Rate the Fighter (MK11): Erron Black

Rate the Fighter: Mortal Kombat 11 Edition!

Welcome back everyone to Rate the Fighter: Mortal Kombat 11 Edition. In the last post we took a look at the Hollywood actor turned defender of the planet, Johnny Cage. Today we'll be going down south and will examine a character that definitely stands out from the crowd. Let's not waste any more time and jump straight into our analysis of the cowboy named Erron Black.

Erron Black, Cowboy for Hire

Erron Black is actually one of the newest characters in the entire franchise, having made his first appearance in Mortal Kombat X, the game that came before Mortal Kombat 11. He, much like Kano and Kabal, is a mercenary, selling his services to anyone who's able to pay for them. According to his arcade mode ending from Mortal Kombat X, Erron Black is apparently 150 years old and was given the gift of slowed aging from Shang Tsung, the final boss of the first Mortal Kombat game. In Mortal Kombat 11, his younger self is still working for the Black Dragon, taking orders from Kano and the rest of the game's villains, so long as he gets what he was promised.

Appearance

Much like Kano and Johnny Cage, a younger version of Erron Black appears in the game's story mode. Unlike those two, however, I don't believe an older, present day version of the character is actually shown in the story. That being said, Black's default appearance and other skins depict him with wrinkles on his face and gray hair, while his younger skins depict him as he did in Mortal Kombat X, though even younger. Seeing as how this is only Erron Black's second appearance in a Mortal Kombat game, I believe the developers took some creative liberties and tried to make Black's default appearance older to match the idea that he's over 150 years old.

Erron Black as he appears in Mortal Kombat X (Top) and
how he appears in Mortal Kombat 11's story mode (Bottom).

As for Black's skins, I really like them. All of them are designed to look like what you would imagine a cowboy would wear. Tons of leather, cloth that blows elegantly in the wind, lightweight metal molded into protective armor, he's got it all. If you're interested in what these skins look like, I highly suggest you continue watching the video I linked below for the "Equipment" section of this post. After all the gear is shown, his skins will be shown. Look at what they look like and you'll see why I'm giving his appearances a 9/10.

Equipment

This cowboy is packing. Hot lead, that is. Get your mind out of the gutter. Available for you to customize are Erron Black's cowboy hat, his rifle, and his pistols. You should know the drill by now, video and a list of my favorite gear pieces, blah blah blah, let's begin.

Hats

• Outlander
• Old Fashioned
• Tumbleweed
• Erron Klassic
• Silver Tongue
• Sand Scout
• Lone Stranger
• Quiet Man
• Ghastly Rider
• Harvest Moon

Rifles

• Ragnarok .30-30
• Vurhonga .30-30
• Goldheart .270
• Rottweiler .270
• Elkhorn .270
• Hogwylder .270
• London Jack .308
• Claims Adjuster 7MM
• Black Dragon .338
• Snowblind .338

Pistols

• Smack & Down
• Ham & Eggs
• Mack & Macky
• Scorpion & Sub-Zero
• Buck & Wild
• Naughty & Nice
• Blood & Guts
• Death & Rebirth
• Romeo & Juliet
• Kitana & Jade
• Whiskey & Regret

I honestly love all of the equipment you can get for Erron Black, so much so in fact that I really had to restrict myself from putting them all down on my lists. One thing that does kinda bug me though is that some of the rifles and pistols Erron has available to him are a bit too modern and kinda mesh with his old west gunslinger shtick. That's not to say I don't like how they look, it's just that they don't exactly fit well with Erron's character. With all that being said, however, I'm going to rate Erron's equipment a 9.5/10.

Moveset

It should come as absolutely no surprise that the majority of Erron Black's moves utilize his guns. Some of these moves include Scud Shot, a move that allows you to parry and destroy projectiles and Rifle Stance, which allows you to pull out your rifle and do a series of actions based on whichever button you press. Such moves include unloading you ammo into your opponent, bashing them with the butt of your weapon, and reloading said weapon. He also makes good use of explosives using his TNT Toss move and acid with his Saurian Acid move.

A fun character who's really good at keeping the opponent away from you, Erron Black's moveset gets a 9/10.

Fatalities and Fatal Blow

For the video provided below, it showcases everything listed below in reverse order, which is sort becoming the norm at this point.

Fatality #1, Melted:

• This fatality is...not very good. To me, it would have been so much better if the person Erron was forcing into the acid had their head slowly being dissolved instead of him stomping it into pieces. Would've been much more brutal in my eyes. 5/10.

Fatality #2, Death Trap:

• While this fatality is much better than his first one, it still isn't anything special. The most brutal thing about it in my eyes would have to be when Black crams his rifle into his opponent's body and my favorite part is how the eyes fly out of the person's head. Not bad, but still nothing amazing. 7/10.

Fatal Blow, Ghost Koins:

• An incredible spectacle of a fatal blow, it really just goes to show you how good Erron Black is at being not only a cowboy, but a mercenary. The way he quickly fires off his pistol, throws it into his opponent's face and catches it before ricocheting the bullets off the coins... Simply awesome. 10/10.

Closing Thoughts

One of the more zoning focused characters in the game, Erron Black never fails to put a smile on my face. Seriously, when I'm playing as him I feel genuinely happy, which might be due to the fact that he's got such a great appearance on top of having great dialogue being spoken by the legendary Troy Baker. In the end, I'll give Erron Black an 8/10, which might seem harsh but due to his lack of amazing fatalites, it kind sours the experience, especially seeing as how his fatalities weren't that good in Mortal Kombat X, either.

Who's Next?

The next character we'll be looking at instantly became one of my favorite characters in the entire franchise when I first played her in Mortal Kombat X. If you're scared of bugs, then you're going to want to skip the next blog post. Next time, we'll be looking at the literal lady bug known as D'Vorah.

Stay tuned!