His design and gameplay look awesome. My favourite things about Shinnok are his Necromancer variation (minus the bony hands visual cue, which is hopefully going to be less prominent in his alts) and his X-Ray.

As for the demo itself, we should've seen an intro and a fatality at the very least. It's really great to see his return as a playable character after nine years. The wait is worth it.

What does Imposter Shinnok steal from Shinnok in a Mirror Match then?

Good question. Health maybe?

Dude

Ha. Good question. Maybe an EX of the move stolen instead of a normal?

If you're both Imposter, then that's a tricky one. Otherwise, I'd say he steals The Flick, Bone Shaper combo, or that other amulet blast.

Or they could just go Shang's route, and do a slight damage buff for a couple seconds. Health gain is also a possibility. Interesting that they didn't think to discuss this in the stream.

Yup

Haha, thanks. I Really like his XRay I'll be bitch-slapping everybody on the roster of MKX :p.

I don't really know how I feel about Shinnok's moveset. I can't tell if I was underwhelmed by how they showed it, like kinda rushing through it and showing off practice mode at the same time (not to mention Paulo isn't the best presenter), or if I was underwhelmed by the moveset in general. Like across all variations he only has three special moves?

His shang up fireball thing seems very good at mid screen but has got to be an absolute death sentence up close, although it looked like you can burn meter after the first hit to possibly make it safe. It doesn't hit full screen tho so I have the feeling Shinnok won't be the crazy zoner a lot of people (myself included) thought he would play like. Seems like it'll work more like Ermac's push, like really effective at mid range.

He has his amulet blast which absorbs projectiles but I have two problems with it: 1. In MK projectile parries normally do something more than just absorb, like Kenshi's in MK9 built meter, Nightwolf gained health and got a free lighting blast to check opponent, or Smokes gave a free hit, Shinnok's didn't seem to do anything other than cause damage (which only matters if your opponent shot a projectile point blank and you had godlike reactions). Also many character gain more than one projectile when they enhance it, not sure how that will effect his parry. 2. It hit high, so I wonder how effective it will be against Mileena's low sai's or Erron Black's or Lui Kangs low projectiles, really hope NRS didn't overlook this. In his bone shaper variation it becomes a full screen projectile so if it still absorbs other projectiles this would make it VERY effective as Shinnok would almost always win in a trade.

His shoulder rush seemed very good as the enhanced version gained a hit of armor (we see it go through Sub's clone) and seemed to pop up for a combo. I was confused on the pop up part of it because after Paulo did it he hit sub with a single up fireball, not sure how or why just one came out. I'm thinking it was an enhanced fireball which would suck if that was the only way to combo after the shoulder since burning 2 bars of meter is normally a no no.

Imposter looked like it would be extremely effective in certain match ups, I loved the combo Paulo did where he ended it in the move steal gaining another sub projectile. IMO this variation will be all about big combo's ending in set ups. To me tho his necromancer variation looked like his go to variation. Only problem is we didn't see what any of the bone hand moves did on block. The best part about it is it seemed like the flick hits full screen and the grab tracks and can be enhanced like Aquaman's from the deep. These two moves in combination with his up skulls could make him the badass dark magic zoner a lot of us thought he would be. Also his unblockable move that comes down from above looked almost completely worthless and is for sure the slowest move I have yet to see in MKX. Only remotely safe at full screen and in a game like MK where half the cast has teleports or a fast advancing special having a move with such a long start up is gonna be pretty pointless.

Bone shaper looked like it could be a good anti zoning variation assuming the amulet move still absorbs projectiles (and hopefully not just high hitting ones). Best case scenario you will be able to shut down your opponents zoning and check them with that unblockable (i think?) staff slam. You also gain a low poke that can open up combo's, which was for sure the best normal of his we saw, although we really didn't see many at all. Also his range in this variation didn't seem that great compared to Takeda and Kung Jin.

