Ranking every Mortal Kombat character
Thirty one years is a long time for a fighting game series to be cranking out characters, and Ed Boon and his team of developers seem to rarely take breaks when it comes to Mortal Kombat.
The extremely well known and gory franchise has seen more than 70 playable roster members over the years now, and we've taken on the task of ranking them all in our latest video.
What goes into creating a good character? That's, of course, a subjective matter, but we're looking at their overall memorability and impact.
Garnering and keeping fan appreciation through appearance, animations, personality, and/or gameplay is a major factor. We can also see instances where developers bring a character back to additional rosters after their debut as at least partially evident of a successful fighter.
Characters who were used in older games but have yet to be resurrected for modern rosters aren't going to score as high, while newer fighters who haven't had as many opportunities to return -might- get a little extra benefit of the doubt.
There's also what those in the FGC might call the "World Warrior" factor. This is a reference to the original Street Fighter 2 characters (the World Warriors) that have all become iconic staples for the series.
A particular character doesn't need to be from the very first game to gain some traction in this way, but if they've been regulars for some 20 years or so, they may have become representative of the franchise to the more general public.
We'll point out now (as we do in the intro) that we're not featuring every playable character that's ever been in an MK game. The guests from other media (Kratos from God of War, John Rambo from the film series, Freddy Krueger, and others) are not on our list at all as they're more bonus experiences for their respective games as opposed to figures we expect to influence the franchise and its story in an ongoing manner.
We also didn't feature the characters from the Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe game as it's a little on the tangential side as well. That all said, if you'd be interested in seeing a similar ordering for the guests then please let us know in the comments (preferably directly on YouTube) and we may make an additional video for them.
There are timestamps below if you'd like to skip around at all, and we'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments after you get a chance to see our full list.
Timestamps:
Intro - 00:00
73 - 01:08
72 - 01:44
71 - 02:14
70 & 69 - 02:30
68 - 03:01
67 - 03:23
66 - 03:42
65 - 03:58
64 - 04:13
63 - 04:35
62 - 04:55
61 - 05:10
60 - 05:29
59 - 05:48
58 - 06:07
57 - 06:27
56 - 06:42
55 - 07:06
54 - 07:23
53 - 07:54
52 - 08:14
51 - 08:40
50 - 09:01
49 - 09:27
48 - 09:47
47 - 10:16
46 - 10:38
45 - 11:05
44 - 11:36
43 - 11:53
42 - 12:25
41 - 12:44
40 - 13:07
39 - 13:29
38 - 14:02
37 - 14:26
36 - 14:56
35 - 15:20
34 - 15:48
33 - 16:14
32 - 16:44
31 - 17:18
30 - 17:45
29 - 18:10
28 - 18:35
27 - 18:56
26 - 19:17
25 - 19:49
24 - 20:27
23 - 21:02
22 - 21:24
21 - 21:54
20 - 22:26
19 - 23:02
18 - 23:29
17 - 23:57
16 - 24:37
15 - 25:12
14 - 25:52
13 - 26:20
12 - 26:56
11 - 27:22
10 - 27:55
09 - 28:37
08 - 29:07
07 - 29:51
06 - 30:24
05 - 31:01
04 - 31:39
03 - 32:35
02 - 33:40
01 - 34:31
