Shack Chat: What is your favorite Mortal Kombat game?

Shack Chat is back once again, our weekly feature where each Friday where we’ll ask the Shacknews staff to give their opinion on a particular topic, then open the floor to our dedicated Chatty community to provide a diverse mixture of thoughts on the subject. It’s a great way for us to get to know one another better while inspiring healthy debates with all of you passionate gamers out there. 

Question: What is your favorite Mortal Kombat game?

Mortal Kombat 2 - Asif Khan, Lola's Butler

This game was so good in arcades. You see, arcades were these places we used to go to that had video games. This was back in the early 1990s, kids. What a time to be alive.

Mortal Kombat X - Bill Lavoy, Started Playing The Witcher 3 Again

Earlier today I was talking with Asif about Mortal Kombat games. I’ve definitely played one, but I don’t know which. It was about 1998 or 1999 and on the PS1. I feel like it was Mortal Kombat 4, but how can I choose that as my favorite if I can’t recall anything about it other than I probably played it?

This is becoming a theme with me and Shack Chat; having to choose something by default.

I suppose, then, that my favorite Mortal Kombat game is Mortal Kombat X because it’s the only one I can recall playing. I remember enjoying the fatalities, but I’m terrible at fighting games and this was no exception. Not much else to say. I stopped playing about three days after I started.

Mortal Kombat 9 - Blake Morse, Flawless Babeality

While it was hard for me not to pick the original MK based off just how awe-inspiring and unique it was when I first set eyes on it in an arcade all those many years ago, I really have to give it up to Mortal Kombat 9 as my all-time fav. After several years and a few seriously bad iterations, MK9 was a real revival for the series. It rebooted the franchise and allowed several years of convoluted lore to be retold in a more streamlined manner. It brought back some all-time favorite characters and reminded me of why I first got into the series.

I can’t think of another fighting game that had me up all night trying to finish the story mode, but that’s exactly what happened the day I got this game. It had a refined combo system and introduced the visceral X-Ray moves that fit perfectly into a game known for its violent history. MK9 took a dying franchise and breathed new life into NetherRealm studios, who would go on to take their revamped fighting formula and infuse it into the Injustice series, which is another fave of mine. Basically, not only do I love this game for its mechanics and cast but also because it led to the creation of another great fighting franchise.

Mortal Kombat 3 - Kevin S. Tucker, Spine Relocation Consultant

I put my fair share of time into Mortal Kombat as a kid, but back then I never actually owned the game. I'd usually catch it at the local arcade or play over at a friend's house, and in either case I'd probably lose badly. I like to think it was because I was more of a Street Fighter player, but it's possible I just sucked at it. By the time I finally got my own copy of the game — Mortal Kombat 3, probably around 1997 — the world had already moved on from the SNES and the Genesis. At the very least I was able to enjoy the Mortal Kombat formula on my own terms, and finally explore different characters' play styles without someone interrupting to crush my skull or rip out my spine.

Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance - Josh Hawkins, New to Shack Chat

I’ve never been a very big fan of fighting games, though the Mortal Kombat series has earned a special place in my heart. While I haven’t spent much time in the games over the past several years, I do have quite a few fond memories of diving into Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance on the GameCube. Being only ten or eleven at the time, playing Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance was a feat in and of itself. Not only were my parents not a fan of the series graphic nature but managing to get the controller away from my brother long enough to actually finish a fight was the real struggle. In fact, I still remember several nights of sneaking into my brother’s room while he was asleep and playing the game with the sound muted just for a chance at being able to get in a few rounds without him there to distract me.

Even though that initial love for the series hasn’t stuck with me throughout the years, I still have a lot of respect for what the Mortal Kombat series has accomplished for fighting games over the course of its lifespan. Not only does it offer a solid experience for fighting game fans, but it also offers some of the most brutal and visually pleasing graphics in the industry. Who knows, maybe one day I’ll find that itch that once drove 10-year-old me to stay up late into the night just so I could get in a few extra rounds without having to worry about my brother giving me pointers or trying to take the controller and finish the fight.

