Jason is the first in line of DLC characters to join Mortal Kombat X. For those of you living under a rock, this giant hockey mask wearing mute hulk actually is a guest character from the popular movie series Friday the 13th.
So how is Jason? Well, he’s incredibly fun to play as. He’s large he’s strong and he’s slow. Just like Jason should be.
Jason towers over most characters who aren’t giants like Goro or Torr. He doesn’t say anything and just has creepy head turns and stares at his opponents like a mindless zombie; but with a very small glimpse of intelligence. This character is in most variations a grappler, with most of his moves consisting of horribly crushing the bones of his opponent. One special and very cool attribute Jason has, is that one of his moves: Killing Machine gives him super armor for a limited time. So that means at while he can’t jump Jason can just do whatever he wants as long as he ends it with an X-Ray. If he doesn’t, he slumps over and is unable to move for a long period giving the opponent just about enough time to do with him as they want. So make sure you end with either an X-ray to negate the effect or end with a throw which, while not safe, gives the opponent a very small window of time to punish you. I also suggest you use this at the end of a round and just go absolutely nuts. This is one of the most fun things about Jason even though I didn’t find much time to use it. A lot of Jason’s moves and strategy are just poking a hole in the opponents defences to grab them and make them feel the pain.
The best variation of Jason certainly is Slasher which, while not only the best, is also the most authentic to the Jason from the movies.
Slasher gives Jason his machete, and while both Relentless and Unstoppable are the same but with some different moves, this one give Jason a lot of new moves. This variation of Jason has an amazing down 2. “A down 2?” you might say. “All of those are great.” Well this one takes it to the next level. Amazing range, incredibly fast and extremely damaging, Machete Cut just like Jason strikes terror in the hearts of the most fearless Kombatants. His forward 2 is also good as it’s a fairly fast overhead that is relatively safe and can be used to set up a Psycho Slasher or grab. One of his most used Kombo’s is going to be his Machete Launch(back,1,2,2). Not only is it fast but it also launches the opponent in the air allowing for another Machete Launch follow-up end it with either Bloodshed(down,forward,1) or enhanced Bloodshed for a fairly easy 12-hit 28% kombo. Another thing is this is the only variation that gives Jason a projectile which is very useful. Another thing I just learned from another player which I for some reason didn’t even think of is using his enhanced Bloodshed as a wake-up for opponents that are to close up in your grill. This works great and is actually very satisfying to use. But what you’re all here for is this kombo that glitches out the game and makes you automatically win. Well…. not really but this set-up is disgustingly easy and extremely powerful: His Brooding(forward,4,2),Brooding,Brooding,straight jab(1),enhanced Bloodshed. Ok let’s get over this: first of his Brooding is a low, followed by an overhead so it’s a fairly great mix-up. Second it launches the opponent in the air allowing for a follow-up and can be komboed into brooding again two times. While the it’s not instant it’s really easy to learn the timing and then nothing can stop you (except for a breaker). And lastly when your opponent is down most of time opponents can’t seem to defend against a Brooding kombo in progress so as soon as they get up they fall into the same kombo you just did. Seriously you can win games by just using forward,4,2 the entire time. You can also use his Low Lift(back 4) to set up this monster of a kombo. But make sure you finnish your 3x Brooding with his straight punch and enhanced Bloodshed for an easy 13-hit 38% kombo. And if you get the timing right you can get another punch in between his straight and Bloodshed for a 14-hit 40% kombo. HOLY SHIT.
Jason’s whisper’s sweet words in Ermac’s ears just as he’s stabbing him.
Relentless is his second go to variation. This variation has a teleport called Lake Mist(down,forward,2) which is pretty fast and is great for confusing the opponent. I like to use this move and the follow-up with a grab. another kombo you can do is his Awakens(back,1,2,2). But I haven’t had much success with this. The other thing about Relentless is Pursuit(down,down,3) which makes the screen red and disables the opponents dashes and running plus it also reverts the opponents controls. If the opposing player manages to hit Jason the effect is nullified. Using this and then using the teleport seems like the best use of this move. And lastly there is his passive ability which is called Damned which give Voorhees increased damaged as his health decreases. And that’s about it.
Jason’s ready to choke a bitch.
Unstoppable is the least usable but it has one of my favorite gimmicks. RESSURECTION. That’s right at the end of the round when Jason is Knocked out he gets hit by lighting and the classic Psycho-like shower theme plays and Jason gets up with a tiny bit of health and a chance to still win that round. It’s kinda like Combo’s last stand thing he does but with Combo it gets both players hyped to finish it while with Jason you just get terrified. It’s pretty freaking scary to win a round, forget you’re fighting Jason and hear those violins. Truly terrifying. And the amount of super meter determines the amount of heath get regain when resurrected. The other thing about this version of Jason is that he can get health and damage buffs. For health you do Rise(down,down,circle) and for damage you use Punishment(down,down,3). You don’t get a lot of health and I never used this variation a lot so I don’t know how much your damage gets buffed. While the resurrection thing is cool there isn’t really anything to look at that relentless doesn’t have.
The man behind the mask resurrects to send this awful skin back to the bargain bin.
Overall Jason is strong but kinda slow. His Back 4 is great since it has a nice range, is fast and makes the opponent trip. But what makes Jason so cool is the care and detail Netherrealm took to make Jason truly feel like a guest character with crazy gimmicks and the references to the source material. Even though I’m kinda disappointed that the character don’t have anything interesting to say to Jason in the intro. As for his story ending: it’s pretty funny and stays true to Jason’s personality. I personally think the reason Jason stands out is the music. While the game’s soundtrack is more dark electric guitar themed, Jason’s fatalities and resurrection is more violins and horror movie inspired which is funny and more cinematic. His first fatality: Kill for mother(mid,down,back,down,back,3) is really cool. Al the characters (even Kenshi though I don’ know how) look with horror as Jason whip out his….machete. And his second While an homage to the sleeping bag murder from Friday The 13th Part VII doesn’t really look like the kill from the movie and looks kinda goofy. Again both of those fatalities have that cinematic feeling with the camera and music making it feel like it’s a kill from a horror movie.
Here are both colors for the homicidal maniac.
And what with the skins in this pack? Well these skins are Horror inspired as you would expect with Jason. Two of them look great while one looks absolutely awful:
Vamiress Mileena looks great and while her default color look good in red, her second color looks better giving her a more classic appearance.
Pharaoh Ermac looks amazing. It fits Ermac well and his alt color look great. I don’t even know which one I like more.
And now what was my previous Backup before Jason was released. Reptile. Oh god why? Why does Boon insist on making you so lame Reptile? I didn’t really like the route they took with Reptile and this just make it worse. And before you say “well you obviously don’t understand the idea behind this skin.” I can say YES I do. This costume is inspired by things like the more monster like mermen and more importantly The Creature From The Black Lagoon but it just looks awful. I don’t like it.
And then there is the first of many Klassic skins to come. And this one is for Sub-Zero. It looks great and it strangely doesn’t look too much out-of-place. It seems to be inspired by his UMK3 design. I personally like His alt color wish makes him look like Klassic sub-zero with a more light blue color.
I prefer second color as it makes Sub-Zero look like the first Mortal Kombat.
And that’s that Jason is an amazing addition to the kast and the new skins(except for Reptile) are great.
Thanks to Millenhero and the online MKX community for helping me out and showing some cool stuff.
