Ed Ranks Mortal Kombat (1992) Characters

Go ahead. Scream it like in the commercial.

Here are the 10 characters in the original Mortal Kombat game, ranked.

I had a Sega Genesis, rather than a Super Nintendo, and the games differed slightly. However, I'll be referring to the Genesis versions here, for what it's worth. Sometimes that matters (e.g. Sub-Zero's finisher).

10. Johnny Cage

A boring guy who is an actor that wears shades to look cool. He isn't. He was apparently inspired by Jean-Claude Van Damme. But if they wanted him to be really cool like JCVD, they should have given him a European name rather than this "bro" name.

• Why did he enter the Tournament? To prove that he was actually a skilled fighter and not just using stunt doubles. Or something like that.
• Fatality: Decapitating the heads of his opponents with an uppercut. Which means you probably shouldn't argue with him on a movie set.

9. Reptile

Reptile is the "secret" unlockable character in Mortal Kombat. He's a Scorpion/Sub-Zero clone, except he's green. The way you're supposed to be able to unlock him is through a complicated series of tricks. You have to play on the pit level, then only once in every six games at the pit you'll see silhouettes gliding past the moon. Then on that game you must win a double flawless victory without blocking and... blah, blah, blah. There is a cheat code too and most people just used the cheat code to get to fight him.

• Why did he enter the Tournament? I suppose just to be a creepy, secret villain that taunts you with various riddles about how to unlock him.
• Fatality: N/A as he's a non-playable character. He's unlockable, but unlocking him only allows you to fight him. You still can't actually play as him. But he's just Green Scorpion, so in later games you'll see him pull his mask off like Scorpion but instead of being a skull it's a lizard face and instead of burning you he does freaky lizard tongue stuff to you.

This presumes you'd choose Kano, and why would you?

8. Kano

Kano is explained as a Japanese-born American orphan who grew up into a life of crime, eventually working for a group called "The Black Dragon." Oh, he's also part robot with one glowing robot eye (clearly inspired by The Terminator).

• Why did he enter the Tournament? He heard that Shang Tsung's palace was filled with gold and riches and he wanted them.
• Fatality: He rips your heart out. Just like your first boy/girl friend did back in high school.

7. Sonya Blade

A member of an elite U.S. Special Forces unit, Sonya is just here to track down the Black Dragon organization. She's then ambushed on Shang Tsung's special murder tournament island and I guess Shang Tsung is like, "Hey, we don't have any ladies in this tournament. Let's have her participate in it!" Sonya reluctantly agrees. 

• Why did she enter the Tournament? To catch Kano and defeat the Black Dragon organization. Only she was held hostage and forced to fight for her life.
• Fatality: A "kiss of death" where she blows a kiss at a person, which blows a fireball and incinerates them in a way that just re-uses Scorpion's (cooler) charred skeleton incineration graphic.

Pepe the Prawn got buff.

6. Goro

Goro is the 4-armed, pony-tailed barbarian henchman of the game (Boss Fight #1, before you move on to uber-villain, Shang Tsung). He was based on stop-motion monsters from films like Clash of the Titans. I can't remember if his origin is even explained in this game, but at least later he's explained as the reigning "Champion" of the death games for the last 500 years.

• Why did he enter the Tournament? Because he's the reigning champion and needs to defend his title.
• Fatality: N/A as he's a non-playable character. In later games where he's playable, he basically beats the hell out of people with his many appendages.

5. Shang Tsung

The grand poobah. This is the guy who runs the crazy murder tournament on the secret island. He's an evil warlock who can shapeshift and change what he looks like to different characters from the game. He also uses their move sets. I thought that was cool as hell and badass when I was a kid. "Wow! The final enemy is like every other enemy combined... so cool!" Of course, now I realize it was just a lazy way to re-use graphics and moves rather than coding any new information or moves into the game. Anyway, the plot of the game also has stuff about him being cursed by the gods into stealing souls or something like that. Oh, he also wants to rule/destroy the earth or something like that. Cool.

