The fighting game genre has a set of “typical flaws” that gamers know to look out for, depending on the franchise and its length. They always look to see if the games will have strong online play, and they’ll look for all the modes they can and can’t do, and they obviously want the game to feel fun to play. But one thing that many fans hate to see in fighting games is clone characters. A certain Nintendo fighting game series is infamous for this, and recent reveals made fans wonder if Mortal Kombat 1 would follow that same path.
Specifically, when Mortal Kombat 1 unveiled the first set of DLC characters, they were happy to see popular characters like Peacemaker, Homelander, and Omni-Man be confirmed. However, given that both Homelander and Omni-Man are “warped” versions of Superman, many felt they would likely play very similarly and thus be clones of one another.
At Gamescom, Ed Boon was asked about this during an interview with IGN, and he quickly dispelled the notion:
“Obviously we could do anything with the characters, but I don’t think we’re going to have both Homelander and Omni-Man have heat vision or something like that.
We’re not going to have them both do all the kind of category of Superman-type things. We’re going to divvy up those abilities, so it’s not like it’s just a clone of the same character. They’re definitely going to play differently. The main attacks are going to really differentiate them, but we’re definitely aware of the assumption that some people were making on, ‘Oh, they’re just going to be the same characters.'”
Ironically, people saying these two will “play similarly” reflects how little they understand the characters. First off, Omni-Man doesn’t have heat vision, while Homelander does. Second, their personalities and fighting styles are entirely different, as their shows happily depict.
In Invincible, Omni-Man has been alive for an incredibly long time and is a trained soldier who has conquered worlds and slaughtered millions using his powers. In contrast, in the world of The Boys, Homelander is nothing more than a superpowered bully. He’s much more reckless and mentally unstable, which is shown in his fights, especially when the chips are against him.
Given the pedigree of NetherRealm Studios and how they’ve incorporated the personality of fighters from their franchise and other universes like DC Comics, there’s little doubt they’ll be able to make these two characters feel like separate entities.
