General Shao and Sindel announced as fighters for Mortal Kombat 1, Motaro and Shujinko join as Kameos
Gamescom Opening Night Live 2023 is already underway. Just as Ed Boon had said, two characters were revealed to be part of the playable roster while two others have joined as Kameos.
During the trailer that debuted, General Shao and Sindel were unveiled to be the playable characters that Boon promised. Additionally, the two Kameos ended up being Motaro and Shujinko.
After whispers of his name and teases, the new Rulers of Outworld trailer finally shows off what General Shao is looking like when he's not the ruler of the realm.
Instead of his traditional hammer, Shao now wields a large battle ax, which he can obviously swing around or plant into the ground and start swinging his bare fists too.
They show him both with and without his helmet where his face is somewhat similar to his Mortal Kombat 11 design except now he has giant horns sticking out the top of his head.
Sindel is apparently very much alive and on the side of "good" in MK1 attempting to rebuke Shao's push for war though we all know that's probably not going to turn out well for anyone.
The queen's gameplay looks pretty familiar to past titles with her signature screams, flip kicks as well as whipping her hair around, and also she can apparently fly too.
Motaro is shown to teleport his partner, make a force shield that reflects projectiles and shoot tail lasers as a Kameo while his Fatal Blow animation has him ramming the opponent and kicking them in the chest with his back legs.
As for Shujinko, it appears he copies one of the opponent's moves since he's shown doing that with Shao and Sindel's attacks while his fatal blow slowly walks up and does rapid one inch punches before crushing Shao's throat.
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Interestingly, the trailer reveals that Mortal Kombat tournaments are still held between Earthrealm and Outworld for sport in Liu Kang's new era, but it seems like Shao wants to turn that into more of a blood sport.
In the previous timelines, Shao forcefully took over Edenea and merged it with Outworld also leading to the death of Sindel and King Jerrod, but the only thing that's come of that so far in the new era is the king's death... so far.
Shao Kahn first appeared as the final boss of Mortal Kombat 2 where he's returned as a signature antagonist on and off ever since while Sindel debuted in Mortal Kombat 3 where she'd be brought back from the dead to assist in taking over Earthrealm (much like she did in Mortal Kombat 9).
Motaro also made his first showing in MK3 as a sub-boss though the last time we've seen him in the story was MK9.
Shujinko represents another 3D era character making a comeback in MK1 though he's not actually playable. He first appeared in Mortal Kombat: Deception as the protagonist of its Konquest Mode tasked with gathering the Kamidogu, leading to the return of Onaga.
In the last timeline, he was only featured in the comic book series for Mortal Kombat X, so it's been quite some time since we've seen Shujinko in action.
These characters follow up on the previous announcements from Evo 2023 where Reptile, Ashrah and Havik were also confirmed as playable fighters for MK1.
Mortal Kombat 1 is still on track to release September 19 for the PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch and PC.
You can check out the full new trailer for MK1 below to check out more of General Shao and Sindel along with the new Kameo fighters Motaro and Shujinko.
