A new Mortal Kombat means many new experiences. There’s a new Story Mode, undoubtedly filled with brand new hijinks from Liu Kang and friends. Then you have Invasion, wherein you travel across various regions, battling invaders from alternate dimensions. The Kameo Fighters are also a nice mix-up to the formula.
However, if Mortal Kombat is renowned for one thing, it’s the Fatalities, and Mortal Kombat 1 offers plenty. They range from the intricate to the hilarious, with varying degrees of gratuity. Here are the 15 best Fatalities in the game.
Hollywood Walk of Pain – Johnny Cage
What’s worse than being beaten by a smarmy Johnny Cage? Being invited to take a selfie before he slams your face into a square on the Hollywood Walk of Pain. You think it would be the end, but then Cage pulls half of your head off the pavement for a pic and tags it as “YouGotCAGEd.” There are more painful ways to go out, but few are as demeaning as this. On the other hand, if you play as Cage, few Fatalities are as demoralizing for your opponent.
Nitara Takes Flight
Say what you will about her voice acting (and fans have said a lot), Nitara’s moves and Fatalities are the real deal. Her second Fatality is especially brutal, as she reaches into her opponent’s innards to pull out some intestines before taking flight. It’s probably the small intestine, which you know is a question that came up during development, but that’s not important. Eventually, Nitara gets bored carrying her opponent and yanks them up for one final kick that splits their skeleton from the rest of their body to crumble on the ground.
Geras Closes the Loop
Perhaps the most clever Fatality in the game, this one sees Geras opening a portal into the past and pulling off the opponent’s head before smacking their present version with it. One shattered lower jaw and a woeful look at the head later, a portal suddenly opens behind them and plucks their current head from their shoulders as Geras seals a potential paradox. The execution and imagination, as this fits very well with Geras’ abilities while still showing massive disrespect to his opponent, is on point.
Scorpion’s Execution Squad
Despite Scorpion starting the Fatality by disappearing into the ground amid flames, he doesn’t emerge to ignite his opponent. Instead, three other shinobi, likely from the Shirai Ryu, arrive. The first stabs the opponent with a sword while another embeds a battle axe in their skull. The third is a call back to the Scorpion we know and love by removing his mask to breathe fire. The man finally emerges to spear, pull and separate his opponent’s skeleton from their charred flesh, battle axe still embedded skull-deep.
Appetizer – Mileena
Mileena’s first Fatality is pretty simple when you think about it, but also the most gruesome. After sticking a sai in her opponent’s head, she turns them around, takes a big ol’ bite (gulping their brain down without pause) and then eats most of the rest with another chomp. Fittingly enough, this Fatality is named Appetizer, implying a main course that we’re thankfully spared from seeing.
Baraka Holds a BBQ
However, Baraka’s is more insane. Cutting open his opponent’s stomach, causing the intestines to fall out, he kicks them into the air over some support and hoists them from the ceiling over an open fire. Some of his Tarkatan buddies then arrive to pull off some charred limbs and chow down (while the opponent is still alive). And the Kameo Fighter? The Kameo Fighter gets to watch.
Tanya’s Spear Fishing
Tanya’s Fatalities aren’t too intricate, but still very brutal. For example, her second Fatality uses spectral hands to lift her opponent by the limbs and spread them. She then tosses her staff at their skull, piercing through but somehow removing it from the shoulders as it bisects the rest of the body before landing a few feet away. It’s one of those Fatalities that doesn’t seem over-the-top at first but is still appropriately violent.
Indigestion – Reptile
Would it be a Mortal Kombat game without at least three Fatalities of a fighter eating their opponent? Probably not, but Reptile’s Indigestion does mix it up a bit. First, he appears behind his opponent and chomps down on their head and shoulders before gulping them down. He then spits out said upper body as they attempt to flee, acid slowly dissolving their skin before Reptile squashes their cranium into bits. What more can you say?
Shang Tsung Probably Isn’t a Real Doctor
While capable of delivering tons of pain himself, Shang Tsung takes a different approach with his second Fatality. After cutting open his opponent’s chest on an operating table, he pours some green liquid into their innards. A bit bubbling and boiling later, a demonic snake emerges, devouring their face and brain with little fuss.
Kung Lao’s Torture Rack
In the story, Kung Lao initially doesn’t have a bladed hat, so how skilled could he get after acquiring one so quickly? Too skilled, as it turns out. His first Fatality is a display of precision, while his second is a showcase of tossing his hat high, hoisting his opponent on his back and holding them in place while it carves them in half. He then slams the two halves together for good measure.
Gymnastics, by Ashrah
Ashrah’s first Fatality is pretty quick, precisely skewering her opponent to win the match, which is why her second is hilarious. She turns her sword into a glowing whip and performs gymnastics, looping it across multiple limbs before giving it one big tug and slicing her opponent to bits. It’s graceful, we’ll give it that.
Royal Blender – Kitana
Among the many terrible ways to go is Kitana’s Royal Blender. Using the winds of both spinning fans to hold her opponent in place, she turns them into opposing blenders, mulching until they meet the middle before returning to her. Nothing too fancy but not too ordinary and just the right amount of “Wait, what?” before one moves on.
Kenshi Slices and Dices
Kenshi’s use of Sento is something to behold throughout the game but is all the more impressive in his Fatalities. The second sees him embedding it into an opponent and then telepathically slicing and dicing through them before sending it up and down on their skull, causing the pieces to scatter before it returns to his sheath in one fluid motion.
Smoke’s Hidden Blade
Compared to everyone else, Smoke’s second Fatality feels like more of an assassination than a Saw tribute. After generating a smoke cloud, he dashes through at insane speeds, slicing off a limb, then both legs and finally the middle of the head before kicking off the body. It’s a precise execution that remains fairly gory.
Twin Dragon – Liu Kang
Everyone loves Spaghettification, which is an actual term in Physics, by the way, but Liu Kang’s first Fatality is also pretty great. Twin Dragon sees him summoning two flaming dragons from his arms, hoisting the opponent in the air while they burn haplessly. He then proceeds to leap into the air and slam dunk their face into the ground while the rest of their body disintegrates. Over-the-top, gruesome, overkill – whatever the term, it’s awesome.
