The Best Games in the Mortal Kombat Franchise

MORTAL KOMBAT!

If you were born between the 80s and 90s, it's very likely that, upon reading that name, the unmistakable Techno Syndrome music started playing in your head, and you're probably saying the fighters' names in that deep, narrator-like voice to the beat. "Kano... Liu Kang... Raiden... Johnny Cage..."

If you're younger, you probably don't know what the Mortal Kombat craze was and how it changed the way we play videogames nowadays. But if you know any games and love the franchise, you've probably wondered: What’s the best MK of all time?

Over the years and with the various reboots of the game, we're left wondering. The classics made using rotoscoping and digitized actors? The 3D ones? The 2.5D ones? Special Forces with Jax? No, not that one! So let's talk about which are the best games based on the overall scores from the website Metacritics and, if you have any questions or disagree, just leave a comment.

The new MK universe was created from the decision of the new fire god, Liu Kang, after defeating Kronika and rewriting all of history. Liu Kang, now a Titan, rewrote the entire history of the realms and gave his old friends new lives, although not everything was completely altered and many destinies remained practically the same.

Mortal Kombat is still a way to maintain balance between the realms, and the new champions are Raiden and Kung Lao, who must fight against General Shao, champion of Outworld, while trying to stop a conspiracy between Shang Tsung, Shao, and Quan Chi.

In addition to a completely new story that retells many known events in a different way (for example, Bi Han, the original Sub-Zero, still becomes Noob Saibot, but at the hands of Havik and not Quan Chi), the game introduces Kamoe Fighters, which serve as assistance during fights, and brings back Animalities, which earned it a score of 83 on Metacritic.

The sequel to the first reboot primarily follows the rookie defenders of Earthrealm, such as Cassie Cage, Jacqui Briggs, Takeda, and Kung Jin, under the leadership of Johnny Cage, as members of the special forces, dealing with the return of the sorcerer Quan Chi and the fallen god Shinnok. It also explores a possible coup d'état in which Mileena attempts to seize the throne from the new Khan of Outworld, Kotal, and the origins of the Cage family's powers.

The game has a darker aesthetic than the others, had a companion version for mobile phones, and introduced some changes such as interaction with the environment for attacks, a stamina bar that limited combos and dashes, as well as the return of brutalities. The game has a score of 83 on Metacritic and was highly praised for its dark atmosphere and well-constructed story. The complete version, called Mortal Kombat XL, scores 85, thanks to improvements in the balance of the fighters and the addition of all characters in a single package.

The sequel dealt with the direct consequences of the events of MK X, with Liu Kang and Kitana as the rulers of Netherrealm and Raiden, who’s very angry about the constant attacks on Earthrealm. This time, he won't just wait for the other planes to try to conquer Earth. This time, he'll send a very clear message about what happens to those who attack Earth, displaying Shinnok's head for all to see.

However, someone is unhappy with the fact that Raiden has altered the timeline and is messing everything up, mixing different timelines and bringing back from the past kombatants who were dead, such as Shao Khan, Liu Kang, and Kung Lao, and others who are trying to rewrite their stories.

The gameplay remains in 2.5D, and the X-Ray moves are replaced by Fatal Blows. With a score of 83 on the site, MK 11 was widely praised for its cinematic narrative and gameplay depth, although criticized for excessive grinding in the Krypt and microtransactions. The Ultimate version has a score of 88.

The first reboot of the MK franchise, which ensured that it’d get the franchise back on track after games criticized for their excessive number of clunky characters, weak fatalities, and mechanics that nobody asked for, such as Chess Kombat and Motor Kombat. Here, the idea was to bring MK closer to what it was at launch, with exaggerated violence, blood, and combat without too many silly jokes.

At least, in the beginning, in addition to guest characters, the Babalities are back in the game after years of being left in limbo.

With a score of 81 on Metacritic, MK 2011 shows that Shao Khan managed to climb to the top of the Pyramid of Argus and conquer Blaze's power, but Raiden, in a desperate act, sends a message to his past self: "He must win". This action rewrites the entire history of the first three MK games and begins a new era for the fighting game. It introduced, in addition to guest characters like Kratos and Freddy Krueger, X-Ray moves that show the fighters' bones breaking in a cinematic view.

Deception was one of those games in the series that helped solidify the cinematic story mode in fighting games, later copied by other series like Tekken and Street Fighter. In addition to the already known arcade mode, with each fighter having their own ending, MK Deception introduced the story mode, following the warrior Shujinko who was tricked by the Dragon King Onaga into retrieving powerful magical artifacts called Kamidogu. Despite believing he’s doing good, the Dragon King hopes to use the Kamidogu to unify the kingdoms under his rule.

Deception introduces interactive arenas with deadly death traps, weapons in certain scenarios, as well as minigames like Chess Kombat and Puzzle Kombat, reminiscent of Capcom's Super Puzzle Fighter, which mixed Tetris with SD-style characters. The game achieved a score of 81 on Metacritic.

A rather interesting story, but some strange decisions made this game a turning point for the franchise's fanbase. The sorcerers Shang Tsung and Quan Chi join forces in an alliance to defeat Liu Kang and Shao Khan and steal their souls. With this, they open a huge well of souls and intend to use its power to revive the Dragon King Onaga and finally invade and conquer the realms. Raiden renounces his title of Elder God to stop the sorcerers' plans with the help of the rest of the kombatants.

