Scorpion is a character in the Mortal Kombat fighting game franchise by Midway Games and NetherRealm Studios. A ninja dressed in yellow, his primary weapon is a rope dart, which he uses to harpoon opponents. Since his debut in the original 1992 game, Scorpion has appeared as a playable character in every main installment except Mortal Kombat 3 (1995).
The series' original Scorpion is Hanzo Hasashi (), an undead Japanese warrior principally defined by his quest to avenge the deaths of himself, his family, and his clan. After the death of Bi-Han / Sub-Zero, Hasashi develops a feud with who he believed to be the killer, Bi-Han's younger brother and second Sub-Zero, Kuai Liang, that spans most of the franchise before discovering the sorcerer Quan Chi is the real murderer. While Hasashi has been depicted as a neutral figure focused primarily on seeking revenge, he will side with those who can help him achieve his goals. Following two reboots, Kuai Liang () becomes the new Scorpion in Mortal Kombat 1 (2023), while alternate timeline variants of Hasashi make minor appearances. Scorpion has remained a pop culture icon, receiving critical acclaim since his debut and frequently appears in media outside of the games.
Character creation
Scorpion appeared in the first Mortal Kombat as one of three palette-swapped ninja characters, along with Sub-Zero and Reptile. His early origins were revealed by the series' original chief character designer, John Tobias, in September 2011, when he posted several pages of old pre-production character sketches and notes on Twitter. Scorpion and Sub-Zero were simply described as "[a] palette swap for 2 ninjas—a hunter and the hunted," while Tobias also considered the concepts of either one of them fleeing their clan or a "revenge story" involving the then-unnamed characters being part of rival clans. In regards to the game's strict memory limitations, co-creator and programmer Ed Boon recalled: "A lot of attention went into the economics of it, and so we knew that if we could take a character and change their color and use basically the same memory to create two characters, we'd save a lot of money and we'd have two characters."
Scorpion yells one of two taunts — "Get over here!" and "Come here!" — at his opponents when he hits them with his spear. They were voiced by Boon in the games and feature films, but only one of them ("Come here!") was included in the home ports of MK and MKII due to memory constraints. According to Boon, the second of the character's phrases originated because he thought "it would be funny to have him yell out 'Get over here!' when he [threw the spear]," and he was thus encouraged to get behind the studio microphone and record the taunts. Twenty years after the first MK game's release, Boon included creating the spear move as well as the character itself among his personal high points of the franchise's history, adding: "I remember people sitting in my office all day just doing this uppercut [on a speared enemy] again and again, like 'Oh my God, that feels so good.' It just became the cornerstone of [the game]."Reyan Ali, Ed Boon's 12 Biggest Mortal Kombat Memories , Complex.com, September 12, 2012. MKII saw the debut of the phrase "Toasty!", which was voiced by series sound designer Dan Forden during a variation of Scorpion's "Flaming Skull" Fatality or at random when any of the game's characters landed an uppercut. According to Tobias, it first originated as "You're Toast!", which was a taunt bandied among the designers during game-testing sessions.Making of Mortal Kombat 3: Into the Outworld - Midway Games/Williams Entertainment, 1995.
Design Scorpion was given a yellow palette because the developers decided it symbolized fire in contrast to Sub-Zero's ice blue. Their similar appearance but opposite nature "prompted the story behind them being these opposing ninja-clan-type characters."Creating Scorpion and Sub-Zero - Ed Boon's 12 Best Mortal Kombat Memories - Complex, September 2012. Retrieved August 25, 2014. A third ninja swap, Reptile, was added in the third revision as a hidden non-playable character who was outfitted in green and used Scorpion's spear (along with Sub-Zero's freeze) as part of his offensive arsenal; he was devised by Boon as "a cooler version of Scorpion."TMK E308 - MK vs DCU - Ed Boon interview Part 1 , (YouTube, interview transcript ). Total Mortal Kombat. Retrieved on 2008-12-26 The original costume was created from a modified ninja-like outfit bought at a Chicago costume shop and was red for filming in the first game, but a different yellow one with a quilted vest and knee-high shin guards was utilized for Mortal Kombat II.Video Games magazine, March 1994. This in turn made the other male ninja characters therein—Sub-Zero, Reptile, and hidden characters Smoke and Noob Saibot—palette swaps of Scorpion, with the latter two also using Scorpion's spear when players fought them separately in secret battles. Scorpion and the ninja characters were first played by Daniel Pesina, who was replaced by John Turk for Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 and the 1996 compilation Mortal Kombat Trilogy, while Sal Divita played the character in MK: Mythologies.
