Name	Kombat
Native name
Motto
Pushpin map	Namibia
Pushpin label position	bottom
Pushpin mapsize	300
Pushpin map caption	Location in Namibia
Coordinates region	NA
Subdivision type	Country
Subdivision name
Subdivision type1	Region
Subdivision name1	Oshikoto Region
Subdivision name3
Leader title1
Established title
Established date
Unit pref	Imperial
Area total km2
Area land km2
Area total sq mi
Population blank1 title	Ethnicities
Population density blank1 sq mi
Timezone	South African Standard Time
Utc offset	+1
Elevation footnotes
Elevation ft
Postal code type
Footnotes	}}

Kombat is a small settlement at the southern margin of the Otavi Mountainland in northern Namibia. It lies on the road between Otavi and Grootfontein. It was founded around a copper mine that was operated for many years during and before the 1970s by Tsumeb Corporation Limited. The mine is currently (2008) being operated by Weatherly International PLC, a mining house based in London.

The name of the place has nothing to do with "combat'. It is derived from a native word meaning "the place of the giraffe" or "giraffes drinking" or a similar expression. The surrounding areas of bush are vast and not densely inhabited and in the early 1970s a few giraffe still roamed freely in the district, along with kudu, eland and other wild game. Apart from mining, the principal economic activity in the area is the raising of cattle.

References

Category:Populated places in Namibia

de:Kombat es:Kombat (localidad) pl:Kombat (miasto) ro:Kombat

Title	Mortal Kombat 3
Developer	Midway (arcade)Williams/Sony (PS, PC Windows)Sculptured Software (Mega Drive/Genesis, SNES, PC DOS)Software Creations (GB, GG)Tectoy (SMS)
Publisher	Midway (arcade)Sony (PS1)Williams Entertainment (MD/GEN, SNES)Acclaim (PAL MD/GEN, PAL SNES, GB, GG)GT Interactive (PC)Tectoy (SMS)
Designer	Ed Boon, John Tobias
Release	Mega DrivePlayStationSuper Nintendo Entertainment SystemGame BoySega Game GearPCMaster System}}

|genre = Fighting |modes = Up to 2 players simultaneously |platforms=ArcadeMega DrivePlayStationSuper Nintendo Entertainment SystemGame BoySega Game GearPCSega Master System (Brazil only) |cabinet = Upright |Rating= ESRB: M (Mature) |arcade system = Midway Wolf Unit hardwareSound CPU: ADSP2150Midway Digital Compression System (DCS) - Amplified MonoLatest Game Version : Version 2.1 |display = Raster resolution 400 x 254 |input = 8-way Joystick, Buttons: 6 (HP, LP, BLOCK, HK, LK, RUN) }}

Mortal Kombat 3 is a fighting game, developed by Midway and released in 1995, first as an arcade game. It is the third game in the Mortal Kombat series. MK3 was later updated into Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 for the arcade and home consoles, and later Mortal Kombat Trilogy for home consoles only.

Gameplay

Mortal Kombat 3 builds further on the gameplay of the previous game. A "Run" button, accompanied by a "Run" meter, was introduced. This was primarily to address concern from fans who thought that the previous games gave too much of an advantage to the defending player. The Run meter is drained by running (the character cannot run backwards, only forwards) and by performing combos.

"Chain combos", also known as pre-programmed combos (labeled "dial-a-combos") were also introduced. Chain combos are preprogrammed button presses that cannot be interrupted once one hit connects (e.g., one of Sonya's chain combos is HK-HK-HP-HP-LP-b+HP). Some chain combos end with an uppercut or other move that knocks the opponent into the air, so that more punishment can be dealt via a traditional juggle combo. To please players of various skill levels, a "Choose Your Destiny" screen appears in 1-player mode. This new feature allowed player-selectable difficulty.

For the first time, certain levels were interactive by allowing characters to be uppercutted through the ceiling where both characters would continue the battle in a different stage. This could alter the game's level cycle. Both normal uppercuts and uppercuts that are part of a ground combo would result in a level change. Kung Lao's "Whirl Wind Spin" move would also have the same effect. However, if the final hit of a round happens to be an uppercut (i.e., the character is defeated by an uppercut), there is no level change.

All of the different style of finishing moves featured in Mortal Kombat II (Fatalities, including their non-lethal Babality and Friendship version) return in MK3 but this time the announcer saying "Friendship! Friendship?!" was changed to "Friendship! Friendship?! Again?!". Additionally, the long rumored Animality, where the character transforms into an animal in order to kill their opponent, is featured for the first time. Another new addition is the Mercy, where the character can give their opponent a small sliver of life if they have won two rounds and are at the "Finish Him/Her" screen. It is necessary that a Mercy is performed for an Animality to occur. Finally, three new stage Fatalities can be performed in the Subway, the Bell Tower, and the Pit 3.

Another concept introduced in this game are the "Kombat Kodes". These were 6-symbol codes entered at the VS screen in a two player game, to modify gameplay, fight hidden characters or display certain text messages. Also introduced in this game was the "Ultimate Kombat Kode", using a 10 character code using symbols, that could be entered after the continue screen disappears in single player mode. If the correct code was entered, an animation would be shown flashing the kombat zones in quick succession and Smoke would become a permanent playable character. The arcade owner, however, could reset this code by accessing the game's diagnostic menu by toggling a DIP switch within the MK3 cabinet. Smoke can be unlocked by either the player or the arcade operator.

The game's overall style was envisioned differently than in the previous Mortal Kombat games. Opposed to the heavily Oriental themes of Mortal Kombat and Mortal Kombat II, MK3's theme is much more Western contemporary. The game's stages are set in modern locations, three of the characters are cyborgs, and traditional character designs (such as Sub-Zero's or Kano's) have been dropped or modified in favor of modern replacements. The overall game has a much darker tone than its predecessors, and uses a noticeable darker and less vibrant color palette. Characters are now heavily digitized (as opposed to the hybrid digitized/hand-drawn style of MKII.) Many of the game's backgrounds are now, for the first time, created using pre-rendered 3D graphics. This change is also reflected in the sound track, in which all Oriental motifs have been dropped in favor of modern instrumentation.

Characters and cast

Some of the returning characters from the previous games in Mortal Kombat 3 were actually portrayed by new actors, since their original portrayers left Midway due to royalty disputes. Ho Sung Pak (Liu Kang in the first two games, as well as Shang Tsung in the first Mortal Kombat), Phillip Ahn (Shang Tsung in Mortal Kombat II), Elizabeth Malecki (Sonya Blade), and Katalin Zamiar (Kitana/Mileena/Jade) were not involved in the production of Mortal Kombat 3. Dan Pesina (Johnny Cage and Scorpion/Sub-Zero/Reptile/Smoke/Noob Saibot) was also not involved in the production of Mortal Kombat 3 as he had been fired after shooting an advertisement for BloodStorm (which was being advertised as a "Mortal Kombat killer") while wearing the Johnny Cage costume. This resulted in the use of new actors for Liu Kang (Eddie Wong), Sonya Blade (Kerri Hoskins), Shang Tsung and Sub-Zero (both played by John Turk) in Mortal Kombat 3. In Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, all of the male ninjas would also be played by John Turk, while the female ninjas (Kitana, Mileena and Jade) were played by Becky Gable. Johnny Cage would be played by Chris Alexander in Mortal Kombat Trilogy.

Carlos Pesina, who played Raiden in the first two games, did not appear in Mortal Kombat 3 as a penalty for his involvement in the rival game Tattoo Assassins, but was still employed by Midway. His character returned in Mortal Kombat Trilogy, although through the use of recycled sprites from Mortal Kombat II.

;New characters

Cyrax (Sal Divita) - Lin Kuei cyber assassin.

Kabal (Richard Divizio) - Former Black Dragon warrior.

Nightwolf (Sal Divita) - Native American shaman.

Sektor (Sal Divita) - Lin Kuei cyber assassin.

Sindel (Lia Montelongo) - Resurrected Queen of Edenia who is being controlled by Shao Kahn.

Sheeva (Stop motion) - Female Shokan who serves Shao Kahn.

Stryker (Michael O'Brien) - Riot control officer.

;Returning characters

Jax (John Parrish) - Special Forces major who joins Sonya in attempting to apprehend Kano.

Kano (Richard Divizio) - Black Dragon thug who escaped arrest by Sonya and Jax.

Kung Lao (Tony Marquez) - Shaolin monk who seeks to stop what Kahn is planning.

Liu Kang (Eddie Wong) - Returning Mortal Kombat champion.

Sonya Blade (Kerri Hoskins) - Special Forces lieutenant setting out again to capture Kano.

Sub-Zero (John Turk) - Rogue Lin Kuei ninja who fled the clan after refusing to be converted to a cybernetic unit.

Shang Tsung (John Turk) - Shao Kahn's devious sorcerer.

Smoke (Sal Divita) - Cyber assassin from the Lin Kuei, who was once a close friend of Sub-Zero (unlocked by Ultimate Kombat Kode).

;Boss and sub-boss

Motaro (stop-motion) - A four-legged Centaur.

Shao Kahn (Brian Glynn, voiced by Steve Ritchie) - Emperor of Outworld.

Although the game's manual states both boss characters are unplayable, both Motaro and Shao Kahn can be enabled via secret cheat menus in both SNES and Sega versions of the game.

;Other characters

Noob Saibot (Richard Divizio; unlockable as a non-player character through the Kombat Kodes) - The undead original Sub-Zero.

Storyline

The storyline added in Version 2.0 in this game, but not available in Version 1.0.

