i highly doubt he will make it!

I don't know. I'd have to see what they were changing his name to be. Blaze used to be called "Torch" more commonly, for example, and I came to greatly prefer that his name be Blaze. Hornbuckle is named after someone who used to be on the MK team, I think. One of the developers.

Regardless, I've always been curious to see him make an appearance.

Far, yes, but not too far. It would be cool to have some semblance of Liu's pants just for nostalgia.

Well I'm sure his alternate costume can look like Liu's pants for nostalgia... but his primary should resemble that of a priest related to Onaga's old empire.

Well the storyline Hornbuckle was given would need something that didn't appear to be Shaolin in style. He's supposed to be one of the Dragon King's "holy men" after all.

Hornbuckle is a terrible name. Are you sure it just wasn't a random name given to a background character just so people could say it's a new character?
Anyway if he's gotta be someone, make him look like David Carradine (spelling?) that'd be sweet to kill, but he better be wearin' pants and I sure as hell don't wanna see his hari kiri

The story behind the name is this:

Y'know how in the earlier games, the hidden characters would sometimes appear in a puff of smoke right before a fight starts and say something, like Reptile in MK1 would go "Look to La Luna" or "Blocking will get you nowhere"?

Well one of Jade's in MK2 was "Hornbuckle Who?" This was an inside joke by the team, referring to a programmer named Leanne Hornbuckle. Fans, however, assumed it was the name of one of the two people in the Pit 2 stage. And since the burning guy was burning, so names like "Torch" fit him better, they decided Hornbuckle was the green pants dude, and thus an urban legend was born.

Much like how "Error Macro" actually has nothing to do with glitches that turn Scorpion red, but fans decided his name was Ermac anyway.

Ed Boon has always just called the guy in the Pit 2 stage Liu, since that's what the sprite is, a Liu Kang palette swap.

I remember a few years ago, somebody on here was making an argument that Hornbuckle was actually Kabal before he got his helmet and joined the Black Dragon. I will safely assume that isn't true. LoL

I would love to have Blaze and Hornbuckle in the game. Does anyone remember the rumored RED female ninja "Skarlet" ? haha. If Blaze is in the game, i hope his size returns to normal like in MkD.. but still keeps that armor he was wearing in MkA.

Did anyone notice that Blaze and Horn aren't in the background of the pit footage. They were replaced by Kenshi fighting Daegon, and another scene shows Daegon fighting someone else. Who is the other guy? i can't make him out.

It's Reiko.

And Ed said those may just be placeholders who'll be changed in the final version.

Ah..That explains a lot now..thanks!
Come to think of it it'd be awesome to see those kind nof secrets back in the new one

It'd bring something new to an "old" era if you ask me.

I read somewhere that Ed said he wanted lots of secrets in this game. Stuff to keep the fans searching and asking questions. I personally think that is awesome. One of the things I loved most in the old games was the whole mysterious vibe and all the secrets. I hope they bring that type of feeling back to this game. I remember back when MK:DA came out there were lots of rumors about what was being whispered inside the krypt. Some people said it was saying something about Noob Saibot. I remember reading something about a certain time that was being whispered. It made people look into it, and it got people talking about what could possibly be hidden in the game. Of course there was nothing to be found, but still. I hope they put lots of little things that make you dig and dig for secrets.

Well aside from the blood and gore that's what was so great about Mortal Kombat was how mysterious it was.

On this note, I do remember in the vid seein' Daegon in the background and didn't he have somethin' to do with Blaze's catch and release plan? So..maybe wewill find out more about this character, maybe there's some kind fo tie in with Daegon if he isn't really a spot filler *shrugs*

I think it would be cool if Hornbuckle and/or Skarlet appeared as hidden battles similar to Smoke/Jade/Noob in MK2. The 2 fan rumor fighters that never were.

Then maybe later have them playable as part of a DLC package.

That's fair. Always did like those soldier designs. Wonder what the priest version would look like?


So long as he has no shirt, I could live with either concept. The picture in my head has always been Yang from FFIV.

Well for sure, I'd hope he won't look like a Shadow Priest. (speaking of which, I hope the Shadow Priest becomes a DLC but with a better arseneal of moves compared to what we saw in MKSM).

There's was plenty of interesting concept art in MKDA (and I think even MKD) that would have been a cool look for Hornbuckle.

I'd love it if Hornbuckle were in the game!

I saw some really great renditions of him in Kreate-A-Kombatant.

Those were fan versions; I'd love to see the professional version.

I wish I could run across such KAF images.