Board Thread:Mortal Kombat Wiki/@comment-25163804-20160112153117

There's no other way for me to put this; the Kombat Pack 2 Trailer is (as of writing this analysis) only about 10 minutes old and it already has huge amounts of hype. I'm still giddy from watching the trailer, which means this is going to be my personal favorite of the analyses I've done so far. But before I spew like Bo'Rai Cho, break down the trailer, one piece at a time.

The first thing to get out of the way is a new addition to the ESRB warning; to my knowledge, this is the first time a game had to update its ESRB warning due to additional content, namely Bo'Rai Cho's drinking. I won't throw it up because, well, it's an ESRB warning, but it's worth mentioning.

Next, we get samples of the intros; Leatherface screams menacingly, TriBorg comes in as literally



three cyborgs before two of the bodies disappear, seemingly pointing to a consciousness transfer ability between his bodies; Bo'Rai Cho readies a fight with Liu Kang on the new stage (which I called in one of our previous MKX analyses); The Pit returns in Mortal Kombat X and it looks beautiful. More on that later, though; The Alien then shows up and roars menacingly, with the classic Xenomorph screech that I personally think is one of the top sound effects in any movie.

Now, we get to the good stuff; Gameplay. First up is Leatherface, and I must say right away; I'm impressed. I was a bit worried about Leatherface and how the hell they would be able to pull him off, but after a bit of research into his movies and overseeing his footage, they managed to make him work very well. He starts with a powerful chainsaw combo that results in a pop up before putting the



chainsaw on his back. He then strikes Erron Black with a jab before swinging the chainsaw again, then slamming it into Erron's shoulder for a powerful attack with a camera angle reminescent of several grab-like moves, like Sub Zero's combo grab in Cryomancer and Reptile's grab combo, leading me to believe that the input is Front Punch, Back Punch, Grab (Square, Triangle, L1 on PS4, X, Y, LB for Xbox One). Based on how long this attack lasts, I would not be shocked if it had between 8 and 10 hits. The next combo we see is yet another pop-up, suggesting Leatherface's main game plan is to take away your ability to defend yourself by popping you up before shredding you with his chainsaw.

We also see after this that he seems to change his shirt color then wields a hammer in his combos; this might be a variation change or alternate color, but it seems that Leatherface's second favorite weapon, the good old hammer, is making an appearance.



He's been seen breaking knees, smashing faces, and shattering bones with this hammer in the movies, so it's little surprise that he shows up with it alongside his portable human shredder, which he ends the hammer combo with a meter-burned special move where he slices Jason with the chainsaw for an extroardinarily long time, pointing to this attack being shorter when not meter-burned, but when meter-Burned pumping out massive amounts of damage and blood as well. To wrap up the Leatherface segment of the trailer, we get a sample of his



X-Ray attack; specifically the second hit, as the first hit seems to involve his chainsaw impaling the chest of the foe, before Leatherface smashes the back of the opponent's head with the hammer, causing deavastating damage to the back of the skull; this is the kind of impact that would result in your brain getting turned into mashed potatoes.

Next up is the highly anticipated Triborg, who is a combination of three cyborgs; Sektor, Cyrax, and



Smoke. Ketchup and Mustard will be very excited to see that this guy does not mess around with his abilities; In Sektor's variation, Triborg combos Sub Zero into a missile volley that is followed up with a teleport uppercut, then ends with a combo that ends in a shoulder rush that shoves Sub Zero aside. This part of the trailer involves several quick cuts to the different variations, which means that each individual analysis will be quick and consice, but the images won't be too far apart trailer wise. Next on the list we get Cyrax's variation, which features hovering bombs, which is a departure from Cyrax's usual bombs in that they are normally on the ground;



He then juggles Sub Zero in the air before unleashing an overarching bomb slam which is followed up with an explosion; this attack is well-known to Cyrax players as one of his better combo tools, and one of the moves that made Cyrax an absolute killing machine in MK9. He ends the combo with a strike that is followed up by a brutal saw slam attack.

And finally, Smoke fans rejoice! Triborg's Smoke variation is just as dangerous if not more so than ever before. He seems to have the ability to travel forward or backward in a cloud of smoke, much

like in MK9; he uses this, it seems, to get past Sub Zero's ice clone, though the only evidence for this is Triborg covered in smoke as Sub Zero dashes away. He then combos Sub Zero into a meter-burned teleport, which pops Sub Zero into the air. A brief upward kick, the angle of which leads me to believe it's primarily designed as an Anti-Air, is followed up wth at triple-pronged harpoon that pulls Sub Zero towards Triborg: This is the first time this attack has been seen used by Smoke since UMK3, back in 1995, more than 20 years ago. He



then unleashes another launching combo that ends in a new special move that can be likened to a smoky whirlwind that spins Sub Zero around before Triborg throws him aside. Triborg, it seems, is the character with the most amount of tools available, and as predicted, his special moves vary wildly; he even seems to have different combo attacks depending on the variation which, while not completely unheard of, is very unusual for it to be of this caliber; if you want to learn Triborg, you might as well throw that out the window; you're learning three completely different characters; all you need to do is choose your robot... or condiment.

