#1082 Mortal Kombat Deadly Alliance (PS2) Hidden Characters (8/11): Hsu Hao gameplay.

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AdmiralMcFish - Bosses and Hidden Characters

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Published on August 23, 2019 2:10:04 PM ● Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRDuOzKiwYo

Game:

Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance (2002)

Duration: 4:25

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Gameplay of the hidden character Hsu Hao in PS2 version of Midway’s/Netherrealm’s Mortal Kombat Deadly Alliance.

It’s funny and a bit sad to think that people can come to hate their own creations. Sure enough though, Hsu Hao is the character which Ed Boon, one of the founders of the MK series, hates the most. We will never see Hsu Hao again in a main MK game (which is to say any which aren’t dream-match titles), with the exception of a brief (and I do mean brief) cameo he has in MK: Deception.

I can see why Boon hates this character though. For a start, that design is just awful. It looks like He-Man crossed with a Chinese general, with an annoying smug face to boot. In terms of special moves he has a generic stomp ability, as well as this bizarre wind clap attack. He’s actually not too bad at all in terms of combos, having quite a few of them, and his wrestling fighting style is great for getting in some cheap combos which can be linked into his wrestling moves as well. He even has the goddamn backbreaker move which Bane uses in the Dark Knight Rises. As for weapons he has…he has the fucking Klingon Bat’leth. No, I’m not kidding, those are definitely Klingon Bat’leth; the blades the Klingon race use in Star Trek. All we need is the Star Trek fight music and it would be perfect. The funny thing is though, his weapon style rocks. His (b+1, b+2) combo is ludicrously effective, taking off about 20-30% health with each combo if he’s close enough, meaning he can take through enemies pretty easily if he feels like it.

Overall, the problem with Hsu Hao is that he feels so utterly generic, and borderline out of place. He seems like a weird pop culture mishmash, specifically created because they were running out of ideas during the development of the game. Which, quite frankly, wouldn’t surprise me at all. The funny thing is he’s actually pretty powerful, but just not interesting enough to care about otherwise.

Next time, I take a look at the final regular hidden character of this title.

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