Um…this wouldn’t work as just an extra skin (pun intended)… it would just look wrong with his animations, particularly the falling apart & reforming animations.
Don’t get me wrong, I’d love to see a human Spinal, but yeah, it couldn’t be a simple reskin.
Man… What’s with all the requests for human versions of monstrous characters? It’s like taking the core part of their design and turning them into “dude who hits things”. That sounds boring as hell.
If we’re getting alternate skins, I’d rather see something that caters to that character’s strengths rather than taking away their most unique aspects. Even if it’s something silly like Toy Fulgore or Riptor in a skirt, costumes that add to the character rather than subtract from them make a hell of a lot more sense to me.
This is Killer Instinct, guys. It’s whacky, energetic, exotic; filled to the brim with nutty characters that wouldn’t work anywhere else. Normalizing then and turning them into regular human characters sounds like the opposite of what makes KI interesting
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I could be wrong, but I think its a Meme based on people wanting a human costume for Wulf.
I have zero interest in human spinal, sabre or cinder.
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Just give everyone UT forms. We can have robo spinal.
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That’s why I don’t want see to Human Spinal’s intro…
See, cyberizing characters is a much more interesting prospect than humanizing them. That adds what if scenarios that don’t interfere with the character’s core design. It augments their potential frightening presence, in addition to bolstering their absurdity as pop culture parodies/extreme representations of common tropes. Things like KI2 Wulf’s cyborg arms, new Riptor, Hisako’s premium accessory, and to a lesser extent TJ’s Retro are awesome examples of this.
This and the mimics (i.e. familiar faces corrupted/misrepresented by the cosmic demons of the Astral Realm) show a much more fitting way to add new twists on characters than taking away the reason they’re in the game in the first place.
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i hope they are discussing future skins period!
If there’s a skin anyone doesn’t like they can just not use it
Well, speaking for the “boring as hell” crowd, I personally love the idea for several reasons:
-It gives you a look at what the character was before they came a skeleton, a werewolf, a human torch, a mummy, etc. It’s part of their lore because they obviously had to have existed before they became what they became and I think it’d be cool to see what them in such a drastically different look.
-I’d also like to specifically see how IG would design those looks.
-As soon as I saw what Cinder looked like as Ben Ferris in his intro, I immediately thought how great it’d be to see him with that look.
-If MK9 can show me Cyrax and Sektor as humans, and give them actual emotions and personalities beyond beyoop boopity bop sounds, I think it makes sense at least consider the possibility as it pertains to Wulf. How would a drug-addled, near-psychotic aristocrat who’s lost everything sound like? What would his personality be?
-For Sabrewulf specifically, the guy’s been hunting for a cure since the early/mid 90’s. Can’t we see the guy FINALLY achieve his dream of regaining his humanity?
-Also for Sabrewulf, I could see a sort of Wolverine look for him, and that just seems awesome to me.
-For Spinal, I think it’d be cool to see him as a human pirate because, well, human pirates are fun. So are skeleton pirates. Why not have the best of both worlds?
-But also, and this is just me personally… I like human characters. I like the monsters as well, but I see no reason why we can’t delve deeper in to the lore of the characters and see them reimagined as they once were. You might find that boring, but for me, it fleshes out the characters, and having a different take on them is compelling.
See, and I think that you can keep them unique while reimagining their look from a lore perspective. It’s not like you lose regular Sabrewulf if there’s an alt skin or a full reimagining of him as human Sabrewulf. I think that you can make a unique and awesome Sabrewulf that’s also a human. I’m picturing this sort of “feral” guy, like Wolverine, but with a tortured spirit confused mind. To me, that’s compelling. Is it better than the guy that just howls? No. I don’t think so. I think it’s different though, and I think it’s interesting.
I’d rather have that than toy Fulgore or Riptor in a skirt, but if you disagree, then no problem.
Well, that’s your vision of KI and I agree with it to a point. If KI can have human characters like Jago, Orchid, Tusk and Kim Wu, then why can’t it have Ben Ferris, Human Sabrewulf, Vizier Kan Ra, Human Spinal etc as well? KI IS wacky, energetic and exotic, but it can also be grim and dark; a dystopian future run by an evil corporation (run by a cold-hearted AI) that conducts experiments on humans while freedom fighters battle to stop them. You have several characters with rather complex backstories and issues, vendettas, etc.
The great part about this game is that it’s such an amalgamation of ideas and themes. Everyone can find something that they enjoy and latch on to.
