Mortal Kombat 12 has a whole series' worth of fighters to choose from, but a few don't deserve any real consideration. The roster of a Mortal Kombat game is one of its most important aspects, with good characters being about as important as good controls. Mortal Kombat 12 should feature the series' best characters while avoiding its more regrettable ones.
The world of Mortal Kombat is a complex web of wars, politics, and relationships. Almost every character in the series ties into the storyline of the games in some way. From the powerful warlord Shao Khan to less experienced fighters like Cassie and Jacqui, everyone has a part to play. So many characters are connected through their alliances, rivalries, and various other relationships, providing a wide variety of dynamics among the playable fighters. It makes every character feel important, no matter how big their role is. With Ed Boon recently teasing MK12's roster, it remains to be seen how many of these connections will stay intact.
Kobra Is Mortal Kombat's Least Interesting Martial Artist
Mortal Kombat's cast is full of martial artists, with them comprising the majority of the game's fighters. They come in a wide variety, including ninjas Scorpion and Sub-Zero, monks Liu Kang and Kung Lao, and the fish-out-of-water actor Johnny Cage among others. The unique fighting styles and designs of these characters makes them interesting. Mortal Kombat does not have a perfect record with making interesting martial artists, though. The best example of a failed martial artist in the series would be Kobra from Mortal Kombat: Deception. Needless to say, there's a reason why Kobra's boss Kano cameoed in Batman: Arkham while Kobra himself languishes in obscurity.
Kobra has one of the most bare-bones backstories and personalities in the Mortal Kombat mythos. He is a martial artist who started killing people because he wanted to see how effective his martial arts training was, and was recruited into Kano's Black Dragon clan because of his brutal nature. He also shows little personality aside from arrogance and a love of killing, making him one of the most generic characters in terms of both design and personality.
The only thing of note about Kobra is his inexplicable resemblance to Ken Masters of Street Fighter fame. Unfortunately for him, while that coincidence can be good for a laugh, it actually makes Kobra look worse by comparison. Ken is one of Street Fighter's most classic characters and a mainstay of the series, while Kobra was safely discarded after two installments because of how little he brought to Mortal Kombat.
It would be difficult to find a more generic fighter in Mortal Kombat's history than Kobra. Nothing about him stands out, and his role could be replaced by a nameless minion from the Black Dragon clan with virtually no change in the story. To add insult to injury, one of his only interesting traits, his teleporting punch, was adopted by Smoke, giving Kobra even less reason to return.
Mokap Is Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance's Pointless Joke Character
Joke characters in video games are not necessarily a bad thing. Dan Hibiki from Street Fighter may be the most famous joke character in gaming, and he's quite popular due to his humorous personality. However, in the brutal world of Mortal Kombat, a character that exists solely for the sake of a joke feels jarringly out of place. Although this is not the only problem with Mokap, it is the issue that is hardest to ignore regarding his character.
The character of Mokap begins and ends with his name. He is a motion capture artist who did some work with Johnny Cage, and inexplicably ended up in the middle of Mortal Kombat's story. In his character bio for Mortal Kombat Armageddon, it even outright states that he only got mixed up in the game's events due to being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Nothing about his powers or abilities gets a proper explanation, and his personality is practically nonexistent. He's just a guy in a motion capture suit fighting against far more memorable characters. Even if Mortal Kombat 12 rebooted the fighter, he still wouldn't fit in.
Mokap is simply a joke, and not even a funny one. With the Mortal Kombat titles attempting to tell a serious story amid the bloodshed, it completely ruins the mood to have a random guy in mocap gear standing among the cast. His return in Armageddon was likely only due to it featuring every previous fighter, rather than any merit of his own. It's hard to imagine Mokap returning in any capacity larger than the small nods to his existence in Mortal Kombat 11.
Mortal Kombat's Hsu Hao Is Famous For Being Hated
Not every character in Mortal Kombat managed to be liked by players, but few received as hostile a reception as Hsu Hao. Ironically, Hsu Hao actually does have a role to play in the Mortal Kombat mythos, and he is a member of a prominent organization with a built-in rivalry with Mortal Kombat's Australian baddie, Kano. Even though that would imply that he has potential, Hsu Hao was not only abandoned quickly, he was outright mocked as a character.
As a member of the Red Dragon clan, Hsu Hao was an unrepentant criminal and sword enemy of Kano's Black Dragon clan. He was a remarkably brutish fighter, being one of very few characters to specialize in wrestling and grappling as a fighting style. Unfortunately, Hsu Hao is proof that a unique playstyle alone cannot carry a character. His design was bland and unfortunately stereotypical in some places, and he possesses no notable traits aside from his brutishness and loyalty to the Red Dragon clan, making him one of MK's most boring villains.
Hsu Hao was deeply unpopular upon his debut, and the developers agreed. Mortal Kombat's Hsu Hao is so hated that he is only referenced either to disrespect his legacy or outright kill him. He even appears as a severed head in one of Erron Black's intros in MK 11, proving his death in that timeline without a single onscreen appearance. At this point, it's impossible to take Hso Hao seriously due to the destruction of his reputation. Even if he was interesting, it's clear that there's no desire to bring him back.
Mortal Kombat has so many good characters that it's likely harder to decide who to leave out than who to include in a new game. On the other hand, there are some characters that have nothing to add to a new game, and can safely stay out of the spotlight. Mortal Kombat 12 doesn't need to bother with the series' least worthy fighters.
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