Mortal Kombat 1 is now just weeks away from release and we had a whole bunch of fun over the weekend getting to grips with the beta. Kombat has never looked this good, played so smoothly, and had so much depth to be tapped by expert players.
The big new gameplay inclusion is the ‘Kameo’ system. These are assists to your chosen character and are summoned into the bout by tapping the right shoulder button. In itself that’s nothing new for fighting games, though Mortal Kombat 1‘s Kameos have a surprising amount of depth: you can control which move they’ll execute, charge attacks, and they even have their own fatalities.
The first wave of DLC Kameos has already been confirmed: Johnny Cage (already a core fighter), Ferra, Khameleon, Mavado, and Tremor.
Every kombatant in these games requires a huge amount of development work, though as Kameos aren’t fully-fledged fighters, we think the selection can afford to be a little bit more playful. So, here are ten characters we’d kill to see join the existing roster.
Black Noir
The Boys‘ Homelander is already confirmed for Mortal Kombat 1‘s first DLC pack, so why not bring along another member of The Seven to back him up? We were very tempted to just pick Karl Urban’s Billy Butcher here, but we’re still hoping he’ll make an appearance as a fully-fledged fighter so we can finally let him inflict a brutal fatality on his superpowered nemesis.
In addition, Black Noir’s masked costume means NetherRealm doesn’t have to worry about licensing an actor’s likeness, he doesn’t need a voice actor for obvious reasons, and anyone who’s seen The Boys will know his penchant for blood-soaked justice would fit right into Mortal Kombat. Heck, why not bring along his adorable imaginary cartoon buddies for good measure?
Motaro
This Outworld Centaurian was the sub-boss of Mortal Kombat 3, filling the role that Goro and Kintaro had before him. Sadly, so far, his debut appearance has been his one shot at the limelight, and he’s since mainly been reduced to background appearances in other games. This is probably because trying to squeeze a massive half-horse half-demon man onto the screen (not to mention animating him) is a lot of work.
That said, he’d make for a great Kameo, as not being directly under player control and only having to execute a limited number of moves would dodge most problems inherent to his design. Bring back the horse guy!
Note: Motaro was unveiled as a Kameo fighter mere hours after this article was written, leaving this writer feeling rather smug.
Invincible
With both Homelander and Omni-Man, Mortal Kombat 1 has a decent roster of superpowered cape-wearers, though perhaps there’s still room for Omni-Man’s son, Mark Grayson / Invincible. After all, having Invincible as a Kameo backup under the control of Omni-Man sort of makes sense within the show’s story and, as anyone that’s seen the animated show can attest to, Mark has his own brutal side.
That said, he’d also be a very fun full fighter, though multiple Kameo fighters are already pulling double duty, so perhaps he’ll get his chance.
Mokap
The Kameo system should give some obscure fighters a moment to shine, and there are few more overlooked than poor old Mokap. Introduced in Deadly Alliance, he’s a martial artist in a motion capture suit and is intended as a tribute to sprite actor Carlos Pesina, who played Raiden in the 2D Mortal Kombat games.
Mortal Kombat 11 very briefly hinted that he’s still around, with his name appearing during Cassie Cage’s social media intro. Mokap is bizarre, fun, and would be a great bit of fan service to Mortal Kombat veterans.
King Shark
Peacemaker is joining the fight, so why not bring along a fan favorite The Suicide Squad buddy? King Shark was one of the breakout characters in James Gunn’s inaugural DC movie. Plus his voice actor, movie icon Sylvester Stallone, has already appeared in Mortal Kombat 11 as John Rambo, so we know he’s got contacts in NetherRealm Studios.
King Shark’s potential in a fighting game should be obvious to anyone that’s seen The Suicide Squad, so summoning him to take an almighty chomp out of an opponent would be wild. Plus, we know he’d have a truly awesome Jaws-type fatality.
Chucky
Multiple horror icons have made their way to Mortal Kombat over the years, including Freddy, Leatherhead, the Alien, Predator, and Jason Voorhees. Child’s Play villain/antihero Chucky would fit perfectly into Mortal Kombat, and perhaps the only reason he hasn’t already arrived is because his diminutive stature would make it difficult for other fighters to hit him.
