#Palette swap ninja plus#
Mortal Kombat 3, Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, and Mortal Kombat Trilogy introduced multiple palette swaps including Cyrax, Sektor, Cyborg Smoke (all of the cyborgs were palette swap of each other, using red, yellow and blue), Ermac, and Rain, the latter was created mixing Sub-Zero and Ermac, better said, blue plus red, because Rain has a purple suit. In Mortal Kombat II, Kitana, Mileena, and secret character Jade were palette swaps of each other, using blue, purple and green, respectively, also Smoke and Noob Saibot were added as grey and black ninjas, as palette swaps of the another ninjas (Sub-Zero, Scorpion and Reptile). In Mortal Kombat, Scorpion, Sub-Zero, and secret character Reptile were palette swaps of each other, using yellow, blue and green, respectively, Reptile was created mixing Sub-Zero and Scorpion. In NES games such as Metroid, The Legend of Zelda, and Castlevania, palette swaps are used to distinguish stronger enemies. Deluxe (except in the Super Mario All-Stars versions of the latter three, as well the Super Mario Advance series), Mario is Missing! (NES and SNES versions), Hotel Mario and Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island, Luigi is a palette swap of Mario. In Mario Bros., Wrecking Crew, Super Mario Bros., Super Mario Bros. By stark contrast, the main characters of Breath of Fire II occasionally swap their palette colors to indicate an increase in their respective statistics. In other games, such as the Dragon Quest series, palette swaps are used for mobs to distinguish higher level enemies. Prominent examples of this are seen in the Final Fantasy games, in which a player character afflicted with the "Poison" Status effect will appear purple. In certain cases, such as role-playing video games, palette swaps are used to signify a character's status. More generally, palette swaps are common in sports games, in which the color scheme of opposing players is used to differentiate between teams.
#Palette swap ninja series#
Early games in the Mortal Kombat series frequently introduced new ninja characters via palette swapping as both a cost-cutting and memory-preservation measure.
As such, many new objects could be created without the need to produce new graphics from scratch, which saved both production costs and development time. In early computer gaming, when cartridges were the main storage medium and memory capacity was both linear and expensive, a single sprite could be reused by changing its palette. One reason palette swaps are used is to save storage and memory. Palette swaps are commonly used to distinguish between first and second players, for creating visual hierarchies, and for making visually distinct areas for levels in games. The different palette gives the new graphic another set of colors, which makes it recognizably distinct from the original.
This is not taking into consideration the many, many options when it comes to Mortal Kombat'sĀ female ninja characters, only four of which (Kitana in blue, Mileena in pink, Jade in green, and Khameleon - the original one - in grey) were palette-swaps in the early MK games.A palette swap, alternatively known as costume change or alternate color, is a mechanic used in video games, whereby a graphic that is already used for one element is given a different palette, so it can be reused as other elements. With Scorpion taking yellow, Sub-Zero taking blue, Ermac taking red, Rain taking purple, Smoke taking grey, Reptile taking green, Noob Saibot taking black, and Tremor taking brown, there are still a few blatant misses that could make for an interesting kombatant. Related: Official Mortal Kombat Face Masks Should Be Easier To Find
This is likely why, despite the Mortal KombatĀ series' long history, there has never been a true orange ninja - just Scorpion in orange outfits. Obviously, using another character's iconic color wouldn't work for a new Mortal Kombat character, and it would probably be best to stay away from anything which could be misconstrued for another color at a glance. While it seems like Mortal Kombat has used every color in the rainbow, there are actually a few which it feels like should have been explored by now but haven't been.