Fighting Games Friday: Bite Sized

NetherRealm Studios and Warner Bros. Games announced Mortal Kombat 11 Ultimate a few weeks ago, the newest and potentially final version of Mortal Kombat 11 that will include three characters: Mileena, Rain, and John Rambo. Gameplay trailers were previously released for Rain and Rambo, with the press and streamers subsequently releasing their hands-on previews of both characters. To no surprise, Rambo’s gameplay videos were the longer of the two thanks to him being a brand-new guest character for the franchise; if previous guest characters are a good indication, he won’t be back for another installment. Cherish him while he’s here.

They were clearly saving Mileena’s trailer for last, as a way to darkly tease her extremely enthusiastic fans. The trailer finally came two weeks after Rambo’s trailer, but it delivers.

The video showcases several of Mileena’s returning and new combos, modified to fit the unique and heavier feel of MK11’s gameplay style. She keeps her trademark sai introduced with her back in Mortal Kombat II, along with her ball roll and teleportation kick techniques. She combines these with athleticism on par with Kitana, the woman from which she was largely cloned from. Mileena has other differences too, including her protruding claws and the creepy teeth that represent her status as a half-Tarkatan experiment. (Baraka is also Tarkatan, hence the similarly large teeth.) The character designers made her creepy again after trying for a more traditionally prettier look in Mortal Kombat X. She also has a combo from Ultimate Mortal Kombat III as an homage, given what this MK11 version’s name channels.

(I still think it should have been called “Ultimate Mortal Kombat 11,” but it’s too late to change that now.)

What stands out about her move set is the extent to which she’ll put her teeth to use. There’s a reason why they “fixed” them compared to MKX, and not solely because this is a modified version of her MKII iteration — a reminder that this game has a lot of time travel. All of her most devastating moves look as brutal as anyone should expect if they’re familiar with an MK game, especially her main Fatality.

Her default outfit is a bit more scantily clad than her sister’s, but as the trailer shows, she has an array of unlockable outfits from which she can choose from. The PlayStation Blog post has a better look at her skins, one of which includes Shao Khan’s mask. They’re still nothing compared to the absolutely ridiculous outfits she received in previous games geared towards a certain audience, especially those from Mortal Kombat 2011, but they’ll keep most fans satisfied.

Mileena will come with Rain and Rambo in MK11U when the version arrives on November 17th, a week from Tuesday. Like previous MK11 updates, it will be available as a separate package and as downloadable content. Expect more previews for Mileena from here, though I don’t know precisely when those will arrive. But they should come next week.

The last Samurai Shodown character, guest Gongsun Li from Chinese mobile MOBA title Honor of Kings, released in July, with a third season of characters being confirmed since then. It’s been a little while, but SNK confirmed that the next character will be a guest character from accompanying SNK samurai series The Last Blade. They didn’t say specifically who it could be among the series’ 18 characters, but what fun would this be if they didn’t create a guessing game out of it?

There have already been plenty of guesses as to who it could be, but I’ve put my fake money on Hibiki, a popular character from the series who debuted in The Last Blade 2 and previously made it to Capcom vs. SNK 2. She wouldn’t be the bravest choice of the bunch, but she’d be a better fit than Kaede (including his “Awakened” form from the second game) and Moriya, who both have move sets similar to other SamSho characters. (Not that I would mind them.) Hibiki would be between a “safe” and “daring” choice, and though she uses a fighting style similar to Ukyo Tachibana (the Iaido style), she fights differently. Hopefully we won’t have to wait long to find out.

In the meantime: NeoGeo Pocket title The Last Blade: Beyond the Destiny was released for Switch vita the eShop. It’s not quite as good as the arcade/console Last Blade counterparts also available on Switch, but it was another among SNK’s good handheld conversions from the early 00s.

There wasn’t that much fighting game news in the last week, but here’s a little more: The last two Jump Force characters from the second DLC season were leaked, which, as previously announced, come from Bleach and JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure. I won’t spoil them here, and I’ll post about them when Bandai Namco formally reveals them. This leak means that might happen sooner than they planned.