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Mortal Kombat Tells Kratos To "Get Over Here"

Sony's violent, angry dude is set for a guest appearance. Also, audio files for unannounced characters spring from a leaky website.


F, D, F, Front Kick? 
F, D, F, Front Kick? 
This sort of went around a little bit back at E3 this year, but I think the Hip Hop Gamer was the only person to actually put the word out at the time. Now, it sounds like the first hard information about Kratos' appearance in the PlayStation 3 version of the next Mortal Kombat game is starting to surface via the January issue of PlayStation: The Official Magazine.

If you spend even a few moments of your time thinking about it, it totally makes sense. Kratos is an angry, angry dude that spends most of his time ripping things in half. On top of that, he has big-ass chains that he can practically use like Scorpion's spear. Not that Kratos will be some kind of fancy new palette swap or anything. The information states that he won't figure into the game's story mode, but he'll have his own set of moves, finishers, and even an new stage.
 
I know what you're asking. You're asking "what does David Jaffe, the guy that started all this God of War business, think about all this?" And, thanks to the magic of Twitter, I have the answer

Dude Kratos would have a FUCKALITY and fuck the SHIT out of Sonya AND Katana at the same motherfucking TIME!!!! :) 

In other news, I love David Jaffe. He's as real as it gets.

Though some are assuming this means that the Xbox 360 version will surely have an exclusive character of its own, I'm going to stab out and say forget about it. When you consider that Sony's already sliding some money Warner's way to get 3D support and some new, 3D-friendly angles for fatalities into the PlayStation 3 version, a one-sided character exclusive makes total sense to me. Besides, which first-party Microsoft character would you slide into the MK universe? Keep in mind that a Spartan already appeared in Dead or Alive 4.

(The obvious answer is, of course, Banjo and Kazooie. And in their animality, they turn into a fudgehog. But let's not get too far off track, cool?)

I'm still not a huge fan of guest appearances in fighting games. They're usually gimmicky and often detract from the overall experience. But at least Kratos is an M-rated kind of guy that can work with the gruesome murders and violence that define the Mortal Kombat experience. He'll certainly fit better there than he did with those Soul Calibur dudes.

Quan Chi, looking decidedly un-Kratos-like. 
Quan Chi, looking decidedly un-Kratos-like. 
While we're talking MK, an unprotected directory on the game's official site let enterprising fans dig around and get some sound clips for some unannounced characters. If the files are genuine, those characters are...


Mortal Kombat enthusiast destination, TRMK, also states that some of the other sounds on the site point to a return for the "Test Your Might" minigames and speculates that another file might indicate that a human version of Sektor could be in the game, which sounds a little far-fetched to me, but we're dealing with a franchise that has included plenty of crazy stuff over the years. Hell, I don't know. It's all unofficial and could have been planted there just to throw us off, right?

In conclusion:

  • Kratos: Sure, why not?
  • Stryker: Yay!
  • Quan Chi: Boo!

Mortal Kombat is due out in the spring of 2011.
Jeff Gerstmann on Google+

136 Comments

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TheFreeMan

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Edited By TheFreeMan

 Dude Kratos would have a FUCKALITY and fuck the SHIT out of Sonya AND Katana at the same motherfucking TIME!!!! :)   

This general attitude is why I hate god of war. Goddamn it, Jaffe. 
 
But hey Kratos was in that PSP Soul Calibur so why not in MK. Much better fit at any rate, I guess.
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Thiago123

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Edited By Thiago123

Wait, what do you mean you don't know what XBox exclusive character could fit?  How about Marcus FUCKING Fenix?  Any number of the executions could make a great fatality (chainsaw, curb stomp....)

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zityz

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Edited By zityz

Stryker? I'll bite. I don't like quan chi myself. Just looks dumb and i'd rather fight shang tsung who could just turn into the guy if he wanted to, not like he would. Because Shang has SOME dignity. 
 
This also gets me wondering if they will put in some kind of 360 specific character, and what would it be.  Marcus Fenix maybe?

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GreggD

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Edited By GreggD
@Mordukai said:
" @Jeff: Full of zingers today, huh??? 
 
