For those of us who have seen previous April Fool's Jokes (Ermac being a good one to mind), there is no way this could not possibly be an April Fools joke:

1. As reported by the leaks earlier, one of those characters are already in the game, complete with bio and ending.

2. Lady in Red appears in the Coliseum.

So far two characters were already in so NRS didn't take too much time to make them. And in the graphics world it doesn't always take a long time to make renders anyway. Plus most of the characters are just updated versions from MKD and other games, so making "new" renders would not take long in Illustrator (a couple clicks of the mouse in some ways).

3. Kenshi is not from MK1-UMK3 and has no purpose of being in place of Rain or Motaro. It's that simple - pay attention to Ed Boon's interviews, they're all over Youtube, as well as his Twitter.

Seriously, 23 pages guys to spout back and forth? And MKO is actually defending the GamePro article as accurate when they already got Kano and Raiden mixed up from the digital series?

23 pages guys, Seriously? Really?

To people claiming it to be a joke:

Why would they make completely new and very elaborate renders for 3 not previously seen characters if this was a joke?

There are scans of the page, I won't post the scans because of forum rules, but I've seen them, they look 100% legit and I like how this 3 look.

This issue is supposed to be out at the same time than the game, so just when the game realeases, you got this magazine with the exclusive of the DLC for the new game.

If you still think they would do elaborate designs for a joke, then we could start discussing that all the history mode and bios leak was too a very elaborate joke placed there by NRS and that everything was wrong

# 1 : To People who do not read other people's posts who already explain how this could be a joke:

Please read number #1. Eventually you'll get the idea.

I wasn't particlarly refering to your post but to everyone claiming it in general, but yep, I read that, but a lot of pages ago me and a lot of people actually theorized that And isn't so easy to make this designs, it takes time from production that could be dedicated to things actually useful for the game. The article that I saw seems legit to me.

I'm with you Rain fans out there. You all have your right to show your disappointment just as much as anyone else. Everyone getting on to them, think about if your favorite character during MK- UMK3 wasn't in. (And yea i'm calling UMK3 in because rumor or not, Ermac wasn't in the game until UMK3, just like Rain) What if your Jade, or your Kung Lao, Sektor, or Sub-Zero wasn't in the game? Then you come to find out they're not even DLC when they should've been in the game in the first place? You'd all be showing your disappointment just like they are. Because I know if Liu Kang wasn't in, i'd be pissed just like I was when MKDA came out. Because us as fans, get upset when our favorite character isn't in a game when we think they should be. So how about we respect our fellow MKO community members opinions. And again, you don't have to read their posts. I for one liked Rain and I wish he was already in game.

Sucks to be a rain fan... :(

Lady In Red! OMG so excited, I've seen a lady that shines so bright mmmm mmm mmmm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q5OeKIZ0SCM

seriously, how can this be an april fools?
if it was, it'd be mokap or some shit like that, maybe some crappy xbox exclusive.
as with the leaks, this is all too serious for it to be an april fools. besides, too many people like kenshi for nrs to risk pissing people off by declaring it a joke.

Not to mention those renders look too good to be made just for an April fool's joke. They look legit to me.

The perfect edition for an April Fools joke is the May edition of the magazine, amirite?

Yes. Yes you are.

Thats nothing we had 30+ pages discussing Sonya's tits.

Exactly how did we mix up Kano and Raiden from the digital series? No one is defending this as "accurate", but the image is too legitimate looking to be faked. Either this is a reality or Gamepro is playing a prank. But mistakes happen, so there's a disclaimer in the opening post, you would do well do read it instead of acting so pompous.

As it's been stated about many times already I don't think it's a joke because the renders look too legit for it to be false. If true(most likely it is), I'm glad to have Kenshi. One of the better post MK3 characters. Not too worried about him playing similar to Ermac at all.

For the millionth time: Just because a character's body is in a background does not mean their full data is in the game!

It just means some of their GRAPHIC data is.
Now, Kintaro...that guy's totally in the game and the DLC is just paying to make a non-playable character playable. Assuming he IS DLC.
Here's what I think may have happened: it's NOT an April Fools prank, but perhaps Gamepro recieved some renders and information and misinterpreted whether or not Kintaro is a DLC character or just a regular hidden character, which is why Shaun Himmerick was all like "that info is wrong" on Twitter.

Hah, I'm surprised you haven't given up by now. Just shows that some people can't be reasoned with.

Hmm...not much I can add as pretty much everything has already been said, but if Kenshi, Skarlett, and Kintaro are DLC, it makes me wonder if Rain has now been put into the mix. I expected Kenshi to be DLC, I'm surprised Skarlett wasn't in as a super secret character and I was assuming we'd see Kintaro especially with


Maybe Kintaro has his data already on the disc for boss fights?


Everything looks legit to me, it's not like this trio is a bunch of silly characters or that outrageous, Kenshi and Kintaro have canon reasons for appearign and Skarlett is most likely a(n)homage to the retro days of rumored characters and the request for one new character to appear.

For the Renders


As for kenshi, from the scan I saw it was only half his body and looked identical to his old look. In what way is that an elaborate render? Renders form older games looked better than the in game graphics so all they had to do was take 1 of those and make some minor changes.

Actually, it's not identical. It looks a lot like his Deadly Alliance costume, yes, but there ARE changes. It's hard to tell what all they are given the quality of the image, but I can already immediately see a new shoulder pad and his suit's neckline seems much higher, covering part of his jaw like a Gambit costume.

Well, when it comes to Skarlett, at least we're getting a new character.

And furthermore, the new character's a female! MK really needs more women.

BIGGER QUESTION (caps since I tend to be ignored for being new lol sorry.)

Where's the rest of the magazine? Why no scans of the cover? Who's the author of this article? Any confirmation from Gamepro this is their doing? Why JUST this one page?

I'm beginning to think this is NRS trolling the community, getting back to all the leaks that happened the week leading up to April Fools.

This would explain the timing, the controversial evidence surrounding all 3 characters either not fitting into the trilogy timeline, confirmed by Lupinko or being on the disc already, and the professional look of the article including hi quality art files. A team of 5 could texture up new models and put them together for a phony mockup.

Now, is there anything that I just said that doesn't have a shred of legitimacy? Please take it apart, I'd like to know if I've missed something!

Kenshi looks amazing. I doubt this is an April fools joke to be honest. Also, I'm fairly sure you will see and fight Kintaro in story mode, maybe he just won't be a playable character right off the bat. I'm all over Kenshi. Not sure about the other two.

Well crap:

http://www.computerandvideogames.com/295504/news/mortal-kombat-dlc-characters-revealed/

That's that I guess. Real, confirmed by the developer. Game Over thanks for playing!

It could honestly go either way. If it was DLC than we'd probably be paying for Kenshi and then the unlocking of the other 2 that are already present (like MvC3 unlocked already on disc content).

Personally this only has 2 endings that are both great.
1. If real than we get a character I was not expecting in Kenshi and the other 2 are confirmed as playable which wasn't a guarantee. (boss and unkown character we would fight but couln't play).

2. If fake than the real DLC lineup will likely feature characters not on the disc. (Rain, Kenshi, ?).


I'd prefer option 2 because I would like to see Rain despite my anger shown earlier and we would still get Kenshi. Ed has said he liked Kenshi a lot before so I think we will eventually see him.