Fed up with continuous losses in tournament battle, Shao Kahn, who had lost to Liu Kang in the Outworld tournament, enacts a 10,000 year-old plan. He would have his Shadow Priests, led by Shang Tsung, revive his former Queen Sindel, who unexpectedly died at a young age. However, she wouldn't be revived in the Outworld. She would be resurrected in the Earthrealm. This would allow Shao Kahn to cross the boundary lines and reclaim his queen. When Sindel is reincarnated in Earthrealm, Shao Kahn reaches across the dimensions to reclaim her. As a consequence of his action, the Earthrealm becomes a part of the Outworld, instantly stripping billions of their souls. Only a few are spared, as Raiden protects their souls. He tells them that Shao Kahn must be stopped, but he cannot interfere; due to his status, he has no power in Outworld, and Earthrealm is partially merged with Outworld. Shao Kahn has unleashed extermination squads to roam throughout the Earthrealm and kill any survivors. Also, Raiden's protection only extends to the soul, not to the body, so his chosen warriors have to fight the extermination squads and repel Shao Kahn. Eventually with his final defeat, every human on Earthrealm comes back.

Mortal Kombat 3 follows Mortal Kombat II and shares continuity with both Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 and Mortal Kombat Trilogy which were both updates of this game. The next new game in the series was Mortal Kombat 4.

;Sub plots

Having defeated Shao Kahn in Outworld, Liu Kang now finds himself as the prime target of Shao Kahn's elimination squads. In response to the upcoming threat, he aligns himself with Kung Lao and leads the rebellion against Shao Kahn and his Outworld minions. However, he also has an ulterior motive: he seeks to defeat Kahn and free Kitana's homeland of Edenia.

With the latest advancements in human technologies, the Lin Kuei decide to automate their human assassins into soulless machines. Four ninjas- Cyrax, Sektor, Smoke and Sub-Zero- are selected to serve as the first automation prototypes, but Sub-Zero and Smoke refuse to participate- leading to their leaving of the clan. Unfortunately, Smoke is captured and is automated along with Sektor and Cyrax and all three are programmed to hunt down and eliminate Sub-Zero. Meanwhile, learning of the upcoming Outworld threat, Sub-Zero joins the rebellion against Shao Kahn.

Jax discovers the location of both Sonya and Kano while in Outworld, and in freeing Sonya, he also frees Kano. Knowing that his near future means arrest, Kano uses this opportunity to escape into the depths of Outworld and ultimately joins Shao Kahn's forces. Sonya and Jax return to Earth and try to warn their government about the upcoming Outworld threat- but when their pleas are ignored, Sonya and Jax instead prepare themselves for the upcoming war by joining the rebellion.

Despite both serving Shao Kahn, the Centaurs and Shokans have been at war with each other for years. Suspicions arise when Sheeva, who is appointed Sindel's bodyguard, learns that Motaro is appointed as Kahn's General in his armies. With the apparent, yet unconfirmed, "deaths" of both Kintaro and Goro, Sheeva begins to fear for her own race, and makes plans to turn against Kahn should her suspicions prove to be true.

Largely dependent on a respirator and an undying thirst for revenge against the Black Dragon clan (who he believes was responsible for his brutal attack), Kabal joins the rebellion upon learning of Kano's survival.

Though he realizes that he is the lone survivor of New York City following the Outworld Invasion, Stryker remains ignorant as to why he survived the attack. However, upon receiving a vision from Raiden and being informed of what has transpired, Stryker decides to find and join the other Earthrealm Warriors.

For many years, Nightwolf received visions that foretold and warned him of the upcoming invasion. Largely ignoring them, he feels guilty for not preventing it, and therefore offers to join the upcoming rebellion.

Johnny Cage was hunted down by one of Shao Kahn's extermination squads, and during the vicious battle that followed, he was killed, allegedly by Motaro.

Glitches

Glitches often occur in fatalities' animations such as how if an opponent's upper torso is chopped off, their hands would be floating to the side of the waist, when there are no arms to hold them (seen in Kung Lao's hat throw finisher). A similar thing happens with the arms when the upper body is sliced too, being cut under the shoulders. If an exploding or shredding finishing move was performed on a cyborg ninja, they will have human limbs. In any fatalities that involve the victim's skeleton becoming visible (such as Kano's skeleton rip or burning fatalities), if one such move is performed on Sheeva, the skeleton will only have two bony arms (this was corrected in Mortal Kombat Trilogy).

There was another glitch in the game called the 3-stage loop. When battling in the Soul Chamber, a player could uppercut his opponent into the Balcony, which was two stages before the Soul Chamber. This resulted in having to play in the Balcony and the Bridge and the Soul Chamber all over again, until both players finished the match in the Soul Chamber without being uppercut into the Balcony, thus proceeding to Shao Kahn Tower. This glitch was fixed in Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 because even if a player was uppercut into the Balcony, the next stage would be Shao Kahn Tower. The glitch returned in Mortal Kombat Trilogy, but was avoidable because of the easy stage select code.

Ports

Mortal Kombat 3 was ported to nearly all of the major home consoles available at the time of its release: Mega Drive/Genesis, Super Nintendo and PlayStation. It was also released for portable game systems such as the Game Boy.

To fit on the Game Boy major sacrifices had to be made. Only nine of the original fifteen fighters (Kano, Sonya, Sub-Zero, Cyrax, Sektor, Sheeva, Sindel, Kabal, and Smoke) were available, only five stages existed, there were no button-link combos, no Motaro sub-boss, and no finishers outside of fatalities and babalities. Shao Kahn used his moves from Mortal Kombat II. Although rated M for mature, this version did not include much of the overt gore and violence seen in its parent systems but kept some of the "burning" fatalities (immolating a defeated opponent down to just a burnt skeleton). However, the graphics are superb for a Game Boy title, with smoother animation and greater attention to detail on the fighters than the older MK titles for Game Boy.

There was also a scaled down Game Gear version of MK3 which was never released in the US. Only Europe saw a release, and it is rare to find; a complete packaged version can be seen on Internet auctions for as much as $90. It is almost the same as the Game Boy version, although it includes blood and gore, is in color, and features Noob Saibot as a hidden character. There was also a port for the Master System, which is nearly identical to the Game Gear version, although it was only released in Brazil by Tec Toy, distributor of Sega's products in that country.

There were two different versions of MK3 for the PC. The first was a DOS version, which is unique as it does not closely resemble any of the other ports. It features good animation, sound, graphics, and it implements the gameplay of the arcade with a high level of precision. This version contains a hidden redbook audio track (Track 47) with a narration of a story in reverse ('Tis the voice of the lobster by Lewis Carroll). The second version was a Windows version. It is a direct port of the PlayStation version of the game, featuring the same menus, identical sprite sizes and qualities and the same gameplay as the PlayStation version.

MK3 for Windows and PlayStation is also the base for Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 for the Sega Saturn. These games feature the same sprite sizes and qualities and almost identical menu systems but the Sega Saturn version has the additional content from UMK3 roughly added in as well.

Mortal Kombat 3 is also available as part of Midway Arcade Treasures 2 for the Nintendo GameCube, PlayStation 2, and Xbox. It is also available as a part of Midway Arcade Treasures Deluxe Edition for the PC (this title included a 'making of' documentary about the game), and in Midway Arcade Treasures: Extended Play for the PSP.

Reception

Although the game was a hit, many MK fans disliked the inclusion of new main characters in place of highly praised characters such as Raiden, Johnny Cage, Reptile, Mileena and Scorpion. The new combo system was also criticized by some players.

References

External links

(characters)

Mortal Kombat 3 at the Killer List of Videogames

Mortal Kombat 3 - The Mortal Kombat Wiki

Category:1995 video games Category:Arcade games Category:Cancelled Atari Jaguar games Category:Game Boy games Category:Game Gear games Category:DOS games Category:Mortal Kombat games Category:PlayStation games Category:Sega Mega Drive games Category:Sega Master System games Category:Super Nintendo Entertainment System games Category:Video game sequels Category:Video games developed in the United States Category:Video games with digitized sprites Category:Windows games

cs:Mortal Kombat 3 es:Mortal Kombat 3 fr:Mortal Kombat 3 it:Mortal Kombat 3 hu:Mortal Kombat 3 pl:Mortal Kombat 3 pt:Mortal Kombat 3 ru:Mortal Kombat 3 sv:Mortal Kombat 3 tr:Mortal Kombat 3 vi:Mortal Kombat 3

creator	Ed Boon and John Tobias
composer	Dan Forden
platform of origin	Arcade
developer	NetherRealm Studios (formerly Midway Games Chicago)
publisher	Midway Games (1992–2011)Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment (2009-present)
genre	Fighting
spinoffs	Films and television series, comics
first release version	Mortal Kombat
first release date	October 8, 1992
latest release version	Mortal Kombat
latest release date	April 19, 2011 }}

Mortal Kombat, commonly abbreviated MK, is a fantasy series of fighting games created by Ed Boon and John Tobias. The first four renditions and their updates were developed by Midway Games and initially released on arcade machines. The arcade titles were later picked up by Acclaim Entertainment for the home console conversions. Beginning with Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance, Midway Games exclusively created home versions of Mortal Kombat up until Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe. Following Midway's bankruptcy, the franchise was picked up by Warner Bros. in July 2009 and became a part of the Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment Branch.

The series began originally as a game based on the popular actor martial artist Jean-Claude Van Damme. The idea fell through and Mortal Kombat was born instead. As a result of its success, Mortal Kombat has spawned many sequels and has been spun off into several adventure games, films (animated and live-action with its own sequel), and television series (animated and live-action). Other spin-offs include various comic book series, a card game and a live-action tour.