ANyways. I stopped caring about MK after the third game. Pretty much after that every MK game was just a downhill slide then hitting the wall with Shaolin Monks. "
Fuck you, Shaolin Monks is awesome.
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The_Joker

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Edited By The_Joker
@Double0hFor said:
" Marcus Fenix could make an appearance in the xbox version, he's m rated, chainsaw fatalities? "
I think this. Make him a stryker palette swap and everyone will be like "Okay yeah I saw what you did thar". It's hard to Reach for another exclusive they could use. Kratos was in broken destiny so stealing other games quest characters isn't that big of a Reach. 
 
What I'm saying is I think it'll be Don Pierre.
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yyZiggurat

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Edited By yyZiggurat

Playstation gets Kratos, Nintendo gets Link, Xbox gets Yoda, PC gets Freeman.

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handlas

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Edited By handlas
@TadThuggish said:

" @Atlas said:

" Oh great, Jeff decries guest characters in Soulcalibur but the same fucking character makes a guest appearance in his beloved Mortal Kombat and all of a sudden it's the best idea ever.  I know I'm bitter, but god fucking dammit I hate Jeff's bias against Soulcalibur, and his MK fanboyism is making me less and less interested in getting the new game. I'm gonna throw my copy of Deadly Alliance in the fucking bin. "

CUT MY LIFE INTO PIECES THIS IS MY LAST RESORT "
CAUSE I'M LOSING MY SIGHT, LOSING MY MIND. WISH SOMEBODY WOULD TELL ME I'M FINE. CAUSE I'M LOSING MY SIGHT, LOSING MY MIND. WISH SOMEBODY WOULD TELL ME I'M FINE.
 
NOTHING IS ALRIGHT.  NOTHING IS FINE.  I'M RUNNING OUT OF TIIIIIIIIME!
 
k, enough of that.
 
No big 360 characters come to mind as to fitting in with the MK characters, really. 
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dbz1995

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Edited By dbz1995
@Atlas said:

" Oh great, Jeff decries guest characters in Soulcalibur but the same fucking character makes a guest appearance in his beloved Mortal Kombat and all of a sudden it's the best idea ever.  I know I'm bitter, but god fucking dammit I hate Jeff's bias against Soulcalibur, and his MK fanboyism is making me less and less interested in getting the new game. I'm gonna throw my copy of Deadly Alliance in the fucking bin. "

Did Jeff have a problem with Soulcaliber II exclusive characters? (I ask this as a genuine question and not as rhetoric.) I thought they fitted in really well-the SCIV characters, however, I thought didn't make much sense, though they were awesome to play with. But hey! Since when has sense been something important in fighting games? I mean, look at games like MvC2 and Blazblue! They make no sense and from what I've heard they are awesome.
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Double0hFor

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Edited By Double0hFor

Marcus Fenix could make an appearance in the xbox version, he's m rated, chainsaw fatalities?

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hermes

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Edited By hermes

If you are asking for exclusives to the 360, how about the dark prince from Fable?

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Vaancor

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Edited By Vaancor
@Jeff
@jakob187: The introduction of Quan Chi is where it all started going sideways. You could pretty much sub in any other character that was introduced around the Mortal Kombat Mythologies/Mortal Kombat 4 timeframe, but Quan Chi is the one that stuck around in the rest of the games.
Him and his boss always struck me as a knock off of Shang Toung and Shou Kaun anyways.
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TheJoker138

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Edited By TheJoker138
@ryanwho:  Quan Chi isn't lame as fuck because of his character design, he's lame as fuck because his introduction was in what is arguably the worst game of the series, his moves were all shitty, and he was just a lazy character all around. 
 
Also, Kratos actually fits MK pretty fucking well, unlike Star Wars guys in Soul Calibur or a Spartan in DOA.  He's an ultraviolent murder machine with a ton of blood soaked finishing moves.  Sounds like a pretty fucking good fit to me.
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coryrx8

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Edited By coryrx8

I hate the concept of console-exclusive characters, and I really can't stand these canon immigrants. Ed Boon swore that this Mortal Kombat was intended to be used for serious tournament play... how can that be possible if every console has different characters? That pretty much renders those characters useless for any high-level play. Development time and budget could be better spent on characters playable on all consoles instead. From a story perspective, having Kratos (and whoever they end up announcing for the other consoles) around is only going to make a mess of things. 
 
