MKA was the biggest diasappointment so far. I feeled so sold for stupid. Boon said you can create your own fatality.. yeah sure. Instead of saying the truth that they didn't had the time to make personal fatalities, they said "hey this is great, make your own stupid fatality". No, I didn't swallow those shit. Tehy just fuck around and as a result I never buyed Armageddon or even played it. Thank god Midway isn't the publisher anymore.

MK9 - MKD - MK2 - UMK3/MKT - MKDA - MKA - MK1 - MK4 (being last doesn't mean I disliked the game)

Haven't played vs DC, MKX, MK11.

Damn good question!

1: MK2 (the nostalgica, the shock value, not as much content as present MK's butt still on hell of a classic!!)

2: MKX / MK11 (cant choose because I realy like the dark MKX butt MK11 has so much other great stuff)

3: MK Deception (simply the best of the 3d era, no doubt)

4: UMK3 (2nd best classic)

5: MK9 (realy liked the oldschool vibe)

6: MK DA (nice and fresh new 3d start of the series)

7: MK4 (what a game, played it so much with my friends on the N64 and had so much fun and great times / tournaments)

8: MK1 (ofcourse a classic but I only played this game for a half year before MK2 was released. Deserves a higher ranking in my list but there a more great MK's)

9: MK Armageddon (was a shitty game, I stopped playing after one week)

10: MKvs DC (played it one time, never touched it again. hope they never make a MKvs DC title again)

...

I am just going to do my top five:

I) MK9. A fantastic comeback from the franchise and it delivered on everything and more I thought.

II) MK2. Just awesome. Kicked the franchise up a notch after the first game. Did not like Kintaro boss though. He was the most cheap boss ever in a Mortal Kombat game. He makes the some of the Towers of Time fun.

III) MK:DA Despite its shortcoming I really enjoyed it especially the Krypt.

IV) MK11. What could have been. The game would have been near great if not for some things. Grinding was too much.

V) MKX. I really liked it and it plays so good too. The variation system was an idea I think that will stay in MK.

• MK1 + MK2 (Good childhood memories)
• MK11 (Has almost everything I want in a MK Game)
• MKX
• MK9
• MK3 / UMK3 / MKT
• MKDA
• MKD
• MK4
• MK Armageddon (Worst MK ever IMO)
• MK vs DC (I do not count this as an MK game)

• MK6 :Deception
• MK9
• UMK3
• MK7: Armaggedon
• MK1
• MK4
• MK5: Deadly Alliance
• MK2

1. Mortal Kombat 4

2. Mortal Kombat Deception

3. Mortal Kombat 2

4. Mortal Kombat 3

5. Mortal Kombat (2011)

6. Mortal Kombat Armageddon

7. Mortal Kombat Deadly Alliance

8. Mortal Kombat 11

9. Mortal Kombat

10. Mortal Kombat X

11. MK vs DC (obviously)

I must ask: Why 4 so high and X so low? I'm curious. Because I agree with you on something here: 4 is really cool. It's got some of the best music and the best character renders. It's got a mood to it, I love it, but my only complaint is I've gotten to the point where the AI can't beat me - except sometimes Goro.

MK4 is in fact my favorite video game of all time, but besides that, I consider the most pivotal game of the series. It was the first of many things that exist today:

-first 3D game

-first game to feature interactive environments

-first game to feature a practice mode

-first game to introduce a playable boss (excluding Trilogy)

-first game to have cinematic endings

-first game to to feature an in-game moveslist

-first game to feature playable hidden characters

-first game to feature an 'easy fatalities' option

-first game to introduce sidestepping

-first game to to be based on established lore

In addition, the game also introudces Quan Chi, my favorite MK character, as well as the Shinnok's Amulet, the most impactful plot device in the entire series.

_________________________________________________________

Conversely, MKX is so low because of what I considered major disappointments.

Its story was largely hollow and incoherent (the biggest offense for me). Its roster was lackluster, and did not reflect the actual air of the story (the second biggest offesne). The DLC was saturated with guest characters, making the current roster even worse. The primary costumes of many characters did not actually reflect the true nature of them, thus presenting a non-existent narrative. And finally, its music was poorly written and with no adherence to previous titles. The music of the series had always been highly influential on me as a writer (Dan Forden is the reason I decided to become a composer), so to hear such heartless music really broke my own heart.

