Mortal Kombat: 10 Absolute Worst Characters Ever

The Mortal Kombat series is gigantic. It's always been leaps and bounds ahead of any fighting game peers in terms of fan popularity and being part of the cultural zeitgeist, and Mortal Kombat 11 is the best-selling game of 2019 so far.

The series has been on an upward trajectory for a long time and the sick minds at NetherRealm seem to be experiencing something of a creative renaissance.

I say that because Mortal Kombat had a seriously poor period in the early-to-mid 2000's. It's easy to forget now because the series is so popular and sells so well, but over a decade ago, Mortal Kombat was worth little more than an eye-roll to game critics. Games like MK Deception, Deadly Alliance, Armageddon and Shaolin Monks saw the series hit an all-time low, even if it was still a household name.

That's not to say those games were without merit; they were fun enough, but they also represented a creativity low point. Of course, every era of Mortal Kombat produces a few dud characters, but that middle era was especially guilty.

So today we're going to look at the worst moments from the entire MK series. The worst characters ever created, those that weren't worth playing at the time and are better left forgotten. However we won't let them be forgotten that easily.

Read on and prepare to take a trip down a cringeworthy memory lane.

It hurts to put Shujinko on this list because he's a character we spent a lot of time with and he had so much potential.

For those unaware, Shujinko was the protagonist of the unique Konquest Mode in 2004's Mortal Kombat: Deception. The story saw a young boy by the name of Shujinko travel from his monastery to every corner of the Mortal Kombat universe, fighting the iconic stars of the games and learning their moves. It was semi-open world and was the first real attempt at a third-person story mode. Sounds awesome, right?

Well, the mode was kinda boring and, ultimately, Shujinko was an idiotic dullard. The idea was solid but the character just became an amalgamation of every character's moveset with a super generic look. Fans did not take to Shujinko like NetherRealm had hoped, and he hasn't been a playable character since 2006's Armageddon.

Considering the length of time we spent with him, and the fact that he was supposed to be the all-time great, Shujinko can't be considered anything but a total failure the poster-boy of a period that NetherRealm would rather forget.