At this year's E3, I played each and every available Mortal Kombat contestant. At Gamescom, I played the two newly added classic killers Cyrax and Kitana, a chance to slice the head off my boss.
Cyrax was familiar and fun to play. He shoots an ensnaring net at his opponent, deploys ticking time bombs and teleports across the screen—the same way he did in Mortal Kombat 3. He'll extend an arm and offer you an explosive, a short range attack that will blast an opponent back. He can leap at you for an air-based throw and can extend a saw blade from his chest.
He's like a cybernetic Swiss army knife, stuffed with nasty surprises. Cyrax is fun to tinker with.
In the new Mortal Kombat, he has a few new tricks. The saw blade that pokes out of his torso can be enhanced with one of the game's new EX-like super moves. His dramatic X-Ray Move, the ones that let you peek inside the bodies of opponents to see their ribs breaking and their insides being rearranged, started with a missile launched from his cybernetic chest before it transitioned into a bone-shattering combo.
(To Brian's credit, he also pulled an X-Ray Move on my Cyrax, showing off his oil-covered mechanical insides textured with circuits and wires.)
After beating up on Brian, I killed him. Or, rather, Cyrax killed his Kung Lao. Turns out Cyrax has a more powerful net that he can throw at opponents, one that passes through their bodies like a razor wire mesh, slices off limbs and head and, in general, fucking them right up.
I also killed Brian with Kitana. Her moves are easily remembered too. She can lift opponents off the ground with her trademark fan blades, send those fans flying at opponents to flay them, and she can zip through the air in an arc to knock down anyone who dares jump toward her. Kitana can also use her blades during a rising uppercut and can leap, heels first, at her opponent with a move that conjured thoughts of Street Fighter's Cammy.
Like Cyrax, she's fun to play. It's also fun to kill your boss with her. The one Kitana fatality I got to watch was efficient and gruesome. She lopped the arms off of Crecente's Nightwolf before severing his head. It didn't take more than a couple seconds and wasn't flashy, but it got the job done.
Mortal Kombat's two newest competitors are a treat to play, good contributions to the two-dozen-plus fighters expected in the game. You'll be able to take them for a test fight for yourself if you're going to PAX this year. You'll have fun if you do.