I legit was just about to post this, glad I wasn't the only one to see it.

I honestly have no clue what it means. Will time travel factor into the story again?

I checked about a dozen times to make sure nobody else had already posted it.

Anyways, the whole time-travel/alternate reality thing could certainly come into play. Dark Raiden, perhaps?

There's everyone's explanation as to why Sub-Zero is human in the trailer. This seems intriguing.

I'm optimistic it'll be plot-related, but it just sounds like what they're doing with Ultra SF4. My post copy-pasted from the other thread:

multiple versions of each character based on prior game appearances. As an example, we could have Kung Lao selectable with his MK2 moveset, or MK3 moveset etc.

Although both of those concepts together...in Story mode...:D

Meh I don't know if I like that sound of that or not. I need to see exactly what they are meaning by that first.

Ah. I forgot about that.
Isn't that just selecting which version of the character you desire in terms of patching (i.e. vanilla Ryu or Ultra Ryu,) not necessarily a physically different (in the very least) character? Just some frames and move properties are tweaked here and there for balancing...?
Pardon me if I seem ignorant; I don't really follow the SF series.

Regardless, I'm very interested to see what this entails.
Edit:
Wow. I completely forgot about Smoke.
That would be amazing.

Wait so...Enenra Smoke, Human Smoke, and Cyber Smoke? Wha whaaaa?!

Pretty much, exactly. But with NRS's mad-on for alternate costumes, the mix and match possibilities could be...insane.

The changes can be very extensive and allow for completely different playstyles. As a simple example, Vanilla SF4's Sagat had a Tiger Uppercut that did ridiculous amounts of damage (to the point where he was toned down repeatedly over time), a player using that version would make connecting that uppercut a big priority in their gameplay strategy as opposed to later versions which would require use of more of his toolset.

I'm very excited at the prospect of something like this happening in MK. It's wonderful to hear.

And yes, the prospect of a game where I could have three seperate versions of Smoke available with completely different movesets just means I'm gonna go change my pants now oh my god yes

Just imagine what this means for Reptile, people. Think about it.

Keep it far away from the story.

BUT, on the plus side, this means that characters areprobably going to go through some drastic changes, too drastic to just make it a costume swap. This is good.

For the love of Osiris can they please bring back Subby's Ice shower from MK3!

If there is a story reason behind it... Give it to me... If not... I do not like it.

This. Holy shit this. I can't stress THIS nearly enough. This sort of feature has no business being anywhere near the story mode. Seriously, my first reaction upon watching the trailer was "great, Sub-Zero is human again, Boon's got some explaining to do now."

This just sounds like a beefed-up version of ISMs from SF Alpha, without the aspect of having one of them being simpler than the others. Honestly, I'd need to see more of it before I can really judge, but it sounds like it has potential.

Why should it not be apart of the story? I would love to see this come into play with it.

I simply do not like it... If it is just for gameplay, I would in MKs case prefer to not have other characters just for the sake of making people happy

Oh cool we have Cyber Sub or Cyber Smoke... But they are just what if character for the fun... No story nothing.

But on the other hand... A story with each character having multiple other versions would suck as well

Because time travel would be a mess and would just be another thing that would work to drive the story in to a corner.

If you want MK2 Sub-Zero for tournament purposes or for you to have someone to crush your friends with, that's fine. But we don't need an army of Sub-Zeros vs an army of Scorpions vs an army of a million shakily assembled Raidens. It would be a clusterfuck summer blockbuster, and after they did such a god job with MK9's story, we really don't need them to destroy it all with a gimmick.

We'll probably see different styles used between the costumes. Cyber-Sub and Human sub is one example, but then there is a whole array of characters it could work with. Possibly meaning Raiden and Dark Raiden. We'd probably see differences in style, so say you have new Scorpion who is more of a mid brawler type character that has more of a balance. Then you get like Hanzo who would be more long range offensive, more of a zoner. So then you'd really have to change the way you play based on the costume you select. I think this is what they mean

With any luck, this means they found a way to give Motaro his ass back.

Hopefully it functions like Sektor and Cyrax in MK9. I believe their alternates had different frame data than their base cyborg forms. Not really interested in seeing a bunch of the same characters running around story mode. Time travel is always so messy.

Sounds to me like this is MK's version of Ultra Street Fighter 4's "Version Select."

I like that. I really like that.

Can't wait to learn the full details of how this will work.

And could this mean that versions of characters from the old timeline are now crossing over into the new timeline? An unintended merging of multiple universes due to Raiden's actions at the end of Armageddon?

HYPED! But wow...that could real messy real fast.

It shouldn't be a part of the story mode because it would be absolute nonsense to be able to say "yea, I don't like what this Sub-Zero can do, I'd better switch to zombie Cyber Sub-Zero for this one." It completely breaks the immersion of the story and is, quite frankly, stupid.

A feature like this is totally fine for arcade, versus, online, and similar modes because the story doesn't mean jack in them. Those experiences are meant for playing the game your way.

Last night, I was only kind of excited.

After the trailer, I was a a little more excited. After reading the bit about character variations, NOW I'm going insane!

Potential character variations I can see:

Human Sub or Cyber Sub
Human Smoke or Cyber Smoke
MK2 Jax or MK3 Jax
Human Reptile or "De-volved" Reptile
Young Shang Tsung or Old Shang Tsung

I think people are reading too far into this.

I'm guessing this is just going to be something like the difference between choosing "Scrapper" Scorpion and "Bruiser" Scorpion. Some sort of difference in their balance and play, and possibly a different X-Ray move or something... that creates a strategic alteration, but isn't an entirely different and completely fleshed out separate character.

Some of the suggestions I've seen people post are just way too lame a stretch. Many of them amount to "X Character" and "X Character with his mask off" and "X Character in a slightly different costume" ... there's no need for it.

I don't know, I read it like different variations in terms of offensive buffs, defensive buffs, etc.

For instance, you're about to face a Zoner, you choose a defensive variance, and it makes you less susceptible to chip damage.

That's just how I'm reading it.