The second Dlc character for MKX has been released. Tanya finally makes her return. And while she’s pretty interesting game-play wise her character and design leaves something to be desired.
Tanya return to Mortal Kombat but just like the previous like previous pre-reboot timeline this Tanya is sorely lacking in character. As far as personality and noticeable characteristics go, Tanya is just plain old blandness. Her intros and outro consist of a bunch of kicks and the dialogue between characters is uninteresting with it basically boiling down to: Tanya:(says name of opponent), opponent: I will beat you., Tanya: No I will beat you. Of course there are some intro’s that are kinda good but most are just very boring and uninspired. Fatalities can also reflect the personality or characteristics of the kombatant and while one of her Fatalities is great, it shows Tanya doesn’t really have a character. For instance Sub-Zero will freeze someone in his fatality and you’d know “oh this guys thing is ice powers”. Or is Johnny does his Here’s Johnny fatality you know this guy is a comedic character but looking at Tanya you don’t really see what she’s about, what she uses or personality wise who she is. Likewise Her ending shows nothing more of her character and feels like a waste. Where other characters are set up at their endings as becoming super powerful or something big happens, with Tanya it’s just: something happens and Tanya stays the same as she was even if it shows a bit more of the previous Tanya who name was almost synonymous with betrayal. We know what motivates Tanya because we were told so but nowhere in the game does it reflect what her motivations are. When her first design was shown of people said she looked kinda boring so Netherrealm tried to redesign her and make her look interesting. The eyes are to me a desperate attempt to make her stand out more but I think that while the redesign is better the eyes should have stayed the same. So Tanya is a bland piece of nothing character wise but what about her play style? Well luckily that’s a lot better.
Tanya’s a very hard character to do kombo’s with since most of her kombo either start with or are linked in with her teleports. And I am too bad nor do I have the interest to get good enough to do these kombo’s. As said before Tanya has a teleport which yo can use to go back or forward, and you can even use it in air so if you know what to do with the teleport, things can get nuts. And while the teleport goes trough the opponent the enhanced version damages and launches the opponent for follow-up kombos. A good way to start of and go is her Spinning Slap(forward,2). It moves fast and is a good way to start kombo’s. Another good mixup tool for blocked kombos or on wake-up are her two special moves Flip Kick(down,back,4) and Low Spin Kick (back,forward,4). Flip kick hits overhead and Low Spin Kick hit low so knowing which one to do and when will be the key. One last move that might help is Wanted For Treason(2,up,3)which is one of the only kombos that launches the opponent.
Tanya’s three variations give her new weapons to wreck all the shops with.
First is my favorite the Dragon Naginata variation. This one gives Tanya as the name tells you a naginata. Think Soul Calibur’s Seong Mi-na’s weapon combined with a bit of Xiba’s moves, but only a little. The Naginata gives Tanya a lot of reach. Her Lunging Stab(back,2) covers a lot of ground and does 5% and her High Poke(backdown,2) are good way to annoy and poke your opponent some time but more importantly it’s extremely fun to use. Another good use of the naginata is her Spin Cycle(back,3,2) which is fairly fast and might offer a good way to open up your opponent. Then there is her Slicing Wind(forward, 4,2) which start exactly like Evil Lurking(forward,4,3) but instead of the second hit being a low this one does an overhead with the naginata. So that’s a good 50/50 mix-up if a bit slow. The first special is Swing Kick(back,forward,2) on which Tanya swings on her staff relatively fast and kick the opponent away. Her other special move you get is the Air Staff Stance(air)(down+2). This move will make Tanya stand on her naginata and from there you can to cancel into her regular stance or do Staff Slam(1) which is an overhead, or Staff Slide(3) which is a low. When you cancel out off her stance you can do a lot of things like a neutral punch for a bounce and Kombo opportunity or cancel back into the stance to hit you opponent. The main element of the Dragon Naginata is its range and the stance mode.
