Mortal Kombat DLC Confirmed: Kenshi & Scarlet Coming 'Pretty Soon'

Apr 19, 2011 by Ben Kendrick

Kenshi in Mortal Kombat 9

Mortal Kombat has exploded back on the video game scene with favorable reviews (read ours here) and a lot of positive buzz from nostalgic fans. However, NetherRealm Studios isn’t content to simply ride the release wave – they’re already prepping add-on content for the new game.

While a release window has yet to be announced, NetherRealm has confirmed that at least two more fighters will enter the Mortal Kombat tournament: the blind warrior Kenshi and female ninja Scarlet.

Mortal Kombat producer Hans Lo confirmed the DLC characters in a recent interview with CVG, asserting that, “as long as people are playing [Mortal Kombat],” they’ll produce new content for the game.

Even though the new MK installment is already packed with fan-favorite characters, don’t expect the developers to simply retro-fit the characters in by relying on the color-swapping tricks of the original trilogy. Both Kenshi and Scarlet are fully-realized kombatants.

“They won’t be copy and pasted from characters already in the game – they’re going to have their own unique fighting styles, moves, fatalities and x-rays – all the good stuff.”

While Lo is certainly excited about the return of Kenshi, who first appeared in the 3D installment Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance, the producer is obviously most excited about including Scarlet as a fully-realized playable character.

Longtime fans of the series will remember “Scarlet,” who was nothing more than a pallet glitch that caused the various female ninja characters to appear red instead of their iconic purple, blue, or green color schemes. As in prior titles, Ed Boon and Co. took an in-joke and transformed the character into a playable kombatant with unique moves and fatalities.

Scarlet DLC in Mortal Kombat 9

“People always thought it was a hidden unlockable character and it wasn’t, it was purely a programming glitch. They’ve always speculated and in fact it was the fans who named her Scarlet to begin with. She’s no longer a glitch – she’s an actual character, and she’ll be coming pretty soon post-launch.”

There’s no doubt it’ll take players awhile to wear-out the initial massive list of playable kombatants, but Scarlet and Kenshi are definitely welcome additions. Lo didn’t comment on the whether Mortal Kombat II boss Kintaro (who we’ve already seen in leaked gameplay videos) will be playable or not – though, given NetherRealm’s prior claim that boss characters won’t be playable, it seems as if Kintaro may just be relegated to a regular boss (who is already in the game).

It’ll be interesting to see what the cost of admission will be for the updated roster – since neither character is an iconic staple of the franchise (especially to casual fans of the original trilogy). That said, it’d be great to see NetherRealm put together some non-character DLC in the form of new Challenge Tower stages or other creative gameplay modes.

We’ll keep you posted as we hear more – but expect Scarlet and Kenshi to arrive, as Lo confirmed, “pretty soon.”

Follow me on Twitter @benkendrick and let us know what other DLC you’d like to see for Mortal Kombat.