MK Gold is clearly canon. It's so clear it isn't really up for any kind of serious debate and anyone suggesting otherwise just hasn't followed the story closely.

MK Gold has the return of Kung Lao.

MK Gold sets up the entire Goro/Kitana alliance sub-plot in MKDA/MKD.

MK Gold sets up Cyrax joining the Special Forces.


That's two major stories and one character's return explained. I don't see how anyone can logically argue that it's non-canon.


The same for UMK3 and MKT. They both introduce characters like Shinnok and Ermac and have been referenced countless times in other games.


If you want to follow the MK story the correct line is MK1, MK II, MKT, MKG, MKDA/MKTE, MKD.

oh
that was what I was hoping to avoid, a "story-canon" discussion. I'm not talking about story..i'm completing ignoring it (and not denying that MKgold or anything else is story canon. Except MKT, I completely deny that being story-canon).. I'm just talking about which version is the "True version".
Like do you people consider Mk4 in the arcade to be an incomplete version of the true vision of the creatures? If so, what is the true version/vision? PS1/N64 version? That has Noob Saibot and Goro? or MKGold with all the added characters

Is the arcade-UMK3 the TRUE version, or is the SNES version the true version? If someone asked you, was Rain playable in ANY MK game, would you say no, assuming he was only talking about the TRUE version of each MK game?

Similarly if midway released a Mortal Kombat 2 for Playstation 2 that allowed you to PLAY AS Noob Saibot, Smoke and Jade, would you consider that the TRUE version of MK2?

see what I'm gettin at?

I don't consider any version more official than the others. If somebody asked if Rain was in UMK3 I'd say he was, but only on SNES and Genesis. The exception is handhelds, which I hardly ever think of unless the topic is specifically handhelds. Like if MK1's roster came up I don't think I'd mention Kano/Cage being missing in the gamegear and gameboy ports unless somebody noted them first.



BTW, how can you possibly deny MKT being canon in the story? How do you explain things like Shinnok and Ermac's origins that were revealed in it and later brought up in later games?

To me is.

Because the game has story to the returning characters and some of them happen in the next game MKDA, like Cyrax.

Also MK Trilogy is an official game. To me trilogy is a big MK3, the same story and the returning characters has a story too. See Cage story in MKT, they used for he ressurected in MK4.

Thats what i think.

To me is.

Because the game has story to the returning characters and some of them happen in the next game MKDA, like Cyrax.

Also MK Trilogy is an official game. To me trilogy is a big MK3, the same story and the returning characters has a story too. See Cage story in MKT, they used for he ressurected in MK4.

Thats what i think.
So my order is

MK1
MK2
MK Trilogy
MK Gold
MKDA
MKD

"BTW, how can you possibly deny MKT being canon in the story? How do you explain things like Shinnok and Ermac's origins that were revealed in it and later brought up in later games?"

first of all i'd only assume MK4 was being designed at the same time, so they mentioned Shinnok (btw who's ending so I can check it again now that I'm piqued).....

but second, I deny that MKT is being canon to the story because it wasn't the original vision for MK3 (either MK3 or UMK3 was), for two reasons, it wasn't in the arcade and because it was a game with every character in there just for the sake of having every character in there.. it was just sorta stupid.....like a novelty game that was fun but storywise wouldn't have much merit or credibility

To me, the only TRUE MK games in the history of MK are

MK1-arcade
MK2-arcade
MK3-arcade
UMK3-arcade
MK4-arcade
MK5-home
MK6-home

thankfully with 1,2,5 and 6 there has always been just one basic version/concept/vision. UMK3 is tricky but I can accept that that was the true vision cuz it came out in the arcade and just added characters to the existing MK3 story. MK4 I'm inclined to think the arcade version is the only true arcade version but all the home versions added crap it makes me wonder if MK4-arcade was unfinished or something.....but since it was never nearly as popular as MK1 or 2 no one really discussed it.

But see my dilemma, if they had come out with a game that was Ultimate Mortal Kombat 2, only on home systems that had a bunch of extra characters playable....would you honestly say that was the true MK2?

If this new version of MK II added to the plot then yes, it'd be the true version. Or at least the complete version. Like with MK3. MK3 is not "fake", but it's not the full story.



Shinnok is mentioned in Noob and Mileena's endings.

It's true MKT wasn't arcade, but neither was MK Gold.

Yes, characters were added in MKT just so that the complete roster would be in, but they have stories. Wether you like Cage, Baraka and Raiden being in MK3 or not they changed the story to fit them in. It's not like they just added them in without explination. There's also a few stories in MKT that were changed, like Mileena's. In UMK3 she was brought back to life by Shao Kahn. in MKT they changed this to Shinnok and later used that story in MK Gold.

I think what bothers a lot of people about MKT is it's name. "Mortal Kombat Trilogy" makes it sound like a fantasy game combinging all 3 games, which it's not. They should have called it "Mortal Kombat 3 Plus" and "Mortal Kombat 64" like they had originally.


MK4 arcade was unfinished. Like Noob was originally in it, but they replaced him with Reiko then readded him in the home versions.

I can't really deny the canonness of the story for some of this expanded stuff, or at least all of it. Like I said, a lot of the added chars in MK2 I can't deny (like Goro and Kintaro etc) but there weren't THAT many. I mean a story is a story, and in MK universe it changes a lot...but I'll believe an MK comic book, even though it might suggest things the games didn't. The story is just the background flavor...but as far as the cold-hard gameplay elements, this is how it goes for me. I am really convinced by my own argument that if there were a home version of UMK2...it would just be a neat home version like MKT, but not the true classic version of MK2.

So this is how I consider it

True versions (of the Main-MK franchise titles)
Arcade: MK1-3,UMK3MK4
MK5 and 6 (since they're home versions it's just like there's only one version so that's not really hard to figure out)

Home versions
My hypothetical UMK2(lol ok that doesnt count)
SNES/Genesis UMK3 (Rain and Noob ARE real characters in UMK3, and their storys count, but as far as the "True" UMK3 to me, they were only hidden characters like Reptile in MK1, Jade in MK2 etc).
Mortal Kombat Trilogy (I do NOT consider this AT ALL as Mortal Kombat 3 in any way, only except for that it used the same engine. I'll accept the stories are true as far as the design team tells us. Stories are just ideas and can change so I'm not too concerned with story-canon)
PS1/N64 MK4 (Cuz it added Goro... unless I find out they originally PLANNED that for the arcade version which I doubt. Also they had Noob Saibot playable but I truly believe that it was playable or meant to be playable in the arcade version so that's kinda only half-true version)
MKGold (same as MKT and Snes UMK3..just added bonuses for the hell of it)
MKDA/MKTE for Gameboy. MKTE added Sareena which is a real character storywise but as far as I'm concerned she's never been playable in a true MK-main franchise game.

Not to mention MKTE told of who offed Goro.