Shame on Namco; their bad ideas are spreading.
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gla55jAw

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Edited By gla55jAw

Jaffe is the fucking man.

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MikeFightNight

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Edited By MikeFightNight

I see Kratos fitting in on subject matter alone, but the whole guest appearance thing in fighting games is usually a sign of bad things to come.  It shows a real lack of confidence in the product and a desire to appeal to people who are not interested in your product in the first place (who may still be in-different to it in light of this news) and has the added effect of possibly pissing off hardcore fans of the franchise.
 
I fall into the category of still being interested in MK despite the news of Kratos. 
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Jayzilla

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Edited By Jayzilla

@Jeff: I would argue that Kratos was originally fashioned after Quan Chi and Quan Chi is now looking more like Kratos in God of War 3. 

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TadThuggish

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Edited By TadThuggish
@Atlas said:
" Oh great, Jeff decries guest characters in Soulcalibur but the same fucking character makes a guest appearance in his beloved Mortal Kombat and all of a sudden it's the best idea ever.  I know I'm bitter, but god fucking dammit I hate Jeff's bias against Soulcalibur, and his MK fanboyism is making me less and less interested in getting the new game. I'm gonna throw my copy of Deadly Alliance in the fucking bin. "
CUT MY LIFE INTO PIECES 
THIS IS MY LAST RESORT
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theironyuppie

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Edited By theironyuppie

Hell yes!  Human Smoke returns!  Also, boo Quan Chi.

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Poki3

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Edited By Poki3

No one's more authentic then David Jaffe.

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WinterSnowblind

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Edited By WinterSnowblind
@Atlas said:
" Oh great, Jeff decries guest characters in Soulcalibur but the same fucking character makes a guest appearance in his beloved Mortal Kombat and all of a sudden it's the best idea ever.  I know I'm bitter, but god fucking dammit I hate Jeff's bias against Soulcalibur, and his MK fanboyism is making me less and less interested in getting the new game. I'm gonna throw my copy of Deadly Alliance in the fucking bin. "
In fairness, Kratos at least fits into the MK universe.  Star Wars characters and the 100 anime characters they added into Soulcalibur.. did not.
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ryanwho

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Edited By ryanwho

Ew, no. This isn't some hack IP like Soul Caliber, have some standards. 
Also, seeing you love on Kratos and hate on Quan in the same article with pics side by side kind of shows you're being arbitrary as fuck as far as what's cool and what isn't. Fockle fatfuck.

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Brendan

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Edited By Brendan
@Atlas said:
"Oh great, Jeff decries guest characters in Soulcalibur but the same fucking character makes a guest appearance in his beloved Mortal Kombat and all of a sudden it's the best idea ever.  I know I'm bitter, but god fucking dammit I hate Jeff's bias against Soulcalibur, and his MK fanboyism is making me less and less interested in getting the new game. I'm gonna throw my copy of Deadly Alliance in the fucking bin. "

Unless you're joking, allowing Jeff Gerstmann's personal game preferences to affect you so much emotionally is pretty lame.  Get a grip.
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church069

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Edited By church069

I couldn't care less about Kratos in this game.  MK does need some Stryker though.  When does this game come out, I really want to play it already.

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AuthenticM

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Edited By AuthenticM

A fuckality he must have. :)

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Tweak

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Edited By Tweak
@Catarrhal:  Friendship! Friendship? Again?
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Edited By Foggen

Kratos was already in Soul Calibur for PSP, so rehashing a Spartan wouldn't be farfetched.  I think a Gears character or the Arbiter might be more likely, though.

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Atlas

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Edited By Atlas

Oh great, Jeff decries guest characters in Soulcalibur but the same fucking character makes a guest appearance in his beloved Mortal Kombat and all of a sudden it's the best idea ever.
 
I know I'm bitter, but god fucking dammit I hate Jeff's bias against Soulcalibur, and his MK fanboyism is making me less and less interested in getting the new game. I'm gonna throw my copy of Deadly Alliance in the fucking bin.

