Mortal Kombat fans seem to unanimously hate Ermac's new design for Mortal Kombat 1, with many arguing that it's a massive downgrade from his practically unused design in Mortal Kombat 11.
Ed Boon promised that Mortal Kombat 1 would have a big presence at San Diego Comic-Con and he wasn't kidding. Not only did we get a new story trailer that revealed that Tanya, Baraka, and Li Mei are on the game's starting roster (as well as Goro and Darrius as Kameos), but we also got confirmation of the game's first Kombat Pack, which features Homelander, Omni-Man, Peacemaker, Takeda, Quan Chi, and Ermac, confirming the earlier Amazon leak.
Reception to this Kombat Pack has mostly been incredibly positive, but there's one element that everyone seems to be unhappy with - Ermac's design. We only got to see a little of it in an area with incredibly bright lighting, so it's worth holding some judgement until the full game, but this version of Ermac doesn't have a mask at all, leaving his weird dehydrated mummy face on full display. Even moving away from the head, Ermac in Mortal Kombat 1 has a surprisingly simplistic outfit that doesn't really do his original designs justice.
It's a very different take on what we've seen for Ermac before, lacking any prominent red colourings, a mask, and even any bandages, which is a staple of his character. All of these things combine for an Ermac design that is getting a lot of hate from fans across social media, with comparisons being made to a range of other characters, including the Kollector, the dried-up grandma from SpongeBob, and even Halo Infinite's Craig, for some reason.
One popular post over on the Mortal Kombat subreddit by Redditor Shahradwayne spells out clearly why everyone is unhappy with the design - Mortal Kombat 11 was right there with the perfect one. As Ermac fans will know, he didn't actually make a playable appearance in Mortal Kombat 11, only appearing in a cutscene in the game's Krypt mode. Even then, he was given a unique design specifically for that appearance, one that combines elements of all of his designs and one that looks distinctly like Ermac.
Shahradwayne calls the outfit progression from Mortal Kombat 11 to Mortal Kombat 1 the "biggest downgrade of all time" and it's something that a lot of fans seem to agree with. Even worse is the fact that Mortal Kombat 1 seemingly doesn't have any gear systems at all this time around, meaning that, barring any DLC or alternate costumes, players are going to be stuck with Ermac's dehydrated Paul-looking design here.