Mortal Kombat II introduced three secret fights namely with Jade, Smoke, and Noob Saibot. Each one of them required ridiculous fights. Smoke required that ridiculous The Portal uppercut and press Up+Start. Smoke was just a powered-up version of Scorpion (and the same went for Noob Saibot for MKII). Eventually, Smoke made his way into Mortal Kombat 3 (and all its updates) as a cyborg. The updates featured Human Smoke as a separate playable character - though the SAME character.
Smoke's storyline is that he's the close friend of Sub-Zero (Kuai Liang). Sub-Zero (Kuai Liang) was able to escape the cyber-initiative but not Smoke. That would explain why Smoke became a cyborg as an unlockable character for MK3. The updates made Cyber Smoke readily available compared to Human Smoke. Mortal Kombat Trilogy had everyone unlocked. Human Smoke was just a modified Scorpion. The Cyber Smoke had a spear attack, a teleport punch like Sektor, and invisibility. The two-character variants were played quite differently. Even the fatalities differed. Cyber Smoke had over-the-top just plain crazy fatalities. Meanwhile, Human Smoke's fatalities had a teleport punch decapitation and that over-the-top stretch fatality.
Smoke soon went poof until Mortal Kombat Deception. A "new character" known as Noob Smoke was introduced. Noob Saibot is later revealed to be the previous Sub-Zero known as Bi Han. Noob Saibot programmed Cyber Smoke to serve him. I personally hated the Noob Smoke character. Fortunately, Mortal Kombat X's Triborg was done WAY BETTER. I didn't even care too much about what happened to him in Mortal Kombat Armageddon. Smoke was now separated from Noob Saibot though.
Mortal Kombat (2011) is where I think Smoke was given the best rendition. Sure, MK Armageddon did give Smoke some more personality. I think Smoke in MK (2011) was given better character moves. Heck, it was also where Hidden Smoke could be fought by pressing Up + Select the moment he peaked at the Living Forest! The Hidden Smoke fight was a beefed-up version of Scorpion. However, Smoke as a playable character got some moves. There's the dashing teleport, smoke bombs (which can be very annoying to the opponent), that counter move, and well it's truly SMOKE-BASED. MK (2011) did require a lot of learning such as how the attack scheme was changed to one button per limb. It was nice to see Smoke get his own moves. I even love Smoke's new fatalities here truly fit his character. I love how Smoke's second Smoked Out fatality while his first was a better version of his fatality from MK Trilogy. That fatality is the stretch fatality.
For some reason, the writers decided to cyberize Smoke but did the abomination to Kuai Liang. I couldn't help but wonder if Smoke has become a mouthpiece of the fans. I think the reason behind turning Kuai Liang to Cyber Sub-Zero was that Bi Han became Noob Saibot. Both brothers became shadows of their former selves. Later, Smoke was killed by a powered-up Sindel and was later turned into a Revenant. Smoke became a footnote in MKX. Smoke wasn't even featured in Mortal Kombat 11 which I think was a waste.
Smoke would later show up in Mortal Kombat 1 - still with the much-needed smoke-based moves. Reincarnation's such a bitch in the Mortal Kombat series. Fire God Liu Kang may have messed up the New Era (or Kalpa in Buddhism) for all we know. The concept of multiple timelines taught in the Mahavairocana Sutra is that time is cyclical, and that everything exists simultaneously. One can say that Smoke in the New Era is another reincarnation of Smoke. Smoke would be reincarnated into the New Era where Bi Han and Kuai Liang are codenamed Sub-Zero and Scorpion. Hanzo Hasashi is reincarnated into a boy for some reason. I think Liu Kang achieving Nirvana wasn't such a good idea after all.
Unlike Noob Saibot and Jade - it took some time before Smoke started getting his own personality. Noob Saibot's moves in MK Trilogy would somehow define how his more-balanced version would play in MK (2011). Jade was given boomerangs as a projectile and a spear to differentiate her from Kitana. Smoke took some time before he was given his more unique identity. I mean, why did it take until MK Armageddon (a game that JUST SUCKED) and up to MK (2011) to finally create Smoke as his own character?
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