Top 10 Mortal Kombat Fatalities

My obsession of late is, oddly enough, one I went through in junior high. Mortal Kombat is taking up a great deal of my free time. Time that is usually spent watching TV, or doing something else equally unproductive, but the time is getting filled nonetheless. I don’t know what it is, but it’s just so damn entertaining. It might be the terrible acting, the ridiculous plots, the retarded mini-games (although Puzzle-Kombat is really, really fun) - it could be anything now. I know when I was younger the appeal was in mastering all the damn Fatalities, which was really the only reason to play this game over other fighting games.

Sadly, over time, the Fatalities became completely irrelevant and stupid. Babalities and Friendships became challenging yet pointless moves to actually do. And, I hate to admit it, btu with this current MK (Deception) I know absolutely none of the Fatalities. They’re really friggin’ hard, and none have made it through from MK1 or 2 to this one, so I am at a loss. Hopefully I’ll get them eventually. As a way of encouraging myself, and furthering this latest obsession, I give you the top 10 MK Fatalities (mostly from 1, 2, and 3).

10. Sektor - Compactor: This move was just a bizarre one, and made it onto this list only because it was just as ridiculous as it was awesome. A large junkyard-style compactor comes out of his chest, scoops up the opponent, and proceeds to compact (or Kompact) him to goo and bones. It then retracts back into Sektor for next time. It takes a few seconds to set this one up (ie get it around the dude) so they gotta be REALLY freaking dazed to let this happen.

9. Sub-Zero - Ice Shatter: Classic MK move, which is actually not overly gross. Sub- Zero throws an ice ball at a guy, freezing him - that’s part 1. Part 2 is shattering the dude at the torso. I think there are variations of this one throughout the entire series, where the torso stays all in one piece, shatters into little fleshy-ice chunks, and I think there’s one where it melts into a bloody mess, but I might have just dreamed that. Yes, I dream of Fatalities sometimes.

8. Kano - Lazer Melt: Whenever I played, or anyone played MK1, and saw Kano for the first time, there was always the “ooh! I’m gonna play the robot!” Which would then always be followed by “he’s not a robot. He’s just got a weird eye.” That would always be followed by “Why?” This was usually followed by nothing at all, because it had absolutely no purpose for a while. Eventually, the reason was revealed: it’s for melting people. Of course, this wouldn’t become apparent until MK3, but whatever.

7. Kung Lao - Hat Split: Ah Kung Lao, the peaceful monk, forced into Mortal Kombat when his spirit was resurrected in MK2. This must have pissed him off greatly, as he lazer-lined his hat, and is chucking it left and right. And the coup-de-gras? He has perhaps one of the grossest, most violent moves of the game, slitting a guy halfway down (from the top of his head to just before his legs, so he slowly peals and drips innards all over the place. Wicked.

6. the Pit: From what I can tell Deception has no Pit - many levels LIKE the pit, but no actual Pit. The pit is always a level-fatality. Usually it takes just an uppercut to send someone to a grizzly death. Either plummeting to their demise, or simply landing in sulphuric acid just 3 inches from your feet, this is always a bad way to go. The one in MK1 was the best though, as it had the added bonus of being where Reptile hung out. Speaking of which...

5. Reptile - Head Eat: He ate people’s freaking heads off! But, only if he was 3 paces away. Otherwise he just spit at them. But, if done at the right spot, he tore off his mask and revealed his giant reptilian head which could never fit under the mask. Not as odd as the movie version, but still hard to explain.

4. Scorpion - face rip, fire: Similar to Reptile’s head-eat, Scorpion would tear not only his mask off, but also his whole damn face! That’s really the cool part of this move, as it fully reveals the difference between Sub-Zero and him - he’s a dead guy who can rip off his own head. And then, for the actual Fatality, he breathes fire on the guy, burning him to death. Scorpion can breathe fire? Evidently.

3. Shang Tsung - Kintaro: This is probably the most annoying Fatality to pull off. In MK2, using Shang, you have to win the first fight (obviously) and then throughout the second fight, you HAVE TO HOLD IN B FOR 45 SECONDS! What?! Not only does this seriously cramp your thumb, it also renders all other moves undoable. Plus, you have to make the match last really long, so the guys has a really good chance of pummeling the crap out of you as they can do all their damn moves. However, if pulled off, you can turn into Kintaro (Goro’s dad) and punch the guy in the gut, breaking him clean in half: upper-half goes flying in a bloody mess, while the lower-half stays standing in shock. They don’t know what the hell happened.

2. Smoke - blows up the earth: Smoke was a robot, apparently. Whatever. Like Sektor, he can hold crap in his torso, like little smoke bombs. One of these launched at an opponent will injure him slightly. However, if that guy happens to be wiggling and you release say 10 or 12 of those bombs it has the capability to destroy the entire Earth. This move confused the hell out of me the first time I did it. Mostly because you must then beg the question: where is the next fight fought?

1. Kano - Skeleton Remover: In terms of pure stupidity, this one wins. In terms of senseless violence, this one wins. In terms of thinking ‘holy crap, that guy is tough,’ this one wins. Kano (same dude with the lazer-melty-eye) is back, only now he’s taking the impersonal lazer-from-5-feet-away approach and tossing it aside. Now he’s using his bare hands. He uses his bare hands to reach into the opponents mouth, yanks a few times, and then rips out the guy’s complete skeleton, with some innards attached (it’s hard to do that cleanly). Now, I’m not a doctor, but that would have to be kinda hard to actually accomplish. Especially without even ripping their clothes. Still, excellent.