The original three games and their updates, Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat II, Mortal Kombat 3, Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, and Mortal Kombat Trilogy, were styled in a 2-D fighting fashion with gameplay consisting of five buttons that were high punch, low punch, high kick, low kick, and block. Reviewers have stated that because of this the characters are only differentiated by their special moves. In fact, some reviewers have criticized that the "bewildering array" of special moves in comparison to other fighting games has resulted in too little focus on regular moves.

The series is especially noted for its realistic digitized sprites (which differentiated it from its contemporaries' hand-drawn sprites), and its high levels of blood and gore, including, most notably, its graphic Fatalities—finishing moves, requiring a sequence of buttons to perform, which, in part, led to the creation of the ESRB. The series name itself is also known for using the letter "K" in place of "C" for the hard C sound, thus intentionally misspelling the word "combat," as well as other words with the hard C sound within later games in the series. Early games in the series were infamous for the prominent use of palette swapping to create new character sprites.

Gameplay

According to 1UP.com, the early Mortal Kombat characters played virtually identical to one another with the only major differences being special moves. In an interview with Computer and Video Games, Ed Boon stated, "[...] since the beginning, one of the things that's separated us from other fighting games is the crazy moves we've put in it, like fireballs and all the magic moves, so to speak." When asked if Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat would do a crossover, Street Fighter producer, Yoshinori Ono, called Mortal Kombat a very different game from Street Fighter. The Capcom Senior Director of communications compared Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat in an interview with Gamasutra by asking if the interviewer preferred the "precision and depth" of Street Fighter or the "gore and comedy" of Mortal Kombat; he also stated that the Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat rivalry was considered similar to the Coke and Pepsi rivalry in the 1990s. In an interview with Video Games Daily, Senior Producer of Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe, Hans Lo, called Street Fighter a little more technical fighter in comparison to Mortal Kombat.

Midway would keep their single styled fighting moves with four attack buttons which were a different array of punches and kicks and block until they changed this in Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance by differentiating characters normal moves and even giving them multiple fighting styles. Beginning in Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance and until Mortal Kombat: Deception, the characters would have three fighting styles per character: two unarmed styles, and one weapon style. Few exceptions to this arose in Mortal Kombat: Armageddon, such as monster-like boss characters like Onaga and Moloch who would have only one fighting style. Most of the fighting styles featured are based on real martial arts, though a few of them are not. Goro's fighting styles, for example, are designed to take advantage of the fact that he has four arms. For Mortal Kombat: Armageddon, fighting styles were reduced to a maximum of two per character (generally one hand-to-hand combat style and one weapon style) due to the sheer number of playable characters.

Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe dropped the multiple fighting style trend altogether in favor of giving each character a much wider variety of special moves, however some characters still had multiple fighting styles Baraka, utilizing the retractable blades in his arms (called the "Blade Stance"), and Deathstroke who also possessed the ability to use another fighting style in the form of a sword (called the "Sword Stance").

Finishing moves

Mortal Kombat introduced 'Fatalities'-- finishing moves that allow players to end a fight by killing their opponent in a gruesome manner. It was developed in order to give gamers a free hit at the end of the fight. Finishing moves in later games included: Friendship, in Mortal Kombat II, "[which] include[s] giving opponents a present or a bouquet of flowers, instead of killing them", Animality, in Mortal Kombat 3: turning into an animal to violently finish off the opponent, Mercy, where the victor gives a little health to the opponent,

Brutality, in Mortal Kombat Trilogy: bashing an opponent into pieces with a long combination of hits or combo

Babality "[where] your opponent turns into a baby."

The Friendship moves were made as a comical response to the attention the series gathered due to its violent content.

Graphics

The original Mortal Kombat was developed with digitized sprites based on actors, as opposed to animated cartoon graphics. Mortal Kombat 4 brought the series into 3D, replacing the digitized fighters of previous games with polygon models.

More so than other fighting games at the time, Mortal Kombat was famous for re-coloring certain sprites to appear as different characters. This was most prominent with the series' various ninja/assassin characters. Many of the more popular characters were spawned from these palette swaps.

In the very first game, Scorpion, Sub-Zero, and Reptile were essentially the same character. The colors of their attire, fighting stance, and special techniques indicated the difference. Sub-Zero wore blue attire, Scorpion wore yellow, and Reptile wore green. Later games added other ninjas based on the same model: Noob Saibot (fully black), Smoke (gray with an attire that emitted clouds of smoke), Ermac (red), and Rain (purple). Chameleon was a hidden character who would cycle the palette colors of the other ninja.

Development

Mortal Kombat started development in 1991 with only four people; Ed Boon, John Tobias, John Vogel, and Dan Forden. As Ed Boon stated in an interview with Major Nelson "The first Mortal Kombat game was 4 guys, literally, one programmer, myself (Boon), two graphics guys (Tobias and Vogel), and a sound guy (Forden) was the entire team, literally" Originally, Boon and Tobias wanted to create a video game starring Jean-Claude Van Damme, with a digitized version of the action star fighting villains. In a podcast interview with the Official Xbox Magazine, Ed Boon stated for six out of the eight months while they were in production of Mortal Kombat, "...nobody could come up with a name nobody didn't hate." Some of the names suggested were Kumite, Dragon Attack, Death Blow, and even at one point, Fatality. Someone had written down "combat" on the drawing board for the names in Ed Boon's office and someone wrote a K over the C, according to Ed Boon, "...just to be kind of weird..." Steve Ritchie, a pinball designer at that time, was sitting in Ed Boon's office and saw the word "Kombat" and said to Ed Boon, 'Why don't you name it Mortal Kombat?' and according to Ed Boon, that name "just stuck."

The series itself commonly uses the letter "K" in place of "C" for words containing the hard C sound, thus misspelling them. According to an interview with CraveOnline, Ed Boon stated that during game development they usually spell the words correctly and change them later when the developers recognize an opportunity.

As outlined in an article by TIME in 2001, the team switched from digitized actors to motion capture technology stating (while incorrectly referring to Midway as Acclaim), "To make the characters in video games more realistic, actors are being recruited to serve as models. Acclaim, the video-game company that made Mortal Kombat, has created a special 'motion capture studio' for this purpose. A martial-arts expert with as many as 100 electronic sensors taped to his body sends precise readings to a camera as he goes through his moves—running, jumping, kicking, punching. The action is captured, digitized and synthesized into a 'naked' wire-frame model stored in a computer. Those models can then be 'dressed' with clothing, facial expressions and other characteristics by means of a computer technique called texture mapping."

Easter eggs and secrets

Mortal Kombat included secret characters, secret games, and other Easter eggs. Mortal Kombat 3, for example, included a hidden game of Galaga as well as a hidden game of Pong in Mortal Kombat II. Many extras in the series have only been accessible through very challenging, demanding, and sometimes coincidental requirements.

The Sega Mega Drive/Genesis versions had some unique eggs: in Mortal Kombat, a head shot of the President of Probe Software, Fergus McGovern, flew in front of the moon in the Pit stage, while in Mortal Kombat II, Raiden could perform a "Fergality" on the Armory stage. The Sega Mega CD version also contained an additional code (known as the "Dad's Code"), which changed the names of the fighters to that of characters from the classic BBC comedy series Dad's Army.

In the 1992 arcade original when fighting on The Pit stage, the player can qualify for a fight at the bottom of The Pit with the hidden character Reptile, who has the powers of Scorpion and Sub-Zero.

Some Easter eggs originated from in-jokes between members of the development team. One example is "Toasty", which found its way into the game in the form of a small image of sound designer Dan Forden, who would appear in the corner of the screen during gameplay (after performing an uppercut) and yell the word "Toasty". This egg was also the key to unlocking the hidden character Smoke when it happened in the Portal stage. Another note of interest is in Mortal Kombat 4, Forden would say "Toasty! 3D!" after Scorpion did his burn fatality, a reference to the fact that it is the first 3D game of the series.

"Toasty" is also found in Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks, appearing randomly after the character pulls off a chain of hits, though the picture of Forden was removed for that version.

Yet another private joke was the hidden character "Noob Saibot", who appeared in various versions of the game. The character's name derived from two of the series' creators' surnames, Ed Boon and John Tobias, spelled backward. In addition, the character Ermac's name came from the first Mortal Kombat, which had "ERMAC5" (Error Macro 5) on its diagnostics screen; players presumed this dealt with some secret character. The development team decided to turn this rumor into an actual character, who was introduced in Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. The character Mokap is based upon Carlos Pesina who leads the motion capture team for modern MK games (and previously played Raiden in the first and second games).

