We’re a month or so into Mortal Kombat 11’s Kombat Pack 1 DLC right now. So far we’ve been given Shang Tsung and they’ve announced two returning characters (Nightwolf and Sindel), one guest character (Spawn), and have been vague about two more on the way (probably Ash Williams and the T-800). With Evo 2019 kicking off this weekend, it’s no surprise we’re finally getting our first look at Nightwolf!
That Fatality is pretty cool and all, but why would you ever want to end your match with anything but that howl win pose?
Nightwolf first appeared in Mortal Kombat 3 as one of Raiden’s chosen few who were mystically protected from Shao Kahn’s invasion. The character was introduced as part of a problematic ’90s trend: having a token Native American dude in your fighting game was how it was done. Street Fighter had T. Hawk, Virtua Fighter had Wolf Hawkfield, Tekken had Michelle Chang, Killer Instinct had Chief Thunder, Fatal Fury had Rick Strowd, and Tattoo Assassins had Billy Two Moons.
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Nightwolf would show up again in Mortal Kombat: Deception and Mortal Kombat: Armageddon, acted as the team hacker on the cartoon Mortal Kombat: Defenders of the Realm, and briefly appeared in the movie Mortal Kombat: Annihilation.
Mortal Kombat 9 tried to give him a bit more juice by retelling the original trilogy’s story and giving him slightly more emphasis. Like how he was apparently in the first game’s tournament, but lost to Scorpion. In the game’s altered timeline, Nightwolf proved his badassitude by killing Sindel at the cost of his own life. Sindel, who had just killed about 10 other major characters singlehandedly over the course of 45 seconds.
Since then, Nightwolf has appeared as a possessed revenant, fighting in the name of Hell itself. But Mortal Kombat 11 has time travel, so we don’t have to worry about that unless NetherRealm wants us to.
Early access to Nightwolf begins on Aug. 13. He comes with Mortal Kombat 3 costumes for Kano, Kung Lao, and Jax.
read more: Mortal Kombat Characters Ranked
Gavin Jasper writes for Den of Geek and realizes that this is the first time we’ll see the stereotypical Native American and the stereotypical Wild West cowboy interact. Read more of his articles here and follow him on Twitter @Gavin4L