1st place: Mortal Kombat II
2nd place: Mortal Kombat Deception
3rd place: Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks
MK4 was close to making the list... but it lost because they did a poor job of porting it to the PC. There's no good reason they couldn't have made it an arcade quality game for the computer home version.

2D: MKII
3D: MK4 GOLD

2D: MK2 and Mk3/Umk3/Mk Trilogy 3D: Mortal Kombat Deception

My favorite is Mortal Kombat.

its a simple little game.It has its own little story. The game isn't too hard and not too easy. Everything is responsive from the control stand point. I like the ancient chinese mood it has. I like pretty much all seven of the characters, then you have massive and intemidating Goro and the mystical and enigmatic Shang tsung makes for a theatrical ending. Its really a near perfect game for me as its balanced in all areas. I like many of the other Mortal Kombat games. but Mortal Kombat is my favorite.

You know what? I don't know how many people share my opinion, but my favorite Mortal Kombat game is MKM: Sub-Zero.
It's an adventure game with gameplay mechanics of a Mortal Kombat fighting game. FMVs are awesome, too. And the fact that Sub-Zero, Scorpion, Sareena and Quan Chi are in it, is a big bonus, since they're some of my favorite characters.
2nd place is Trilogy.

Jack Burton's favorite MK games from each era:

2-D

I loved the first MK, MK II, and MKT. I loved MK because...well, it got me hooked to begin with, I loved Raiden, and the overall idea of the game was great. I loved MK II because of the fatalities, Raiden's new look, the introduction of Outworld, and for how hard the damn arcade mode was. It really helped sharpen my fighting skills. I loved MKT because it had everyone, and I actually thought the unrealistic explosions and bone patterns (I recall multiple skulls and extra copies of other bones scattered around everywhere) were funny.

3-D

I loved MK4, MKD, and MKA (somewhat). I liked MK4 because it was the game that brought the franchise to 3-D. I liked the whole storyline (though I do agree with those who have said it could have been developed more), the fact Fujin was playable, and because of the fact you could access Raiden's MK II outfit in the game. Not to mention I owned everyone who played me. I also loved MKD...the introduction of deathtraps, the bios, endings, a lot of the content, zombified Liu Kang...I consider this the current peak of the franchise in the 3-D era. I also liked MKA because of the inclusion of all the characters, but it fell a bit short because of the lack of bios, quality endings, solid backstory, Taven and Daegon (made me think MK was out of ideas for new characters, but I appreciated the effort...somewhat), Motaro's missing legs...I guess there were WAY too many characters for all of that stuff to happen, but as much as I found Motor Kombat amusing, I would have gladly traded it for extra space for that stuff.

I actually credit the MK franchise for "sparking" my creativity and making me the person I am today. It may sound pathetic, but if I actually had the time to explain it all, you would understand better. I'll just leave it at that for now.

And THAT'S what Jack Burton has to say at this time.

MK was one of the best. i just loved rayden!!! MK 2 is great, i love how theirs Scorpion and sub-zero, look alikes.

Rain---------------Purple
Reptile-----------Green
Ermac------------Red
Scorpion---------Yellow
Sub-Zero--------Blue
Smoke-----------Gray

For Verus mode, Armagedan is good, but the story mode sucks! why do we have to be Taven!?! We should be able 2 chose Rayden, Rain, Lui Kang, ect. Do any 1 agree?

hahaha fingure but yeah i'd say mk2 becuase they really stepped up after mk1 the arcade version was alot more impressing then the consoel version the biographies were great 2 but mk2 stepped higher they had the whole thing the value pack more characters but they didnt have the biographies thats the one thign that ticked us off nothing to read about them and the game over screen was just polverising

Hmmm, I'll go with the MK3 SERIES(MK3,UMK3,MKT) for 2D and MK:DA for 3D. They really dropped the ball with MKD, brought back too much old. Then with MKA I was soo excited for it, another trilogy type game, midway could have went all out with that mofo, MOST (if not all) arenas in the series, 2 on 2, good retro MK music, but alas they didn't, we just got Deception with recycled models from MKDA and MKD and a crapload of boring Konquest arenas.. MKA is a big failure in my eyes, Midway messed what could have been the BEST mk game, up :( I would rather have seen an updated and all new revamped armageddon for 360 and ps3 than MKVSDCU.

I think it falls between MKIII and MKII. And also I agree with Gameboy... the story mode sucked. I think that they should go team RPG for story mode, or just de-evolve to an arcade mode with a detailed story, cinematics and stuff like that. The RPG thing though would be insane.

Yeah, I never thought they'd release MK7 that soon. I expected it to be for the new generation. I didn't get my hopes up too much for it, considering that it was, what? Barely a year in production time?

MK3 / UMK3 and Shaolin Monks

hmm i woudly say either mortalkombat shaolin monks or either mk deadly alliance, the game play was amazinggg and you had gotten alot out of those games.

I have to say that in my opinion, Mortal Kombat: Deception was the best!
I love the atmosphere of the game, it's very dark and evil, and also i think it's the most brutal one.
I liked most of the fatalities, and i thought the death traps and hara-kiri were GENIOUS!
the character roster was really good, especially Havik and Hotaru!

man, now i feel like playing that game right now...

deception by far. sure some complained about it, but i loved the konquest mode the best, li mei my least fave from da, became one of my faves in this one. plus i loved onaga and shujinko. ure there were gameplay issues, but i still play this one the most. favorite 2d was mkt. ps version.

Yeah my favorite is mk2

my favorite was mk4 then mk2 then mkd even though i couldn't really do the fatalitys good.

It is a really hard decision.... but I would have to go with UMK 3 Or Trilogy

Sure the Fatalities were really bad in trilogy, but at least you had all the characters there.....

But I would really lean towards UMK3

Mk 1. It had a great story and great characters with theyre own personalities, and they looked real. I still think it beats out the others, even though theyre all good.

Well, I like 2D more than 3D cuz old school and more fun,.. for me. but I do like them all. The First MK game I've ever played was MK2 on Super Nintendo (don't own Super Nintendo, at friend's long time ago) I got addicted to MK after that lol so, I got all MK stuff for my Sega Genesis. Anyway, Favorite?

2D = Mortal Kombat Trilogy (for PS1)
Because has everybody in it and one button fatalities lol

3D = Mortal Kombat Armageddon (for PS2)
Because so can get to create a fighter... to make it more fun... I've created Storm Shadow and Snake Eyes on MKA lol They look good! =)

Zell

Damn... I LOVE ALL OF 'EM! My favorite? DAMMIT...

Mortal Kombat... 2.

I loved the characters, atmosphere, music, everything. Playin 1, 2, 3, Ultimate 3 and Trilogy and others when I was little... Yeah, 2. And 4.

In My Opinion:

2D:Mortal Kombat Trilogy


3D:Mortal Kombat Armageddon

In 2D : MK II

In 3D : MKD

I believe that mk2 was the best. The 3-d games were honestly to stupid for me. Armageddon was okay but mk2 had great characters great fatalities nice story and amazing graphics what more can you want.

My favorite? Can't there be favorites?! Ha-ha... wow, Mortal Kombat 2. Definitely. I remember MK2 the most, something about the old and new chartacters, the levels, fatalities... I was only 1 when it was released.