Titles

Video games

Fighting games

Mortal Kombat title was released for Arcade during October 1992, having since been ported to over ten consoles. The sequel, Mortal Kombat II was released for arcades in 1993, featuring an increased roster and improved graphics; it was rereleased in 2007 for the PlayStation 3. Mortal Kombat 3 followed in 1995 in both arcade and console versions, later getting two updates which expanded the number of characters and other features from the game: Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, published in the same year, and Mortal Kombat Trilogy the next one. The following game, Mortal Kombat 4, was released in 1997, and ported to the PlayStation, Nintendo 64 and PC, while an update named Mortal Kombat Gold was released exclusively for the Dreamcast in 1999. While to this point, Mortal Kombat games were only titled with their installment number, starting with Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance, the series' naming scheme changed to favor the use of sub-titles instead of the previously usual numbering. Also, it was at this point that the series started being targeted at consoles only, with Mortal Kombat 4 being the last Mortal Kombat game to ever be released for the arcades and PC. Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance was thus released in 2002 for the Xbox, PlayStation 2 (PS2), and GameCube. Two ports for the Game Boy Advance were also released under the name of Mortal Kombat: Tournament Edition and another port called Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance during 2003. The sequel from Deadly Alliance is Mortal Kombat: Deception developed in 2004 for the PS2, Xbox and GameCube. A port for the PlayStation Portable, Mortal Kombat: Unchained, was released in 2006 by Just Games Interactive. Mortal Kombat: Armageddon was published in the same year for the PS2, Xbox, and in 2007 on the Wii. On September 29, 2008, Midway released the Mortal Kombat Kollection, an anthology of the 3 most recent titles to the main franchise: Mortal Kombat: Deception, Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks, and Mortal Kombat: Armageddon. The Eighth MK fighting game is Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe, a crossover between the MK franchise and DC Universe released in 2008 for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. A ninth game in the series, known as simply Mortal Kombat was released on April 19, 2011 by Warner Bros. Games' Chicago studio, formerly Midway Games Chicago, now known as NetherRealm Studios. The first trailer of the game was revealed on June 10, 2010.

Action games

Besides the fighting games, there are three action titles that work as spin-offs from the MK storyline. Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero was released in 1997 for the PlayStation and Nintendo 64. The story is focused on the first incarnation character of Sub-Zero and is focused in the timeline of before the first Mortal Kombat game. The next action game is Mortal Kombat: Special Forces released in 2000 for the PlayStation. It is an action game starring Major Jackson Briggs in his mission to destroy the Black Dragon. Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks was released in 2005 for the PS2 and the Xbox. The game stars Liu Kang and Kung Lao. It tells an alternate version of the events between the first and second Mortal Kombat tournaments.

Other media

Movies and television

Mortal Kombat was adapted into two major motion pictures, Mortal Kombat (1995), and Mortal Kombat: Annihilation (1997), both released by New Line Cinema (eventual corporate sibling, and later label, of Mortal Kombat rights holder Warner Bros.). Neither film was screened for critics prior to theatrical release. The first movie was released on August 18, 1995 and grossed $23 million dollars on its first weekend. Mortal Kombat, despite mixed reviews from critics when it was first released, gained a huge cult following from fans of the series and became a financial success, eventually grossing $70 million in the U.S. (and over $122 million worldwide) while jump starting the Hollywood careers of Paul W. S. Anderson and Robin Shou, among others. That momentum did not carry over into Annihilation, however, which suffered from a poor reception by critics and fans alike, grossing only $36 million in the U.S. and $51 million worldwide, compared to the first movie's worldwide intake of $122 million. Even though it did not do as well as the first, "Annihilation" was not a failure or flop, but had much smaller profits.

In 2010, director Kevin Tancharoen released an eight-minute Mortal Kombat film, choreographed by Larnell Stovall called Mortal Kombat: Rebirth, showcasing Michael Jai White as Jax, Jeri Ryan as Sonya Blade, Matt Mullins as Johnny Cage, Ian Anthony Dale as Scorpion and Lateef Crowder as Baraka. Ryan said later that the short was made as a proof of concept for Tancharoen's pitch of a reboot movie franchise to Warner Brothers. Tancharoen later confirmed that while the short is entirely unofficial, it does feature the writing of Oren Uziel, who was rumored to be writing the screenplay for the third MK movie. It was announced that Warner Premiere has ordered a 10-episode web series based on the short titled Mortal Kombat: Legacy, starring Michael Jai White as Jax and was set to start filming February 2011 in Vancouver, Canada. The first episode was released on YouTube on April 12, and was promoted over the "Machinima Network".

The franchise also sparked two television series, the 1996 animated series Mortal Kombat: Defenders of the Realm and the 1998-1999 live-action Mortal Kombat: Konquest. Neither series ran for more than one season (despite the popularity of Konquest) due to budget constraints. Also, in 1995, an animated prequel to the first movie, titled Mortal Kombat: The Journey Begins, was released straight to home video. Coinciding with the popularity of TV media, the Mortal Kombat: Live Tour was launched at the end of 1995. The tour expanded to 1996, and featured Mortal Kombat characters in a theatrical display on stage.

Other merchandise

There have been several comic books based on Mortal Kombat. There were official MK and MKII comic books, the latter of which was written by Tobias. Both were advertised in the attract modes on early versions of the first two MK games. Meanwhile, in 1994, Malibu Comics launched an official MK comic book series, spawning two six-issue series ("Blood and Thunder" and "Battlewave"), along with several miniseries, and one-shot character issues, until production ended in August 1995.

Brady Games also produced a collectible card game based on Mortal Kombat called Mortal Kombat Kard Game in 1996.

Jeff Rovin penned a novelization of the first Mortal Kombat game, which was published in June 1995 in order to coincide with the release of the movie.

Mortal Kombat: The Album, a techno album based on the first game was created by the Immortals in 1994. It featured two themes for the game, Techno Syndrome and Hypnotic House. Techno Syndrome was adapted for the 1995 movie soundtrack, and incorporated the familiar Mortal Kombat yell first shown in the MK1 commercial for home systems. Each movie to follow would also have their own soundtracks. In addition, samples from the video games have occurred in music, most notably music by KMFDM (also included in the movie soundtrack). The 2011 video game saw the release of Mortal Kombat: Songs Inspired By The Warriors, a new soundtrack album featuring electronic music inspired by a different warrior.

Storyline

The series takes place in a fictional universe that consists of six surviving realms which, according to in-game backstories, were created by the Elder Gods. The Mortal Kombat: Deception manual described the six realms as: "Earthrealm, home to such legendary heroes as Johnny Cage, Sonya Blade, Liu Kang, Kung Lao, and Jax, and also under the protection of the Thunder God Raiden; Netherrealm, which fiery depths are inhospitable to but the most vile, a realm of demons and shadowy warriors; Outworld, a realm of constant strife and where Emperor Shao Kahn claims this realm as his own; Seido, The Realm of Order, whose inhabitants prize structure and order above all else; The Realm of Chaos, whose inhabitants do not abide by any rules whatsoever, where constant turmoil and change are worshipped here; and Edenia, which is known for its beauty, artistic expression, and longevity of its inhabitants." The Elder Gods decreed that the denizens of one realm could only conquer another realm by defeating the defending realm's greatest warriors in ten consecutive Mortal Kombat tournaments.

The first Mortal Kombat game takes place in Earthrealm where seven different warriors with their own reasons for entering participated in the tournament with the eventual prize being the continued freedom of Earthrealm. Among the established warriors were Liu Kang, Sonya Blade, and Johnny Cage. With the help of the Thunder God Raiden, the Earthrealm warriors were victorious and Liu Kang becomes the new champion of Mortal Kombat. In Mortal Kombat II, unable to deal with Shang Tsung's failure, Outworld Emperor Shao Kahn lures the Earthrealm warriors to the Outworld where the Earthrealm warriors eventually defeat Shao Kahn. After Kahn's defeat, Edenia was freed from Kahn's grasp, and was returned to a peaceful realm. By Mortal Kombat 3, Shao Kahn revives Sindel, the Edenian queen in Earthrealm combining it with Outworld. As such, he attempts to invade Earthrealm but is defeated by the Earthrealm's warriors. The following game, Mortal Kombat 4, features the former elder god Shinnok attempting to conquer the realms and attempting to kill the thundergod Raiden. However, he is also defeated by the Earthrealm warriors.

In Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance, the sorcerers Quan Chi and Shang Tsung join forces to conquer the realms and subsequently become the antagonists. By Mortal Kombat: Deception, after several fights, the sorcerers emerge victorious having killed most of Earthrealms' warriors until Raiden steps forth to oppose them. The Dragon King Onaga, who had been freed by Reptile at the end of Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance, had deceived Shujinko, the protagonist of Mortal Kombat: Deception, into searching for six pieces of Kamidogu, the source of Onaga's power. Onaga then confronted the alliance of Raiden, Shang Tsung, and Quan Chi and thus obtained Quan Chi's amulet, the final piece of his power, becoming the antagonist. Only a few warriors remained to combat against the Dragon King and his forces. Shujinko eventually triumphed over the Dragon King and removed his threat to the Mortal Kombat universe.

In Mortal Kombat: Armageddon the catastrophe known as Armageddon starts. Centuries before the first Mortal Kombat, Queen Delia foretold the realms would be destroyed in an event known as Armageddon. King Argus had his sons, Taven, the protagonist of the game, and Daegon, put into incubation who would one day be awakened to save the realms from Armageddon. In the end, however, because Blaze's design has been corrupted by Onaga's holy men, Taven's victory over Blaze does not destroy the combatants or strip them of their powers, instead increasing the powers of the fighters, potentially exacerbating the onset of Armageddon. As a result, Taven will make it his duty as a new god to delay Armageddon until a solution can be found.

In Mortal Kombat, it's revealed that the battle between the warriors of the six realms culminated into only two survivors: Shao Kahn and Raiden. Badly beaten, Raiden had only one last move he could make to prevent Shao Kahn from claiming the power of Blaze. He sends visions of the entire course of the Mortal Kombat timeline to himself in the past right before the tenth Mortal Kombat tournament (Mortal Kombat I). This transfer of information to his former self causes a rift in time causing the "Armageddon" timeline to be erased and a new "Reboot" timeline to be introduced, with a new outcome of Mortal Kombat history to be written.

