I'll definately give EVERY character a chance once I get the game but as of now, the "new" characters don't impress me too much. The reason is basically what some of you have stated. And that's the fact that when you see these "new" characters you think "Oh, that looks like..." or they have moves from other characters. Darrius has Cyrax kick and Johnny Cages backflip. Ashrah has Kung Lao's spin. She has a take on Kai's high fireball etc. And Boon seemed suprised when people thought she was like a female Raiden... HELLO!!!! Both Darrius and Kobra's stance look like Johnny Cage's.
Not saying any of that's bad but I never look at them and see a UNIQUE character. I do think however that Hotaru, Havik, and Dairou have a unique look and so far I haven't seen any moves that have been "borrowed"
But seeing these "new" characters is basically like watching one of those "new" movies that rips off some other well known movie... like when everybody decided to slow down time and show a bullet flying through the air (Resident Evil, Blade 2, Bad Boys 2... and like a dozen others) Sure it COULD be cool, but when you see it you can't appreciate it on the fact that you're saying to yourself "Hey look, it's The Matrix." Same thing with games that are basically rip-offs or imitations of other popular games. No one can look at a free-roaming-driving/on-foot game without bring up GTA.
It's the same with character design. Again it's really not even about the look... but also the fact that those moves ARE from other characters. It just takes away the "NEW-ness"

I just think thats hurting it the arm rip fatality fits darrius but scorpion... NO and why would they give them the same fatality?

Why do the new characters always have to be a "new" old character.
The only new character guilty of this is Kira, because she directly takes Sonya and Kano's special moves.
Just because Kobra has blonde hair and is a white male DOES NOT make him the new Cage.
!

i hate these people who havnt been with mk for a wile and dont care about classic characters. the reason mk is so popluar are its trade mark characters among other things. boon wouldnt be an asshole and not incllude them.
durrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
p.s bring back rain.
love you: tobais

my new characters fav list is
1 - hotaru
2 - ashrah
3 - kobra
4 - dairou
5 - shujinko
6 - kira
7 - havik
8 - darrius

I think it's rather disappointing to fans and lazy on the part of programmers to give new characters old moves. Honestly, is it really that hard to think up some new moves for characters? If so, then the MK team might want to look into bringing in some fresh minds. Just like I didn't enjoy seeing Mavado with Kabal's hookswords, I don't like seeing Hotaru use Sub-Zero's ground freeze animation to shoot his fireball, or Frost actually USE sub zero's ground freeze move etc.
When memory constraints were a valid excuse, I was okay with seeing 2, 3, or even 4 palette swap ninjas. Now the new duplication is with characters moves, but I don't see the excuse anymore.
I like the looks of Hotaru, Dairou, Kira, Darrius, Shujinko (oh, and how the hell is he even close to duplicating Shinnok?), and Kobra. I also dig Ashrah's second outfit. Havik is also one of the coolest characters I've seen in a while. Then again, I said that about Drahmin when I first saw him and wound up thinking he was one of the lamest characters ever. So who knows. Here's hoping the evil dead guy is better in MK:D!
Overall, I think the new characters are sweet, but they'd be a helluva lot better if they had their own moves, styles, weapons, poses, and fatalities. It just goes a long way in making characters unique. So...
Character Out of 10
Shujinko 8
Darrius 8
Kira 6
Dairou 9
Hotaru 10
Ashrah 7
Havik 9
Kobra 7

Yea, I agree that Boon and his team are sorta lazy in the moves department.
Unless the vids we saw were real old and early releases and they were just testing characters specific moves on any character, them men are lazy for trading some moves that were used by other characters.

1. Hotaru (powerful interesting and seems like he has a cool story
2. Kobra (powerful character even tho he has johnny cages stance)
3. Havik (looks very interesting)
4. Darrius
5. Dairou
6. Shujinko
7. Ashrah (eh.. ok i guess)
8. Kira (doesnt interest me)