For whatever reason, NetherRealm Studios has been doing numerous teases for the upcoming arrival of Ghostface in Mortal Kombat 1. One would’ve thought that they would drop the main trailer for him on Halloween, as he is a horror movie villain. Instead, though, they waited two more weeks and dropped the full gameplay reveal trailer today. Eh, better late than never, right? Besides, we all know this November has been very scary, and we haven’t even gotten to Thanksgiving yet! Truly dark things happen on that holiday… Anyway, with the gameplay trailer finally out, we’re able to see how Ghostface plays in the game, and it’s quite brutal.
Right off the bat, the game acknowledges the presence of multiple Ghostface wearers by having the “standoff” animation feature one Ghostface handing off their trademark knife to another Ghostface. This is a direct reference to how many of the movies in the series have more than one Ghostface, and viewers are always left wondering if there is more than one person to suspect as the killing goes down.
Now, unlike many other characters in Mortal Kombat 1, Ghostface is rather straightforward in their attacks. By that, we mean that the knives they wield are their most obvious and frequently used strike. However, the game gets crafty by making it far more vicious and clever than simple stabs. For example, not unlike in the movies, Ghostface can literally crawl on the ground and stab someone in the foot to stun them for a bit so they can do combo damage.
Furthermore, they can summon other Ghostface users to help them, including swapping between them on a whim from different sides of the screen, leaving your opponent guessing as to when you’ll swap out again. At one point in the trailer, we even see three Ghostface users on screen! So, yeah, you’ll never know just how many there are until it’s too late.
As for the Fatality, it plays on the 4th wall-breaking notion that the movies have had by having one Ghostface kill the rival character, and then in the “real world,” another Ghostface kills Johnny Cage because he insults Ghostface by saying he’s “Just a dude with a knife.” No, Johnny, he’s a SCARY dude with a knife! Plus, there have been female Ghostface users in the past. Show some respect!
The trailer makes plenty of references to the horror movie franchise and has some fun banter with other Kombatants, with Sindel being a standout. Ghostface’s early access period begins on November 19th.
