Kung Lao’s appearance in the newest “Mortal Kombat” game has been rumored for a while, and now it’s been revealed that gamers will get a chance to taste his fighting style yet again. NetherRealm Studios have confirmed that Kung Lao is coming to the newest installment of the franchise, although he has seen some changes to his appearance, according to the initial reports.
The news is coming from a gaming magazine in Finland, which apparently had an exclusive scoop of new information on the game. The magazine, “Pelaaja”, recently published an article containing various details about the return of the Shaolin monk, and even though the publication was initially not available in English, a user of an Internet forum took the time to translate it so everyone could see the new teasers.
Kung Lao has grown older compared to his previous versions, and this will be immediately obvious in his appearance, according to the report. Furthermore, he’ll come with three fighting styles, namely Tempest, Buzz Saw, and Hat Trick. Kung Lao will also keep using his signature hat quite often, both as a weapon and as a means of defense, something which he was known for doing in the previous games in general.
In addition, the developers have announced that his various fighting styles will be more different than ever before, and they’ve put a lot of effort into making sure that players will have a lot of diversity in their playing style by choosing something different among the three. When playing as his Tempest version, Kung Lao will focus more on spinning attacks, including spinning his hat as a shield. On the other hand, Buzz Saw will give his hat a “decoration” of blades, making it deadlier than before, and will give the player some extra control over the way the hat is thrown.
Last but not least, there’s a more experimental fighting configuration in the Hat Trick style, which will allow players to freely throw and recall the hat over and over again, something which has been said to affect arena control significantly. Kung Lao has traditionally been a character that could establish some serious territory control with the right moves, and it seems that Hat Trick will push him even farther in that direction.
So far, it seems that NetherRealm are really trying to change things up with “Mortal Kombat X”, and are playing around with some serious new ideas for freshening up the gameplay. Making the game so different can either make it the best installment yet, or the worst one – but hopefully, the studio knows exactly what they’re doing by this point, having released so many games.