#1161
Gameplay of the boss Inferno Scorpion in Midway/Netherrealm’s Mortal Kombat Shaolin Monks.
Inferno Scorpion’s moves:
• Square: Triple swipe
• Triangle: Haymaker and knock back
• Circle: Kick combo
• R1+Square: Ground fireball (also removes his mask)
• R1+Triangle: Lava breath (also removes his mask)
• R1+Circle: Teleport punch
• Square+Triangle: Uppercut
• Triangle+Circle: Running divekick
• Circle+Square: Leg sweep
Inferno Scorpion is pretty damn badass. His regular moves, like his swipe combo and his knock-back attacks, are great at keeping the enemy at bay, and he also has access to Scorpion’s regular special moves like his uppercut, teleport and leg-sweep attacks, meaning that he’s great at keeping his distance from and countering enemies. His uppercut is so quick it can even be used to infinite regular opponents, which is incredibly helpful in a one-on-one scenario.
The major difference he has from his other forms is his flame breath attacks. The first one is a single ground fireball, reminiscent of the one Kintaro has in MK9, but not only attacks but leaves an environmental hazard which damages the enemy. His lava breath attack is much the same, although it covers more ground, lasts longer, and doesn’t deal any damage initially, which almost made me think it was glitched at first. It keeps opponents away from him, which was great, but if used when the opponent is against a wall it will even combo them! It’s difficult to get this set up, but if you can do then the opponent will take tons of damage, and can even be stunlocked to death with it. Which, of course, is ridiculously satisfying. His fire-breath attacks are more or less essentially therefore for crowd-control, although they have to be used sparingly as they have a long wind-up to them, and even easy for Scorpion to be countered during them. Use them correctly though, and you’ll have barbecued Oni in no time.
Inferno Scorpion is, therefore, seemingly quite viable as a character for a playthrough, given that he has access to infinites, AOE attacks and evasion attacks like his teleport attacks, with a couple of combo attacks thrown in too. He’s pretty damn good on the whole and I quite enjoyed playing as him here. Nearly all of his moves stun the opponent in some way, or allow you to gain distance against them, being him much easier to use than most of the bosses. I remember him being a really intimidating boss to fight the first time I played through Shaolin Monks, so it’s nice that he’s actually quite viable as a playable character too.
Up next, the non-fiery variant.