Overall I know we haven't seen nearly enough from the character and I'm just working with what I saw. If anybody wants to correct me or point out additional shit that would be awesome. I did this write up on the fly to put off getting ready for work and didn't check everything so it might not be 100% accurate.

The Imposter Variation has a teleport.

I also think it's not fair that Shinnok only has 3 universal specials, while Kitana and Reptile each have 6 or 7.

It's not even fair how they showed off Shinnok, like you said he has a teleport move which they said NOTHING about. They need 16 bit back as fast as possible those devs just don't know how to breakdown a character.

I wanted to see more of Shinnok, a lot more. I don't feel like they showed enough because they jammed him in with the Practice mode show off.

Erron and Liu were cool, but I've expected much more from Shinnok. I wanted him to be a sorcerer type fighter, with accent on buffs / debuffs, magic shields and teleports. Instead he is something like Shang's demi-clone with abridged movesets.

His Impostor variation is interesting, but it would have been better, if devs had properly explained what exactly he can steal. It's understandable in case of Sub-Zero, but what about characters who doesn't have such projectile? Can Shinnok steal other moves and not only projectiles?

It's the first case where I feel that variations actually harm the moveset of the character. If all Shinnok's abilities were combined into one sinlge moveset, then he would've been awesome. As of now, it feels like every variation on its own is lacking. I understand, that variations are about tradeoff of one abilities for another, but in case of Shinnok, I felt his moveset should've been much more flashy and more expansive, especially, considering, that he never was properly realized before.

One thing, I definitely like about him - are his costumes. Shinnok looks better in MKX than ever before. Also, he has cool throw and X-Ray (during backhand he should've screamed something like: "INFIDEL!!").

Overall, I expected more from him, but I hope my initial impressions of him from stream will be overriden, when I actually get to play as him.

I agree. His teleport and his move steal should be universal. Then he would need a 3rd variation.

Oh no, I disagree. If anything, that skele-hand grab from Necromancer should be universal. It was something he did in MKA, at least.

Kinda bummed that one is limited to that variation.

I'm so happy Shinnok is back. The only thing I didn't like were his own hands being bare bones in one of the variations. Otherwise, I'm satisfied and I'm dying to see him in action in that story mode trailer costume.

His x-ray is boss, love the backhand bitchslap and the way he walks up to the opponent to deliver it lol.

Each character is balanced differently. Sub-Zero only has 2 universal moves for example.

Mileena would like to have a word with you. She finally got a new special in MK9 and they limited that on one variation in MKX. So she's back to 3 again. Let alone giving a similar launch move to Kitana -.-

I just got home today and was finally able to watch the 25 min video. Oh...my...god... no pun intended. His look, voice, fighting style moves is all A+ Shinnok will be the only character I use for all of april and may. I am so hyped very pleased with him in every aspect!

Not over dem boney ass armz.

Dude you just now saw it? Wasn't Shinnok da shiz?! I had so many nerdgasms watching that. All of the playable god characters kicking ass.

Wasn't his speech pattern and mannerisms awesome? He's so stuck up and snobbish it's perfect. He better come back, I just know it's not over with him.

I love how he said "That is mine" I expected him to say "No touchy" or something like that after lmao

lol I know right? And that hmm noise he made when Johnny looked at the amulet.

I would have loved to see Raiden and Fujin have a go at Shinnok, but they were already worn out by that point.

Hehe. The temper tantrum is his funniest moment. "Insignificant speak of feculent scum!" is my new favourite insult. :D

Fujin and Shinnok stole the show for me, though Raiden and Cage were great too.

yes. Maybe Mileena and shinnok can bond over this. But seriously it's not fair for some characters to have 3 universal moves while others have 5 or 6

I LOVED the way he wasn't even looking when blocking cages attacks so matrix style! That just proves if he really wanted to fuck you up he could. I get goosebumps everytime I see him. NRS made me the happiest mko member around with him. Flawless design. Flawless!

And sadly yes. I fractured my ankle so I was laid up I didn't have my cell phone to watch it. :/