Board 8 > ITT I Rank Mortal Kombat Kharacters

(+) Yeah! (+)

I did this for Sonic characters and that was fun, and I'm getting all excited for Mortal Kombat 1, so let's rank some MK characters. Go ahead and submit one kharacter per day and I'll rank them!

The only rules is that they must have been playable in at least one game. And I'll rank them based on game appearances only, not movies and cartoon or Kart Racer or anything.

You can also request other things to rank like a top 5 or 10 or something.

And spoilers for everything up to MK11.

Jarek

Hsu Hao

getting the best kharacters out of the way early I see

Kano

Ermac

Shang Tsung

Cole

...Motaro then. >_>

Kratos

Let's go ahead and get Sub-Zero out of the way

kabal

Stryker

Freddy Kreuger

Reptile

Scorpion

Sonya

Noob Saibot

https://youtu.be/EAwWPadFsOA

Hit me with some top 5s too and I'll be getting started later tonight!

Top 5 Raiden botches in Mortal Kombat 9

Xenomorph

Top 5 Mortal Kombat 4 Endings

Top 5 Portable Mortal Kombat Games That Are Not On PSP/Vita

Top 5 Fatalities

Top 5 Friendships

Sektor

KommunistKoala posted...

Top 5 Fatalities

This is impossible. We gotta narrow it down by game. Lol

Top 5 Stages

how about top 5 fatalities since MK9

if thats too wide then 10 and 11. if that's too wide i give up

top 5 mortal kombat characters

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/4/6/5/AATFBfAAEkmB.jpg

Jarek
First Appearance: Mortal Kombat 4
Last Appearance: Mortal Kombat: Armageddon

So we all agree Jarek kinda blows, right? It's extremely obvious in Mortal Kombat 4 that they had Kano planned, all mapped out, and then they created this schmuck with a goatee and just ported Kano's moveset there. He's got the knife throw, charge ball, and then his fatalities are laser eye (he has no actual laser eye though???) and heart rip. Like this dude was just ported to be this lame ass Kano replacement for reasons I just don't understand.

Armageddon... I don't know, improves him? But he still sucks. They give him an axe, a new armored outfit that actually looks cool, and a full on beard. But his little bounce move is the goofiest and his other moves are just kinda lame too, with the rope tug and such. But from what I understand, he was actually top tier in this game in competitive. Who would've guessed?

Most notably, he is the most hilariously awful entrant in MK4 in a game filled with hilarious awfulness. His endings he's in are so memorable with his goofy laugh and his random scream of panic as he falls into the abyss. Somehow he stood out over the rest of the awful voice acting, and that's what is key here.

But his story is equally weak. He's just another member of the Black Dragon and Quan Chi enlists him. He ends up being thrown off a cliff by Jax after he seemingly kills Sonya (but she survives) and he survives by putting his blade into the cliff wall, so that he can hide in Edenia. And then he becomes just a hilariously bad Mortal Kombat OC you would have created as a child. While he's away in hiding, he's so angry that he starts researching how to make the coolest fatality so that everyone will know he has the coolest fatality and then he shows Quan Chi his super cool fatality and Quan Chi was so impressed he said to use his cool fatality on everyone else.

Seriously, that's what they did with him in Armageddon.

Jarek isn't in the reboot timeline, sort of. I've been on the fence about including the Mortal Kombat X Komic, since half the time they said it was kanon and half the time they said it wasn't, but I think I'll include it. In the MKX Komic, Jarek is just a random Black Dragon member and he's just a stone cold badass kharacter in it. Nothing impressive. Nothing special. He's got a cool axe though.

So yeah, Jarek sucks. They never thought much of him. Nobody cares about him, and he gets remembered only as being completely hilarious in his MK4 endings. No sense bringing him back, honestly.