Reception

The New York Daily News summed up the Mortal Kombat series like so, "The original Mortal Kombat video game debuted in 1992. Its combination of story line, character and mega-violence soon made it a hit worldwide. And the controversy engendered by its blood-gushing special effects only served to boost its popularity." During 2007, Ed Boon reported that the Mortal Kombat series have sold 26 million copies. During its release week, Mortal Kombat: Deception sold one million units, becoming the fastest-selling game in Midway's history. In a 2007 listing of the 52 most important games of all time by GamePro, Mortal Kombat II ranked as number 38 because it was, "Arguably the best Western fighting game to date, and certainly the title that defined Mortal Kombat as a brand, this game launched a thousand imitators en route to becoming one of the most famous -- and infamous -- video games ever made. Its technical and artistic mastery is only matched by its gushing gore." In article by Examiner.com, the Mortal Kombat series was ranked number 2, second only to God of War III, on the most beautiful deaths in gaming, stating, "You have to give the game that got the whole world interested in video games a mention. Besides featuring awesome death sequences, this was also the title that got the American government to take a stand against the gaming industry. Thanks to Mortal Kombat, we have the ESRB now to tell us if a game is safe for children, teens, or if only adults should play. Cheers to you, Mortal Kombat." In a ranking by CraveOnline, Mortal Kombat was ranked one of the "Goriest, Bloodiest, Nastiest Video Games of all time" stating that it was responsible for three things,"1.Mainstream games would now follow MK’s lead and start including fountains of blood, gruesome executions and de-bonings like they were going out of style. 2.A rating scale would now be necessary for home console games going forward. 3.Nintendo would embarrass themselves with their... non-violent port and finally have to sack up and start making games for adults for once." However, it condescended on the series by stating, "Not too bad for a game in which the same two or three palette swapped ninjas do the same goddamn moves over and over to each other before one of them gets bored and rips the other one’s head off!" In another ranking by CraveOnline, it was ranked #2 of the "Top ten 2-D Fighters of all time".

In a GamePro.com Poll, as of November 2009, 21% of voters rated Mortal Kombat as their favorite fighting game series, ranking third behind Street Fighter and Tekken. GameTrailers ranked Mortal Kombat 9th in the Top Ten Fighting Games Franchises, while Mortal Kombat II was 5th in Top 10 Arcade Games. GameTrailers also ranked Mortal Kombat as the 7th bloodiest series of all time. The fatalities finishing moves were featured in ScrewAttack's "Top 10 OMGWTF Moments" due to the competition it gave to other games including Street Fighter II and how it popularized the arcades. Guinness World Records awarded the Mortal Kombat series with seven world records in the Guinness World Records: Gamer's Edition 2008. These records include "Most Successful Fighting Game Franchise", "Biggest Fighting Game Series", and "Most Successful Video Game Spin-Off Soundtrack Album".

Mortal Kombats commercials have also received some criticism. In the 1993 hearings on violent video games, Senator Joseph Lieberman criticized Sega for one of its TV commercials saying that the commercial promoted violence. The commercial, as described by Current Events, a Weekly Reader publication, "The TV commercial shows a boy gaining the respect of his friends after winning Mortal Kombat. At the end of the commercial, the boy angrily knocks over a tray of cookies given to him by friends now frightened by the boy's fighting ability. The boy roars, 'I said I wanted chocolate chip!'" As well as an ad for Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks titled, "Blood on the Carpet" which was created by the London-based "Maverick Media" was, as quoted from The Register, "... slammed by the Advertising Standards Authority as condoning and glorifying violence." The commercial, as described by The Register, "It features a boardroom scene in which a Mr Linn, the mysterious trouble-shooter at a sales meeting, instructs two men to fight. Punches lead to a pen being stabbed into an arm; then a water jug is smashed over an executive's head – before his heart is ripped from his chest. Mr Linn concludes proceedings by decapitating another executive with his hat." The result of the complaint was, as quoted from the ASA report, "We told Midway not to repeat the approach and told them to consult CAP Copy Advice before producing future ads."

Court cases

On December 9, 1996, Daniel Pesina sued Midway Games, Williams Electronics Games, Inc, Acclaim, Nintendo, and Sega, alleging "that all defendants used his persona, name, and likeness without authorization in the home version of Mortal Kombat and Mortal Kombat II and the related products..." The conclusion of Daniel Pesina v. Midway Manufacturing Co. was that "alleged use of martial artist's name, likeness or persona in a martial arts video game did not violate his common-law right of publicity."

On May 28, 1997, Philip Ahn (Shang Tsung), Elizabeth Malecki (Sonya), and Katalin Zamiar (Kitana, Mileena, Jade) jointly sued Midway Games, Williams Electronics Games, Acclaim, Nintendo, and Sega, for using their likenesses in an unauthorized way. "[They sought] a constructive trust on all monies defendants received and continued to receive from their alleged breach of their duties to [the] plaintiffs." Ahn, Zamiar, and Melecki alleged "...that they were only modeling for the coin-operated video game, not the subsequent home video, home computer, and hand-held versions of the game." The conclusion of Philip Ahn v. Midway Manufacturing, et al. was "The plaintiffs lost on all counts because they had all consented to the videotaping and because the choreography and choice of movements used in the game were not jointly 'authored' by the individuals."

On November 22, 1997, thirteen-year-old Noah Wilson died when his friend Yancy stabbed him in the chest with a kitchen knife. The mother of Noah, Andrea Wilson, alleges that her son was stabbed to death because of his obsession with the Midway game Mortal Kombat. She alleges that Yancy S. was so obsessed with the game, that the child thought he was actually the character Cyrax. This character, Cyrax, used a finishing move in which the character grabs the opponent in a headlock and stabs the character's opponent in the chest. Wilson alleges that this is the maneuver in which Yancy S., killed her son. However, despite the character's other varieties of finishing moves, the character Cyrax does not actually perform this move at all. The conclusion of Wilson v. Midway games, Inc. was, according to the court case report, "Wilson's complaint fails to state a claim upon which relief can be granted. The product liability counts fail because Mortal Kombat is not a "product" within the purview-of the CPLA [...]"

In 2006, attorney Jack Thompson ordered a cease and desist to Mortal Kombat: Armageddon stating, "It has today come to my attention that the newly recently Mortal Kombat: Armageddon contains an unauthorized commercial exploitation of my name, photograph, image, and likeness within the game." In fact, what Thompson thought was an actual character put by the developer into the game, was actually created by a player, who used the game's "kreate-a-fighter" mode to construct a likeness of Thompson and demonstrated it in a film on YouTube. Thompson had the video successfully removed.

References

External links

Official fansite and fan community

Official NetherRealm Studios Website

Mortal Kombat series at MobyGames

The Mortal Kombat Wiki

Category:1992 introductions Category:Fighting games Category:Midway Games Category:Parallel universes (video games) Category:Video game franchises Category:Video game controversies

ar:مورتال كومبات bar:Mortal Kombat bg:Mortal Kombat ca:Mortal Kombat (saga de videojocs) cs:Mortal Kombat da:Mortal Kombat de:Mortal Kombat es:Mortal Kombat (serie) fa:مورتال کامبت fr:Mortal Kombat fy:Mortal Kombat gl:Mortal Kombat id:Mortal Kombat it:Mortal Kombat he:מורטל קומבט (זיכיון) hu:Mortal Kombat nl:Mortal Kombat ja:モータルコンバット ka:Mortal Kombat pl:Mortal Kombat pt:Mortal Kombat ru:Mortal Kombat (серия игр) sq:Mortal Kombat fi:Mortal Kombat sv:Mortal Kombat tr:Mortal Kombat vi:Mortal Kombat zh:真人快打系列

Name	Liu Kang
Series	Mortal Kombat
Creator	John Tobias and Ed Boon
Firstgame	Mortal Kombat (1992)
Voiceactor	Brian Tochi (MK: DotR)Tom Choi (MKvDC, MK2011)
Motionactor	Ho Sung Pak (MK, MKII)Eddie Wong (MK3, UMK3, MKT)
Liveactor	Robin Shou (films)Carmichael Simon, Jon Valera, Michael Li, Allan Sandoval (Live Tour)
Inuniverse	}}

Liu Kang () is a video game character in the Mortal Kombat fighting game series. First appearing in the series' first title, Liu Kang is portrayed as a Shaolin monk who enters the Mortal Kombat tournament to save his world, Earthrealm, from being destroyed due to having lost nine consecutive tournaments. Since his victory in the tournament, Liu Kang acts as defender from the Earthrealms along with the Earth's warriors and his mentor, the thunder god Raiden.

Liu Kang appears in most games as a playable character, including as the lead character from Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks along with Kung Lao, and has also appeared in the live-action films from the series and the comic adaptations. His character was created to be the hero of the series, with most of his moves being less violent and easier to perform than the ones from other characters. His critical reception was mixed, with some of them criticizing his gameplay while others noted him to be entertaining.

