Ride the lightning with every fighting game fanatic’s favorite god of thunder in NetherRealm Studios’ newest Mortal Kombat X trailer.

Little known fact: Raiden’s hat also doubles as a welding hood.

We’ve covered Mortal Kombat X, NetherRealm Studios’ next entry in the ever-popular Mortal Kombat series, a couple of times already here at MXDWN games. And why wouldn’t we? Mortal Kombat is a great series, and game industry veterans around the world are excited to see where the next entry takes the series, and what we’ll see of both the old and new combatants this time around.

Well, NetherRealm Studios have just released new information for us concerning that, and in a move that is no surprise to anyone (but far from bad) the studio has released an updated trailer for Mortal Kombat X featuring none other than Earth Realm’s first and foremost protector, Raiden.

Like with all of the other bits of gameplay we’ve seen from the upcoming fighter so far Raiden’s character model looks gorgeous, and his combat moves look like a blast to try out when the game releases some time in 2015. The return of the three-variation combat mechanic to the games will give players a lot of depth when facing off against one another, even with the same character, and watching Raiden’s trailer it is clear they’re putting in a lot of effort to put clear definition between all three of a character’s fighting styles.

Also, Raiden’s not a zombie this time, which is always a good thing. Zombie Liu Kang is the best Mortal Kombat zombie.

What’s interesting to see in the trailer is the rapid-fire use of Raiden’s lightning abilities versus his opponent, Kotal Kahn, new reigning emperor of the Nether Realm. While Raiden has almost always had a decent turn of speed (and some of the cheapest combat moves in the franchise, I’m looking at you, teleport punch,) the rate of fire for his electrical abilities really seems to be “amped up,” as it were, from older titles in the franchise, with the ability to string and combo long-distance electrical moves showcasing a drastic change in focus away from the much more up close and personal fighting styles typically seen in games of the series.

NetherRealm has been drip feeding us a steady diet of new information on Mortal Kombat X for months now, and the more information we receive the more excited we get over the possibilities present in the new game.

Teleport punches are still cheap, though.