My one true praise for MKX was its fighting mechanics, which I consider absolutely incredible.

Sorry, double post.

Definitely MK2 then Deception. Can't say 11 has made it on that list.

It's always been 9, 3 and 2 with the 3d era at the back.

But 11 could top them all with a better roster(Mileena, Repile, Kenshi, etc) plus some (in)decent costumes for the girls. The game plays wonderfully well, possibly the best ever, and now the glitches are being ironed out it's a joy to play, krypt an' all.

Difficult to put up against treasured memories, but it's definitely troubling the top three. Certainly better than all the others.

1. MK11 - It just beats any game in terms of quantity of characters, moves and stages as well as quality of moves, graphics, stages, music etc. The only thing it lacks is diversity in terms of colour and customisation is a big let down, but that's extra to me. It makes up for that with a gorgeous Krypt and DLC seems to be very promising so best roster of all time.

2. MK2 - Nostalgia more than anything, but arcade version still the best experience of all MK games. The stages and music was just outstanding and really made it scary.

3. MK4 - At the time, for an MK fan, this was definitely a great game. Loved the style, the art, the music, stages and even the characters. I think MK Gold might be even better since it has my favorite in Baraka, but never played it.

MK1 will always have a special place in my heart and MKX would be at the bottom, just a huge letdown, washed out colours, forgettable stages, music and roster.

This initial list of mine only ranks the main series games, but my full favorites list is a bit different, at least at the top.

Top 5

1. Mortal Kombat 4

2. Mortal Kombat Deception

3. Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3

4. Mortal Kombat 2

5. Mortal Kombat Tournament Edition

1. MK2011

2. MK3/UMK3/Trilogy

3. MK II

4. Deadly Alliance

5. MKX

6. Armageddon

7. Deception

8. MK11

9. MK

10. MK4/Gold

11. vs DC

I'm so impressed with the story and design and gameplay of MK11 on Switch. I'm having great fun, was tempted to give 11 the top spot, but 2 is still the one for me

Cuz I remember getting MK1 for Genesis, renting MK2, and hating it. Too hard wtf. But the design the music the mechanics I kept coming back

Now I love it. It's still challenging and legit

Tho last night I discovered what you guys meant by grindy. The Krypt and the Time Towers are fun, but it gets repeitive and time consuming! I just want one damn 90s Johnny Cage skin man

MK9>MK2>UMK3>MK11>MKD>MKDA>MKX>MK1>MKA>MKvDC>MK4/G

MK9 is still hard to top imo. Aside from the hilariously awful voice acting MK4 sucks. I never can sit and play that for more than an hour. Maybe less. I find it hard to place MKX anywhere other than where I did. The game is fine but looking back at it now it's just kinda eh. I never played it as much as I did with MK9. I also still think Deception is still the best 3D era MK and a game I put countless hours into (mostly on the Konquest mode).

People seem to rank games based on how they feel about the games now like @[Killswitch]. Of course MK4 now is shit, but at the time, it was off the chain.

Where did I say about playing it now? I'm talking my first reaction to the game which was a long time ago. The game is not fun imo.

MK9
MK2
MK3
MK11
MKDA
MK:D
MK1
Rest trash.

MK9 really brought the game to a competitive level and was a great revival for the series and the story. Roster and colors were amazing, king of the hill was fun and the story was fun.

MK2: music, colors, darkness, and epic hidden bosses and kintoro and kahn were strong.

MK3: Unmasked sub zero and in the introduction of the ice clone, a playable shokan, a cool centuar sub boss, a combo system, super unlockabales that were a secret for years after games release (Smoke Motoro and Shao kahn) Hidden bosses smoke and noob saibot and crazy cool roster introducing 2 of my favorites ever cyrax and kabal. They had 2 stages in 1, more stage fatalities, and the most ballsy thing they ever did.... No scorpion on the roster.

MK11: so many skins.... they could of done better if they added classic skins like mk1, mk3 and mkda skins and not just recolors.... maybe in the future patches who knows.

