There’s a reason that Barbara Bush used to love whiling away the hours playing Mortal Kombat. Sure, there was the instant gratification that came with tearing a man’s spine out of the front of his neck or vomiting acid on an opponent’s face until their skin burned off, but what kept the former First Lady of the United States fueling herself with Rockstar energy drinks and smashing arcade cabinet buttons in the Roosevelt Room until two or three in the morning was the franchise’s roster of characters. Mortal Kombat has always boasted a tapestry of colorful fighters, from the cocky Johnny Cage to the mysterious Scorpion, to the equally-mysterious-but-blue-this-time Sub-Zero.
And it’s that wide range of kombatants that makes the lead-up to a new Mortal Kombat game so tantalizing. Who’s the good guys? Who’s the bad guys? Most importantly, when are we getting another Scorpion reskin, maybe wearing a nice paisley pattern?
Arguably, the anticipation has never been more palpable than in the days before the release of Mortal Kombat 1. The buzz around this newest entry is hard to escape, and fans have taken to the message boards to share their best guesses re: the game’s antagonist.
Right now, the smart money’s on Onaga, Outworld’s former ruler and Dragon King. While eagle-eyed players might point out that the character seems like a bad bet on account of being chronically dead, MK1’s decision to reset the world’s timeline makes the idea go down a little easier. Add to that the fact that the guy has a history of necromancy and a suspiciously long gap on his Mortal Kombat resume, and he feels like a natural fit to a certain type of fan. It doesn’t hurt that an army of glowing-eyed skeleton bad guys was spotted in one of the game’s trailer, either — pretty boilerplate Onaga stuff, frankly.
Then there’s Liu Kang. At the end of the last game, Mortal Kombat 11, he Kambated his way to quasi-omnipotence, becoming the god of Outworld and triggering the timeline reset central to MK1. He comes off as relatively benevolent in the trailers, and he’s historically one of the friendlier folks in the series, but getting glow-eyes and declaring yourself a world-shaping deity doesn’t usually come prepackaged with a happy ending.
The long odds, according to fans anyway, are on Shang Tsung. Why? For the same reason nobody suspects Jared Leto whenever a string of murders occurs in Florida: It’s just too obvious. Shang Tsung has been the big bad of enough Mortal Kombat games. The latest entry is supposed to be a bold reimagining. Going old hat out of the gate doesn’t feel like something Ed Boon and company would invest this much in.
And not to editorialize, but so far, nobody seems to have hit on the best possible option. The most organic villain that MK1 could land on is the anteater Animality version of Noob Saibot from MK3. What, are these people not real fans?
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