10 Times Video Games Made You Fight Yourself

In fighting games, players can usually pit the same character against one another in what is termed a mirror match. During story modes, players would often need to fight their copy, especially when fighting games featured fewer playable characters; modern fighting games do this less often now that character rosters number into the several dozens.

Mortal Kombat (1992), initially only featured eight characters - two of which were palette swapped ninjas. Developer, Midway Games, clearly didn’t see a problem with this lack of variety and decided to create a kombatant around the idea of the mirror match.

The final boss, the shapeshifting soul-stealing sorcerer, Shang Tsung had the ability to morph into any of the other kombatants and gained their special moves while transformed. In the pantheon of notoriously cheap fighting game final bosses, Shang Tsung is one of the simplest - and providing he didn’t morph into Sub-Zero or Goro - victory was fairly straightforward.

Shang Tsung has since become a fan favourite and is one of Mortal Kombat’s most storied villains; he recently had a starring role in Mortal Kombat 11’s DLC.