Mortal Kombat is a landmark franchise for the video game industry. Not only did it push the boundaries of what is acceptable in interactive media in the '90s, but the series has continued innovating and evolving the fighting-game genre with high-quality cinematic story modes, new approaches to post-launch support, and a continued desire to push the limits of what can be done in the genre. Whether you're talking the early entries of the bloody blockbuster or the most recent titles, the series has typically been a fun time regardless of the era. Because of that, ranking every game in the franchise can prove difficult. Still, we decided to give it a shot, laying out the entire series from worst to best.
Check out our ranking below and let us know what you think the correct order should be!
14
Mortal Kombat: Special Forces
Spin-offs of popular series aren't necessarily a bad idea, but in the case of Mortal Kombat: Special Forces, this is one that should have remained shelved. Acting as a prequel to the rest of the series, Mortal Kombat: Special Forces put you in the shoes/metal arms of Jax as he battles through stages. While Jax was a popular character following his playable debut in Mortal Kombat II, and the story features him hunting down another popular character in Kano, there's not much else that makes this third-person action game feel like a Mortal Kombat game. No real Fatalities, a boring combat system, and monotonous encounters make this polygonal brawler a bad game when it released in 2000, let alone in modern times.
13
Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero
Maybe not quite as ill-advised as Special Forces, but still pretty terrible is the first spin-off game to come out of the Mortal Kombat series, Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero. The base premise is sound: You control the Sub-Zero from the original game, Bi-Han, as he works to find a special amulet for the evil sorcerer Quan Chi. Also, unlike Special Forces, Mythologies features a decent cast of recognizable characters from the series, including Scorpion, Shinnok, and Fujin. The game even attempts to keep the action grounded in the core gameplay and visuals of the series, but as we all found out, those controls are definitely more suited for 1 on 1 fighting rather than a side-scrolling action game with platforming sequences. Even the novelty of the live-action video wasn't enough to save Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero from its awful level design and boring battles, effectively slamming the brakes on any momentum the series had built up with Mortal Kombat 3 and its revisions.
12
Mortal Kombat 4
After the overwhelming success and steady evolution of the first three Mortal Kombat games, Midway topped off its blockbuster trilogy with perhaps the most underwhelming fourth entry it possibly could have. Acting as the first game in the series to deliver 3D visuals, the graphics have aged considerably worse than any of its predecessors. That would be easily forgiven if the gameplay was as good as it was in either Mortal Kombat II or III, but unfortunately, the unresponsive controls and uninspired new characters made this the low point in the mainline fighting series.
11
Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe
You may not know it from how the DLC of the new Mortal Kombat trilogy has played out, but the series wasn’t always full of crossovers from other universes. Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe took place at a weird point in the Mortal Kombat franchise; the series had effectively ended thanks to the cataclysmic events of Armageddon, but then the crew came back to fight in Teen-rated, Fatality-lite kombat with the likes of Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman. The 3D fighting wasn’t the best the series had seen, the fusing of the two universes set a weird narrative premise, and the Teen rating made this feel like bad excuse to resurrect the franchise after it supposedly ended two years prior. Perhaps the best thing to come out of this collaboration would be seeds it planted for the superb Injustice series.