Robert:
1.) Kenshi
While certainly not as cool as the Blind N**** Samurai, Kenshi is one of the best additions to the 3d generation of MK games and has become a personal favorite of mine. I love samurai swords and those type characters but when you mix that in with telekinetic powers you have the recipe for an awesome fighter. His son is in the upcoming game but has been trained by Scorpion so I am curious to see how that turns out.
2.) Stryker
Pretty much universally hated when he was released in MK3, but all I remember as a kid was machine guns and grenades. It wasn’t until much later that I realized he was wearing a doo rag and the developers were going for an “urban” look. It also didn’t hurt that after his gun attack was added he was considered top tier along with Kabal. He was modernized for the reboot and I loved using his X-ray attack on my friends. He is essentially hipster brutal police officer; he was doing it before it was cool.
3.) Smoke
I am referring to the cyborg version as opposed to the human version. He started out as having mash up of other characters moves. I love that this version had a teleport and scorpions rope that came out of his chest with a claw. There were some pretty awesome combos that come out of that teleport into claw combo.
4.) Rain
While this character was created because of Ed Boons love of Prince’s “Purple Rain,” I have some of the fondest memories making people rage with his infinite lightning loops. Even Kenshi could have done them once you learn the timing. He was deliciously broken and it was so much fun to play as him. As he changed in the reboot I grew a little less fond of his as well as all the other human ninja’s appearances. I know it was an effort to differentiate them but I have a fondness for the old design even though it was just a palette swap with new moves.
5.) Raiden
The god of thunder, what more is there to say than that? In the first 3d game he was a total scumbag character due to his bo staff but he was so much fun to play as. I still love using his flying move because of the crazy noise he made while flying toward you.
6.) Johnny Cage
As time has progressed, this is the closest it seems we are getting to a Bruce Lee character in this franchise, which is funny, because he was modeled after Jean Claude Van Damme. It didn’t start out this way though, as he was all about nut punching and kicking people in the face. In the original game, if you used the nut punch move on Sonya, he would just do the splits and no punch. That was an interesting idea by gaming standards back in the day. He is a parody character and has died practically as many times as there are games, but is always revived for some reason when the next invasion of Outworld comes.
7.) Jade
She is one of the later additions to the female ninja archetype, but she is definitely my favorite. Sporting a metal bo staff and green outfit, that was all I needed as a child to play as her. She is one of the characters to stay pretty unchanged throughout her appearances. She died at the end of the last game and it has been stated that she will not be making an appearance in the new game; however she will be available as one of Kitanas 3 fighting styles.
8.) Sonya Blade
She is the first girl in this series and has still managed to be one of the most bad-ass characters in the series. She started out looking like an extra on a buns-of-steel exercise tape. She had one of my favorite fatalities with the kiss of death. I don’t think they have ever been able to do the original justice, or give her a better one for that matter.
9.) Jax
I wasn’t crazy about this character until they gave him the cybernetic arms. Once they did I think it really brought his character into its own. I mean…… punching the ground for a shockwave made no sense until he got the cybernetic arms. He had his own spinoff game that, while I remember it as being not that bad, was absolutely terrible and considered the worst out of all the Mortal Kombat games. This could be due to the final product turning out almost nothing like the way they originally pitched it. It was supposed to be him and Sonya both and the gameplay was pretty heavily changed. I still have the old PSM magazines to prove it.
10.) Liu Kang
The greatest fighter of Earth Realm is also a character that had practically everything move-wise in the early games. He is actually no longer one of my top ten in terms of favorite characters so much anymore, but I have the greatest memories playing as him when I was a kid. I don’t know a person alive that didn’t like the bicycle kick and I used to love turning into a dragon to bite someone in half. It started out as a fatality in MK2 and then turned into an Animality which opened him up for newer fatalities. Great character but he has been overshadowed by so many additions over the years.
Hush Comics 