Mortal Kombat X - Brittany Vincent, Senior Editor

While I have fond memories of playing through all the Mortal Kombat core entries at one point or another, the one I've put the most hours into is, undoubtedly, Mortal Kombat X. Though I couldn't get enough of slaughtering my dad with Liu Kang's bicycle kick every day when I was a kid with classic Mortal Kombat, the tenth entry was the one that blew me away. It perfected, in my eyes, the art of the fatality, and elevated it from mere sideshow to visceral, brutal gorefests that had me giggling with glee. With its host of amazing characters, storylines, and DLC, I was hooked from the very beginning, and still return to it regularly for a heaping helping of carnage. 

Mortal Kombat Trilogy (N64) - Ozzie Mejia, Senior Editor

While I've been on board the Mortal Kombat train since the beginning, I don't think anything saw more playtime on my end than Mortal Kombat Trilogy. One of the first fighters to hit the Nintendo 64, a younger me appreciated bringing together all of the major characters from the franchise to date. There were a multitude of Fatalties and other -alities to play with, enough that I was amazed to eventually discover the "Supreme Demonstration" that played out every single one of them in a half-hour compilation.

Trilogy felt like a great way to cap off a franchise that felt like it was coming to a close, but just turned out that it was heading in a different direction. But considering how MK went off the rails for almost a decade after this, at least I was right in thinking that Trilogy was the end of the beginning and the end of Mortal Kombat's first peak period.

Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks - Charles Singletary, Disgruntled Netherrealm Tennant

The Mortal Kombat fighting games are firmly embedded in my earlier gaming days, one fond memory being one of the kids that knew the blood code for the debut game, but my interest in the games disintegrated over time.

Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks gave me a different experience altogether though, thrusting the MK characters into an action-adventure title. It wasn’t the greatest thing around, but was really the last time I was super excited to make an MK purchase of my own.

Mortal Kombat 2 - Chris Jarrard, ABACABB

I choose Mortal Kombat II because it is clearly the best entry in the series. It played much smoother than the original, introduced good new fighters, and the Super Nintendo port had blood. I checked out of the series once it began down the path towards combo memorization and other nonsense.

The last couple of MK games have been solid, but failed to wow me the same way that the Mortal Kombat II arcade cabinets did way back in 1994.

Mortal Kombat 2- Greg Burke, Arcade Enthusiast

Mortal Kombat 2 is the only correct answer, everyone else is wrong. The Mortal Kombat brand had spread like wildfire, thanks to it’s over the top cartoony bloody fatalities from the first game but this was a case of the sequel being better than the original, adding more characters, fatalities, and a bunch of secrets. I played the cabinet a ton, but really never understood the menicanics of the fighting games, after all I was only 8 years old. But that never stopped me from spamming “Get over here!” or Sub-Zeros HA DU KEN! (Yes that’s what I called it) It’s probably the most successful and well known game in the franchise’s history.

Mortal Kombat: Deception - Sam Chandler, The Man From the Future

If you had to build a food pyramid for video games that ensured a gamer’s playtime was “balanced”, you’d have to include a slot for Mortal Kombat. It might not be the base of the pyramid that acts as a foundation, but it’s certainly as important as your whole grains. One title from the series that stood out to me (especially as a teen) was Mortal Kombat: Deception for the original Xbox.

Growing up in the 90s meant I was clearly too young to play any of the original titles, so by the time I was at a decent age, nearly half a dozen entries had already been released. However, it was Mortal Kombat: Deception that came out at just the right time, right as I’m hitting those teenage years were a bit of over-the-top violence is what’s needed. Plus, Deception included the iconic Konquest mode, a nice little palate cleanser.

Mortal Kombat X - Donovan Erskine, Intern

Mortal Kombat X did a great job at introducing a new school of characters, while paying homage to the legends that came before them. Mortal Kombat has always been a story about legacy and honor, and the campaign in MKX does a lot to build upon the characters we know and love. Takeda and Jacqui were some of my personal favorites. Also, MKX has the coolest DLC fighters out of any Mortal Kombat game.

Disagree with our picks? Think we're a bunch of spineless corpses tumbling lifelessly into a spike pit? Let us know in the Chatty below.

Shack Staff

Shack Staff stories are a collective effort with multiple staff members contributing. Many of our lists often involve entires from several editors, and our weekly Shack Chat is something we all contribute to as a group.