With eleven main entries in the series and likely more to come in the future, Mortal Kombat remains one of the most successful fighting game franchises of all time with epic storytelling, fun and brutal gameplay, and an ever-expanding roster of revolving characters.
There are the iconic ones like Sub-Zero, Scorpion, Liu Kang, and Sonya Blade who are often the flagship characters, but what about the forgotten and underplayed characters? There are some characters who, despite having some killer movesets, special abilities, and overall fun gameplay, just end up being forgotten and overshadowed by other characters in the many rosters.
10 Taven – Mortal Kombat: Armageddon
As a whole, Mortal Kombat: Armageddon‘s character roster was massive but many characters either lacked in decent moves or felt like straight-up copies of other characters. There were exceptions including Sub-Zero but the most underrated character would be the main protagonist of the game’s main story: Taven.
The son of an Elder God, Taven is not the most layered character on this list but his moves when mastered make for some great chains and features some of the more unique fire abilities. Even his design is something unique in comparison to the characters featured in the game: the biggest problem with Taven was his lack of personality.
9 Smoke – Mortal Kombat 9
This poor ninja is so mistreated: he’s actually been decent in several appearances over the years but his absolute best appearance came in Mortal Kombat 9 as a human who never became cyberized but instead fell victim to a neck snap from Sindel. Smoke featured some of the best combat of the ninjas in MK9 as well as some insane special moves.
How is he treated in the sequels? A non-playable character cameo in Mortal Kombat X and if he was even mentioned in Mortal Kombat 11, it apparently wasn’t a memorable one. This character deserves a return in Mortal Kombat 12 or maybe as a DLC character in Injustice 3. Anything besides the sideline for this awesome character!
8 Frost – Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance/Armageddon
Yes, her character design downright sucks: it was something that would be vastly improved when reintroduced as a playable character in the second timeline. That said, if one looks past the goofy look for the character and the cheesy voice acting, there is a lot of fun to be had with the character.
With the right combos, Frost has the capability of being one of the most dangerous fighters in Armageddon’s roster and her different special moves help keep her from being just a female clone of Sub-Zero. This is why it was a pleasant surprise she made such a big return in Mortal Kombat 11…only to basically be an over-glorified cameo.
7 Jade – Mortal Kombat 11
How did this version of the character never catch on? Not only was she given leagues more character development and identity in the story, her chapter in the story is one of the most standout portions of said story, but this game featured the most well-balanced and satisfying versions of the character to play with both her combo strings and special moves.
However, in the online world? The majority of people only play as DLC characters or the typical tournament fodder: Kung Lao, Scorpion, and Sub-Zero. Jade, however, despite being easily one of the best characters in Mortal Kombat 11 only got her chance to shine in the beta and story mode.
6 Havik -Mortal Kombat: Deception/Armageddon
For those wondering, no, Fujin will not be included on this list after the entire Mortal Kombat fanbase called out his name as potential DLC characters for Mortal Kombat 11 and now he’s one of the best characters in that roster. However, there is another name that was mentioned in a few people’s wishlists and that is Havik.
Havik is like if a zombie from the Return Of The Living Dead series were a playable character with body limbs that can be used in many crazy ways. The unfortunate thing is that Havik debuted during the PlayStation 2/Xbox era of Mortal Kombat where people just didn’t care as much anymore and Havik was victim to less than stellar controls but if done right, Havik provided insanely fun gameplay.
5 D’Vorah – Mortal Kombat X/Mortal Kombat 11
This character was the victim of a lot of backlash from fans due to her tendency to kill beloved characters in both games she’s featured in. However, one cannot deny that from a visual standpoint she remains one of the most unique monster fighters in the Mortal Kombat lore that would make David Cronenberg smile.
Gameplay-wise, she’s one of the most confusing characters to learn much like Erron Black (another newcomer) but once learned, she has some effective traps and combo strings that make her feel a little overpowered at times. Especially depending on which variations one uses for her.
4 Nitara – Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance/Armageddon
The combos? The vampiric special moves involving blood manipulation and health siphoning? It’s all really good. This is a character that has the potential of being one of the best characters in the series given the proper return in a future game, hopefully in Mortal Kombat 12. So why is this character often dismissed?
Nitara suffers from a very poor design choice: she looks less like a powerful vampire but more like a character from an NSFW parody of Castlevania. This is something a lot of female characters suffered from (except for maybe Ashrah) during this era of Mortal Kombat, especially Sindel who got her proper due in Mortal Kombat 11.
3 Onaga – Mortal Kombat: Deception/Armageddon
With the newer games revisiting all the big baddies like Shang Tsung, Shao Kahn, and Shinnok, it’s surprising that NetherRealm hasn’t attempted to reboot the previous ruler of Outworld before Shao Kahn. The design of the character is just so Goth but somehow works, coming off like a more demonic version of Goliath from Disney’s Gargoyles.
Gameplay-wise, he’s just a huge tank that was a tad bit over-powered but with the right changes and even more development of his skillset, Onaga would be the perfect villain for a new Mortal Kombat game. Fingers are crossed for this one.
2 Tremor – Mortal Kombat X
This one is very easy to see why he was quickly forgotten: Mortal Kombat X‘s DLC packs consisted of iconic characters like Alien, Predator, Jason Voorhees, Leatherface, and the return of the cyberized ninjas in the form of Triborg. Obviously, every fan went for those big names while the muscle-bound rock ninja was considered an afterthought.
Well, the truth is that Tremor not only has a great new look compared to his debut in Mortal Kombat: Special Forces but he’s genuinely fun to play in all three variations, especially the Crystalline variation. Tremor is a very balanced character as he features solid attacks for all ranges and his combat has several layers to learn.
1 Stryker – Mortal Kombat 9
Talk about a turnaround: this character’s presence was mocked when he first debuted in Mortal Kombat 3 but did that stop the team from using him? Nope. Stryker made his greatest return in the game that essentially rebooted the series with Mortal Kombat 9 in which his amateurish outfit was upgraded to a similar but better SWAT uniform.
Stryker’s combat is fluid, fast, and can be a little tricky to learn but when one does, he is a very effective fighter. Even his broadened story within the campaign makes him more intriguing which makes it such a shame that he was reduced to just cameos in both Mortal Kombat X and Mortal Kombat 11.
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