Boon explains Mortal Kombat Krueger DLC

Mortal Kombat creator Ed Boon has explained the decision to offer horror icon Freddy Krueger as a DLC fighter.

Speaking to the PlayStation Blog, Boon revealed that he and his team had wanted to add an additional "unexpected" guest character to the game alongside God of War's Kratos and Krueger seemed like a great fit for the franchise.

"It's kind of hard to choose a character who would fit well into the Mortal Kombat universe, with the blood and violence that's so associated with it. Kratos from God of War is a brutal, bloody character, so he makes sense," he explained.

"When we had the discussions about the DLC characters, we knew that we wanted to add a returning character, a new character, but also a guest character. That was one of the goals right from the beginning.

"A number of names were run by us: Jason, Michael Myers and all those guys. Freddy Kreuger, we felt, was the most instantly recognisable and he fits in with Mortal Kombat with his claws. It just seemed like the best fit."

He went on to explain that this wasn't the first time in the series history that the idea of adding a famous horror icon had been kicked around.

"Over the years, we've certainly had a number of conversations about guest characters. At one point, we had a conversation about having a group — imagine Freddy, Jason, Michael Myers, Leatherface from Texas Chainsaw Massacre — of all these killers from the '80s and '90s flicks come in as a group of characters.

"We never got a grip on how we would do it, whether they'd be DLC characters or what. But yes, we've had lots of conversations over the years.

"We also wanted to introduce a character who was unexpected. This DLC thing opens the doors to realising these ideas."

Check out the trailer below to see the scourge of Elm Street in action.

You'll be able to get your hands on Krueger from 9th August, priced at 400 Microsoft Points on Xbox Live Marketplace or £3.19 on PlayStation Network.