The Mortal Kombat series is famous for its over-the-top violence, silly dark fantasy storyline, and simple gameplay.  The next entry in the series, simply titled Mortal Kombat, will incorporate all these aspects, as well as one more thing the MK series is known for, palette swaps.  The next two “kharacters” to be announced for the game are Cyrax and Kitana, who are basically color swaps of Sektor and Mileena.

These two fighters join Kung Lao, Scorpion, Sub Zero, Nightwolf, Johnny Cage, Kano, Raiden, Reptile, Sektor, and Mileena, bringing the total roster to 12 fighters so far.  Producer Ed Boon has stated that he wants the final roster to include around 26 characters, and that it would be composed mostly of fighters from the first three Mortal Kombat games.

After seeing the unique character designs for Sub-Zero, Scorpion, and Reptile, I thought that this reboot of the series would avoid palette swaps, but there’s no doubt that Cyrax is a yellow version of Sektor, just like he was in MK 3, and Kitana appears to be a slightly modified version of Mileena.  We’ll have to wait and see if MK’s other ninja characters, like Rain, Ermac, Noob, and Jade, get original designs or are relegated to palette swaps.