When the Mortal Kombat 11 DLC roster was announced back in August, the inclusion of the Joker was bittersweet for fans of the Clown Prince of Crime. While many felt that the nihilistic mass murderer was a natural inclusion for a franchise as renown for its violence as Mortal Kombat, the return of voice actor Richard Epcar was controversial and the character's design received a fair amount of criticism, with much of the internet comparing it to a bad cosplay and a "porn parody" Joker, and even entertainment journalists demanding a revision. Well, these calls did not fall upon deaf ears, because the Mortal Kombat 11 developers dropped their first gameplay teaser at the Game Awards this week, confirming the update that fans have been asking for. We still have to wait for a full trailer to see what the Joker's moveset will be like, but the teaser gives us a taste of what is to come.
With this being one of the Joker's first playable roles in an M-rated video game, this interpretation promises to be especially brutal, with director
Ed Boon calling it
"vicious" and promising a
Fatal Blow move that is sure to satisfy fans of the old ultra-violence that the series has infamously delivered on since its inception in 1992. A toned down version of the character previously appeared in the T-rated crossover
Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe, as well as the
Injustice series of DC Universe fighting games.
The Joker challenges you to Mortal Kombat as a digital add-on on
January 28, followed by the inclusion of
Spawn on
March 17.