Mortal Kombat X’s New Tri-Borg Is Really Four Robots in One

One of the new characters coming to Mortal Kombat X is an amalgam of three man-machine characters from the fighting game franchise’s history. But it turns out that there’s another robot ninja lurking inside that chassis. One who makes things a whole lot cooler.

During the Season 2 Finals of competitive gaming promotion ESL, fans of the long-running, over-the-top martial arts games got an extended look at Tri-Borg, whose variations let him uses moves from legacy characters Cyrax, Sektor and Smoke. You can see Tri-Borg in action at about 07:23:00 in the stream below.

But the trio of Lin Kuei cyborgs aren’t the only options for players who choose Tri-Borg. The existence of a Cyber Sub-Zero variation also happened the ESL event in a sequence captured here:

This isn’t just a re-skin, either. You can see the character’s unique moveset flash by in the pause menu.

It’s fun to see Netherrealm tweak their own Variation system to pay homage to another old-school variant from MK history. You’ll be able to sample Cyber Sub-Zero—only if you have a console, though—when the Kombat Pack 2 expansion and and the new Mortal Kombat XL comes out on March 1.

Contact the author at evan@kotaku.com.