Look at that range, it’s crazy.
Pyromancer is my second variation of choice. In this variation Tanya gets tattoos that give her what is basically Johnny Cage’s Forceball. Both her fireball’s are like exactly like Johnny’s Forceball but what Tanya has that Johnny hasn’t is Dark Shroud(down,forward,2). This move let’s Tanya throw purple dust on the opponent that not only damages the enemy but it also sticks to the opponent for a very long time. Now what this does is if any of Tanya’s fireball hit your enemy it will do a lot more damage. A normal ball does 7% but with dust it does 17%, that’s a lot. So what you do is do a kombo and end it with Dark Shroud. Then throw a fireball, or you do Dark Burst(back,3,1,2). This kombo automatically ends with a fireball. Another small thing is that you can use your fireball in air. And that’s Pyromancer.
Liu Kang about to feel the pain.
Lastly is Kobu Justu. This is the variation that give Tanya her tonfas. This variation allows her to delay the teleport and cancel out of it. While she doesn’t have the fireballs she can throw her tonfa with Tonfa Toss(down,forward,1). The enhanced version is actually really good as it hits twice and the second hit leaves a lot of stun in order for you to start a kombo. Then there is Tonfa Swipe(down,forward,2). This move can be followed by Tonfa Slash(down,forward,1) and Tonfa Push(down,forward,2) with Tonfa Push having the ability to be enhanced to launch the opponent to again, follow-up. And that’s Kobu Justu there are a few more things in this variation but I feel like they are not important enough to talk about.
The tofas are nothing to be messed with.
Thank god Tanya at least has some interesting thing going on gameplay wise. Because from a character stand point she isn’t interseting. She’s a really bland character with not much of a personality. Dragon Naginata is the most fun with the wacky stuff you can do with the naginata itself. Her teleport is unlike most characters teleport which makes her in that regard more interesting. Doing mirrors between Tanya’s is a confusing teleport mess and I love it. these mirror matches are really goofy fun. Just hope that if Tanya comes back in the next game that they try to make her a bit interesting personality-wise.
Tanya mirrors can get nuts with her teleports.
But that’s not all Tanya also has the Klassic Skin Pack and while we are at it let’s look at the latest klassic kostume that got added for free:
These costumes are the real deal. They look almost exactly like the original kostumes much like Killer Instinct’s classics skins these look kinda goofy but in a good way.
Kano’s MK1 kostumes look like it should but with the straps for the heart core so with the exception to that it looks great. I really like the dark red color.
Liu kang’s MK1 kostume weirdly textured. compared to the rest it looks kind of real. The fabric looks real and it’s freaking me out a bit. kind of like Greninja’s Substitute. both colors look great but again the red one is great.
Then there is Sonya in all her 90’s fitness video glory. God that skin is so klassic. It would fit right in with the classic killer instinct costumes. I look really good. I really like the purple one which kind of reminds me of Olivia Newton John in her Let’s get physical music video.
Ok I didn’t think I would have to talk about this again. But Reptile. MAN, Reptile used to be my main in MK9 but I played with Klassic skin reptile, who was human. I personally like Reptile more as a human. And while I kinda understand that human Reptile would be a bit harder I really want his human skin. That being said this skin looks good enough. It’s a combination of his klassic skin combined with his lizard appearance. If you like his like his lizard like appearance then this might be the skin for you. It look really good al thing considering.
Reptile certrainly look better in this than his Kraken kostume.
Overall Tanya is kinda interesting gameplay-wise but as a character she is bland. her ending is a big nothing, her intro’s and outro are a big nothing so bland is the perfect way to describe her. The Klassic skins look really cool and while Klassic reptile is not my cup of tea, but if you’re a fan of lizard Reptile you’ll dig this one. So That’s that. I wouldn’t get Tanya but I would get the Klassic pack if you main any of the characters in it. Special thanks go to the online community of MKX and again thanks to millenhero.
