Noob Saibot, Reptile…all of these odd origin stories. That’s one of the things about Mortal Kombat: many of the characters have these goofy development histories. Later we brought him back for Mortal Kombat Armageddon. Once Mortal Kombat Trilogy came out, we gave Rain new moves and he finally became a real character. So I included this quick glimpse just to drive people crazy. We didn’t even have the word “Rain” in the powerbar, so I manually built it using our font. So I hacked into the attract screen a quick little sequence of this purple ninja running at Shao Kahn. There was no time to actually make a character, because the game was done. I was probably still listening to the album. When we were working on Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, I was thinking “what ninja color have we not done yet?” … and I’m a huge Prince fan, so I was thinking Purple Rain. PSB: Speaking of Rain, he was originally hinted at in Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. Each DLC character, I believe, satisfies a certain group of our audience that we knew was clamoring for it. I was bombarded for weeks on Twitter with fans begging for Rain, so I had a little fun with it. We always knew we’d add Rain right from the beginning. I’ve personally always big a big fan of Kenshi, as were many of the guys on the MK team. PSB: What is your process for choosing DLC characters? Why did you begin with Kenshi, who was the only character from the Deadly Alliance games to make the jump? With Freddy, we felt like the stars had aligned - it was time to do it. Kratos was one we discussed as a DLC character a number of times, but luckily we could include him as the initial cast of characters. This DLC thing opens the doors to realizing these ideas. We also wanted to introduce a character who was unexpected. But yes, we’ve had lots of conversations over the years. We never got a grip on how we would do it, whether they’d be DLC characters or what. At one point, we had a conversation about having a group - imagine Freddy, Jason, Michael Myers, Leatherface from Texas Chainsaw Massacre - of all these killers from the 80s and 90s flicks come in as a group of characters. Over the years, we’ve certainly had a number of conversations about guest characters. PSB: Ten, 15 years ago when Mortal Kombat was early in its lifespan, did you ever fantasize about getting Freddy Krueger into MK? In the middle of a fight, you won’t see him entering a guy’s head in a dream sequence or anything, but there is plenty of dream-related stuff in his introduction animation, his victory stance, his fatalities and so forth. PSB: Will Freddy’s ability to invade his victims’ dreams play into his Mortal Kombat incarnation in any way? He can dig into the ground and the claws will come up under his opponent. He’s got lots of swipes, he can send his claws creepy-crawling on the ground or flying through the air. He doesn’t fight like a martial artist, either! We gave him two claws, which we explain in his character bio, so you can almost imagine a Baraka with shorter blades that are always out. PSB: Freddy isn’t exactly a martial artist. He’s Freddy in general, we don’t really identify him as one version or another. When I look at him, I think of the original Freddy: he’s got the striped sweater and is instantly recognizable. But obviously the first few movies were huge - they left an undeniable mark on pop culture. We didn’t try to make him look like the actor Robert Englund, I don’t even know if we would be allowed to….Admittedly, I didn’t see the latest movie, the remake. PSB: Did you base Freddy off the 80s films or the reboot movie from a few years back? Freddy Kreuger, we felt, was the most instantly recognizable and he fits in with Mortal Kombat with his claws. A number of names were run by us: Jason, Michael Myers and all those guys. That was one of the goals right from the beginning. When we had the discussions about the DLC characters, we knew that we wanted to add a returning character, a new character, but also a guest character. Kratos from God of War is a brutal, bloody character, so he makes sense. It’s kind of hard to choose a character who would fit well into the Mortal Kombat universe, with the blood and violence that’s so associated with it. PlayStation.Blog: So what is the inspiration for bringing Freddy Krueger to Mortal Kombat as a DLC character?Įd Boon, Creative Director, Netherrealm Studios: It was a number of things. Look for Freddy to hit PSN on August 9th for $4.99, and read on for my full chat with Ed Boon. One began as a joke, one was an incorrect rumor, and one…well, you’ll see. In discussing the news with the PlayStation.Blog, Boon shed light on the long, sometimes tangled genesis of Mortal’s Kombat’s other DLC characters - namely Rain, Skarlet, and Kenshi. Now read what compelled Mortal Kombat co-creator Ed Boon to bring 80s horror icon Freddy Kruger to Mortal Kombat as a downloadable guest character this August.
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