Mortal Kombat has been around over 20 years and while Netherealm Studios is celebrating its tenth game by calling it X, I’m celebrating the new release by looking at the top 10 female characters. There’s no Cassie Cage or even Crimson, because they all have C names and well Mortal Kombat has always had K in everything (Kameleon). The franchise has always been known for its strong female characters and their rich, crazy back stories. What better time to celebrate Women’s History Month than doing it a few weeks too late? I’ll keep the images teen rated even if Mortal Kombat has always been mature.
HONORABLE MENTIONS: ASHRAH
If Frost is a female Sub-Zero, Ashrah was a female Raiden complete with her big hat. She has a lot of the same moves, including a torpedo. Sure its not exactly the same, but its close enough and I was surprised to find evil Raiden was still in Deception as an unlockable character. Her gimmick is a demon slaying sword. As a character, Ashrah felt pretty dull but I can respect her for the simple fact that she wears the most clothes out of the women in Mortal Kombat.
HONORABLE MENTIONS: NITARA
She’s the forgotten, one eyed, double winged vampire that used Cyrax and Reptile for her own fiendish means. She’s a manipulator, which is what vampires are known for, its just silly she’d use a reptile and a cybernetic former human to do her bidding. As a combatant, she was pretty unique, the neck bite, the flying, the blood rolling down cleavage. She is unique to look at and brought about wings and something different other than another female ninja.
HONORABLE MENTIONS: TANYA
Oh Tanya, since your debut in Mortal Kombat 4, I’ve seen you as a generic yellow female ninja in a game that didn’t have Kitana, Mileena or Jade until the Gold edition. She’s just really dull and uninspiring. The only thing that I can remember about her is the head scissors throw and the head scissors fatality where she face rides someone to spin their head around. It turns into a goofy fatality in a game with lackluster fatalities. Its not her fault so much as the early polygon technology.
#10 SHEEVA
The four-armed bodyguard of Sindel. Seeing the two of them back in Mortal Kombat 3, I thought to myself that the developers wanted to have Sindel as the boss of the game with Sheeva as the gatekeeper, but then someone realized no this is awful. So Sheeva and Sindel were both turned into normal playable characters. Sindel can use a lot of Goro’s old moves, tele-hopping, grappling and a four-armed fireball, but she just feels too plain, normal and like every other fighter. Even with four arms she doesn’t feel like a Shokan.
#9 SAREENA
She’s been around since the Mortal Kombat Mythologies and has appeared in a few rare games. As a character she’s always compelled me; a demon assassin controlled by Quan Chi. Well now that I’m typing it out that sounds a lot like Kitana or Mileena. Sareena also ended up with Li Mei’s sais or maybe it was the other way around. She made Armageddon feel fresh in a sea full of characters from the previous two games and the Shaolin Monks game.
#8 KIRA
Kira made her debut in Deception and feels like a blend between Kano and Sonya, which lead me to hope that she’d be revealed as their daughter. Mortal Kombat has ran long enough where she could have been the daughter, but no as it turns out Cassie Cage is their daughter. Kira was fun to play as and looked good as a character compared to others that debuted in Deception like Havok and Hotarou. She has knives, kisses and a good set of fighting styles.
#7 JADE
The green female ninja, the reptile but not Reptile of Mortal Kombat 2. She was evil, then turned good once again. She’s changed skin colors if not ethnicity over the series. She’s always changing and being revamped. They’ve equipped her with a bo staff and a boomerang, it seems like they’re making her interesting with all of the frills because she’s just not that thrilling of a character. She’s the best friend, not the star or even the villain.
#6 FROST
The female counterpart to Sub-Zero. I felt like she was a great addition to Deadly Alliance that allowed for new and old fans of Sub-Zero to have different play styles. To me she was a lot of Sub-Zero’s moves, power slide and a long downward ice blast to make enemies slip and slide. She’s attractive, even if inhuman. Its also interesting to see her blue hair and frozen pixie dress. In her storyline she’d turn on Sub-Zero and freeze herself into a block of ice.
#5 LI MEI
She was a fresh character that first appeared in Deadly Alliance. At the time I felt she was a rip off of Kim Wu from Killer Instinct: Gold, she’d be the first Killer Instinct inspired fighters that included Darius inspired by Fulgore. Li Mei had a lot of cleavage going on, but she also had a high kick combo that was pretty easy to pull off and she could stab opponents in the knees with her sais. It was particularly interesting compared to simply being impaled. She could also gracefully sidestep attacks with her fighting style.
#4 SINDEL
The Outworld Queen was always unique to play as. She can fly or hover, rain purple spitballs down on her foes ever since Mortal Kombat 3. She was murdered so Shao Kahn could ressurect her and take over Earthrealm in some conveluted video game story. In the third game her hair was always cool to see her whip enemies around, but when she resurfaced in Deception, it wasn’t her hair, but her booty that became the center of attention. Not in the Cammy way, but just bigger. She could still hover and it played into a lot of the nice touches to her victories.
#3 SONYA
Sonya has been a staple of the Mortak Kombat franchise since the first game. She’s the Sarah Connor to Kano’s Terminator. That’s how original the Mortal Kombat franchise is. She’s one of the most fleshed out characters throughout the series, she’s got friends and enemies. She’s also fun to play as with a lot of kisses and crazy bicycle kicks. It feels like she always has something new and fresh from game to game.
#2 MILEENA
Who can forget Kitana’s cloned Tarkatan sister? I’d assume Baraka’s life mate and partner in crime, the only tie to an entire population other than Baraka. She’s always fun to play as, rolls, dropping through the floor, shooting sais. She’s a pain to play against, very quick and deceptive. Holding a button to release the sais instead of dropping directional pushes. You can really trick an opponent. Mileena is also the exploited one in the series, she’s the one that wears the least clothes.
#1 KITANA
The daughter of Sindel, the princess of both Edenia and Outworld and the love interest of Liu Kang, but that’s only who she is. Her fighting style is bold and defensive compared to Mileena’s that’s sneaky. She’s got a fan lift to hover an opponent, a flying fist to get you across the screen if not uppercut when you land and even a fan through that requires more buttons than anyone else. Kitana has become a staple throughout the franchise, making plenty of appearances and gaining weight in Deadly Alliance in the same way everyone did when they moved from polygonal to full 3D. Because she’s so tightly tied to the story she’s always remained top tier for experienced players.
Games That I Play 
Great list and…..I think you’re gonna love Mortal Kombat X. My copy arrived early and I’ve been playing a lot.
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Sindel has been my fav MK female fighter since MK3 – glad she made the list! It’s hard to argue with Kitana though. At one point I wanted very badly make her one of my go-to fighters, but I sucked at properly using her fans.
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