Happy Halloween!

It's that time of year again! Happy Halloween readers! Have fun, stay safe, and costume like you mean it! 

FINISH HIM!

Mortal Kombat's Kenshi Doesn't Need to See Your Ass to Kick it

Eyes. Who needs em? Mortal Kombat cares very little for eyes, as evidenced by attacks such as Reptile's and Baraka's X-Rays. But what good will those attacks do to a character to has no optics in the first place? Yup, here comes Kenshi. 

A blind monk who whips around a bitching sword with telekinetic ease, Kenshi is on deck as your next kombatant. Netherrealm promised a full slate of four fighters this summer, and after last weeks release of Skarlet - who is bloody fantastic - Kenshi hits the tournament next Tuesday, July 5. Two weeks between the first two downloadable characters, and I hope this pace keeps up. I'd love to bring the fatalities with Rain and the yet unannounced mystery character by time early August comes around. I hope Capcom is taking note with their handling of Marvel vs. Capcom 3's characters.

Will Kenshi justify the $5 buy in? Decide for yourself after laying your precious little eyes on this trailer. 

Skarlet Joins Mortal Kombat Next Week

Mortal Kombat is steadily solidifying itself as the best fighting game of the year thus far. Why? Post-release support that moves as quickly as Marvel vs. Capcom 3's entire cast of characters combined. Burned!

IGN has confirmed the much-teased female ninja Skarlet will officially join the tournament's kombatants next week, June 21. The perpetual menstrual cycle uses the blood of fallen warriors and some wicked-sharp kunai to put her enemies to shame. Sorry, was that period joke in bad taste? Well it fits perfectly, so I don't care what you think! 

Skarlet will run you a $5 buy in, as will be the case with each following DLC. You bet your ass, more downloadable characters! Following the blood-ninja-with-boobs will be Kenshi, the blind swordsman. And after Kenshi comes Rain, ninja-prince of his realm, who dons the color purple. The correlation never occurred to me until about 5 minutes ago. Oh Ed Boon, your sense of humor never fails me! One last fighter for the summer has yet to be revealed. Any bets on the identity of this mysterious kombatant? I'm drawing a total blank, though Mortal Kombat lore is not my strongest suit. 

Now you may be asking, how will online play work with these characters? Simple: each paid DLC will release alongside a free DLC which will not only patch the game - allowing you to play online against anyone who has purchased a character - but will also include a free set of character skins. The free patch releasing alongside Skarlet's update will bring Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 skins for Cyrax and Sektor. No word on who gets the new skin treatment with Kenshi and Rain, but as long as those packs keep being free, I'll be a happy gamer. 

PS. Try not to take offense to the period quip, wimp.

REVIEW: Mortal Kombat

To be frank, I haven't cared about Mortal Kombat in a long time. The last game in the series I had in heavy rotation was the very underrated Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks, and Mortal Kombat Trilogy before that. There was a certain je ne sais quoi missing from most of the sequels that followed the original trilogy, which ultimately led to a decline of interest. So why does the latest entry in the series, titled simply Mortal Kombat, inspire more thoughts of combos and fatalities than the past 4 or 5 installments combined? Could be because not only does this title kick ass, it rips your head off and splits your torso into five easy pieces.

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According to Shang Tsung, Your Soul isn't Really Yours

Poor Johnny Cage. When he's not busy getting his ass beat in his own trailer, he's getting his ass beat elsewhere. Case in point, Shang Tsung's shine in the latest of the trailers for Mortal Kombat. The age-changing soul thief sees fit not only to kill poor Mr. Cage, but to kill him in one of the most humiliating ways possible. 

Don't worry Johnny, you still have fans. I don't plan on choosing you, but I know people will. And when they do, I will chuckle at your hijinks. Shang Tsung though, looks thoroughly nasty. In case you didn't know, your soul is his. 

Test Your Patience! Mortal Kombat's 300 Challenge Tower Mode

Mortal Kombat, aside from being the grandfather of game gore, will always find a way to add something funny and funky into its games. Friendships, Babalities, kart racing, battle chess, or Reptile and Scorpion talking the parts of Liu Kang and Kung Lao, always something funky I tells ya.

The Tower Mode in the upcoming Mortal Kombat, aside from offering an incredible challenge by way of having to pass 300 freaking challenges, is going to infuse NetherRealm's gorefest with its quota of wackiness. Fight armless, fight headless, fight upside down, throw grenades into a bucket, play the slots or Three Card Monte with severed heads. What haven't Mr. Boon and company thought of? 

If you're a member of the illustrious handful of PSN Plus members, you'll be able to try a demo of Mortal Kombat on March 8. That's tomorrow, bitches! Don't fret, for those of you who aren't plus-rollers, you'll get the demo next week, March 15. 

Sorry Xbox 360 owners, no set date for your demo yet. Suckers!

Get Over Here, Watch Scorpion Break Faces

Initial looks at the latest Mortal Kombat installment have been pretty impressive. Now, NetherRealm Studios wants you to get reacquainted with the fan favorite, Scorpion. So enjoy one minute of Ol' White Eyes putting the beat on various characters, culminating in some X-Ray views of Kung Lao's skeletal structure turning into a bag of Doritos Bone Chips.