With the recent explosion of rumors regarding Mortal Kombat 12, many fans anxiously anticipate any news from Ed Boon. With many fans believing there would have some sort of reveal at the VGAs on the 8th of December. Which actually caused Ed Boon to take to twitter to proclaim they won’t be announcing anything at the game awards. But this wouldn’t be the first time Ed Boon has misdirected us yet unfortunately we were left with no MK news and left speculating a little while longer. After all, with NetherRealm Studios anything is possible.
With the last games “good” ending taking us back 500 years to the time of the great Kung Lao it would be interesting to see some exciting new characters aswell as some old ones returning. After all we have never witnessed this point in the MK timeline before. The possibilities are endless, there maybe a few more Saurians about, we might see Shao Khan overthrow Onaga. Of course, this wouldn’t be the first time NRS tease a possible direction for the story to go, only to twist away from it at the last moment. So, without a further ado let’s look at 5 Mortal Kombat characters that need to be brought back in Mortal Kombat 12!
5- Tremor
Originally debuting in Mortal Kombat spin off Special Forces for the PlayStation 2, Tremor is a member of the Black Dragon Clan. Being depicted as someone who can control rocks and molten lava, his abilities lend himself well to many forms of media. In Mortal Kombat X we were finally able to play as Tremor officially. With his debut unofficial debut was in the PS Vita version of Mortal Kombat (2011), in which he was a playable tower challenge character. In the game Tremor is seen as a general ninja-design with a brown color palette, he uses Noob Saibot’s head icon while interacting, Scorpion’s voice and Smoke’s stance.
In the movie Mortal Kombat Legends: Snow Blind we are treated to a great animated display of his abilities as he fights Kenshi multiple times before ultimately being killed by him. Yet despite these limited experiences not much is known about Tremor. This would allow the MK team to add some much-needed backstory to the Black Dragon mercenary. Plus, with Kano being present in every modern MK but being killed off in MK11 it would be nice to see someone else take over the helm of the Black Dragon Clan. Perhaps even a potential power struggle could break out which we would see in some part in the story of MK12. Imagine Kabal and Tremor fighting for control of the Black Dragon Clan.
4- Havik
Havik first appeared in Mortal Kombat: Deception during the 3D era yet unfortunately has been one of the many 3D era characters that have seemingly been forgotten about by NRS. Havik did see himself as a big part of a story arc in the Mortal Kombat X comic series which ultimately lead to his death. However, the comic series has since been retconned as only cannon if the main games choose it is. Leading many fans to speculate Havik’s death is in fact not cannon.
Allowing the Cleric of Chaos to return in a later game. He has had some inclusion in arcade ladder endings but hasn’t been included in anything more leaving fans desperately clamoring for their favorite anarchist from the Chaosrealm.
3- Goro and/or Kintaro
With Mortal Kombat 12 potentially going back to the time of the Great Kung Lao it would be nice to see the Shokan involved more. We know Goro is the one to defeat the Great Kung Lao in Mortal Kombat, it would be cool to see or even play through this in a future installment. Mortal Kombat X’s spin off comic line really did the Shokan dirty by having Goro’s arms dismembered. Whereas Kintaro was killed off by a berserk Sonya Blade, who possessed by blood magic rips off his head.
Even though Sheeva was included and brought into relevancy more in Mortal Kombat 11’s story, the game felt empty without any previous arcade sub-boss present. I really want to see Kintaro in all his Tigrar awesomeness and brutality to feature once again in Mortal Kombat.
2- Reptile (And other Saurians)
Reptile is one of the most mysterious characters to ever be introduced into the franchise. Dating back to his secret inclusion back in Mortal Kombat, where he was an unlockable secret boss, you could fight in the bottom of the pit. Unfortunately, Reptile has never really got fleshed out since his use in the Onaga revival plot back in deception.
Other MK media has also seen Reptile get the sharp end of the stick. In Mortal Kombat (2021) he gets his heart ripped out by Kano in one of the more memorable scenes of the movie, but his aesthetic is really weird and kind of off-putting. With Reptile resembling a massive scrawny iguana compared to his more stereotypical reptilian look.
If Mortal Kombat 12 does go back to the time of the Great Kung Lao, it would be great to see more Saurians. Many fans would love to see the fall of the Saurians and see what makes Reptile so desperate to bring his species back to their former numbers. It would be really intriguing to finally see the downfall of the Saurian species, maybe even including Khameleon or Chameleon aswell to flesh their characters out. However, it does seem that his MKX ladder ending of finding another Saurian maybe at least canon for MK11 as he doesn’t appear once in the game’s story.
1- Takeda
One of the newly created “Kombat Kids” for MKX, Takeda is Kenshi’s son and protégé of Scorpion. He didn’t have the best development in MKX, yet he wasn’t given much of the spotlight. Unfortunately, we saw him and Kun Jin leave in favor of Cassie Cage and Jacqui Briggs. I love Cassie but I would have much rather have seen Takeda or even Kun Jin over Jacqui Briggs. His protégé and father meant he had a unique playstyle and move set being able to use both Scorpion like moves and telepathy. His bladed whip weapon is one of the most unique things to be introduced into MK recently and is a real shame that it was left at the wayside when they decided not to bring him back for MK11.
However, MKX+11 arcade endings allow us to see the arc Takeda took with Kenshi to avenge the death of his mother. It would have been nice to seen this in MK11’s tory yet we can understand that it simply couldn’t have fit in with all the time travel shenanigans that MK11 introduced. Yet if we could have got another story DLC for the game it would have been a good opportunity to let us play out Takeda’s quest for revenge.
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