Especially in the past few years, guest characters and crossovers in fighting games have proven themselves to be effective attention grabbers for both the fighting game series and the property being featured in it. The gory, M-rated fighting series Mortal Kombat has been one of the most prominent examples of including guest characters, from comics to movies to other video games. With the most recent game including Spawn, The Joker, the Terminator, and Robocop, it could be reasoned that guest characters for the series is a trend to stay and some could wonder what other characters could make it in.
For this article, I’ll discuss different characters that could have a chance at making it into a future Mortal Kombat title. This article will be split into three different sections – one for characters from Midway (Mortal Kombat’s former publisher before Warner Bros.), one for characters from other major publishers, and one for characters from multimedia sources. Just a couple of rules for this list: only one character per series, company, or medium for each section respectively and, to stay within the tone of Mortal Kombat, only Mature/R-rated or Teen/PG-13 rated franchises will be considered.
Here are my picks for Guest Characters in a future Mortal Kombat game.
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Part 1 – Midway Characters
When it comes to fighting games from Midway, most people only think of Mortal Kombat, but the studio did experiment with a few other series, especially as 3D fighting games started getting popular. Three games that they created during this period were the fantasy/sci-fi mashup War Gods, the post-apocalyptic sci-fi fighter Bio F.R.E.A.K.S., and the medieval weapon-based fighter Mace: The Dark Age. While they gained cult followings years later, at the time, they were largely ignored because of more popular contenders, most notably Namco’s 3D fighting series, Tekken. Featuring characters from these games as guests in a Mortal Kombat title could be a good way to reintroduce these games to the public.
Voodoo (War Gods)
Ssapo (Bio F.R.E.A.K.S.)
Lord Deimos (Mace: The Dark Age)
These three characters were chosen as they have become some of the most popular with fans over time. Seeing them reappear over others from these franchises would be a treat for old fans and create curiosity for new players, potentially prompting for more content or even series revivals if handled well.
Part 2 – Other Gaming Characters
With the inclusion of Kratos as a PlayStation exclusive character in Mortal Kombat 9, it’s been shown that the series can accommodate characters from other video games as well as version-exclusive characters. While cross-promoting other studios can be a benefit to both parties, version-exclusive fighters can sweeten the deal in a different way, by giving extra attention to players who prefer a specific platform. While I could name just about any publisher for this section, I’ll limit it to companies that either have their own game platform or their own major fighting game series.
Microsoft – Black Orchid (Killer Instinct)
Sony – Needles Kane (Twisted Metal)
Nintendo – Ridley (Metroid)
PC/Valve – Pudge (DOTA 2)
These first four could potentially be the version exclusives. While Marcus Fenix from Gears of War was originally planned as a fighter for Mortal Kombat 9, Black Orchid being an iconic character from an M-rated fighting series that features Fatality-like finishing moves may make her a better fit. Since Kratos has already been featured in a Mortal Kombat game, Needles Kane from Twisted Metal could be another Sony candidate for the franchise.
(They’ve already had one killer clown.)
While Nintendo may have more of an image as the family-friendly (some might even say “kiddie”) company, they do have their share of characters that can fit a more mature universe. One of these being Ridley from Metroid, fresh from his first fighting game appearance in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, as the main villain of a T-rated action sci-fi series. (Plus, no way Nintendo would put any heroic characters in a game like this.) For a potential PC version, we turn to Valve, one of the biggest companies in the PC gaming space, to include Pudge from DOTA 2, one of the most well-known characters from one of their biggest series.
Bandai Namco – Nightmare (Soul Calibur)
Capcom – Akuma (Street Fighter)
Konami – Stun (Bloody Roar)
Sega – Midnight (Eternal Champions)
These four companies all have fighting game series or characters that could mesh well with Mortal Kombat. One could easily imagine Nightmare from Soul Calibur hacking off limbs or burning opponents with demon fire. Stun from Konami’s Bloody Roar could feature a Beast Form transformation mechanic to give him a unique mechanic. Midnight, the vampiric scientist from Sega’s obscure, mature fighting series Eternal Champions, is a good fit for the series that could help revive a dormant Sega franchise. Finally, fans have been waiting for a crossover between Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat for a long time, but while most of SF’s characters aren’t a good fit for this bloody series, Akuma is probably one of the few that are.
Part 3 – Multimedia Characters
Perhaps the wildest area of speculation for a Mortal Kombat game. Having pulled characters from different corners of mainstream media, there are so many possibilities of characters to use in these slots. We’ll limit these to one character per medium.
Movies – Michael Myers (Halloween)
With the inclusions of Freddy Krueger in MK9 and Jason Voorhees, Leatherface, Alien, and Predator in MKX, fans have wanted Michael Myers to make an appearance in the series. The developers can take the approach they did with Jason and take inspiration from trends in the Halloween movies to create his moveset.
TV – Buffy Summers (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)
One of the most iconic horror TV characters and heroic horror characters, Buffy Summers can easily be imagined in supernatural battle with the MK characters with different weapons and maybe even help from her allies. She could even have interesting interactions with the undead/supernatural characters in the cast or other young fighters like Cassie or Jacqui.
Comics – Hellboy (Hellboy)
After Spawn, one of the biggest comic book characters from a dark series that could crossover with Mortal Kombat would probably be Hellboy. Armed with guns, gadgets, and his demonic lineage, he would fit in well with several of this cast.
Cartoons – Mumm-Ra (Thundercats)
Did you know Warner Bros. owned the rights to Thundercats? This could potentially make it easy for the series villain to make a guest appearance. He could be written as trying to take over and expand his influence and his powerful magic would make him a strong opponent.
Anime – Seras Victoria (Hellsing)
One of the most well-known horror anime series with a reputation for bloody violence, some might argue that Alucard would be a better fit for a Mortal Kombat appearance, as the main character of the series. However, Seras Victoria may be more fitting as she can be shown as powerful without being too powerful.
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What did you think of this article? What characters do you think would make good guest fighters in Mortal Kombat? Make yourself heard in the comments below.
Thanks for coming!
