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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+

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jeff

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Edited By jeff

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.
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Thunderhead

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Edited By Thunderhead

Awesome!

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sodiumCyclops

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Edited By sodiumCyclops

Fuck Stryker. Who brings a gun to a knife fight?!

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Yummylee

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Edited By Yummylee

So sex minigames also confirmed?

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jakob187

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Edited By jakob187

Jeff, please explain your hatred for Quan Chi.  Is the fatality all that creates this hate, or is there something more to this?

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RobotHamster

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Edited By RobotHamster

I can't wait to see what his fatalities will be, the possibiliteis are endless!!!!

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mylifeforAiur

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Edited By mylifeforAiur

David Jaffe keeps it real >.>

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Make_Me_Mad

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Edited By Make_Me_Mad

Damn.  Not liking them bringing Sindel back, but if she gets a good redesign she might be okay.

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Edited By 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.
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Edited By fjor
@jakob187 said:
" Jeff, please explain your hatred for Quan Chi.  Is the fatality all that creates this hate, or is there something more to this? "
i would like to know that to :/.......whats with all the Chi hate
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deactivated-61665c8292280

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David Jaffe's quote made this article extra bitchin'. 

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Edited By Skald

Fuckality: Confirmed?

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@extremeradical said:
" Fuckality: Confirmed? "
Fingers crossed. 
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Catarrhal

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Edited By Catarrhal

"Fuckality" is merely Kratos' term for "friendship."

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Edited By Portis

Yessss. 
  
Although, it worries me to think of who would be the Xbox 360-only character -- can't think of anyone as good as Kratos from the Microsoft camp. But I'm just going to throw it out there anyway: Dastardos from Viva Pinata.

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jonnyboy

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Edited By jonnyboy

Sure why not.

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ezdude

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Edited By ezdude

I am afraid Fuckality has indeed been confirmed. What an awesome world we live in! Ahhhhh  (Aweonmness...)

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Edited By bacongames

Am I the only one that digs Quan Chi?  Compared to the other character his fit in with the universe at least, especially after Dead Alliance.  There's a reason he keeps coming up, he's essentially neo-Shang Tsung and there's nothing anyone can do about that.
 
Personally I'm more bothered that Sindel and Stryker come back.  Fucking really?

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OwnlyUzinWonHan

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Edited By OwnlyUzinWonHan

As long as Stryker can do nearly the same amount of damage he did in one combo as he could in UMK3, I'm now excited for this.

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Edited By mordukai
@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.
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Edited By Rekt_Hed

SOLD! FUCKIN AWESOME! Finnaly a cross genre character in a fighting game that makes more sense than most :D

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Edited By jakob187
@Jeff said:

" @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. "

So it's not even a thing about the character so much as what he seems to represent?  I would say that War Gods should be blamed for the downfall of the franchise in the 3D era, as Mortal Kombat 4 basically played like that terrible scar on the face of fighting games.
 
I get it.  His character was virtually a palette swap with a handful of moves from other players and shitty fatalities.  At the same time, he also happened to have some decent placement in the canon of Mortal Kombat (whatever canonical story can even be derived from any of it).  Sure, we didn't play MK back in the day for the story, but of all the new characters, he's the one that fit into all of it from a purely aesthetic point of view better than any other new character. 
 
I'm still holding out for him to be made into a worthwhile and viable character as well.  In the end, though, he was the better of the characters in many of the 3D games...even if they weren't the most desirable of the franchise. 
 
Let's be real, though:  I want to see Ed Boon do something batshit crazy like...I don't know...claim that Quan Chi is a long-lost ancestor of Kratos.  You KNOW you want to see the uproar that would cause.
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Edited By Floppypants

Characters from Mortal Kombat 4 get a pass from me.  I played the piss out of my old N64 and Dreamcast copies of MK4 back in the day.  I recognize most of them and some of them were pretty cool, like Quan Chi.  I'm glad they're not going to pretend like MK4 never happened.
 
That said, there was undeniably an avalanche of diarrhea-bad characters from Deadly Alliance onward.  Was anyone's favorite character Hsu Hao?  Dairou?  Darrius? For a long time, it was obvious they were going for quantity over quality.

