Game-Art-HQ

“Welcome. You’re here to compete in Mortal Kombat. Tomorrow morning, The Great Kombat begins. Some of you will even have the distinct honor and pleasure to face Prince Goro, our reigning champion.

You are all witnesses to one of the greatest turning points in the history of your planet. Treasure these moments… as if they were your last.”

These are the words by Shang Tsung, meant as an introduction for the kombatants that were brave (or foolish) enough to enter his island and participate in the tournament known as Mortal Kombat. Spoken by the actor Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa who played Shang Tsung in the 1995 Movie and later also in the Mortal Kombat: Legacy Web Series. 

As a big surprise to the Mortal Kombat kommunity, he also returned as Shang Tsung in Mortal Kombat XI as part of its Krypt Mode which is completely on Shang Tsung’s Island.

While MK XI has a good German Voice cast, I used the English one, to hear Cary-Hiroyuki again as the mighty sorcerer. It was super cool that NRS also bought him back as a playable character via DLC and the Aftermath Expansion. 

Its a part of the Mortal Kombat games, that almost every character sees design changes from game to game, and Shang Tsung, who was the final boss in the first Mortal Kombat game was no exception, maybe he went through the most drastic design changes in the first three games even. While he was a pretty old, and almost harmless-looking man in the first game, he was much younger and more agile in the second. In Mortal Kombat 3 he was even younger. 

The artist Flavio Luccisano drew each of his old designs and based them on the actor Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa , an awesome idea I think! 

You can see his other works on Game-Art-HQ here or directly visit his DeviantART page here, also check out his Twitter Account!