Have you heard? Mortal Kombat 11 is coming soon! The powerful franchise came out of its lull🎐 after a reboot in 2011, and it has been smooth sailing ever since. In fact, it could be argued that the series is currently at its creative peak, with superb gameplay and an interesting story. Basically, we are super excited for the return of one of the best fightiꦕng games around.
When we get excited, we have a tendency to rank things, so this is the perfect moment to explore Mortal Kombat’s rich history. The games have given us iconic characters that have become staples of pop culture, but they also has provided us with some incredible duds that wer🤪e put aside as soon as they were created. So why not look at both sides of the coin?
The ten characters we picked as the strongest are the best of the best. They are Mortal Kombat elite, either because they are so much fun to play, or because their storylꦿine is so cool that a player would be ꩲwilling to look past their flaws.
And then, on the flip side, we have the weakest. Once you reach a certain point of mediocrity, it’s hard to know who’s more terrible than their other inept colleagues. Therefore, the order is approximative. The one p🎃oint that the fifteen weak ones have in common is that they are laughable, either by their design, their backstory, or because they are simply awful to play with.
Your mileage may of course vary depending on your degree of comfort with the games and with each characters’ individual attributes. I am average at best, despite my enthusiasm for the series, so think of this as the common man’s Mortal Kombat fighters rankings.
24 ﷽ WEAKEST: Kai
Kai suffers from being the eternal backup character. His debut in Mortal Kombat 4 ba🃏sically only served the purpose of being friends with Liu Kang, a character much more interesting and important than him.
Even his f✱atalities felt like rip-offs of th𓄧ose of better characters.
When Kai did not prove to be a success, that role was taken over by Kung Lao in the next few games. Kai was thus rendered useless, and did not appear again until Armageddon, which does not really put him in good company.
23 🤪 STRONGEST: Liu Kang
Liu Kang was the hero of the first Mortal Kombat and has kept trying to follow the right path in a world full of murderous fiends and bloodthirsty tyrants. As the original Earth Champion, Liu Kang’s design is classic and elegant. Even his weird left turn into zombie territory did ꩵnot change his brutally efficient fighting style. The reboot has steered the character’s direction to the dark side, but Liu 🔯Kang’s deeds are still done in the same powerful yet stylish fashion.
22 🧸 WEAKEST: Jarek
Jarek is just too similar to be anything else than a wannabe Kano. If you take him on the value of what he brings to the game’s lore and mechanic, he has absolutely nothing to offer. As Kano’s second in command in the Black Dragon organization, he has nothing special going for him. The fact that he also debuted in Mortal Kombat 4 makes me realize that the game was probably a low point for the series. His backstory is too similar to his mentor’s. His biggest claim to fame is stealing Kano’s move൩s and doing them less convincingly.
21 ꦯ 💎 STRONGEST: Cassie Cage
Cassie Cage is the daughter of Johnny Cage and Sonya Blade, and as such, she represents ༺the best of both chara♑cters. She has their combined athleticism, on top of her mother’s intelligence and her father’s confidence.
The result i♏s an impressive fighter with one of the best finishing moves i༺n the series.
The Selfie Fatality shows that she is from a different generation, but also shows the morbid sense of humor the series is known for. Possibly, she is the best addition to the roster since Mortal Kombat 3.
20 ♉ WEAKEST: Shu𒊎jinko
When we meet him, he is already an old man, but the storyline of Deception makes it clear that Shujinko has been a fool for a long time. As a youngster, he was convinced by a disguised Onaga to go on a lifelong quest to revive him, even though he is a dragon-like demon king. This ranks pretty high on the lost of boneheaded decisions in Mortal Kombat lore. His only selling point is that he spent 🐽years of training, and thus, can imitate other fighting styles. All this means is that he steals moves from other, better fighter.
19 ꦦ WEAKEST: Stryker
Yes, Stryker has evolved and gotten better since the rebo♏ot, but for someone who has been playing since the first game, it’s hard to forget the original Stryker. He was the 𒉰only character with a gun, and he moved so slowly that he could be dominated by any of the other fighters. The weird mullet and the backward cap didn’t help either. He was just so normal. He is like Johnny Cage or Sonya Blade, but without the attitude or the charisma.
18 🤡 STRONGEST: Onaga 𓆉
Clad in a spiffy armor, Onaga is nothing less than the Dragon King. Sure, he was away for a while, bu෴t he was still intelligent enough to convince Shujinko to spen﷽d his entire life doing his bidding and preparing his comeback.
Once he was finally unle🐬ashed, it was basically game over💧 for everyone.
As one of the toughest bཧoss characters in the series, he was even more impressive when you could take control🌟 of him. He might not have been the best villain in the entire series, but he’s in the conversation.
17 ꦬ WEAKEST: Kobra
Kobra might be filling a hole in Mortal Kombat’s roster, but that does not make him a great character. Instead, it just makes him a pale copy of Ken Masters. Looking like the Street Fighter veteran had done the Fusion Dance with the bad guy from Karate Kid. In fact, Kobra is such a chump that his Armageddon ending is basically a long fatality𝓡 of which he is the victim. In it, he gets figuratively stabbed in the back by Kira, the woman he loves, after he used his own wish to demand her immortality from the Elder Gods. E꧂ven when he wins, he loses.
16 𝓰 ♍ STRONGEST: Goro
Goro is the original four-armed dude. He was the character that struck fear in the heart of everyone who played the original Mortal Kombat. After running the gauntlet through the entire roster, facing🌸 the ominous Goro was a genuinely stressful moment for many gamersꦑ.
His return as a downloadable character in Mortal Kombat X was glorious.
It’s an evolution of the character which kept intact his best attributes and ﷽improved on everything else. Plus, he finally got his very own Fatalities, and a series of Brutalities that are not for the squeamish.
15 🀅 WEAKEST: Kira
Equally as powerless as Kobra, Kira is just a regular human being with subpar moves. Her one advantage over the rest of the roster is that she is more cunning than𒅌 Kobra, being the one to take away his life with a kiss once she is made a Goddess in the guy’s own ending. Her moveset is a mix of Kano’s and Sonya, which makes you wonder why they didn’t just add the originals to the roster instead. As is, she was just an uninspired copycat.