Deadly Alliance is the first console-exclusive MK game and introduced modes like Konquest, equivalent to Arcade mode with individual endings, and Krypt, which unlocked costumes and collectibles. Many praised the free 3D movement, but even today the zombie Liu Kang is divisive and received a score of 79 on Metacritic.

Since they’re basically versions of the same game, we'll treat MK 3 and its variations as a whole and state that this game had around 73 on Metacritic. Here, Shao Khan grew tired of being defeated and tired of following the rules of the Elder Gods, so he invaded Earth, stealing the souls of everyone on the planet except for the fighters defending the Earthrealm. He did this by resurrecting Queen Sindel and merging Earth with Outworld.

Here came several innovations that continued with the franchise over the decades, such as running, Brutalities, Animalities, and Mercy, which gave the defeated fighter a little more energy to try to turn the tide, as well as transitioning between stages with a very strong blow, like hooks. On the other hand, that 'clean violence' was very evident here, with silly Animalities like turning into a skunk and killing the opponent with the bad smell or exploding enemies to a rain of repeated bones falling on the ground that made no sense.

The last game of the 3D era brings together all the Kombatants in a battle prophesied as 'Armageddon'. The Konquest mode, basically the story mode, follows Taven, a sleeping warrior who competes against his brother, Daegon, to decide who will inherit their parents' powers. After defeating Daegon, Taven faces the "pyramid of Argus" where all the fighters fight to the death.

Two ideas are mixed here. One good and one not so much. The ‘Kreate-a-Fighter’ allowed you to customize your fighter, creating fun things that we still see on the internet today, like fighters that look like characters such as Deadpool. The ‘Kreate-a-Fatality’ seemed like a good idea, but ended up disappointing by making fatalities with the same movements all the time. It seems that creating one or two specific fatalities for the 62 playable characters would be a lot of work! MK: Armageddon scores 75 on Metacritic.

Following the success of Mortal Kombat, it was clear that Midway, the game's former developer, would create a sequel. The enormous impact of the first game led to a reduction in the graphically exaggerated violence, which was replaced by cleaner, more fantastical violence. The fatalities, previously somewhat crude, such as simply ripping off a head or a heart, were replaced by characters transforming into dragons or magical bladed hats.

Not to mention the jabs at the industry powerhouses with the ‘Friendships’ (since the industry complained about the excessive violence, they included funny finishing moves where the fighters were ‘nice’ to each other) and the ‘Babalities’ (which turned the opponent into a crybaby, like the guys who complained about the game). MK II offers greater speed, more fluid combos, and improved graphics, and received high scores and numerous accolades in specialized lists at the time of its release. Its current score is 72.

While Marvel Comics characters were flying high in incredibly fun fighting games alongside Capcom characters, DC Comics heroes had never appeared in good fighting games. And that only changed with the Injustice series, because MK vs DC Universe still wasn't that good of a fighting game featuring Superman, Batman, Flash, and the other Justice League heroes.

To begin with, DC didn't allow its heroes to kill other characters, not even villains, which led to some rather awkward situations when we saw the 'Heroic Brutality' which, in many quotation marks, "didn't kill". I mean, Superman (you know, THAT Superman? Yes, him) punching relatively human characters like Liu Kang, Sonya, and Jax, and burying them in the ground, doesn't kill them? I think it does. Or it should.

The story shows that, at the same moment the Defenders of Earthrealm throw Shao Khan into a portal back to Outworld, the Justice League defeats Darkseid and sends him back to Apokolips in a Boom Tube. This coincidence creates a powerful being called Dark Khan and merges the DC and MK universes. Now, heroes, villains, and kombatants must face each other to save their universe before the other universe erases them.

The Klose Kombat mode, in which characters fall and still fight in mid-air, and Rage mode, which increases the strength of blows, were praised, but the toned-down violence earned this game a score of 72 on the site.

The Pioneer. The OG. The one that shook the gaming world, making conservatives and religious fanatics emerge from their hiding places to shout (once again) that games were corrupting and destroying our youth. This game, which was responsible for creating a rating system for games, showed digitized actors fighting and splattering huge drops of red blood from their enemies. Street Fighter was for kids in arcades. The 'cool kids' played Mortal Kombat.

Every 50 years, a life-or-death tournament takes place to determine the legitimacy of one realm invading and conquering another with the permission of the Elder Gods. Earthrealm is in Outworld's sights, and for them to dominate us, only one victory is needed. Liu Kang, the champion chosen by the protector god Raiden, must face the invading champion, Goro, and protect Earth in the tournament aptly named Mortal Kombat.

The game used digitized sprites of real actors, featured a five-button system, and showcased Fatalities, brutal finishing moves where the winner executes their opponent. It doesn't have a score on the website, but compilations have scores ranging from 72 to 66, so let's say it gets a 70 for its pioneering spirit.

Here, Midway decided to completely abandon the era of digitized actors and began using full 3D models for fighting in three-dimensional arenas in the style of Tekken, Virtua Fighter, and others that were beginning to emerge in arcades and modern consoles. The game introduced a system of weapons and combat stances, and removed Animalities, Babalities, and Friendships to focus on more serious violence.

Shinnok, an ancient Elder God, was imprisoned in the Netherrealm and, with the help of Quan Chi, managed to escape and recover his amulet. Now, he wants revenge on the Elder Gods, and to prevent this, Raiden summons the champions of Earthrealm and Outworld. Several fan-favorite fighters were left out of the game, which generated complaints. Then, MK 4 Gold was released, exclusive to Dreamcast, which limited public access to the complete game. Neither the original nor the Gold version has any ratings.