Concept and design history

Liu Kang was originally going to be called Minamoto Yo Shin Soo, a Japanese mythological character, but John Tobias stated that they could not "deal with the name". According to Tobias, Liu Kang "was originally going to be a traditional monk - bald and in robes - but he wound up resembling Bruce Lee." As stated on his MK: Armageddon bio card, Ed Boon mentioned that Liu Kang was designed to be the most easily "accessible" character, meaning that both casual and experienced gamers could play as him with little difficulty. Liu Kang was the only character in the first game whose finishing move (Fatality) did not explicitly murder his opponent, and also without the background dimming. This was because Liu Kang was depicted therein as a Shaolin monk, who in general have strict beliefs regarding killing and murder. However, starting with Mortal Kombat II, he was given gory Fatalities as he was thereafter depicted as a renegade monk who decided to grow his hair back, and who had "strong Shaolin beliefs, but was no longer a part of the Shaolin monks." In response to rumors that Liu Kang would die in Mortal Kombat II and therefore not make it into Mortal Kombat 3, Boon said, "It'd be like doing part three of Star Wars and not having Luke Skywalker in there. You don't do that." His eventual death caused Dan Forden, the music composer of the series, to make a "funeral song" for Liu Kang as he felt saddened for his death. The track, named "Liu Kang's Tomb", would be used in Mortal Kombat: Deception in the arena that shows Liu Kang's tomb.

Liu Kang was played by Ho Sung Pak in the first two games, and John Tobias stated in an interview that he originally intended for the character to be a traditional bald monk, but the actor refused to shave his head. In the first game, Liu Kang was modeled after Bruce Lee, as he had short hair and went shirtless, with a threadbare outfit of only black pants and white shoes. The word "Otomix" was supposed to be written in his pants as Otomix is a supplier of martial arts and athletic wear, but the staff decided to remove to avoid advertising it. In Mortal Kombat II, his outfit was enhanced with red stripes, and now included a red headband, black shoes, and studded wristguards. In Mortal Kombat 3, his hair was considerably longer, with the only alteration to his outfit being thin black leg strips wrapped above his ankles in order to give him a "sleeker" look for the game. He was given a red tank top in addition to his usual costume in Mortal Kombat 4, but his alternate outfit was blue and featured him shirtless again. His wardrobe from the third game was carried over into Deception and Armageddon, but due to his resurrection, his skin was ash gray, and he wore hooked chains around his wrists. This form is also known by fans and Mortal Kombat producer Shaun Himmerick as "Zombie Liu Kang". Nevertheless, his alternate outfit for both games featured him as a living person in order to contrast his undead form. In Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe, he sported a slightly altered version of his third costume, in addition to a championship belt adorned with the Mortal Kombat dragon emblem. Although in Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks, Liu Kang's design remains similar to his Mortal Kombat II one, Himmerick comments that it was the most revised one from the game along with Kung Lao's.

In video games

Introduced in the first Mortal Kombat game as a Chinese Shaolin Kung Fu fighting monk, Liu Kang enters the tenth Mortal Kombat tournament in order to protect Earthrealm from being destroyed for having lost several tournaments. During the tournament, Liu Kang defeats Grand Champion Goro and the host Shang Tsung, emerging as the new champion of Mortal Kombat. In the sequel, Mortal Kombat II, Liu Kang finds many of his Shaolin killed in a vicious attack by a horde of nomadic mutants under orders from Emperor Shao Kahn, Shang Tsung's master. Enraged, Liu Kang decides to travel to Outworld, backed by his friend Kung Lao to seek revenge. At the tournament, Liu Kang fights Shao Kahn, eventually overpowering the emperor. In Mortal Kombat 3, Liu Kang and his friends fight against Shao Khan's extermination squad which invaded Earthrealm. Liu Kang once again defeats Shao Kahn, causing him and his forces to retreat back to Outworld. By the time of Mortal Kombat 4 Liu Kang discovers that Kitana has been captured by the Elder God Shinnok's forces and begins gathering Earth's warriors to defeat Shinnok. Eventually, Liu Kang confronts Shinnok and once again emerges victorious with Kitana and her people having survived to the attack. However, he is unable to commit himself to a relationship due to his duty while Kitana has to stay in Outworld as reigning princess.

In Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance, the sorcerers Shang Tsung and Quan Chi join forces to kill Liu Kang, who is unplayable in the game. By the time of Mortal Kombat: Deception, his mentor, Raiden, reanimates Liu Kang's body and sends it on a rampage, causing his soul to attempt to control it. The undead Liu Kang appears as a secret character that can only be unlocked through the Konquest Mode. In the PlayStation Portable version of Deception, Mortal Kombat: Unchained, he is directly playable as the staff noted that it was very difficult to unlock him in Deception. From there, Liu Kang enlists with the ninja Ermac to try and save his friends from Onaga who has been controlling them. He accomplishes this task in Deception, but by Mortal Kombat: Armageddon he is still unable to fully control his body.

Along with Kung Lao, Liu Kang is the lead character in the spin-off action game Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks. The game is a retelling from the storyline of Mortal Kombat II and features the two Shaolin Monks traveling to Outworld to find and defeat Shang Tsung, later ending in a fight with Shao Khan. Liu Kang also stars in the crossover Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe, which features fights between characters from the Mortal Kombat and the DC Comics universe. In this game, Liu Kang appears as the protagonist from the first chapter of the Mortal Kombat story mode. (Tobias said that the fight he expected to see in the game was between Liu Kang and Batman as he noted their back-stories to be very similar.)

In the 2011 Mortal Kombat video game, Liu Kang reprises his role from the first two tournaments as Raiden who has visions from the future in which Shao Kahn remained as the last warrior believes him to be the warrior which his future self chose as the saviour. When Shao Kahn is preparing to invade Earthrealm, Raiden electrocutes Liu Kang before he could face him as he realized Shao Kahn had to win and merge the realms in order to avoid the events of the future.

Gameplay

Liu Kang specializes in kicks, with his most common move being flying across the screen and connect with a kick to the opponent's torso. He also has a "Bicycle Kick" in which Liu Kang flies across the screen with a series of multiple kicks to the opponent's torso resembling pedaling a bicycle, hence the name. Another of his signature abilities is the "Dragon Fire": with it Liu Kang sends a fiery flame in the shape of a dragon across the screen out of his hands at his opponent. After Mortal Kombat II, he gains the ability to perform this while crouching and in the air, same for Deception and Armageddon.

Liu Kang's first finishing move is the Fatality "Shaolin Uppercut". With it Liu Kang performs a butterfly kick on his opponent, before hitting an uppercut that knocks them into the air for several seconds. In Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks, there were two versions; one where the victim explodes to pieces upon impact and the original, in which the opponent is torn to pieces upon falling to the ground. In another signature Fatality he morphs into a large dragon, chomping the upper body of his opponent. Developer John Vogel noted this Fatality to be his favorite due to how much Liu Kang's appearance changes and how big he becomes. This Fatality was turned into an Animality in Mortal Kombat 3 and back into a normal Fatality in Mortal Kombat 4. In the Game Boy and Game Gear versions of Mortal Kombat II, he torches the opponent with a fireball. He also has a Fatality in which he disappears and then a Mortal Kombat arcade game machine drops down and crushes his opponent.

In other media

Liu Kang was the main protagonist of Malibu Comics' adaptation of the Mortal Kombat series. In the first miniseries, Blood & Thunder, his backstory was mostly kept intact as a Shaolin monk out to restore the tournament to their righteous owners, with the only difference being that he was not the chosen one to defeat Goro, which instead fell on twin monk brothers named Sing and Sang, two original characters created specifically for the comics; after they are killed by Goro in the third issue, Liu Kang becomes the Shaolin's only hope in defeating Shang Tsung. The following miniseries, Battlewave, stated that Liu Kang won the first tournament after defeating Goro, which never appeared in the B&T; miniseries. He returns to his normal life as an architect in Chicago, having left the Order of Light before the events of the first series. However, he suffers from constant attacks by an unknown force of ninjas and later receives help from Johnny Cage's bodyguard Bo when Goro ambushes him in an office building. Eventually he decides to travel to Outworld, realizing that he cannot avoid Mortal Kombat.

He is the main protagonist in both Mortal Kombat movies, portrayed by Robin Shou. Director Paul W. S. Anderson wanted Liu Kang's character to be "really engaging" and chose Shou, noting his skills with martial arts. In the first film, he takes part in the tournament out of guilt over his brother's death at the hands of Shang Tsung, and defeats Tsung in the final battle. Shou, along with Talisa Soto, was one of only two actors to reprise their roles in the sequel, Mortal Kombat: Annihilation (Keith Cooke, who played Reptile, returned as well, but as the new Sub-Zero). In the sequel, Liu Kang joins the Earthrealm warriors to stop Shao Kahn's menace.

Liu Kang was also one of the lead characters in the 1996 animated series Mortal Kombat: Defenders of the Realm, voiced by Brian Tochi. He was not the main protagonist therein as opposed to the game storyline, instead sharing this role with several other Earthrealm heroes.

In the animated film Mortal Kombat: The Journey Begins, Liu Kang appears as one of the main characters.

Promotion and reception

In 1996, Toy Island published a Liu Kang action figure which had a white shirt. Two Liu Kang action figures from Shaolin Monks were released by Jazwares. Apart from being flexible, both figures included different types of weapons such as swords and axes. GameSpot featured him in their poll for the title of "All Time Greatest Game Hero" in 2009, in which he has lost to Yoshi. He was also ranked as 94th on UGO.com's 2008 "Top 100 Heroes of All Time" list, noting his role in the Mortal Kombat series as well as character depth. GamesRadar featured him their article "Kickass Bruce Lee clones" citing his similarities with Bruce Lee and with one of his shouts featured in famous quotes. His relation with Kitana was ranked fourth in IGN's list of "Best Videogames Couples" in 2006. His redesign in Mortal Kombat: Deception was praised by GameSpot for being one of the best ones from the title, and was featured in GamesRadar's list of "The 37 greatest zombie triumphs" in 2009, but was ranked as the nineth worst Mortal Kombat character by ScrewAttack in 2011. Liu Kang's finishing move turned into a dragon fatality has been listed as one of the best fatalities from the series by both Game Informer and UGO. On the other hand, his fatality in which he throws a Mortal Kombat arcade and his first fatality were pointed by both Game Informer and GamePro as one of the worst from the series due to their humor and lack of violence, respectively.