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Edited By 234r2we232

Yeah. They would do that.
 
And Mortal Kombat isn't gimmicky, Jeff? Are you telling me that MK is a pure series, that doesn't rely on it's extreme-to-the-point-of-comical violence to sell copies?

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Edited By woodroez
@Tuffgong said:
" Am I the only one that digs Quan Chi?  Compared to the other character his fit in with the universe at least, especially after Dead Alliance.  There's a reason he keeps coming up, he's essentially neo-Shang Tsung and there's nothing anyone can do about that.  Personally I'm more bothered that Sindel and Stryker come back.  Fucking really? "
I'm with you 100 percent. Quan Chi is a central character now within the fiction and his design hasn't been too bad through much of the series (Probably not 4, but I personally don't count MK4 since the great bulk of that thing was a disaster.) 
 
Sindel is kind of a bummer. Stryker gets an ironic pass? Whatever, the only things that could ratchet down my excitement seriously are Brahmin, that dude what vomits, or zombie Liu Kang.
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Edited By TheGremp

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.

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Edited By Cluter
@Woodroez: Not even Bo Rai Cho?
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Edited By RsistncE
@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. "

Worked out well for Soul Caliber 2 if I recall correctly*.
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Edited By deathbyyeti

First, why would you be adding system exclusive characters to a game that is supposed to be your reboot/return to form that you are making it out to be? Having all the characters from 1-3 plus Quan Chi sounds easily brilliant, but then you want to add video game characters that are not available to everyone? 
I am just bitter because I thought this would be a more serious return.
 
Two, love Quan Chi

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Edited By woodroez
@shatteringlast said:

" @Woodroez: Not even Bo Rai Cho? "

man... nah man.  
 
I just looked at the character list and bios for Armageddon just see if there were any characters from MK4 on that I would accept (EDIT: aside from Quan Chi, that is), and...maybe Kenshi and Fujin? Neither are very compelling though. Ugh, so much dead weight on that game's roster.
 
About the only thing they did a decent job of was individualizing the ninjas. They all had their own look at least.
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Edited By WinterSnowblind
@DeathbyYeti said:
" First, why would you be adding system exclusive characters to a game that is supposed to be your reboot/return to form that you are making it out to be? Having all the characters from 1-3 plus Quan Chi sounds easily brilliant, but then you want to add video game characters that are not available to everyone?  I am just bitter because I thought this would be a more serious return.  Two, love Quan Chi "
The Mortal Kombat guys seem to always play favourite with the Playstation lately.  Really wouldn't surprise me to see the PS3 getting an exclusive character and the other versions just flat out missing out.  Also wouldn't be complete unless they screw over Europe in some way..
 
But I'm more excited about the inclusion of Quan Chi, I was actually disappointed to hear that the game would only feature characters from 1-3.  Although Quan Chi did technically appear in a spin-off game that fits that time period, I didn't expect to see him.  But he is rather important to the story and he's a really awesome character, not sure why he gets so much hate from some.  Basically he's one of the very few good post-MKIII characters.
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Edited By Shaanyboi

Fuck yeah, Ermac!  AND Stryker.  Hopefully Rain and Kenshi make the cut...

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Edited By TheGreatGuero

Excellent. Jeff, just for your information: STRYKER was the start of MK's decline, man. Things started going downhill with MK3. Stop living in denial. MK4 was pretty cool, and that's where Quan Chi got his start as a playable character. You know Deadly Alliance was sweet. Shang and Quan together was just lovely as an evil duo. Show Rich Divizio some love, man. Embrace Quan Chi, Jeff! But do it oh-so-tenderly.

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Edited By gamer_152  Moderator

When I read about this piece of news I thought exactly what Jeff said, considering the nature of Kratos and the nature of the Mortal Kombat characters this seems like a perfect fit.

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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?

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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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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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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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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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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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Edited By Lazyaza

Glad I'm getting the ps3 version.

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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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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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Edited By FCKSNAP

Fuckalities need to be a thing!

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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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Kratos fits like a glove in Mortal Kombat.

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skrutop

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Edited By skrutop

Needs more Frank West.