions can be answered. Here's what we know, so far:
Even as hardcore fandom reignites debate over the legitimacy of guest characters in Mortal Kombat X; Creative Director Ed Boon has been discussing some of the franchise crossovers that never quite came to pass.
Speaking with IGN, Boon revealed characters from Terminator and Halloween were among the choices discussed at NetherRealm Studios: "We've tossed around a whole bunch of names, like The Terminator, or something like that. And for various reasons – whether it wasn't a match, or we just couldn't come to terms with it – they didn't happen."
Ermac and Quan Chi stroll through the forest. Sektor's disembodied head sits quietly alone. A drunken hand reaches up from the floor. A Tarkatan has a nasty tummy ache... These seemingly innocuous events can only be harbingers for new warriors coming to Mortal Kombat X! Scenes featured in a trailer leaked ahead of The Game Awards announcement [full story].
It's a pretty simple equation: There are going to be 2 guest characters in Mortal Kombat X and one of them is a Predator. The other one must be the Xenomorph of Alien franchise fame then - right?.. Wrong.
In what seems like a two-prong masterstroke of viral provocation and legendary pranking: NetherRealm stocked their Kombat Pack with two characters famously tied to absent big screen rivals -- Jason Voorhees leading the charge as the other DLC guest.
The Friday the 13th slasher was a hotly requested commodity during the previous game's download cycle, inspired partly by the presence of slasher nemesis: Freddy Kreuger. If you're a long-lived Nightmare on Elm Street fan, you probably have the dark sense of humor to appreciate the hilarity of dividing two horror icons -- and stars of Freddy versus Jason -- between separate games.
The question now - will the same fate befall sci-fi cinema's Predator and Alien?
In August, the Alien has certainly been on Creative Director Ed Boon's mind. On-going news regarding a soft reboot in a fifth Alien film inspired musings about the success of repeat visits to the franchise. On August 16th, he remarked; "All those remakes failed to rejuvenate their franchises, and while Aliens is my favorite action movie of all time... despite how the last 2 were disappointments... I wonder if they should just leave the Alien franchise alone."
It seems Uncle Ed has grown tired of reboots that don't quite hit the balance of honoring and reinvigorating their brands, "After remakes/reboots of Robocop, Total Recall and Terminator I'm finding it hard to get excited about Alien 5." A sentiment many shared after the Alien vs Predator concept made its way to film - twice - under maligned direction by Paul Anderson, and the brothers Strause. [Related Article: Paul Anderson on Mortal Kombat and Film Adaptation]
On the surface, Boon's critiques sound like arguments against including the Xenomorph as Mortal Kombat DLC, but the finer details present nuanced arguments in different directions.
Mortal Kombat X welcomes its second cross-franchise guest character beginning Tuesday with the arrival of The Predator! The alien hunter is Kombat Pack first July 7th, before hitting online stores for individual purchase July 14th!