Some video game publications criticized his gameplay and shouts while others noted him to be entertaining. IGN's Douglas Perry wrote that he preferred Liu Kang over Kung Lao as a playable character in Shaolin Monks because of his "intuitive fighting moves," adding that his shouts were "annoying" yet "strangely pleasing." GameDaily also complained on his voice, saying that "Liu Kang screams out like a chicken". Eurogamer commented that Liu Kang's kicks are ridiculous, while their intensified versions from Shaolin Monks are demented. Upon his death in Deadly Alliance, IGN's Jeremy Dunham noted that Liu Kang was killed as the series needed "'starting over' mentality", as he regarded Liu Kang as the series' strongest character. IGN also said that "it just wouldn't be right having a game without him", noting that him to be as fierce as the DC characters from Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe. Like all the characters from Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe, Liu Kang was selected to be a playable character based on his popularity.

References

External links

Liu Kang - The Mortal Kombat Wiki

Liu Kang at IGN

Liu Kang at the IMDb

Category:Fictional Buddhist monks Category:Fictional characters based on real people Category:Fictional characters introduced in 1992 Category:Fictional Chinese people Category:Fictional Jeet Kune Do practitioners Category:Fictional martial artists Category:Fictional undead Category:Fictional wushu practitioners Category:Film characters Category:Male video game characters Category:Mortal Kombat characters

ar:ليو كانغ ca:Liu Kang es:Liu Kang fr:Liu Kang it:Liu Kang nl:Liu Kang pt:Liu Kang ru:Лю Кэнг ur:لیو کینگ (مارٹل کامبیٹ)

Name	Shang Tsung
Series	Mortal Kombat
Firstgame	Mortal Kombat (1992)
Creator	John Tobias and Ed Boon
Voiceactor	Neil Ross (DotR) James Kyson Lee (MKvsDC) Andrew Kishino (MK2011)
Liveactor	Ho-Sung Pak (MK) Phillip Ahn (MKII) John Turk (MK3) James Kim, Simon Kim, Sidney S. Liufau, Michael Li, Drew MacIver, Jimin Kim (Live Tour) Richard Divizio (MKM: Sub-Zero), Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa (film) Jim Cummings (animated film) Bruce Locke (Konquest) James Lew (Rebirth) Johnson Phan (Legacy)
Inuniverse	}}

Shang Tsung is a boss and player character in the Mortal Kombat fighting game series. A powerful and deadly wizard and a primary antagonist in the Mortal Kombat series, Shang Tsung is a shapeshifter who absorbs the souls of those he slays in order to maintain his youth and power. He has also frequently appeared in the other media in the franchise.

In video games

Most of Shang Tsung's past remains shrouded in mystery. There are several different origin stories for Shang Tsung. On Midway's defunct Mortal Kombat Mythologies website, it was stated Shang Tsung was originally from Earth. However, his Armageddon bio makes reference to Tsung binding his soul to Shao Kahn, which could provide a loophole allowing him to represent Outworld in the tournament despite not being a native of that realm. Shang Tsung's bio in Mortal Kombat: Tournament Edition states his origin as "Earthrealm/Outworld". According to the first Mortal Kombat comic, he was cursed by "his gods" not only to kill his enemies, but to take their souls as well. Only in this way would he hold off a grim fate: to age rapidly and die prematurely. As a side effect of his consuming the souls of others, Tsung also absorbed their memories and knowledge, an ability which would greatly benefit him years later. At some point, Tsung entered the Mortal Kombat tournament and then overcame all competition and became Grand Champion. How long he retained the title is unclear; however, the overconfident Tsung would eventually be defeated by the legendary Shaolin warrior monk, the Great Kung Lao.

Shang Tsung returned years later, much older in appearance, after the "mysterious" death of one of the tournament's three Grandmasters. With him was his greatest student: the Shokan Prince Goro. Tsung had been ordered by the ruler of Outworld, Shao Kahn, to finally bring about the winning streak in Mortal Kombat necessary to unbalance the Furies and weaken the dimensional gates, allowing the Outworld Emperor to conquer Earth. After a valiant but doomed fight, The Great Kung Lao was defeated by Goro and killed; Tsung consumed his soul, and the Outworld's domination of the Mortal Kombat tournament began. Shang Tsung came into contact with another sorcerer, Quan Chi, who was seeking a mystical item, Shinnok's amulet. The amulet's location was known only to the Shaolin Monks; as a result of consuming the Great Kung Lao's soul, Shang Tsung knew where it was. In exchange for Quan Chi's and Shinnok's aid in completing a task for the Emperor Shao Kahn, he revealed the location of the Map of the Elements – but neglected to inform Quan Chi that no sorcerer could enter the Temple where it was stored. Over the next 500 years, as Goro remained undefeated, the tournament fell further into Tsung's depraved hands. He became the sole Grandmaster, and the tournament came to be held on his private island – in reality, a zone in between Earth and the Outworld. Near the end of this time period, Tsung learned of the swordsman Kenshi. Realizing that Kenshi's pride could easily be exploited, Tsung disguised himself as an old man named Song and tricked him into releasing his warrior king ancestors, blinding Kenshi in the process. Tsung revealed his true self, consumed the souls, and left Kenshi to die, not knowing the swordsman would survive to become his bitter enemy. Tsung also sparred with Shujinko to determine whether or not he would allow him to enter the tournament. The spar ended in a draw with Tsung granting Shujinko permission to enter. Shujinko did not do so as he was on a quest.

During the tenth Mortal Kombat tournament, the final victory that would enable Kahn to conquer Earth, Liu Kang defeated Goro, breaking the streak. Liu Kang then challenged Shang Tsung in Kombat to restore the honour of the once-sacred tournament; Liu Kang prevailed, and Shang Tsung fled to Outworld. Dragged before Shao Kahn, Shang Tsung begged for his life and said that if they challenged Earthrealm to Mortal Kombat in Outworld, they would have to accept or forfeit. Kahn agreed to this plan, and restored Tsung's youth. While the tournament served as a diversion, Shao Kahn could continue with his own scheme, 10,000 years in the making: the restoration to life of his former queen, Sindel. During the Outworld tournament, despite having his youth restored and after a long brutal fight, Tsung lost again to Liu Kang, this time in front of Kahn. After Shang Tsung's defeat at the hands of Liu Kang, Shao Kahn finished the process of Sindel's resurrection with the aid of his cult of Shadow Priests. Thanks to the help of Quan Chi and Shinnok, her soul would indeed be resurrected – but in Earthrealm, and tainted by evil.

When Queen Sindel was revived in Earthrealm, Shao Kahn could reach across the realms and reclaim her, forcefully merging Earthrealm with Outworld. Shang Tsung led one of Kahn's extermination squads to hunt down the fighters that Lord Raiden had protected. Despite being granted more power than ever before, Tsung still lost to Liu Kang for a third time. Upon Kahn's defeat, Shang Tsung retreated with him back to Outworld, when the merger was reversed. Tsung would then be imprisoned and tortured for his failure to help his master merge Earthrealm into Outworld. He was periodically released to do Kahn's bidding, and was finally released for good after regaining Kahn's favour.

A few years later, Shang Tsung found Quan Chi in his palace courtyard, fighting Scorpion. When Quan Chi defeated him, he gave Shang an offer: if Tsung helped him revive the lost army of the Dragon King Onaga by means of his ability to transplant souls, he would open a "Soulnado" to the Heavens, giving him an endless supply of souls. Tsung accepted, and together, they formed the Deadly Alliance. Shang Tsung introduced Quan Chi to Shao Kahn, vouched for his loyalty, and then they attacked and apparently killed him (however, Shao Kahn appears in the GameCube version of Mortal Kombat: Deception, and reveals that they merely killed a clone). After accepting Kano's offer to serve them, they travelled through a portal, known only to sorcerers and deities, to Earthrealm and headed to the Wu Shi Academy where Shang Tsung disguised himself as Kung Lao and approached Liu Kang. As Liu practiced his kata, Shang revealed his true form and attacked; although Liu had the upper hand, Quan Chi struck from behind, giving Shang the opportunity to finally take his revenge on Liu Kang by breaking his neck and taking his soul. However, Shang Tsung did not fully trust Quan Chi. Upon returning to Outworld, he gave the Oni Drahmin and Moloch, who had escaped from the Netherealm, an offer: after Tsung performed his part in the plan, Quan Chi, who the two despised for abandoning them in the infernal pits after promising to free them, would be theirs to do with as they wished. The Deadly Alliance soon commanded Kano's troops to force a small Outworld village to construct a new palace around the tomb to house the Soulnado. When one of the citizens, Li Mei, attacked Kano, they offered to free her village if she could win a tournament they would hold. About the same time, they approached Mavado, offering him a deal as well; he could earn the right to fight and kill Kano in exchange for eliminating Kenshi, who had been spying on Tsung; Mavado accomplished his mission, and the Alliance granted him his wish. Li Mei, having won the local tournament, demanded her reward, but instead Shang Tsung started transferring her soul to a mummified soldier of Onaga's army. It was at this time that the forces of Earthrealm, led by Raiden, attacked. Li Mei was rescued by Bo' Rai Cho, who escaped with her, but the remainder of the warriors assaulted the Alliance. The two defeated Earthrealm's champions (with Shang Tsung victorious in a one on one battle against an improved Kung Lao) and finally Raiden. Then, Shang's lust for power and Quan Chi's suspicion finally came to light. The two fought, and Quan Chi emerged the victor. But immediately after defeating Tsung, he was confronted by the powerful reborn Onaga. Tsung regained consciousness, and recognizing the Dragon King to be a more serious threat, assisted Quan Chi in attacking him. Moments later, the thunder god did as well, but their combined efforts could not stop the former Outworld ruler, who had come to reclaim Shinnok's amulet and his ancient army. In Raiden's ensuing last-ditch attempt at victory through a self-sacrificial blast, Shang Tsung was caught in the blast, killing him. The thousands of souls he had consumed over the years were released, including the souls of Liu Kang and the Great Kung Lao.