• Why did he enter the Tournament? I mean, it's, like, his tournament.
• Fatality: N/A as he's a non-playable character. But in later games he does various crazy evil wizard spells and stuff.

4. Liu Kang

LK is a Shaolin monk who wants to save all of Earth, and then enters the tournament. He's apparently a mashup of Bruce Lee and 12th-Century Japanese military commander and hero, Minamoto no Yoshitsune. But most Americans who played the game were probably not all that familiar with 12th-Century Japanese military commanders, so let's just go ahead and call him "Fake Bruce Lee." He's also awesome because he does a bunch of kicks, including a bicycle kick. I know a lot of people think LK is the best and he's the "canonical" winner of the tournament, but I didn't particularly use him a lot.

• Why did he enter the Tournament? To save Earth. Which is, I suppose, pretty noble or something.
• Fatality: He uppercuts you so hard that you are thrown into the air really high, fall back down, and die. Which is awesome, but still a little strange for someone who's entire repertoire is "I do a lot of kicks." Why not a kick finisher, LK? Depending on where you're fighting, this uppercut might also cause the opponent to fall down to the ground and be impaled by spikes. Which is cool too.

3. Scorpion

Scorpion's real name and origin are a mystery, at least in the first game. Afterwards they give him and his twin/arch enemy/palette-swap Sub-Zero more elaborate backstories. But in this first one, all we know about them is that they are unnamed enemies from rival ninja clans. So, Scorpion is the yellow ninja guy who has some fire powers, as well as a big spear he can "GET OVER HERE" you with, as well as a punch where he can teleport.

• Why did he enter the Tournament? It's not really said up front, but it's revealed that Sub Zero previously murdered him. So presumably Scorpion's just here as an undead zombie demon to get revenge on Sub-Zero.
• Fatality: He pulls his mask off to reveal that there is only a skull underneath (OH FUCK!) and then breaths fire from his mouth, burning his opponent into a charred skeleton.

 

Either one looks pretty painful.

2. Sub-Zero

As with Scorpion, there isn't much backstory to Sub-Zero in this first game other than "he and Scorpion hate each other," presumably for dressing and moving in identical ways and constantly getting into slap fights where they say, "STOP COPYING ME!" Beyond that, all we're told is that he bears the marks of the "Lin Kuei," a legendary clan of Chinese ninja. As opposed to Scorpion and his fire power, Sub-Zero has cold power and can shoot ice at people. Cool. I think Sub-Zero was my favorite as a kid, both for the ice stuff and for the pretty impressive fatality.

• Why did he enter the Tournament? To assassinate Shang Tsung, as he was paid a large wad of cash money by one of Tsung's enemies.
• Fatality: He grabs your head and rips it off, pulling your spinal cord out of your body in a bloody mess that is, quite frankly, a pretty impressive feat. I mean I didn't think the spinal cord worked that way. But I guess it does! This game can't be wrong. In the SNES version he simply freezes you and shatters you to pieces (likely another idea lifted from the Terminator franchise). Which is cool too.

1. Raiden

Definitely not Christopher Lambert.

Ah, rice hat man! Based on the Japanese thunder god, Raijin, Raiden is... uhh... a thunder god. So yeah. I'm not sure I'd enter a tournament if I knew that there was a GOD in it. What the hell is Johnny Cage thinking? He's a stupid actor and he thinks he can defeat Asian Thor? I think not. I suppose as part of the plot, the god takes "human form" so he's not totally unbeatable. So I suppose it would be more accurate to say that any opponent would be fighting Asian Dr. Donald Blake, rather than Thor. But I digress. The hat. The lightning. This guy was cool as hell.

• Why did he enter the Tournament? It's not really explained too much in the first game beyond "Shang Tsung invited him." I think later they explain it more, but I'm trying to mostly keep to just this firsts game's story, yo.
• Fatality: He electrocutes your head and it explodes. HOLY SHIT. That is not the way I want to go. Just imagine dying that way. No matter what accomplishments you ever made in life, all you'll ever be known for afterwards is "being that person who died when lightning exploded his head."