Rank: E-

Related Video: This guy has done a bunch of HD MK4 ending recreations. Relive Jarek being hilarious in this ending!

https://youtu.be/ZP0_BmVKf5s

I had thoughts on Jarek as a character during the time of DA/Deception, before Armageddon's silliness of course. But that's like all fan drawn up stuff and would have just completely reinvented his character because yes, he's pretty darn bad. Like I think in MK4, like a lot of those new characters, he was just bland. I can't explain what the heck they were thinking about in Armageddon, I guess it's just proof positive they thought of him as a joke and that we'll probably never hear from him again outside of references.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/4/8/3/AATFBfAAEkmT.jpg

Hsu Hao
First Appearance: Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance
Last Appearance: Mortal Kombat: Armageddon

Hsu Hao is quite literally Ed Boon's least favorite Mortal Kombat kharacter ever. It's easy to see why. He is also always the first character to be de-konfirmed leading up to every single game.

First of all, this guy is part of the Red Dragon, who pre-dates the Black Dragon, but all of their members are fucking clowns. Hsu Hao is the figurehead for this bad idea, and he's also just... not interesting, even a little bit.

His moves are generic clap, generic stomp, generic shock wave and his fatality uses his heart laser and it's uninspired, to say the least.

His story is that he pretends to be part of Special Forces so he could lead them to Black Dragon to kill the Black Dragon. He is then confronted by Jax and his fake heart is ripped out after Hsu Hao sabotage's the Special Forces inter-realm portals. It was immediately said that Jax's ending is 100% kanon because Hsu Hao is never returning.

However, everyone was returning for Armageddon, but they explain Jarek, they explain everyone else being there. Hsu Hao gets no explanation because they hate him. And his ending in that one is that he is obliterated by Blaze and turned into a husk of emptiness. He is also one of the few who just fucking dies in his ending.

And you may expect him to not be in the reboot timeline, but he is! He appears in the first issue of the MKX Komic, and he's fucking killed immediately in the first issue, hilariously. Scorpion just murks him, no hesitation. He also appears in The Joker's MK11 ending, which is just funny because there is nobody else's ending he belongs in.

Hsu Hao is boring, lame, and there's nothing notable about him other than him being hated by the MK staff. He is the most likely to never ever return, for good reason.

Grade: F-

Related Komics:

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/4/8/4/AATFBfAAEkmU.jpg
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/4/8/5/AATFBfAAEkmV.jpg

Havik

Johnny Cage

Kitana

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/5/1/2/AATFBfAAEkmw.jpg

Kano
First Appearance: Mortal Kombat (Classic)
Last Appearance: Mortal Kombat 1

Yo, I LOVE Kano. He's my favorite piece of shit and they do such a great job with him.

So what makes Kano so dope? He's got a LASER EYE and he's got a LASER HEART and he's just a greasy mercenary slimeball that just grows increasingly more sleazy in every game. They've tried to replace him, but it never takes because Kano rules.

He's got a Cannon Ball attack, Knife Toss, and a Laser Eye, and that's frankly all the tools he needs to stand out. Honestly, nobody else gets what Kano gets except his poor imitators, and he's definitely unique as a techno mercenary. Also, he has the ever klassic Heart Rip fatality which is just simple and brutal. Our guy just needs to rip the beating heart out of someone's chest. That rules.

What's funny is that the first Mortal Kombat movie, they made him randomly Australian and then Ed Boon decided that he is after that. Probably one of the biggest changes made as a result of those movies.

Kano's story is that he killed Sonya's partner, and they have a forever feud over it. Kano ends up working with Sonya and Johnny Cage to beat Goro before he and Sonya are captured by Shao Khan. When Jax saves Sonya, he just arrests Kano after, but he escapes and finds Shao Khan again and convinces him that he needs his help training his warriors to fight on Earth. Sonya then supposedly kills Kano, but Motaro saves his life and throws his ass in prison again. Sheeva kills Motaro and breaks Kano free and he helps her come up with a plan to kill Shao Khan, and he just betrays here in the middle of their plan and Shao Khan promotes him to one of his chief general positions!

