Mortal Kombat’s second DLC fighter just hit the PSN in North America. Kenshi, who made his debut in Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance, is a blind sword wielding kombatant with telekinetic powers. Also available are free skins for Smoke and Noob Saibot based on their klassic MK2 appearances.
Visually, Kenshi bares some similarities to Noob Saibot. His telekinesis attacks will appear on screen much like Noob’s shadows. It’s a pretty neat looking effect. Outside of that, their attacks aren’t that similar. Oddly enough, he’s the only character in the game that doesn’t have a proper projectile, although does he makes up for it in a few ways.
For instance, Kenshi’s sword can reflect any fireball and it will shoot right back at the opponent in the same angle that it came in. So if you’re fighting against someone like Sindel, a character that can do air, standing, and ground fireballs, this will be a useful technique as it can potentially shut down some of her zoning game. At the very least, a Sindel user will need to always be on the lookout for this move.
Unlike Nightwolf’s reflect, there’s less recovery time, which means that it won’t be as easy to bait out and punish. It’s still possible to overwhelm a Kenshi with a flurry of fireballs if you play your cards right. The enhanced version of reflect increases your healthbar much like Nightwolf’s. You also have to watch out for his X-ray, since it’s a projectile that can hit full-screen. Although it may look like it, it doesn’t actually deflect or nullify fireballs. It just has the typical armor properties. Depending on the character, it’s actually possible to block the X-ray even if Kenshi does it on reaction.
Kenshi has a few other telekinesis attacks that are also useful. His “Tele-Flurry” can hit an opponent from any distance pretty much instantly. You can completely avoid the attack by simply ducking, but it’s bound to catch opponents off guard rather easily since it seems pretty safe to do at a distance. I did notice that the start up animation for certain projectiles for a few characters seemed to bypass getting hit by the flurry. Against a character like Sindel, who is my main, it’s not very smart to use the flurry unless you know it’s going to hit. The move itself will always whiff if the opponent is ducking, and since Sindel has a fireball that crouches her low to the ground, it’s very easy to avoid. The tele-flurry is still a very serious threat. It’s basically a safe full-screen projectile without any travel time.
Other telekinesis based moves include an overhead sword strike that has three different ranges (close, mid-screen, and full-screen) depending on the motion you use. This will be useful for mixing up opponents, especially if they are anticipating a “Tele-Flurry”. The start up time for the overhead blade is slower, however, so it’s possible to block it quite easily on reaction. It might be possible to use the mid-screen version as a wall of sorts if you anticipate an opponent is coming towards you, but that’s not something I’ve properly checked. It might be too slow.
One of the better tele-attacks is the “Spirit Charge”. This move sends out an instant telekinetic shoulder rush that can travel quite a bit of a distance, but not quite mid-screen. It doesn’t seem like punishing the move on block will be much of a problem [Update: After doing some tests, it seems like Kenshi’s recovery time is better than I thought. Only very fast specials will hit him. Not every character will be able to punish this move at all. It’s especially safe if it’s blocked from full range]. Hitting the shoulder knocks the opponent away to the other side of the screen. This will be a useful tool if you’re trying to create space or if you want to send someone to the corner.
His combos don’t seem to be that damaging, but he does have a few that can easily do 25-30% damage with little effort. For instance, here’s one that does 34% damage:
f2, 2, b1, dash, f3, 2, db1, dash, f2, 2, bf3
Which translates to the following using the in-game buttons:
What’s good about this character is that he has an attack that can launch an opponent into the air for juggles, but he also has one that starts off with a low attack. It seems like Kenshi will have some good mixups once people start learning how to play as him. I’ve seen some of his potential just after a few hours in training mode. It will be interesting to see what better players will come up with.
As with Skarlet, Kenshi does have a proper ending in Ladder mode. His fatalities are rather creative and one in particular stands out as being hilariously brutal. It’s definitely one that you’ll be showing to your friends.
If you’re looking for a new character to play as, Kenshi might be the one for you. To see more of him in action, check out the latest episode of The MKast.
Kenshi is currently available to purchase from the PlayStation Store in North America for $4.99. The DLC was delayed for the Xbox 360. It is expected to hit the marketplace on Wednesday, July 6th.
Person678
Loving these articles. Still completely confused, but lovely all the same. :P
GeneralJeeb
Looking forward to this later today!
DrNate86
I’m not as sold by Kenshi. This hands on sounds like he is quite easily blocked and punished with a lot of his moves?
Delriach
I really depends on the character. Some will have an easier time than others. His full screen telekinesis attacks are very dangerous and pretty safe to do. I bet someone like Sub-Zero would have a lot of problems fighting him.
Also, I do think his mixup game could be quite dangerous. I’d like to fight a really good Kenshi player to see how they play.
Delriach
I did some tests and it seems like I was wrong about his Spirit Charge. It’s very difficult to punish on block. for some characters it doesn’t seem very possible to do unless you have a special equally as fast (like Raiden’s superman). I updated the article to reflect that find.
DrNate86
That’s interesting, thanks for the update. Maybe I will grab him, I wish I could give him a go first really! Not that he is much money, I’ll probably just take the risk anyway like Skarlet.
Delriach
Yeah, the only thing you can do is fight a Kenshi and hope that gives you a good impression.
DrNate86
To add, apparently his reflect stops any projectile, not just flame based. So Kung Lao’s ground hat or Noob’s shadow clones are also stopped. Useful, as I really hate Noob!
Delriach
Yeah, I didn’t know that until recently either.
He can pretty much use it against any projectile in the game. There’s only a few that he can’t (such as Kabal’s low saw thing).
Craziness!
jayjay119
Don’t really see why he is in this to be honest. This is just basically turning into MK:Armageddon 2 with the amount of characters they’re randomly throwing in. Kenshi had nothing to do with the MK1-3 story.
Delriach
Since it doesn’t influence the actual story mode at all I think it’s pretty cool. Although the game doesn’t really need DLC at all.
GeneralJeeb
i think it’s a good way of prolonging the games life, if they add more characters to this is means not having to shell out £40 for the next rushed mk, don’t wanna see it going downhill again. that being said, 1. the character pass should really be available on PSN as well and 2. CLASSIC FATALITIES :D
SpikeyMikey23
still holding out hope of a season pass, but can seem myself getting the lot sooner rather than later
hate_smith
It will suck to fight somebody online that gets this guy mastered!
hate_smith
I will never main this guy because his specials and combos just are not that interesting to me, I used him for 15 to 20 minutes in practice after I beat the ladder with him and was already bored with his moves, I have more than 2 days of play time with sub-zero and I’m still not bored with him.
hate_smith
One more thing to add, skarlet is a nice addition and I’m hoping rain will be better than kenshi and I’m one of the people that was saying dont waste a dlc spot on rain but after being let down by kenshi I’m looking forward to rain and the mystery fighter, which I’m think will be Reiko but I hope not.