With all due respect to Killer Instinct, Soul Caliber, Street Fighter and Tekken, Mortal Kombat is my favorite fighter video game of all-time. They had a perfect blend of protagonist and antagonist characters, and their story lines were creative and relevant to one another, which was the first of its kind to do so. (I know Street Fighter had something similar, but you always fought your opponents in the same order w M. Bison being last). I also liked the unpredictability of Shang Tsung who could be anyone he wanted in the final match. There wasn’t a gimmicky way of winning the game, because Tsung could be any of Johnny Cage, Sub-Zero, Noob, etc... Anyway, here is a list of my 9 favorite fighters in the old history of Mortal Kombat. (I didn’t play any Mortal Kombat games after the 3rd release).
#9 – Jax Briggs. A military combat fighter, but one that was supercharged. He had an incredible amount of strength, and was one of the few ‘good guys’ that it was fun to play as. His two best game moves were probably Energy Wave – which was similar to Guile’s sonic boom in street fighter – and the Ground Pound – when he smashed the ground and caused his opponent to become stunned for a second or two. His fatality wasn’t the most interesting; he just ripped off the arms of his opponent, but I think his strength and heroic like character is enough to get him into the nine.#8 – Johnny Cage. I didn’t like him at first, because I thought he was a ridiculous character for a fighting game. He wasn’t necessarily a good guy, although he wasn’t bad either, but he was pretty and always wore the outlandish sunglasses during his fights. One of my favorite things about playing against him was being able to knock off those glasses. His moves were pretty decent – I think he was comparable to Ken from Street Fighter, and he had a lot of kicks that could inflict damage. His Shadow Kick was probably his best known move, but it was his fatality kill that finally made me a fan. The ‘Torso Rip’ was messy, but simple. Just rip the top from the bottom. Classic stuff.
#7 – Princess Kitana. The Princess Kitana was hotter than either Sonya Blade or Chun-Li of Street Fighter fame, but she had the skill set to match. She was the owner of the dangerous fan blade, which she could use to throw at an opponent, or use it in up close one-v-one combat. Just like Johnny though, it was her fatality moves that I really enjoyed. Her first one was the ‘Kiss of Death’ which made her opponent blow up like a big balloon and explode. She also had the ‘Fan Slice’ which was a slick head decapitation move and she also had Sonya Blade’s ‘Scissor Split’ where she ripped off the torso from the bottom of the body. Gruesome goodies.
#6 – Scorpion. “Get over here!” Probably the most classic of lines in all of Mortal Kombat history. Hanzo Hasashi, who Scorpion started out as, is one of the most complex characters of the franchise. While he aligns himself with some of the bad guys – like Shang Tsung in the movie version, he is essentially neutral. He becomes an assassin to provide for his wife and children. His signature move of course was his scorpion spear which he could use to bring his opponent close so he could inflict major damage. He also had a teleport attack where he appeared at the back of his opponent and inflict some damage. Even his Air Throw was decent enough; he probably had one of the better repertoires of the MK characters as most of his moves exacted a lot of damage and they were tough to defend against too. His fatality move ‘Toasty!’ is still one of the legendary finishing moves as he just breathes fire on his opponents and turns them into bones (and in later versions, ash).
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#5 Liu Kang. The good guy of the good guys. I think he is probably the true protagonist hero of the game. He is always fighting for the good of the realm, and has made it known that Shang Tsung and Shao Kahn are his true enemies. He has a great assortment of moves including his trademarked fireball that inflicts minimal damage but is hard to avoid. He also has the flying kick and the bicycle kick which are both fun to use and generates a bit more damage to the opponent. His fatalities were rather boring, but that was more a feature of his beliefs (anti-murdering) than anything else. His friendship fatality is easily my all-time favorite though when he breaks out in dance with the disco ball at the top of the screen. Wherever do they come up with these ideas...
#4 – Goro. The brutally strong antagonist. Perhaps the greatest sub-boss off all-time at least in relation to Killer Instinct (Fulgore) and Street Fighter (Sagat). His most signature move was probably when he jumped in the air and landed on his opponent which varied throughout the games (in some games he jumped out of the screen, in others not so much). Like Liu Kang, he too had a fireball, but his was green and a bit more lethal. His chest pound if executed well could take off half of an opponent’s life, and was hard to come back from if accomplished twice. His fatality ‘The Disconnect Four’ pulled people’s head into little quarter pieces and was more horrific than most other character’s finishing moves. Hard to beat indeed.
#3 – Sub-Zero. The first character that I fell in love with. Once I had mastered his skill set, I was hard to defeat. His best move is probably known the world over, and was very effective in either form. He could either ice his opponent frozen, or spray it over the surface and get them falling into his direct path for more demolition. In later games he also was able to spray ice in the air and hit jumping opponents, or his ice clone which created a frozen version of himself that froze the opponent. His fatality move is infamous for its controversy for the violent factor. For those of you that remember, he dismembers the head from his opponent with his spine attached and blood dripping everywhere. A bit much, but a definite fatality. His ‘Ice Impalement’ is a little more up his alley as he creates an ice spike that the opponent naturally falls on.#2 – Noob Saibot. The dead Sub-Zero. After Scorpion kills off Sub-Zero, he returns to the realm as Noob, a ridiculously talented and demoralizing villain who cares for nothing other than murder. So very fun to play with. Noob was part of Sub-Zero’s skill set, Scorpion’s skill set (perhaps because he was killed by him?), Rayden’s skill set (namely teleportation) and the slide tackle – similar to Smoke and Liu Kang’s. He is a tough character to master; he has so many moves in which to learn and he doesn’t inflict the most strength on every hit, but if used correctly, can be one of the toughest players in the game. His finishing move was the ‘Spinning Tornado’ which was fun to watch, but difficult to perform (left, left, up, slide to the left, right and X or maybe O I can’t remember). I also liked his ‘Teleportation Body slam’ in which he just repeatedly slammed you in the air, coming to and fro, until the opponent exploded. Sensational stuff.
#1 – It could be a number of people I suppose. I’ve always enjoyed using Baraka, Rayden, Kung Lao, and Shang Tsung among many others. But for those of you that played MK with me, whether it be at Circus Circus, Spectrum Lanes arcade or on any number of video game systems, it’s probably a pretty easy guess...
Reptile. From the very first time I used him, I was in love. He was neither good nor evil, but he just liked fighting, and he wasn’t afraid of any MK character including Shao Kahn, Shang Tsung or Zoro. At first he was created with a combination of Sub-Zero and Scorpion powers which I was fine with, because I probably used them the most. But when MK2 was released he was given his own skill set, which I thoroughly enjoyed. He had acid spit, which I used over and over until the opponent pretty much went into submission. Chameleon was my favorite move though. He disappeared, and if used correctly, your opponent had no chance of winning the match. He was a tough play though, because sometimes I had a hard time deciphering where he was. The Slow Force ball was the other piece of his trifecta of great moves, which forced the opponent toward Reptile without the opportunity of using a skill. His Fatalities were the same as Scorpion and Sub-Zero in the first one, but ‘Tasty’ will always be the one I enjoyed. He took off his mask, swallowed his opponent’s head, and to the thrill of many, rubbed his tummy and said Yum! Yum is deserving of the #1 spot all by itself. A great era of video games, this Mortal Kombat.
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