MKDA: First attempt at a 3d game and it was different at the time.... gameplay was trashy and in the sequels to come but people seem to forget that MKDA has some of the best music and by far the best stages in the entire franchise. They had that aura to them. Also playing the konquest mode was great because they explained how the fighter learned their specific fighting style and where and how they got their weapon. This was the start of great story telling in the MK series where I finally played the game for story as well. They hyped up the Dragon king to be stronger than kahn but ultimately failed in Deception and the hype was just not there.

MK:D: first game i followed and couldnt wait to come out. I followed roster updates etc but dragon kind ended up being crap. The stages were flat and horrible. STage fatality endings were crap and everybody about the game failed especially its new characters besides Havik. Only thing making this great was good music, good story konquest mode adventure game, and chess kombat and other mini games. The rumors of secret unlockables made the game interesting until we finally realized they were all fake. The community made this game good but it wasnt a good MK game.

MK4: Quan Chi is the only good thing to come of this and the amulet. They had a chance to redeem shinnok in MKX and blew it hard just like all the crap guest characters , roster and colors that game had.

It's rather interesting you and I have polar views of MK4.

My only real gripe of MK4 is its small roster. It has always been a fantasy of mine to see MK4 remastered with 25+ characters.

Elder God Tier:

MK2

MK Deception

MK9

Great Tier:

UMK3

MKDA

MK1

MK11

Good Tier:

MKX

MKA

Shit Tier:

MK4

MK vs DC

Honorable mention goes to Shaolin Monks, damn fun, if not somewhat flawed, game even if it wasn't a mainline entry.

1. Mortal Kombat Deception - Though this game is inferior in a few aspects to Deadly Alliance plus the none Living Forest will always be a smear on this game for me; but, as a whole this game is still probably the gold standard when it comes to Mortal Kombat. This game is so full of content you can see the seams straining to contain it. Plus even though it featured some wonky, ill-conceived new characters I would still say this had one of the most interesting rosters of the series.

2. Mortal Kombat (2011) AKA MK9 - If Deception wins the gold when it comes to giving you bang for your buck then this game certainly wins the silver, even if the story was a lobotomized revision of the original games and as a time travel story is probably one of the worst you will ever endure.

3. Mortal Kombat Deadly Alliance - Snappier fighting than Deception and by far one of the most gorgeous MK's, from the color pallet to the environments, soundtrack and the lengths it went with the story and lore of the characters, this game was just breath taking. It's sort of a struggle for me to coherently express how much I love and appreciate this game. It features some of my favorite character designs in the series and is probably one of the most atmospheric MK games. Plus it has the best Krypt of any MK game. You had stuff like cooking with Scorpion, the funny gag art to concept art that had some very informative notes with it and other pieces of art that also fleshed out the lore of the series. I just love this game man.

4. Mortal Kombat 3 - The game features the best soundtrack of the series and I really dig the comic bookish futuristic kung fu urban aesthetic. Plus you know, Sheeva. Look that was a lot of cleavage for a young kid to take in at the time haha. Bless that four armed amazon.

5. Mortal Kombat 2 - It's the game that got me into the series. I remember aching to play and see the characters again after just getting a one time tasting while over at a friends. Scorpion and Baraka stuck out to me especially. I was drawing them for days.

6. Mortal Kombat 4 - I recognise this game has fundamental issues when it comes to the fighting and other aspects, but, I don't really care. I would say nostalgia is carrying this game along for me but let's be fair that's what helps comprise any "favorites" list so you can't hold that against me. I associate this game with a very special time in my life and that's all there is to it.

7. Mortal Kombat 1 - Fun little novelty at this point. I played this game after both MK2 and MK3 and I can't say it's aged well but it's still a fun little romp and it's always fun going back and seeing where the series came from and contrasting it to where it would go. (Though that contrast is more frustrating with the more recent entries...)

Now comes the "FUCK YOU!" segment of my list. As in games I absolutely loath. Listed in the order of which games I feel the most passionate raw seething hatred for. So think of 8 as number one when it comes to this segment of my list.

8. Mortal Kombat Armageddon - How people don't hold NRS's feet to the fire for the amount of PR lies they put out about this game leading up to it's launch I don't know. This was the original Mass Effect 3 and people still just act like the biggest crime this game committed was Motaro not being a Centaur and air combat. Yeah the game was rushed and faltered because Midway was a sinking ship, but that just makes what NRS did all the more damning. They put those lies out there knowing they would never be able to fulfill most of what they were promising.

