Most people unfamiliar with Mortal Kombat would think that the overarching narrative of the series is just ninjas and sorcerers and thunder gods fighting each other ad nauseam, but they’d be surprised to know that it has one of the most convoluted storylines in all of gaming. The original era was pretty straightforward, if not a little shallow — from the original MK through MK3, the series revolved around the sinister forces of Outworld trying to invade Earthrealm, at first by winning tournaments that would decide the fate of our world, and then through deceitful manipulation of the rules.
The 3D games killed off main character and shaolin champion Liu Kang and introduced generic Big Bads to replace Outworld tyrant Shao Kahn until 2006’s Mortal Kombat: Armageddon culminated in a massive, apocalyptic final battle... that was retconned by 2011’s Mortal Kombat 9, a time-bending reboot of the series that led to the modern games taking place across multiple timelines.
