MK 2011 info: Shang Tsung

A treacherous sorcerer who consumes the souls of his victims, SHANG TSUNG has played host to the last nine Mortal Kombat tournaments in Earthrealm, stacking the odds in favor of his master. Originally from Earthrealm, SHANG TSUNG'S magical abilities led him to discover the realm of Outworld. There he fell in league with its ruler, Shao Kahn, and pledged his life to him in return for enhanced power. He is now bound to the emperor by powerful dark magic. For centuries he has submissively done Shao Kahn's bidding. Should SHANG TSUNG fail in his mission to secure Earthrealm, he will suffer the emperor's wrath.


Signature Moves
Morphing: Shang Tsung assumes the shape of anyone in the game. In the second and third games, he couldn't morph into the bosses. (Although in Mortal Kombat II, as a fatality, he could briefly morph into Kintaro to punch the opponent in half.) In Deadly Alliance, he can morph into anyone on the Game Boy Advance ports only. In MK 2011, he uses the Soul Steal to morph into his opponent.

Flaming Skulls: Shang Tsung sends a fiery skull at his opponent. In the first game, he could throw up to six. In the other games it is one, two, or three only. In MK 2011 this is called Fire Skull.
* The enhanced version of this is called Triple Skulls and fires three skulls, one after another.

Flaming Skull Eruption: Shang Tsung summons his fiery skulls to burst out of the ground in a series of three. In MK 2011 this is called Ground Skull and can be done from three distances: Close, Medium, and Far.
* The enhanced version is called Ground Eruption in which a Far range skull appears first, followed by a Medium range skull, and a Close range skull.

Soul Steal: Shang Tsung steals a small portion of his opponent's life force. He also does this in Shaolin Monks in a manner similar to his Mortal Kombat II fatality. The special move version allows him to regain health should he take damage. In MK 2011, he morphs into his opponent after using this move and gets a damage boost by 1%.
* The enhanced version is called Soul Capture. Shang Tsung stays as the opponent for a longer time.

Up Skull: Shang Tsung throws a skull upwards hitting the opponent from mid-air. This can be done from three distances: Above, Behind, and In Front. This move is similar to Sektor's Up Missile.
* The enhanced version is called Skull Storm and fires three skulls, one for each of the three distances and they all come down at the same time.

X-Ray Move - Your Soul Is Mine: Shang Tsung steals the soul out of his opponent, showing only the muscles due to the soul taken from the skin (and the ribs broken due to his hands inside the opponent's chest), then knees his/her skull causing it to break.


Fatalities
Bang Bang!: Shang Tsung morphs into a evil looking clown, takes out a gun and fires, but it is fake and instead a flag with the word 'Bang!' comes out of the gun. He drops it and starts to laugh. Then he pulls out a real gun and shoots the opponent in the head, blowing the head to pieces. This is the fatality of The Joker from the MK vs DC Universe game series.

Identity Theft: Shang Tsung enters his opponent's body through magic and makes the opponent rip off their own head; similar to Liu Kang's Deception Fatality.