Shack Chat: Who's your favorite Mortal Kombat character?

Shack Chat is back once again, our weekly feature 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: Who's your favorite Mortal Kombat character?

Scorpion - Asif Khan, Getting over here

I like a lot of Mortal Kombat characters, but one of my favorite has to be Scorpion. His move set just feels right for me, and I have gone back to him as a main time and time again. Honorable mentions go to Reptile, Noob Saibot, and Baraka. They are all great too.

Liu Kang - Brittany Vincent, Senior Editor

Two words: bicycle kick. This was always my go-to move when I first started playing Mortal Kombat with my dad so long ago. It became the most fascinating move I could pull off semi-easily and I just stuck with it over the years. So much so that I just do it for the hell of it now in matches. I'm thankful that he's gotten to keep this move even with so many different iterations of the character, because it's so damn satisfying to use. 

Noob Saibot - Ozzie Mejia, Senior Editor

I've always been a sucker for Noob Saibot, going all the way back to Mortal Kombat 2 and the fable of how to unlock him. Then I started fighting him in Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 for the Sega Saturn… and losing frequently. Just envision the fury after repeatedly hearing Shao Kahn say "Insufficient. You suck!"

Now imagine how thrilled I was to actually get to be this character in Mortal Kombat Trilogy on the Nintendo 64. It was just the beginning of the theme that NetherRealm would run with this character, that being that he attacks you with his shadow. Even in MK Trilogy, it was cool to see and it only became better as the series went into its modern incarnations. Mortal Kombat 11's usage of Noob's shadowy double is at its best and his Fatality is one of the most creative in the game from any character not named Johnny Cage.

Sub-Zero - Josh Hawkins, Some guy

I’ve never really followed the Mortal Kombat series enough to pick out a favorite character. But, if I had to choose someone I’d have to go with Sub-Zero. Growing up watching my brother play the games, I was always a fan of the character’s backstory and overall look. Now, revisiting the games for myself several years later, I still have a love for the character that I can’t really explain or place. I don’t know. Just something about the character that intrigues me and makes me want to learn more.

Goro - Bill Lavoy, Some Other Guy

I’ve barely touched the Mortal Kombat series in my life. That’s the case for me with a lot of classic video game franchises. I didn’t really get into them until I was in my late 20s and now that I’ve fallen into writing about games, I’m playing catch up. That said, I did play Mortal Kombat X a bit (for work) and went straight for Goro.

Goro represents a style that I like to explore in characters across many games, which is big and seemingly powerful. Now, I don’t know Mortal Kombat well enough to claim that Goro is powerful, but he looked to be powerful, and that’s what pulled me in. I made the goal to master Goro’s moves, which went horribly, and I soon put Mortal Kombat X down and moved on to whatever was next. I’m just not good with fighting games, and it’s probably at least partly due to poor character selection methods.

Scorpion - Kevin S. Tucker, Always Plays Fair*

I'm going to say it: Mortal Kombat was never the fighting game of choice for me growing up. It was cool for sure, but its crudeness extended beyond the gore and the flying gibs down to its actual fighting mechanics. The series is way better about it now, but in its first iterations, it was not exactly the kind of game that provided a lot of depth to its fighting — beyond the actual depth of falling into a spike pit, anyway.

When I most played MK games, the strategy to win was always the same: Choose Scorpion, use his chain attack, follow up with an uppercut. Get over here! Get over here! Get over here! That's the sound of me winning against anyone foolish enough to pick up a controller and issue a challenge. It's also the sound heard just before my opponents left, swearing to never play me in Mortal Kombat again. Thank you, Scorpion, for teaching me how to get my friends to ragequit.

Baraka - Chris Jarrard, Has teeth like Baraka

Baraka showed up in Mortal Kombat II (the best MK game) and impressed me with his moveset and cool looks. Who wouldn’t want arm swords?

On the other hand, those things probably hurt like hell, unless he greases them with gear oil or something. I don’t really understand how science works in the Netherrealm. I barely got out of Earth high school.

Kitana - David L. Craddock, Longreads Editor

Edenia’s 10,000-year-old princess--now queen--has aged wonderfully. She’s beauty and the beast rolled into one deadly package. Her fan throw lets players control screen real estate through zoning, while her fan lift and array of pop-up moves offer numerous ways to start a lengthy juggle combo. More than Sub-Zero, more than Scorpion, Kitana is the character (kharacter?) I look for in every new installment. She’s been my main since Mortal Kombat 2, over 26 years and counting, and I’m having a blast continuing her (our) reign of terror in Mortal Kombat 11.

Jacqui Briggs - Donovan Erskine, Intern

The best part of Mortal Kombat X was the new generation of fighters, and Jacqui was the best of them. Her relationship and dynamic with Cassie, Takeda, and Kung Jin made her an easy character to root for. Also, she’s a fun character to play with and has several gadget/gun based moves to experiment with.

Disagree with our picks? Think we're a bunch of clowns? 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.