And he does a great job as general! But after a battle, he returns to Shao Khan and just stands back and watches as Quan Chi and Shang Tsung kill Shao Khan, and then immediately offers to join them because that's what a dishonest piece of trash like Kano does. But that schmuck Movado stops Kenshi so he can have a shot at fighting Kano for his Red Dragon brethren and actually defeats Kano and locks him in a prison. Taven releases him though and I guess the Red Dragon was doing experiments on Kano to make super dragon-human hybrids...? I dunno. It's dumb.

Anyway, it's time to reboot! This timeline is where Kano shines, probably more than most other kharacters. In MK9, he is immediately established with the same grudge with Sonya and he's quite a piece of trash about it. The main change here is that Kano is the one who helps save Kabal's life, as Kabal used to be a member of the Black Dragon too, but it doesn't take and Kano is forced to try helping him escape before being knocked out.

In the MKX prequal Komic, Kano is the reason Sub-Zero has a scar over his eye. Sub-Zero rips out his cybernetic eye as a result, which is why Kano ends up getting an upgrade. He kidnaps Cassie Cage and Jacqui Briggs with Erron Black and then Movado (the schmuck) and Red Dragon try to steal them instead. He then gets a portal stone and leaves Erron Black and the girls to die by the Red Dragon.

He works with Kotal Kahn to just literally nuke Kintaro's army (literally), and Kano asks for payment for the fancy portal stone and for killing off most of the Shokan and Kotal refuses because Kotal sucks and then they fight, Kotal takes the portal stone, and Kano narrowly escapes thanks to D'Vorah and Ferra & Torr.

Which brings us to MKX, where he's working with Mileena now with the Shinnok Amulet and she hires him to go kill Kotal, which he fails to do. He continues working with Mileena and tries to recover the artifact from Special Forces eventually, but it caught and forced to give information to Sonya and almost killed by her.

In MK11, Kano works with Kronika, along with his past self (I know it's complicated). He's just floating around and causing problems until the end where he is taking on the Special Forces like a total boss. They get Past Johnny Cage at knife point and so Sonya kills Past Kano to kill Present Kano, and we cap this off actually well where Kano and Sonya's story gets a decent ending to their rivalry, with Kano finally being killed by her.

But I feel like a summary doesn't do justice for Kano, because he's easily one of the best personalities in the series. Every time he talks, he comes across as such a slimy sack of shit. By MK11, we see him pissing before fights, spitting in people's faces during combos, during Fatal Blows he's breaking bones and still takes a moment to kick them in the ribs for absolutely no reason, and his Fatal Blow is called NOT HERE TO FUCK SPIDERS. He just gradually becomes the dirtiest fighter in the series and I absolutely love it.

He also has some of the best fatalities, like the aforementioned heart rip, lasers through the face, and his Last Dance fatality in MK11 is just one of the best.

Kano is despicable, sleazy, disloyal, and a complete piece of garbage, and that's why he's so great. I am always happy to see Kano in any game, and I hope we get so much more of him.

Grade: A

Related Best Song: KANO WINS! in which the person doing the music was unaware that Kano was actually the villain on the roster before they made the song.
https://youtu.be/LNFFTeAepw8

Related Worst Fatality in the Series:
https://youtu.be/5JhxeGTfU4w

Kobra

jarek is so forgetable that Im pretty sure I was thinking of Reiko when I suggested him

or at least Reikos move set. I was picturing Jarek.

My original boi, Liu Kang please

Rank the 4 "next generation" characters from Mortal Kombat X with two sentence or more writeups please! (I'm pulling for Takeda woo)

Rain

Smoke

Best character already nommed so let's go with Quan Chi

Skarlet

Mileena

Cyrax

MoogleKupo141 posted...

jarek is so forgetable that Im pretty sure I was thinking of Reiko when I suggested him

or at least Reikos move set. I was picturing Jarek.

See, I think Jarek and Reiko are the only memorable one-offs from MK4! Jarek because of his just horrific endings, and Reiko because... Well, people actually kinda like Reiko. It's weird.

I had no idea that Jarek was even a playable character until this topic but I did remember his name from the Jax ending.

Darrius

Character of the day: Shinnok

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