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peewi

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Edited By peewi

No one is mor real than David Jaffe?

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VicRattlehead

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Edited By VicRattlehead
@Jeff: someone on srk suggested that the 360 character could be Kudo Tsunoda's avatar and he'll play like Dhalsim.... BAM THERE IT IS
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nasie

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Edited By nasie

And the 360 version will get ... Spawn? :D

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RipTheVeins

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Edited By RipTheVeins

Most exciting news from this was the actual possible inclusion of Stryker.

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FLStyle

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Edited By FLStyle

I'd take Kenshi over Stryker any day.
 
Great news all around!

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CyleMoore

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Edited By CyleMoore

Fantastic! 

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Shadow71

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Edited By Shadow71

I want this game OUT NOW!

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skrutop

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Edited By skrutop

Needs more Frank West.

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DragonBloodthirsty

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Kratos fits like a glove in Mortal Kombat.

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MordeaniisChaos

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Edited By MordeaniisChaos
@TheGremp said:
" If this game is intended to be a competitive fighter on the level of SSFIV, this is an awful decision.  How is Kratos going to factor into tournament play?  If a PS3 player mains Kratos and attends a tournament where they play the 360 version, they're screwed.  On the other hand, if a 360 player attends a PS3 tournament, they won't know their matchup against Kratos.  I still have high hopes for this game, but I'm not liking this at all. "
Considering similar special characters in other fighting games, I would say they can just say no Kratos in tourney play. They rarely are well balanced or quality additions to the game.
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Mr_Tittious_Jones_3rd

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FCKSNAP

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Edited By FCKSNAP

Fuckalities need to be a thing!

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Mechanized

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Edited By Mechanized

Don't get why you guys hate Quan Chi so much. He rips off a dudes leg and beats him to death with it. Now that is as real as it fucking gets.

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Hangnail

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Edited By Hangnail
Newsflash: Nolan North is voicing Stryker!

Chalk that up for next year's 'Northies' fellas...!
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Lazyaza

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Edited By Lazyaza

Glad I'm getting the ps3 version.

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Shadow

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Edited By Shadow

So Markus Fenix on the 360? Or maybe it'll be something totally unrelated to the console or even to video games like with Spawn in Soul Calibur 2. So you heard it here first: Jack from Lost is going to be a playable character in the Xbox 360 version of Mortal Kombat.

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WinterSnowblind

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Edited By WinterSnowblind
@MysteriousBob said:
" Ugh, I hate guest chraracters and having excusive characters for one system is just flat out bullshit. All thanks to this 3D crap.  And Quan Chi is the only decent 'new' MK character. "
Like I said before, I wouldn't be surprised if the 360 gets nothing.  But remember, the news of Kratos was leaked by the official Playstation Magazine.  They were hardly going to mention that the Xbox version has a different character and Microsoft do tend to be quick to jump on chances to include guest characters like this.
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niamahai

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Edited By niamahai

EXCLUSIVE CHARACTER FOR X360:
 
the spartan from Reach with the skull on his head.
 
when you damage him enough, the visor shatters and you can see his face. Which was already shown in game,
 
HIs fatality would be stabbing you in the eye with his huge kukri.

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taccyp

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Edited By taccyp

Kratos fits MK's tone perfectly. Can't wait to rip dudes heads off with him.
 
To all of the people who are outraged at the notion that this might "tarnish" MK9s potential to have a long and healthy tournament life like SFIV and ST before it had, know this, the addition of this character will have no bearing on whether or not it happens.  Kratos can simply be banned, end of story.
 
As long as the game is good, and people play it on a serious competitive level, it will flourish into a tournament fighter.

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MysteriousBob

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Edited By MysteriousBob

Ugh, I hate guest chraracters and having excusive characters for one system is just flat out bullshit. All thanks to this 3D crap. 
 
And Quan Chi is the only decent 'new' MK character.

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mderbs311

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Edited By mderbs311

That...seems kinda cool. Now im torn. 360 version to add to my general collection and gamerscore? Or PS3 version and sweet exclusive character?