But having him as a Kameo would skip past that issue and let him deliver his sadistic moves without too much trouble. If they wanted to go the full mile, why not include two skins: one of the original Brad Dourif Chucky and another of the rebooted Mark Hamill flavor?
Meat
Let’s plunge our hands into the box of forgotten Mortal Kombat characters one more time and give Meat a chance to prove his worth. Introduced as a hidden fighter in Mortal Kombat 4, Meat is a horrific experiment created by Shang Tsung who specializes in self-mutilation and cannot feel pain.
Despite only ever being playable in his debut game, someone at NetherRealm is clearly a fan, as he’s made very brief appearances in Moral Kombat X and Mortal Kombat 11. If you want blood, the skinless Meat is your man, and watching him wetly flop around the arena in glistening 4K would be a hoot.
Harley Quinn
Harley Quinn is a recurring fighter in Mortal Kombat‘s sister series Injustice, though has never made the leap over to a main Mortal Kombat title. Other than that, she has obvious links to Peacemaker after being on the same team in Suicide Squad and her violent nature and bottomless box of tricks would make for a fine moveset.
Harley is yet another potential Kameo that would also work as a full fighter, particularly because she already has a fleshed-out moveset from Injustice 2. That said, we’d love to see the Margot Robbie Harley join the party rather than a generic DC one, particularly if she can bring some of her killer live-action costumes along for the ride.
Stripe
As a Warner Bros. Discovery company, NetherRealm Studios has relatively easy access to its vast IP collection. That, coupled with its clear affection for ’80s movies as seen in previous DLC fighters, would make the villain of Gremlins a fine addition to the Kameo roster. Like Chucky, Stripe’s smaller size may rule him out as a fighter, but he’d be a very fun assist (particularly if he can bring some Gremlin buddies along for the ride).
Stripe has also already made his fighting game debut in Multiversus, so we already know he’s got what it takes to bring the pain. Let’s see what he can do when the gloves are off in Mortal Kombat!
Cole Young
The 2021 Mortal Kombat movie was pretty fun, though made the confusing decision to have an entirely original character as the hero rather than someone from the vast gallery of existing kombatants. Lewis Tan’s Cole Young isn’t the most popular amongst the Mortal Kombat fanbase, though perhaps he’d get a boost if we got to see him strut his stuff in the virtual medium.
Having him take up one of the coveted full fighter slots might be a step too far (he could just be an alt-Scorpion skin), though we think gently bringing him in as a Kameo would be a fun nod to the movie and perhaps drop some hints as to what’s coming in Mortal Kombat II.
The Mountain/The Hound
HBO’s Game of Thrones is full of fighters who’d be fine Kameo candidates, but we’d like to skip over more obvious ones like Jon, Daenerys or Jamie, and go for the truly brutal brothers Gregor and Sandor Clegane, aka ‘The Mountain’ and ‘The Hound’. As vividly depicted in the show, neither man is a stranger to tearing heads and inflicting brutal injuries, so they’d both fit neatly into Mortal Kombat
Though the two hate one another, they have a very similar strength-based fighting style and obvious physical similarities, so it’d be easy to have alternating Mountain/Hound skins in much the same way as Injustice used the Ninja Turtles.
Larry David
For our final pick let’s go with the comedy option. The 76-year-old creator of Seinfeld and Curb Your Enthusiasm is known for his impeccable casual fashion sense, ability to turn even the mildest disagreement into a life-or-death calamity, and has taken down opponents ranging from Rosie O’Donnell to Lin-Manuel Miranda. Maybe Sub-Zero and Johnny Cage could be next?
David has proved he’s up for some weird cameos over the years, so perhaps if Ed Boon gave him a nice phone call, he’d be up for being digitized. And, let’s face it, his fatalities would be nothing if not memorable (and the Curb theme playing over the fight celebrations would be hilarious).
Fingers crossed Ed Boon is reading and some of this becomes reality.
Mortal Kombat 1 arrives on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, Switch, and PC on Sep. 14