Tsung's own soul was magically drawn to Outworld, where he was delivered to Shao Kahn. Tsung had pledged his soul to the emperor ages before and this agreement was binding, even beyond death. Kahn provided Tsung with a new body and then allied with him in taking his kingdom from Mileena, Kitana's clone once created by Tsung for him. Although Tsung was bound to serve Kahn, an opportunity to free himself arose when he discovered that Quan Chi was alive. Quan Chi brought word from Shinnok of a plan to take a great power, and Tsung realized if he were to take the power for himself, he could sever his bond with Shao Kahn. Until his opportunity arose, Tsung continued to feign loyalty to the emperor while redirecting suspicion to other members of the his alliance. In the ensuing battle of the Armaggeddon, Tsung manages to hold off several warriors, including Kahn himself, and nearly reaches Blaze, but is stopped when Liu Kang's corpse holds him back with his chains; this causes Tsung to age rapidly and perish.

Shang Tsung appears in the video game Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe representing the Mortal Kombat Universe against the DC Universe. Despite an apparent alliance between himself and all of the Mortal Kombat Universe warriors involved in the event, he still has aspirations of supreme power and is as devious a villain as ever. In the story mode, Liu Kang mistook the Flash as Shang Tsung transforming his appearance as a red devil with a lightning bolt on his chest and defeated him. As the Mortal Kombat champion awaited his masters to discover its origin, he showed up and challenged him to a fight in which the sorcerer was defeated. As the realms began to merge with the DC Universe's Earth, he attempted to invade Themyscira, but was driven off by Wonder Woman and her Amazons. He later teamed up with Quan Chi and Baraka to find Scorpion accomplishing his objective to locate Princess Kitana and bring her to Raiden. As they did so, they saw Captain Marvel nearby, and they lured him into the Netherrealm to kill him, but all were singlehandedly defeated. As they returned to the Thunder God, he was given an assignment to fight alongside Liu Kang. He fought Superman, but Kang turned against him. Nonetheless, he defeated him, however Green Lantern finished him. A fight between them ensued, and Shang Tsung gained the upper hand. He returned once more, only to handle Kano. In the ensuing battle against the DC heroes and villains, he fought against Captain Marvel. He suggested that he should follow Dark Kahn to his fortress, but Raiden himself considered that he was leading them into their doom and fought him. In his ending Shang Tsung, being impressed by Captain Marvel's fighting ability, but angered at his own defeat by the hero, he seeks to create a new creature which would have Captain Marvel's abilities but be a perversion of them. Using his sorcery, he merged blood from a torn piece of Captain Marvel's cape, and the flesh of a Tarkatan corpse. The result of this experiment being a "Super Tarkatan", an abomination the likes of which had never been seen before. Knowing that he would be unstoppable with more of such creatures, Shang Tsung quickly began preparations to create an army of them.

He is featured as a playable character in Mortal Kombat. As the game is a reboot of the first three titles in the series, his role is mostly consistent with these; however, he is killed when Shao Kahn steals his soul to power up the resurrected Sindel.

Character design

Shang Tsung's name was hyphenated in Midway's official arcade flyer for the original Mortal Kombat ("Shang-Tsung"). He first appeared as an elderly man in his mid-eighties, then became a younger man in his late-twenties to early-thirties. According to GamePro magazine in 1993, the Mortal Kombat II version of Shang Tsung was 19 years old. The article also included a rough sketch of Tsung's "true form," a twisted demon. Though it was drawn by Mortal Kombat co-creator John Tobias, this form has never actually appeared in the video games. In Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance he is roughly 45 years old. Tobias wanted Shang Tsung's long hair to hang loose in Mortal Kombat 3, but potential problems with it flopping about whenever he jumped resulted in it being tied back into a ponytail.

Gameplay

In the original Mortal Kombat game, Shang Tsung seems to be hovering on the floor, like his fellow Shadow Priests. Because of this, he is completely immune to sweep attacks and Sub-Zero's "Slide". He can't transform into anyone in Deadly Alliance, Deception, Armageddon, or Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe; Ed Boon explained in an interview with Mortal Kombat Online this was due to a lack of sufficient memory. However, he could actually transform into anyone but Reptile in the Game Boy Advance version of Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance (and the second re-release called Tournament Edition). In MK (2011), Shang Tsung's morphing ability returns. Although, when playing as him, he can only morph into his opponent, while the CPU Shang Tsung can morph into anyone, but is limited to three characters per fight, two randomly chosen (excluding Kintaro, Goro and Shao Kahn), the third one being the player's. Shang Tsung's Friendship in MK3 turns him into a sprite from the arcade game Joust.

In other media

Shang Tsung plays his original role of main villain in the first series of the Malibu Comics' Blood & Thunder miniseries, with his backstory mostly unchanged as an old man serving Shao Kahn to open the portal through 10 consecutive Mortal Kombat wins. He and Raiden share a bitter relationship, usually ending in either verbal assaults or draw fights. While Shang Tsung hosted the tenth tournament, he secretly planned to gain the powers of the mystical book Tao Te Zhan, which granted immense strength to whoever resolves its seven riddles. Shang Tsung and Raiden later joins forces to stop Goro after he took the power of the book, since he cannot be trusted with such strength. During the Battlewave miniseries, it is implied that Shang Tsung resumed the tournament after his plans were foiled and lost it alongside Goro at the hands of Liu Kang. He is seen in the first pages of issue #1 being pursued and punished by Shao Kahn, Kintaro, and Gorbak (Goro's father). Even though Shao Kahn supposedly punished him, he later appears in the last page of issue #5 completely rejuvenated and still under Shao Kahn's servitude. Shang Tsung would later serve as leader of Shao Kahn's team during the tournament he prepared in the last issue of the series, "Tournament Edition II". Shang Tsung's last appearance is during the 1995 Kung Lao one-shot comic, in which he serves as antagonist, attempting to kill Kung Lao through deceptive tricks using his shapeshifting abilities.

thumb|175px|Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa as Shang Tsung in [[Mortal Kombat (film)|Mortal Kombat|alt=]]

Shang Tsung is the main antagonist in Mortal Kombat, and was played by Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa. He regularly resorted to intimidation and trickery to try and manipulate the outcome of the tournament, which ultimately proved unsuccessful as he was defeated and killed by Liu Kang in the final battle.

Shang Tsung is also the prime villain of the animated film Mortal Kombat: The Journey Begins, voiced by Jim Cummings. In this version, he is portrayed as having the ability to read his opponent's thoughts during battle (an ability which is not present in the game series), allowing him to predict their attacks and adapt his own strategy to exploit the opponent's greatest weakness.

Shang Tsung appeared in several episodes of the animated series Mortal Kombat: Defenders of the Realm, voiced by Neil Ross.

In the Mortal Kombat: Konquest TV series, Shang Tsung was portrayed by Bruce Locke as a sorcerer eager to take revenge on the Great Kung Lao, who had defeated him in Mortal Kombat. For most of the series, he was confined to Shao Kahn's cobalt mines for his failure in the Mortal Kombat tournament, although he occasionally escapes, since his powers are unaffected by the cobalt in the mines due to his human heritage. While in the mines, he keeps Kreeyan princess Vorpax as his personal slave (both literal and pleasure), and generally mistreats her until she receives her mother's powers. He was played by Bruce Locke.

He also appeared briefly in the short film Mortal Kombat: Rebirth, portrayed by James Lew, and in the third episode of the webseries Mortal Kombat: Legacy, played by Johnson Phan.

Reception

Shang Tsung was ranked #17 on GameDaily's 2009 list of "Top 25 Evil Masterminds of All Time" article, which noted his attack style and goals while stating he is "one twisted freak." Same year, GamesRadar listed him as one of the top villains who will never stay dead. He was also 6th in GamesRadar's "The 12 most misunderstood videogame villains" with comments on his role. In 2010, Shang Tsung was ranked #97 on IGN's "Top 100 Video Game Villains" list. He was also third in Game Revolution's "Top 10 Old School Mortal Kombat Characters" in response to morph into other fighters across the battles.

References

External links

Shang Tsung - The Mortal Kombat Wiki

Shang Tsung at IGN

Shang Tsung at the IMDb

Category:Fictional characters introduced in 1992 Category:Fictional characters who use magic Category:Fictional Chinese people Category:Fictional demons Category:Fictional mass murderers Category:Fictional shapeshifters Category:Fictional wushu practitioners Category:Film characters Category:Male video game characters Category:Mortal Kombat characters Category:Video game bosses

ar:شانغ تسونغ ca:Shang Tsung es:Shang Tsung fr:Shang Tsung it:Shang Tsung pt:Shang Tsung ru:Шан Цзун fi:Shang Tsung ur:شینگ سنگ (مارٹل کامبیٹ)