9. Mortal Kombat vs DC - Double fuck you for not following through with your "clean slate" ambitions and at least giving us a definite conclusion and actual story to Armageddon. The whole lead up to this game was nothing but a massive lie. Not that I wanted the clean slate they were promising but come on, you not following through basically made Armageddon 100% pointless. To lead us on with so much hype only to reward us with the most neutered MK of all time? Thanks NRS, I still hate it.

10. MKX - Dullest MK to be made so far. All I remember of this game is the over abundance of grey and wasted narrative opportunities.

11. MK11 - Practically always online and mobile "wear them down and tempt them with microtransactions." design philosophy along with some other questionable aspects ingrained in the game equals a massive no thanks from me.

I own mk11 and I am enjoying it, however it's too early to put it on a chart.

For me the list goes like:

1-MK X: the music is not memorable and there are too many guests, but the gameplay and the dark, grey, colorless palette is amazing, how MK should always be. I don't like the colorful and vibrant MK atmosphere. I know it's iconic, but mk really needs to move on from the 90s/arcade days. Mkx was the best step in the right direction, before mk11 did two backwards. The Brutalities, the Fatalities, the stage Fatalities, faction kills,... So many different ways to kill your opponent and still see something different every time. The best gameplay in the series and I loved the variation system.

2- MK9- I mean the game has its flaws, that's for sure, but it resurrected mk as a mainstream franchise with some international attention. The beginning of the "time trilogy". I loved everything about this game, excluding the stupid story mode. At first I loved it, but after the fifth replay, I can say that it is poorly written and even more poorly animated and even worse voiced over (seriously, excluding Raiden, Quan Chi and Scorpion all the lines are delivered in such an awful way... Plus the Italian voice acting is something that you really don't want to hear). Really, whoever says that MK9 story mode is better than the one in X or 11 is in Mala fide.

3-Umk3 - the game's too fun and it still retains its own competitive scene. The game that introduced so many urban stages and character design, whitewashed Shang Tsung but more importantly the kombat kodes. A shame that the arcade version lost all the cool intros and outros per character.

4-MK2 - I mean, back in the day it was a war between this and Street Fighter 2. The game is still played today although its gameplay didn't age well. The lack of proper combos is too much of a departure from what the series is going to be in a few years, that once you get used to mk9/X it's impossible to go back to mk2. Despite this, mk2 created the current aesthetic of the series, it was the "real" Mk1 of the story because it introduced Outworld and Shao Kahn.

5-Mk Deception - it is more quantity over quality, but I enjoyed my time with the naive Shujinko, and I loved all the mini-games. Unfortunately, the standard fighting gameplay shucked and was a step backwards from MK deadly Alliance.

6-deadly Alliance - quality without quantity. This game saved mk from special forces, aka the worst video game ever made. This alone should grant the first place. But the gameplay was too different from the past games and the production values looked very corny and cheap. Renderware was an awful choice in terms of graphic engine. This game introduced the Krypt and Konquest mode, though. I preferred the variety of MK Deception but the core gameplay of MK Deadly Alliance is vastly superior imo.

7- mk Gold- it was a fine game, very underrated. Great Fatalities, the first in 3D, the game that introduced us alternative attires, etc the music is the best ever. However the gameplay was boring, every character played the same.

8-mk1- it started it all. The game was made by four people, and you notice it, but without Mk1 there wouldn't be this franchise. It gave us the Fatalities and the ESRB as a consequence. Gameplay? Like the Yeti, I don't talk about things that don't exist.

9-Armageddon- I loved the Konquest mode and kinda liked Taven, for sure more than Shujinko (a character that I liked too...). A couple of laps in motor kombat are always welcome. Other than that the worst main chapter of the franchise.

10- DC- whoever had this idea needs to be torched alive and... Promoted. Back then I was blinded by rage because I really don't like the DC Universe. As time goes by, I realized that it was the stepping stone of the agreement between the remnants of Midway and the buyers of WB.

This game saved mk from nothingness. Still, is the worst for me. It has the merit, however, to introduce us to the cinematic story mode (I love them) and the use of UE 3, the same engine mkx and 11 are made of.