Mortal Kombat's newest kombatant certainly came as a surprise to the seasoned MK vets here at Joystiq; we were expecting Tanya, or maybe even Meat, but Krueger? Dude wasn't even on our radar, let alone our fantasy character selection screens. As out-of-left-field as his inclusion seems to us, series co-founder Ed Boon says that slasher villains have always been on the table as potential new characters.

"Over the years, we've certainly had a number of conversations about guest characters," said Boon during an interview with PlayStation Blog. "A number of names were run by us: Jason, Michael Meyers [sic] and all those guys. Freddy Kreuger, we felt, was the most instantly recognizable and he fits in with Mortal Kombat with his claws." We think they made the right choice; why would anyone put the guy from So I Married An Axe Murderer in a Mortal Kombat game?