Next up is Bo'Rai Cho, and this guy is looking better than ever; not to mention the Pit looks absolutely gorgeous: The Pit looks better than ever with the way the moon lights the stage, the



volcano in the background, and Blaze... wait, Blaze is in the background! Nice touch, NRS. However, we're here about the gameplay, not to gawk at the moon. Bo'Rai Cho is packing some fun combos in his drunken style. He also brings back his puke attack, but it's more of a projectile 'beam' than anything else. He follows up the puke attack with his sliding belly charge, which, as it is meter-burned, is followed up with a surprisingly comical attack; he sits on the foe's face... and passes gas. In their face. Like a boss. Seriously, this guy's



moves are some of the most unconventional I've seen in a long time, and that's gonna make him hella fun to play as. He also seems to have a glowing bottle in this variation, which might explain his explosive vomiting and unsanitary face-sitting. He follows this up with a kick that goes into a combo-grab which features several strikes and a boot to the sides that knocks Kang down. It looks very impressive, especially considering the big guy's probably had enough booze to knock an Outworld tusk-beast on its ass. In another variation, Bo'Rai Cho brings his stick into the fray and beats Liu Kang with it like he was being disciplined, then pops Kang into the air and brings him back down with a mighty slam.



This particular variation reminds me quite a bit of Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance with the whole using a stick as a weapon, but it looks fantastic here. His X-Ray is also on the second (or possibly first) hit, where he slams Liu Kang into the ground hard enough to shatter the Mortal Kombat champion's skull like an eggshell. Overall, Bo'rai Cho mght be the most fun character to play as, but secondary props to the Pit for looking just as good as ever before, if not even better.

And finally, the big mac-daddy of them all; The Alien, which I will from here on referring to as the Xenomorph even though its name is Alien in the game. And this creature... this freaking creature...



holy crap. Words escape me as to how to describe this character's utter ruthlessness in the battlefield. It uses its tail in a long string that, as I counted, was at least 10 hits, one of the longest combo strings I've ever seen even for a character that may have used a special move to enhance the combo; the longest normal combo string belonged to Kung Lao at six hits before he needed a special move to keep the combo going, and the Xenomorph seems able to trump that with this kind of unyielding ferocity as shown in the trailer.



It's also able to use Baraka's blades in all variations, which is terrifying as its combo potential with them is also shown in the combo. It also seems to have two of the most unique special moves of all Kombatants: It seems able to bring in an egg that creates a blue proximity ring; step inside that ring, and a facehugger leaps at the opponent's face, stunning them allowing the Xenomorph to attack. Worth mentioning is that this Xenomorph's variations have different appearances depending on said variation; it seems that this rigid exoskeleton on this variation leads it to be a 'Praetorian' class, the sort of Xenomorph often seen guarding the Queen from attackers that breach past the Drones and Warriors.



They're a commanding force that can issue orders much like the Queen can, which is evident in the second special attack; a tag-in with another Xenomorph to pop-up Jacqui Briggs. No, I am not fucking with you. You can even see that the second Xenomorph has the smooth ridge of a younger, more drone-esque Xenomorph, a subordinate to the primary Xenomorph. It follows



this up with a neutral jump punch and a grab, one of the most brutal in MK history; after grabbing Jacqui, the Xenomorph bites into Jacqui's neck, pulls back its head to rip out flesh, then stabs her through the bottom of her skull through the top with its tail, a truly brutal and deavastating throw.

But remember, this character is part Tarkatan, and this final segment is of no short sampling of it; remember the 'Chop Chop' attack that Baraka has had for



almost all of the games he's been in? Well, the Xenomorph has it too; it slashes with the blades in a windmill fashion, slashing the ground and Jacqui in a meter-burned onslaught that ends with a tail stab. And just as well, we get our first look at, not its X-Ray, but its fatality; The Xenomorph stabs Jacqui with the Tarkatan blades and lifts Jacqui in the air, then lowers her in, ready to strike with its pharyngeal jaws, the secondary mouth in its throat. While it is a bit sad we don't get to see an X-Ray, it is still neat to see a kill that looks like it could've



been pulled right out of the Alien movies; largely because this kill type is very common in Alien media, but not for a terrible reason; after all, it is a great kill archetype no matter how you slice it. What is most interesting is that since this is a KP2 trailer, we don't see the Xenomorph's blood; this acidic fluid would make hand to hand combat with it very difficult, but there are doubts that it will be implemented; I for one would not mind seeing a mechanic like this, but done right; something long the lines of D'Vorah's poison in that it stacks for a short time before restarting.

The end of the trailer has a quick montage of fatality teases and more gameplay, but I will describe the former; Leatherface stabs Jax with a chainsaw. We know where this is going, so let's not say



anymore; Bo'Rai Cho slams his jug into Liu Kang's mouth with a blood burst; a surprising angle to go at and, to be honest, I'm not 100% sure where this could be going; I just hope his second fatality involves gas and a torch. We get some gameplay to follow up, with Triborg's fatality being shown, which is very interesting; using 'Smoke' and 'Cyrax' to hold up Sub Zero, 'Sektor' flies through Sub Zero with a rocket-powered punch (which reminds me way too much of a Shoryuken... damn you Street Fighter), which cuts through Sub Zero like a hot knife through butter. But last, but not least, we get what I believe is the Xenomorph's non-finisher win animation;



Jacqui is trapped in the Xenomorph's hive, and a chestburster erupts from her chest. The reason why I think this is a non-fatality is because Predator's non-win animation was similarly elaborate with the ship and the skull, so I would not be surprised if this was the case. We then get a non-specific release date; 2016, and a look at what else we get in Kombat Pack 2, which kinda surprised me and not necessarily in a good way. For one, Goro is also somehow within the KP2, even though he is already downloadable.



But, it's the skin packs that confuse me: We are getting Kold War Scorpion (Again, already downloadable), seemingly another Brazil Skin Pack and another Kold War Skin pack, and an Apocalypse Pack (the only original skin pack). No doubt we will get free skins with Triborg and the rest of the crew, btu time will tell what they are; hopefully the guesses Daryl and I have made will be closer to reality than not. Hope you enjoyed the trailer and the analysis! 