Skin only, then no thanks. Thats retarded, sorry. Just like in UMK3, both Smoke's are completely different and are totally different characters.
No actual character, then no Robo Homo in MK9.
Holy fuck, this. I'm just going to be blunt: I really don't understand how someone could ever prefer Cyber Smoke as a skin when he could be a new character all of his own. Why waste so much potential?
Cyber Smoke has been my most requested DLC character since the game came out. I was really eager to see Rain get released (and I knew it would happen eventually), but I'd give anything to have Cyber Smoke. I main Cyber Subs, and I love how the other two cyborgs play. A lot of people say they shouldn't release a Cyber Smoke because he'd just be a lame rehash character, "Like Cyber Sub Zero", but they're dead wrong on both counts. Cyber Subs manages to be a character all of his own, even with several borrowed specials, because he has a lot of really standout normals and a very distinct feel. He's unique unto himself, regardless of what the haters may think, because he doesn't play anything like Sub Zero. There's no reason the same couldn't apply to Cyber Smoke.
Really, I want to see Cyber Smoke for a number of reasons. First off, I love what they've done with the cyborgs in MK9, design-wise. Sektor looks the closest to his original MK3 design, but he was still given a convincing overhaul. Cyrax manages to stand out from Sektor while staying true to his original design as well, and I think that's really cool. Cyber Subs manages to look completely unique, and I was really impressed with how he turned out. Following that trend, I'm so eager to see what they could do with Cyber Smoke.
The biggest issue I have with Cyber Smoke just being a skin is that it wouldn't feel right, at all. First off, Human Smoke and Cyber Smoke played like two completely different characters in UMK3/MKT, even if Human Smoke was mostly just a Scorpion rehash. Second, because MK9's Smoke was given a completely reworked movelist for this reason, he's not even the same character anymore. He still "feels" like Smoke, but he couldn't be any further from Cyber Smoke. To anyone who played the older games growing up, picture MK9 Smoke doing his moves in an MK3 Cyborg outfit, and tell me it wouldn't look really out of place. It doesn't matter if you make his attacks come from his chest: It just doesn't feel right. It's fine to release retros for Cyrax and Sektor because they still play like they did in every previous game, but MK9 Smoke doesn't play at all like MK3 Smoke.
Oh, and here's an idea for Cyber Smoke: What if he kept the trident spear, but it shot out of his chest at a 45 degree angle? It could be more elastic-looking, with a quick lunge/retract motion to pull people in so it looks less like the spear. He could just kind of open his arms and lean back, sort of like Sektor does when he uses an up missile, and snatch people out of the air. It'd give him his oldschool trident spear, which is probably what he's best known for, without ripping off Scorpion.
Alternatively, he could use it at a downward angle from the air to snatch people in for an air throw/teleport attack. Function-wise, it'd be like Cyber Sub's far divekick, meant to punish projectiles and such from the air. All you'd really have to do is make it punishable at close range, a la the Smoke bomb, and it'd be pretty fair.
