I LOVED MKvsDC's version of him. He looks like a complete savage, and the drool was a nice effect. That little detail told me he was hungry for you, that he was eager to finish you off just to devour you right afterwards. My favorite part of the costume was just his general visage. He looked good in the face with the teeth and all. I like the armor as well because it gives him a sense of status among the Tarkatans. What would be nice is more fleshy/animal kind of themes in his armor. More bones/more organic types of armor and less metal would look cool in my opinion.

MKSM/MK2 costume with some changes...

MKvDCU with a shirtless alt where he is covered in scars and in the torn remnants of his MK2 gear.

I can't remember what the current origin of the Tarkata were. I remember one being a hybrid race of oni or demons from the netherealm with an outworld (human?) race. Or that they were originally a netherrealm that migrated from there to outworld(lol wut?).

The head spikes always seemed tacked on. Somewhat silly an redundant for him to have spikes poking out the back of his head. His arms make sense because of the blades, but shit if he has spikes on his head he should have some bone like structure jutting from out of his elbows as well or spikes along his legs.

That MKII ending pic just lulzy. It's awful. His head is so wide. He looks more like a fish with razor jaws than a humanoid savage. Dump that look.
MKvsDC had the retarded "Me baraka, me no afraid" henchmen vibe as usual. If he suppose to be the leader of his people, he should atleast come off as intelligent and practical. His armor looks like someone took metal sheets and welded them together. His teeth are too long as well. It just creates the visage of an idiot with the exagerrated shark teeth. MKD had a decent length.

MK4 was the best look for him. He was still hideous, but vaguely human like. The staples were a sweet aethestic to show his durablity and endurance. The basketball open jersey is hit or miss for me. While its iconic and apart of his look, He always came off as a nomad in his endings and bios. Travelling the realms and the likes. I wouldn't mind seeing have various odds and ends to highlight his nomadic nature.

Seconded.

If they could pull this off well I would enjoy seeing it happen. Perhaps the top half of a skull as a medallion around his neck for example. He needs to look dominant as leader of the tarkatans but he needs a new look, please no more samurai armor,it was okay but I don't think we need to see it as a primary in MK9.

Just like MKvsDCU with different attire, best Baraka ever.

Baraka looked pretty bad in MKvDCU. The armor looked cumbersome and bulky. I think he should be shirtless again. It's a similar situation as Kratos, how they started with an armored Greek warrior and kept stripping peices off cuz they made him look weaker and less brutal.
Baraka is a brutal savage, one that would NOT wear anything that slowed him down or got in the way of his ease of killing. I think a shirtless look is best.

Also, stop showing his eyes so much. Back in the 2d days we never saw Baraka's (and other's) eyes and it made him seem alot more menacing/mysterious. This needs to return.

See, this is the kind of thinking that got him cut in half in the first place.

I liked his cut in half look. Even THAT couldn't stop him!

Yeah, face staples are pretty gnarly.

I vote stapled Baraka.
Edit: His arm blades should be staplers.

MK:D Baraka has the best facial structure, best teeth length, best body type, and had the head spikes. He looked both smarter AND tougher, as opposed to simply looking savage in MK vs. DC.

I don't know which outfit would fit him best. Maybe not bulky armor, but he IS a leader, so not simple rags either.

Baraka was only shirtless in MK Gold, and that look sucked pretty badly.

Cross between MKD composition, structure, etc.... and then MKvsDC for savagery, teeth, possessed looking dark eyes...etc. His in game behavior was the best I have seen from him since MK2 in MKvsDC. I loved that they got that right more than anything else I think.

Umm... Give him different clothing... maybe try the MK2 jersey thing again but, rip it to shreds and all that.

Overall I think Baraka still needs to be a scarier creature via his visual design. I think they really pegged him down between the two, MKD and MKvsDC games' designs so, I'd definitely look their for inspirations first.

MKvsDC gave him some much needed savagery and brutality. MKD however, had a certain viciousness that I think the MKvsDC Baraka didn't really capture quite right.

I also miss his MK2 stance with his arms up and breathing hard. I know they've tried it in a more practical sense but, something about his MK2 stance gave him a bit more character for me. I bought the idea of his character better as a result back then. He seemed like even though the blades where a part of him, with his arms up like that, he prevented himself from hurting himself with his own blades.

PS: I still wanna see his teeth move in something like an FMV or cut-scene too... it's a subtly thing I think.

If Baraka is going to wear armor, I think it needs to be used sparingly. Lose the chest plate, but maybe keep the a pauldron that's attached to his shoulder via a belt across the chest. That's the only armor I think he should wear on the chest. I think he needs to lose the shoes too. I'd actually like to see him fight bare foot. Have long or at least longer than usual toe nails.

The teeth and eyes in MKvsDCU were actually quite fine in my opinion. The teeth were long enough to where he looked completely savage, but not so long that it didn't seem like he couldn't speak without drooling or dislocating his jaw. I really liked the eyes. The yellow beastial eyes are a nice touch. I think not having any eyes is kind of a cheep cop out and crazy yellow eyes add more than just not having any.

His chest should be littered with scars some huge some small, but most of them should look like they healed over poorly so they're all raised or puffed up, or have sunk in. And I don't know why, but I also picture him to be among the most muscular of all the MK fighters.

He should have piercings, but more in the style of just pieces of metal punctured through the skin. Or at the very least teeth of his enemies. So he could have like 3 going down a row on his forearms and maybe along the collarbones. I think have some large bone protrusions out the elbows could also work. His blades should be retracted unless he does a special move or a fatality.

The lower half of the body should have the normal black pants that he seems to wear. I think some cobbled together armor along the sides of the legs would be fine. Maybe have one armor plate longer than the other like he couldn't find a matching piece, or he doesn't particularly care. Some shinguards would be alright, maybe with some ribbed decals along the front of them wouldn't hurt. I think that maybe if he had a few belts across the abdomen wouldn't be bad, coming up to just under his pectoral muscles.

That's kind of how I'd like to see Baraka look. But then again he's nowhere near my favorite characters, so I can't actually say I care. This was just off the top of my head.

I would love for him to have no eyes again. Or what looked like no eyes. It freaked me out back in the day.

Key words are "back in the day". I firmly believe that would look stupid as hell today.

Baraka's original design is way to plain, he could use a good overhaul, both story and design wise, or the axe.

Why?

Metallic teeth, MK2 outfit, protruding spikes on forearms near blades, and on head. Hope he's got his creepy MK2 coffin-winpose back, too.

Also hope blades are retractable and extractable on command as in MKDC and prior 3D games. That shit was imposing.

Please don't let Baraka mouth hang open like he did in mk vs dc,keep it closed like MK 2,looks more menacing.

@kabal-zero
that's your right...

Ok, picture a model of Baraka done in the Unreal engine like the rest of the characters with good skin tone, metal detail, specular maps, height maps (bump maps) and lighting. Now imagine that for some inexplicable reason the skin texture just goes black to avoid showing the eyes. It would look like a glitch from FallOut: New Vegas where some part of the texture didn't load properly. The entire thing would just look awkward. Unless you want Baraka to have no eyes period and have them cut out and the eyelids stitched up, making him the second blind fighter in MK history, second to Kenshi, the whole "blacked out eyes" thing would just look really stupid and unfinished.

. Hmm maybe, but the unreal engine and all it's abilities that you've mentioned couldn't do more than just black out the eyes? I'm sure they could give the classic black eyes look and do more then make them look like a......glitch.