Mortal Kombat 11: Joker Gameplay Trailer

The Clown Prince of Crime is on his way to Outworld in Mortal Kombat 11.

NetherRealm Studios’ Injustice: Gods Among Us was born out of the idea of the Joker dying a gruesome death. What better brand synergy than tossing him into the Mortal Kombat universe? We’ve known for a while that Joker would be part of the first Kombat Pack as the last of Mortal Kombat 11’s initial wave of DLC. He’ll be joining the likes of Shang Tsung, Nightwolf, the Terminator, Sindel, and eventually, Spawn.

The latest trailer for Joker reveals that he’ll help bring back an old staple of the Mortal Kombat series, Friendships. Well…kind of:

Yes, the end of the trailer above teases the return of the Friendship finisher, but it all turns out to be a prank as the cake Joker hands his opponent explodes. Joker then proceeds to shoot up his foe and change the “Friendship” sign to one that reads Fatality. It wasn’t a very nice move. 

The rest of the Joker gameplay footage plays out largely how you’d expect with Joker utilizing a variety of traditional and non-traditional weapons to deal serious damage to his opponents. We suspected that he would fit in with the Mortal Kombat roster quite nicely, and that certainly seems to be the case. 

The Joker was fully showcased for the first time during this Mortal Kombat 11 teaser trailer, facing down Cassie Cage in her Harley Quinn cosplay skin and boasting a tweaked design.

His new look was a bit of a relief. In the initial reveal trailer for the Kombat Pack, Joker appeared as…some guy dressed as Joker. He had the skin, hair, lips, and clothes, but looked way off otherwise. It appears Netherrealm has fixed his design since then.

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Joker has a long history with Mortal Kombat. He first appeared in Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe in 2008, where he was known for a Fatality that was a bit too violent for the game’s Teen rating and had to be cropped. In Mortal Kombat 9, Shang Tsung reused the same Fatality in its full glory while morphing into a sinister-but-different clown. Then, of course, there’s the Injustice series, where Joker has taken on guest characters Scorpion, Sub-Zero, and Raiden.

Joker will be available on January 28.

Gavin Jasper writes for Den of Geek and honestly would rather have had Pennywise. Read more of Gavin’s articles here and follow him on Twitter @Gavin4L

Matthew Byrd is a staff writer for Den of Geek. He spends most of his days trying to pitch deep-dive analytical pieces about Killer Klowns From Outer Space to an increasingly perturbed series of editors. You can read more of his work here or find him on Twitter at @SilverTuna014