Mortal Kombat 11 Ultimate Brings Rambo and a Free Upgrade for PS5 and Xbox Series X
Rain, Mileena, and John Rambo will join the roster of Mortal Kombat 11 Ultimate!
The rumors were true! Rain, Mileena, and John Rambo will indeed be the next – and possibly final – three DLC characters added to Mortal Kombat 11. They’re debuting in the game as part of a new update for the game called Mortal Kombat 11 Ultimate, which hits platforms on Nov. 17.
In a trailer announcing the Ultimate edition of the game, we watch Rain and Mileena fighting a Tarkatan before turning on each other. That’s when they get to meet the game’s new guest character. Check it out below:
NetherRealm Studios head Ed Boon has confirmed that Sylvester Stallone is back to voice Rambo for the game. Stallone joins Peter Weller as RoboCop, Keith David as Spawn, and Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa as Shang Tsung. Unfortunately, Terminator is voiced by an Arnold Schwarzenegger soundalike and not the real deal.
Rain was introduced in Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. In a move that I still think is kind of slimy, Rain appeared in the attract mode sequence, briefly shown attacking Shao Kahn. That would have been a fantastic way to introduce the new character, except Rain wasn’t actually programmed into the game! There was no secret way to unlock him or fight him or anything. They just put in a fake carrot on the stick to trick players out of their quarters.
He eventually showed up in the home port and the upgrade Mortal Kombat Trilogy, armed with supernatural abilities linked to water and lightning. While he worked for Shao Kahn, it was explained that he was the son of an Edenian general that Kahn himself killed. Later games retconned the character so that Rain was actually the son of the god Argus, once the protector of Edenia. This wrinkle caused Rain to become a petulant egomaniac who felt like he was owed everything due to his genetics.
Rain was last seen in Mortal Kombat X as part of Mileena’s army in Outworld’s civil war. While not playable, he appeared in the story mode as an opponent. He also appeared prominently in Tanya’s ending in which she betrayed him for her own survival.
Mileena has been a Mortal Kombat staple since first appearing in Mortal Kombat II along with her “sister” Kitana. While the two initially looked identical outside of their weapons and color palette, it was revealed the two were vastly different under their masks. Kitana looked normal while Mileena had a shark-like mouth and a taste for human flesh. While Kitana was the daughter of Edenian royalty turned into Shao Kahn’s brainwashed assassin, Mileena was a hybrid clone of Kitana and Tarkatan DNA put together by Shang Tsung. A psychotic and violent daughter that Shao Kahn could be proud of.
Kitana and Mileena’s rivalry has echoed throughout the series. After Mortal Kombat 9, in which Shao Kahn, Sindel, and Kitana were all killed off, Mileena tried to take the throne of Outworld. A massive civil war broke out between Mileena and Kotal Kahn. In the end, Mileena was defeated and killed by Kotal’s soldier D’Vorah. Her ending did suggest that there are multiple Mileenas (or more specifically, Kitana/Tarkatan clones) causing havoc somewhere in Outworld, but the series’ reliance on time travel also makes handwaving her return an easy one.
And then there’s John Rambo. First introduced in the 1972 novel First Blood by David Morrell, Rambo’s story was adapted to film, which led to a series of movies spanning decades, as well as a Saturday morning cartoon series for some reason. The only surviving member of an elite commando unit in the Vietnam War, Rambo returned to the United States a wreck of a man due to his horrific experiences. An incident with an antagonizing police force pushed him over the edge and ended with him in prison. He was released in order to return to the battlefield, the only place where he felt at home. Since then, he’s had a hard time finding his way back to the States, choosing instead to remain in warzones. Even when he did return to his family, he had a hard time letting go of the past.
Throwing Rambo into Mortal Kombat might seem weird, but it’s no weirder than that NES Rambo game which ended with Rambo magically transforming one of his fellow soldiers into a frog. In comparison, his Mortal Kombat debut is much less bizarre.
What’s funny to me is that earlier this year, Stallone announced that he was going to re-edit Rocky IV, dropping all footage of Paulie’s helper robot, as he felt it was just too outlandish. So anyway, now Rambo is going to fight RoboCop, Terminator, and an evil cyborg version of Elsa from Frozen.
2020 is weird, man.
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Gavin Jasper is a buffalo wing enthusiast who loves the hell out of comic books and professional wrestling. In the end, that makes him an expert…