Khameleon
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Khameleon is a character in the Mortal Kombat fighting game series.
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[edit] About Khameleon
Khameleon is a palette swapped female ninja in Mortal Kombat Trilogy. She only appeared in the Nintendo 64 version of the game as a secret character, being playable by activation of a secret code. The PC, PlayStation, and Sega Saturn versions instead had Chameleon, a similar but male character. She wears gray, but otherwise is physically identical to Kitana, Mileena, and Jade. She flickers in and out of full and partial invisibility whenever she appears, making her quite hard to see, even for the player controlling her. She has no moves or fatalities of her own; rather, her name in her life bar changes colors fairly rapidly. The color determines whether her moves are Jade's (green), Mileena's (purple), or Kitana's (blue). Since the lifebar is blue, this makes her name quite hard to see most of the time. She technically has access to all of the three ninjas' moves and fatalities, though the timing is quite difficult. She even copies combos, thus making it appear that she can pull their weapons out of thin air. She is scheduled to appear in the Wii version of Mortal Kombat: Armageddon.[1]
[edit] Storyline
Khameleon has a storyline. The outcome given in her game ending has been disproven by later games. Much of the backstory has held to be true in games like Mortal Kombat: Deception, which applied some of it to Reptile.
Khameleon's bio describes her as the last female of her race, as Reptile is the last male. It reveals that her race, the Saurians, or Raptors, were originally from Earth, but a great war drove some of them out of that realm and killed the rest (Raiden seems to mention this in the introduction to Mortal Kombat Gold, though not by name).
They found a new home in another realm, which they called Zaterra or "New Earth." However, Shao Kahn eventually found it, drove the Raptors to near extinction, and then merged Zaterra with Outworld. It is thought that he forced those remaining into slavery. It is unknown if Reptile survived or was even born yet. Khameleon was hidden away at the time.
In the second part of her ending, it is stated that she spent an indefinite amount of time trying to find Reptile in an attempt to restore their race; however, he remained unaware of her, focusing on serving Shao Kahn. Khameleon finally catches up to Reptile and tells him the truth of how Kahn was responsible for the extinction of their race. She then assists him as he turns against and kills Shao Kahn. The two of them then return to Zaterra to repopulate their race. Since Reptile only continues his descent into madness and despair in Mortal Kombat 4/Gold, this second part can be assumed to have never occurred.
[edit] Khameleon in 2007
In the September 2006 issue of Official Xbox Magazine, an article about Mortal Kombat: Armageddon mentioned that Khameleon would appear in 3D for the first time. However, in an interview with Midway producer Shaun Himmerick at the Games Convention in August 2006, he said that "Khameleon is not in Armageddon"[citation needed].
Cinder, an administrator at the Midway Forums, posted that she would not appear in Armageddon for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox consoles. The Wii version, which would be released at a later date, was not mentioned in the post. This appeared to leave the possibility that she could appear in that version. However, Cinder later removed the PS2 and Xbox references from his post, thus seeming to imply that she wouldn't be in any version of the game [2]. Later, Cinder stated that she would not appear in the Wii version either, making her the only main character of the franchise who was not in Armageddon. This led some fans to petition for her inclusion. [3] At the 2007 Winter Gamers Day event, Ed Boon and Shaun Himmerick finally confirmed that Khameleon will be a playable character in the Wii version. [4] Her portrait was seen for the first time on March 29th, during a preview video of the Wii version of MKA at the Gamespot website.
[edit] Trivia
- Khameleon may be fought in a one-player battle in a way similar to Smoke's appearance in Mortal Kombat II. First, a battle must be fought on "The Star Bridge" (a level exclusive to the Nintendo 64 version of Mortal Kombat Trilogy which looks like "The Pit II" with the background replaced by a field of stars). It can be either a one-player or two-player battle. Then, when Dan Forden appears to say "Toasty!" (usually after an uppercut), if either player presses Down and Start together, that player will be taken to the "Living Forest" level to fight Khameleon. She also can be fought by enabling the secret endurance ladders (press Down and Start while highlighting Kano before beginning a one-player game). If done, Khameleon will appear towards the bottom of the highest-level ladder. She still fights in the Living Forest.
- Khameleon does not wear anything other than her usual shade of gray when fighting herself; rather, one of the Khameleons will have a darker skin tone (the same as Jade's). She is the only character in the Mortal Kombat series to do this.
- Khameleon is referenced in next-gen MK games: in Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance, upon failing an objective for one of Nitara's Konquest chapters, the failure message reads: "You must successfully learn the Kama. Khameleon would have mastered it with ease had her culture not been clubbed by Shao Kahn ages ago." (A reference to the 80's song Karma Chameleon, by the group Culture Club). In Mortal Kombat: Deception, she is referenced on Reptile's Character Card as one of Reptile's allies, acknowledging their ties together.
- In his ending story in Mortal Kombat: Armageddon, Reptile found a female Zaterran inside a sarcophagus. When the female awoke, Reptile was restored to his original humanoid form. The character may be a reference to Khameleon, but in an online chat event held in November 2006, John Vogel said that she is most likely a new character. [5]
- With her inclusion in the Wii version of Armageddon, Khameleon holds the distinct honor of being the only playable Mortal Kombat character to be an exclusive to only one console line (Nintendo's, as her initial playable appearance was in the N64 version of Mortal Kombat Trilogy).
