Board Thread:Mortal Kombat X/@comment-25163804-20140812174812

If you've not heard, Kano has been confirmed as a new fighter for Mortal Kombat X. This nasty bruiser of a character packs a cybernetic heart, new cyber-arms, and a slew of knife-based attacks (Cutthroat Variation), grappling techniques (Commando Variation) and weapons, including grenades and his Eye Laser (Cybernetics Variation). But, there are some things that a few of you may have missed, and a few hypotheses I have about Kano.

First, we'll cover what was shown in the trailer, but might've been missed by some. Right when Kano walks in, you can see he implants his cybernetic heart into his chest before he speaks. This is a bit of a curiosity that I'll cover later in the post with a hypothesis, but suffice it to say that it's probably not needed for survival like Tony Stark's little Arc Reactor heart, but it does share one of its functions.

Second, his cyber-arms hide blades in them. If you listen carefully at around 1:45 in the Kano Trailer, and look closely during his Low Counter for the Commando Variation, around 2:10, you can see a small blade that extends backwards from his left arm, a la Adam Jensen's blades in Deus Ex: Human Revolution, although his seem to only extend backwards while Jensen's can extend forwards or backwards. This is also important because he uses a couple combos that start with the blade, and they are both tied to Kano's left arm, regardless of what side of his opponent he is on, unlike in MK9 where depending on your stance, the 'back arm' would switch. An example being Scorpion's 1, 1, 1 kombo switching from his left to right arm depending on his stance.

Third, he seems to call D'Vorah 'my lovely', followed by D'Vorah calling him 'Repulsive'. This could mean a couple things. One: Kano has a thing for bugs and D'Vorah doesn't like him. Two: D'Vorah is actually a morally 'good' character that sees Kano as scum and seeks only to protect her 'babies'. 3: Kano is saying 'my lovely' sarcastically with D'Vorah just not liking him. Quick note: D'Vorah's full quote is: "You repulse us, hideous one." She's probably referring to her brood by saying 'us', but it was worth pointing this out. Also, if a half bug, half wasp calls you hideous, you've probably done something seriously wrong. No offence, D'Vorah.

Now that we've covered the little things, let's get into my hypotheses.

Referring to the first point about Kano's cyber-heart, I don't think it's a life support system, seeings as he's casually walking up to D'Vorah holding it in his hand before he implants it in his chest. This probably means it's not keeping him alive so much as it's being used to power some of his cybernetics, like his eye laser in the Cybernetics Variation, or can be supercharged to enhance his attack damage in the Cutthroat Variation. More portable power plant and less an essential piece for Kano's life.

The second hypothesis is more about how the game plays and less about Kano himself. As I've mentioned, only his left arm is used when starting a kombo featuring his arm-blade. This could mean one of two things. One: The kombo system is a lot like MK9, albeit with a button permanently tied to one limb (1 being right arm, 2, being left arm, etc) as opposed to MK9's more interchangable binding, 1 being back arm and 2 being front arm for example, switching between left or right arm based on stances. Second, this is a hybrid of Injustice and MK9 with attack buttons being based around Injustice (Light, Medium, Heavy, Power/Trait) and having MK9's blocking button. It would seem more likely that the former is the one that Netherrealm's running with seeings as only three variations, Cutthroat Kano, Hellfire Scorpion and Ruthless Ferra/Torr, have anything that could resemble an Injustice-like Character Trait, being Kano's chest beating, Scorpion's Flame Aura and Ferra/Torr's Pain and Gain. However, seeings as Pain and Gain is called an 'ability' and not called an attack, the latter is, albeit highly unlikely, a possibility.

Those are my thoughts on the matter, anyway. Feel free to agree or disagree. 