While his ninja-outfit template from the first generation of games has remained relatively unchanged over time, the improved graphics of the post-Mortal Kombat 4 three-dimensional releases have allowed more details to better differentiate the male ninja characters, and Scorpion's costumes were duly enhanced with objects such as two katana swords strapped to his back and his spear attached to a rope tied to his belt in Deadly Alliance, and a set of ornate shoulder epaulets in Deception, in which his alternate costume was a throwback to the two-dimensional MK titles. Scorpion's MK2011 costume was inspired by his namesake, such as the character's abdomen-shaped shoulder pads, the two stinger-handled swords crisscrossed on his back, and the exoskeletal pattern on his hard-shell face mask. Scorpion was included with Sub-Zero, Reptile, and Ermac in a bundle of classic costumes from the first Mortal Kombat that was released as downloadable content for the 2011 reboot. For Injustice: Gods Among Us, he received a new costume designed by comic artist Jim Lee. In the original Mortal Kombats fighter-selection screen, Scorpion had regular human eyes, as his identity as a resurrected specter was meant to be a mystery, but he was given solid yellow or white eyes for every release thereafter starting with MKII, while actors portraying Scorpion in live-action media such as the feature films and the Mortal Kombat: Legacy web series were outfitted with opaque contact lenses in order to achieve this effect.
Gameplay Scorpion's signature special move throughout the series has him hurling a harpoon-like spear attached to a length of rope at his opponents. The spear impales his opponents through the chest before Scorpion pulls them in to close range for a free hit. His other incumbent special move throughout the series, save for Deadly Alliance, has been his Teleport Punch, where he flies offscreen during battle and then reappears to strike his opponent from behind. Scorpion additionally gained a new leg-takedown maneuver in MKII that was not well-received (Sega Saturn Magazine called it a "ridiculous" move that "no one ever used").Lomas, Ed. Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 strategy guide. Sega Saturn Magazine (April 1996), p. 48 He was considered a lower-tier character by GamePro in their 1993 MKII character rankings, rating him eighth out of the game's twelve playables and describing both him and Sub-Zero as "formerly a top-tier character [who] doesn't have much of a chance in MKII since all of the male ninjas have some poor matchups," with Scorpion faring the worst against Jax and Mileena.
Ed Lomas of Sega Saturn Magazine described the character as having "simple yet effective" special moves in UMK3 that "make him good for beginners, [which] doesn't stop him from being a useful character," while his "trusty" spear was "perfect for setting up combos." GameSpy, in their Deception walkthrough, described the character as "a well-rounded character that has strengths in combos as well as in special and normal moves." They additionally described the spear as "useful as ever" in Armageddon, adding, "Between [that and his] other special moves ... Scorpion pretty much has everything covered." Prima Games' MK2011 strategy guide considered Scorpion to be well-balanced with no distinct weaknesses or advantages, while winning more than half of his fights against the game's other characters.Jason Wilson, Adam Hernandez, Mortal Kombat: Prima Official Game Guide, Prima Games 2011 (p. 208). He is also a playable character for both the versus and story modes in Shaolin Monks, where his move sets in this game are largely identical to Liu Kang's with some original techniques.
Scorpion's signature finishing move from the original game up until Mortal Kombat 4 was his "Fire Breath" Fatality, in which he removed his ninja hood and face like a mask to reveal a skull right before immolating his opponent. A variation of this finisher was included in MKII: entering a different button/joystick combination added the spoken "Toasty!" phrase that simultaneously appeared on the screen. While the "Fire Breath" was brought back for Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe in 2008, his spear has otherwise served as his primary tool in his fatalities in the three-dimensional games, from impaling his opponents through the head and then decapitating them in Deadly Alliance, using it to yank off their limbs in Deception, and plunging it into their chest before kicking them through a portal that left nothing but a skinned corpse hanging from the spear's chain in MK2011 ("Nether Gate"). His second Fatality in the reboot, "Split Decision", had Scorpion using one of his back-mounted swords to hack his opponent to pieces.
Scorpion would indirectly play a role in the fabrication of the then-nonexistent character Ermac when Electronic Gaming Monthly published a doctored screenshot of Scorpion from the original game in 1993. This subsequently spawned false player rumors of a glitch that would turn Scorpion's sprite red, with the name "Error Macro" appearing in the energy bar. Ermac became playable in UMK3, in which he was a red palette swap of Scorpion who shared his Teleport Punch.
Appearances Midway games First appearing in Mortal Kombat (1992), Scorpion is a warrior with a wife and child who was killed by the ninja Sub-Zero and becomes an undead specter to seek revenge by killing him in turn. In Mortal Kombat II (1993), Scorpion believes Sub-Zero is alive until he realizes it is his younger brother, Kuai Liang, causing him to seek redemption. In Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, Emperor Shao Kahn enlists Scorpion's aid, but the latter eventually defects to Earthrealm's defenders due to his work pitting him against Kuai Liang.Mike Harradence, In the Spotlight: Scorpion , PlayStation Universe, April 23rd, 2011.
Appearing as a boss in the prequel Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero (1997), Scorpion's history is expanded on. Years prior, Hanzo Hasashi was a Shirai Ryu clan ninja who was enlisted by the sorcerer Quan Chi to find a map hidden in a Shaolin temple, unaware that the sorcerer also tasked Bi-Han of the rival Lin Kuei clan with the same task. During their subsequent fight, Bi-Han kills Hasashi, allowing Quan Chi to slaughter the Shirai Ryu and Hasashi's wife Harumi and son Satoshi. Following this, Quan Chi resurrects Hasashi as Scorpion. Additionally, Scorpion appears as a boss in Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks (2005), which serves as an alternate take on Mortal Kombat II and sees him attempting to kill Liu Kang and Kung Lao.