I don’t think that providing a different version of a character is “normalizing” them because they don’t cease to exist in the form they’re commonly known from in terms of gameplay (or story, if they prefer it) and they can also contribute to the plot in other, different ways. Not better, not worse, just different.
Again, nothing is being taken away. If it’s a reskin of the same character or even a reimagined character, you lose nothing in terms of the game itself. If you want to talk about from a canonical story perspective, if Jago and Shago can exist in the game at the same time, why can’t Sabrewulf and Human Sabrewulf?
We’re not going to see eye to eye on this and that’s completely okay. We have different tastes, and I have zero problems with that. But I don’t see these types of reimaginings as boring. I think that they could offer a lot from a lore perspective and I think they could give us some really cool looking, unique designs, and plotline possibilities, even if they’re all human.
Conversely, if they decided to have Kim Wu merge with the dragon spirit as part of her story, and she got a reimagined version as a gorgon or a naga, I think that’d be cool. But I don’t think that this alone makes her unique, or that the chosen one version of her is boring by comparison. Just something cool, something new, something different.
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And I can respect that. Folks will always have differing opinions, no matter how many they share.
But I think my main dig against a lot of the human skin concepts listed is that it would be just as expedient to create an entirely new original character with those concepts. The same goes with making human characters into monstrous ones.
I should also state for the record that I don’t think the human characters we have are boring, per se. I mean, Tusk and Sadira are two of my most used characters. 
I just think the characters that aren’t human are a lot cooler if they stay that way (and vice versa) and just don’t see the appeal of applying skins like that when it could just as easily be a unique character.
No problem. I see the appeal from both a lore perspective as well as a plot perspective. I think it’s a lot easier to have verbal interactions portrayed with a tortured, desperate human Sabrewulf than one that simply howls and can’t talk.
Don’t get me wrong. I love Sabrewulf. He’s my favorite character in the whole series and always has been. But I see him trying to cure himself and I’ve seen that for decades now and ya know… It’d be kinda nice if he got that cure, and it’d be equally nice to see what would happen to him after that; what he becomes, who he sides with, whether the cure fully “takes,” or what’s left of his mind.
These are the types of things that I tend to consider if we’re talking a full on reimagining. Like for Cinder… How did Ben Ferris fight before he became all human torch-like? He’s this sort of hitman / contract killer / former military type. I’d love to hear more about who he was back then and if there was ever any good in him.
Now if we’re talking a simple reskin? Again, to me, that’s just kind of a fun “what if” scenario. Spinal as a human pirate, to me, is fun.
Now, should they just create new characters instead of doing reimaginings or reskins? Well, that’s not really the choice I was intending to make. To me, character reimaginings within their lore are something I’d like to see, but if the choice is new character or reimagined character, then yeah, I’ll choose new character ten times out of ten, even if I’d really like to see what IG could do with a verison of Sabrewulf from the ground up. But if the choice is reimagined character or nothing? I’ll gladly, happily take the reimagined character.
Also, as it specifically pertains to new skins or outfits, I personally like lore concepts over the funnier stuff. Give me a full boxing TJ outfit or a sleek, spy Orchid outfit or something along those lines. To me, the human stuff fits certain characters that were actually human at one point. Obviously, I’m not saying I want human Riptor or human Aganos. They were never human. But from a lore perspective, characters like Wulf, Spinal, etc on the other hand…
Well, you get where I’m coming from. I think that there are good, logical reasons for the human versions of some characters and I like those ideas both from an aesthetic perspective and a lore perspective. To me, they sound fun. But yeah, I hear where you’re comin from, man. 
Can Riptor get a chicken costume, well I guess more of a giant chicken bonus character built off of Riptor.
THAT sounds AWESOME LOL
foghorn leghorn riptor skin
#YES
The thing about Spinal being a human is they couldn’t do a simple reskin, otherwise he’d just be really creepy when he fell apart & formed back together in between rounds. Completely redone animations to show a full human falling over & standing up would have to be added.
the problem with the whole “human costume” thing, they will take as much time and space to make as a whole new character… this is on top of being a very boring aesthetically.
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I’d like more colors and a new accessory set as well. Especially for the other retros. Why does season3 get a 7th and the others don’t?
I’d assume it was to make up for the lack of an arcade game.
That to me doesn’t make much since. Especially since we got something like ShadowLords mode. An arcade mode missing isn’t such a bad thing. But I do feel like the other retros are gettin’ left out.
No, Arcade games as in KI1 with S1 & KI2 with S2