Mortal Kombat 11: The Joker Character (DLC) Review

Along with the release of Mortal Kombat 11 (MK11) Neatherrealm Studios (NRS) offers a kombat pack (character pass) with a total of six upcoming DLC characters. The pass can be bought separate or in a bundle with the main game on all platforms or you can buy each character separately. The pass also includes extra skins and gear with the release of each character. Players that have the character pass are offered the characters 1 week before those that choose to buy them separately. The lineup of DLC characters are Shang Tsung, Nightwolf, The Terminator, Sindel, The Joker and Spawn.

The Joker is the fifth DLC character and the second of the three guest characters in the first character pass. The Joker really needs no introduction if you know anything about comics. He is Batman’s most famous villain and he does everything with a smile on his face. In MK11, he has his usual attire – purple and green outfit, green hair, white face paint and a huge smile. The Joker is still comical and absolutely nuts in his MK appearance. He fights with a cane and his gameplay is way different from his Injustice persona.

NeatherRealm Studios did an absolutely fantastic job in making The Joker’s moves hilarious and adding in a bunch of references to his comic appearances. Without a variation, The Joker has Batsy-Poo (mechanical Batman), Birdboy Beatdown and CCDDEGEC (jack in the box). Joker pulls out a mechanical Batman puppet that fires a shot from its mouth for his first move – this can be delayed and amplified to take off more damage. When delayed, the Joker will perform a ventriloquist act with the puppet during the shot delay. The second move is an overhead cane strike that will be chained into a cane upppercut if it hits – the name of this is a reference to Joker beating down Robin in the comics. The Jack in the Box has Joker winding a jack in the box and then sending the puppet inside bouncing toward his opponent. This move can be delayed to make Joker walk across the screen while winding and it can be amplified to cause the puppet to do a full screen bounce forward that will end in an explosion. His starting move lists compliments his variations quite well!

The Joker’s tournament variations are Clown Prince, Ace of Knaves and Mad Man. Clown Prince gives The Joker Batsy Pew Pew and Puppet Parry. The first move makes Joker place a Batman puppet below him and then it fires out a shot that hits low. The move can be amplified for a total of four low shots. The other move is a parry where The Joker will hold a Batman puppet in front of him – this move can be both delayed by holding the button and amplified. Ace of Knaves gives Joker a lot of full screen control with the added moves of Jumping Jester and Jack in the Box. Jumping Jester has Joker sitting down a jack in the box that goes off and flies in an arch toward his opponent and Jack in the Box will cause Joker to kick a jack in the box toward his opponent before shortly going off. The distance of both of these moves can be controlled by holding in a direction shortly after performing the moves and both moves can also be amplified. Mad Man gives Joker KAPOW and Getting Lit. Joker will take out some boxing gloves with handles on them to hit his opponent from mid-range – if the hit is successful, the move will be chained into more hits and this move can be amplified. Getting Lit makes Joker pour gasoline in front of him and set it on fire with a match – the fire will take damage over time if the opponent steps in it. This move can be extended to where Joker pours out a bigger trail of gasoline and it can be amplified for an instant explosion in front of Joker that will make the gasoline catch on fire.

Joker is without a doubt an excellent character if you want a character with tons of personality. This madman has a basic combo where he grabs a wheelchair hostage and actually swings the hostage at his opponent! The only nitpick that I have with him is when you delay his standing Batman puppet move, it will always play the same mouth animation for both The Joker and the Batman puppet which doesn’t sync well with all of his different phrases. It’s great that he has multiple phrases, but it doesn’t look good when the mouth movements for both don’t match. If you’re a Joker fan, you most likely will be pleased with his MK appearance. Watching a pro player play this character at a tournament is tons of fun with all the randomness of his moves!

Final Rating: 90%