The Xenomorph from the Alien franchise is a sleek, evolutionarily superior killing machine. Its long, razor-sharp tail, acidic blood, and ability to effortlessly scurry around any environment are all qualities that make it a near-flawless hunter. Coincidentally, these are also excellent traits for a fighting game character. Developer NetherRealm Studios added the iconic creature into Mortal Kombat X as a part of its second slate of DLC, a spotlight shared with Leatherface from The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and the series’ own drunken fighter Bo’ Rai Cho and transforming cyborg Triborg. But even with all the guest characters NetherRealm has done in the last four Mortal Kombat games, the Xenomorph remains the best of the bunch.
The Xenomorph’s strongest quality was how it elegantly fused the Mortal Kombat and Alien universes. It wasn’t just a normal Xenomorph based on any one Alien movie, but an original creation with Tarkatan DNA. The beast’s DNA reflex, as it is referred to as, means that it inherits traits from the organism it bursts from, which explains the Predalien from Aliens versus Predator and dog-like (or ox-like in the Assembly Cut) Xenomorph from Alien 3.
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This nifty lore nugget allowed NetherRealm to put a Baraka-like fighter in the game with the broader appeal of a guest character, which the brilliant Kombat Pack 2 trailer explores with its bait-and-switch reveal trailer that has a Chestburster spring from Baraka’s chest at the last moment. The Tarkatan Variation has a handful of Baraka’s iconic arm blade-centric moves as well as a bunch of more animalistic Xenomorph-esque attacks, making Alien, as it is referred to as in the game, the best of both worlds. This specific twist is only something Mortal Kombat could do, so it was a clever way to refresh and pay homage to the long-running film franchise while expressing its own identity.
Blending franchises is not something NetherRealm has done as cohesively since. Mortal Kombat 11’s T-800 had shirts with the series’ dragon logo, Spawn and Joker have gotten vaguely Mortal Kombat-like skins, and RoboCop received gear pieces reminiscent of Cyrax and Sektor, but the studio has hesitated mixing up its original characters with the crossover ones. It seemed obvious that NetherRealm would make Stryker into RoboCop or the T-1000, or mix Kotal Kahn and Conan the Barbarian, but it opted for more movie-accurate portrayals each time. These guests have almost always been represented with the utmost respect and care — NetherRealm’s hospitality should be commended — but Alien’s hybrid nature makes it hard to ignore what else could be possible.
Mortal Kombat 1‘s Ghostface is yet another combatant that demonstrates the perks of fusing franchises. The masked murderer from the Scream films can swap out for two more obscure 3D-era Mortal Kombat goons: one of which is heavily implied to be Kira, while the other is likely Kobra. It’s a slick nod to the multi-killer nature in most of the films that also gets to utilize a couple of long-dead MK jobbers. Ghostface is also one of the best and most well-realized DLC fighters the studio has done, and that more direct and intimate merging of the realms plays no small part in that.
Alien also just fits the Mortal Kombat franchise incredibly well and, more specifically, plays a key role within Mortal Kombat X. All four of MKX’s guest characters — Jason Vorhees, Predator, Alien, and Leatherface — were horror icons (or in Predator’s case, action horror) and that darker, more violent tone decidedly gels with Mortal Kombat’s obsession with blood and guts. Horror movie icons are first and foremost memorable for their ability to maim and disembowel, after all. Having a more consistent theme that also suits the series gave all four of these guests a boost, and it’s not something the latter two Mortal Kombat games emulated as cleanly.
Mortal Kombat 1 demonstrates what happens when a style is followed and then abandoned, as the first pack had a violent comic book hero aesthetic before ditching that for Khaos Reigns which — while having expertly designed fighters — didn’t have a binding theme. There’s some appeal to having the Conan the Barbarian fight The Boys‘ Homelander, but it can’t compete with the thematic consistency of seeing a Xenomorph square up with a Yautja from the Predator films.
Not every guest can meld so seamlessly into a Mortal Kombat character. It’s not like there’s someone in that universe who would combine well with Omni-Man or Leatherface. But NetherRealm saw an opportunity with the Xenomorph to fuse the two, and it worked out splendidly, giving the studio known for its well-constructed guest fighters its best guest fighter. The Xenomorph is not just the perfect organism; it’s also, with this hybrid approach, the perfect organism for a Mortal Kombat crossover.
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