The Mortal Kombat series made by renowned developers Netherrealm is one of the most well-known fighting game franchises out there. There's Street Fighter, there's Marvel Vs Capcom, and there's Mortal Kombat. And, it's a franchise full of oddball ninja's, sorcerers, and popstars.
Essentially, it's a veritable melting pot of weirdo characters and martial artists from across the realms. There are a ton of games in the franchise, not all of them good, and most of them have at least one alternate skin for each character. So, we're here to take a look at some of the best and worst the series has ever had to offer.
10 Best: Injustice Scorpion From Mortal Kombat X
As one would expect, if you're going to talk about Mortal Kombat, you'd be crazy not to start with Scorpion. This guy might as well be Netherrealm incarnate, as he represents the studio as a whole.
He's had a ton of looks over the years, but one of our personal favorites is his Injustice costume from Mortal Kombat: X back in 2015. A lot of Hanzo Hasashi's (Scorpion) alt costumes tend to get overcomplicated or become too edgy, but this one feels like the perfect combination of practical armor, garish gold, and simplified grimdark design.
9 Worst: Infrared Scorpion From Mortal Kombat X
And, while we're talking about Quan Chi's ex-servant Scorpion, we might as well bring up one of his absolute worst costumes from the same game. MKX has a decent amount of amazing costumes, but it also had a good amount of awful ones. But, none of them compare to Infrared Scorpion!
It just offends the eyes, and it is creatively lazy. Now, there is a bit of backstory here though, because this skin came out around the same time as the Predator DLC. And, in the first Predator film, one of the Predators kills a Scorpion in its hand and looks at it in Infrared. We get it, Ed Boon loves movie references but doesn't make the costume any less hideous
8 Best: Tanktop Wearing Johnny Cage From Mortal Kombat 11
Fans of the franchise will notice a distinct lack of the most recent MK game on this list, Mortal Kombat 11. And why is that? Well, because MK11 tried to do something different and gave every character about 3 "skins" with different color palettes as well as unlockable accessories that players could layer on top. But, it meant we couldn't really pick out a "costume" per se, well other than this tanktop wearing Johnny Cage.
We don't know what it is, but something about Johnny not being shirtless yet also not stuffed into a suit looks great. The pink one especially just works for a "retired" martial-artist, soldier, and movie star who is confident in his sexuality and wears what he wants.
7 Worst: Sub Zero's Alt Costume In Mortal Kombat Deception
This next one is a real shame because it is the alternative to one of Sub Zero's absolute best designs. In the 2004 game Mortal Kombat: Deception, Sub-Zero's default costume is a mix of the Lin Kuei aesthetic and Teenage Mutant Ninja's Turtles own Shredder. The guy's already tough, but this makes him look even tougher.
Yet, his alternate is ugly as sin, especially as a contrast to the default. They get rid of the amazing fuzzy collar, the rad helmet, and the samurai-esque shoulder accessories in exchange for flowing cloth and a mostly shaved head, save for a top-center ponytail! Wow, what a good trade.
6 Best: Dark Empress Kitana From Mortal Kombat X
The Sub-Zero skin we just mentioned is awful because it flies in the face of Sub-Z's identity. But, that isn't always a negative. Sometimes, an alternate costume is cooler because it is so different than what we'd expect from the character. And, Kitana's Dark Empress skin from MKX is a perfect example of that.
When the entire cast got bodied by Sindel in MK 2011, they were brought back as Revenants by Quan Chi and corrupted. And, the now evil Lui Kang and Kitana then take over Netherealm together. It's a cool twist on the characters since they're normally the goody-two shoe type heroes. It's imposing, elegant, and not pervy like a lot of MK skins were in the early days.
5 Worst: Sonya Blade And Mileena's Alt Costumes From Mortal Kombat 2011
Speaking of pervy, here's some of the worst. Remember how we said that the fanservice-type costumes were mostly in the early days? Well, sadly, these two skins came out in MK9 or Mortal Kombat 2011. That's shockingly recent for such gross skins to be part of the design mentality.
Especially since Mileena's is the reward players get for completing the absurdly hard Challenge Tower and Sonya's is as basic as costumes get. They aren't well-designed, they aren't tied to the character by any sort of "lore", they just show off their assets and make us cringe.
4 Best: Day Of The Dead Erron Black From Mortal Kombat X Mobile Version
We'll be upfront about this, we had no idea a Mobile Version of Mortal Kombat existed until we did the research for this article. Frankly, we still are kind of in awe of it. Obviously, it doesn't play all too close to the console version, but it does share the same graphical style and roster (mostly).
Though the are some skins unique to it, and Day of the Dead Erron Black is one of them. This skin should be in every game he's in. It's classy, it's simple, and it's way better than his Outworld Skin where the dude puts on a crop top.
3 Worst: Cyber Jacqui Briggs From Mortal Kombat X
Jacqui Briggs should have better skins/alternates than she got, the girl has an amazing design and gimmick. She's all sass, has a great backstory, and is a ton of fun to play. Plus, her gimmick is robotic gauntlets! You know, like her dad Jax? Except hers have guns, and they're a bit more strapped on than bionic like his.
All this combined makes her a prime candidate for some great costumes with awesome gauntlet designs, yet most of them are stinkers. And, none are worse than Cyber Jacqui from MKX, seriously. The girl looks like she has an Iron Man core in her chest and a fishbowl on her head.
2 Best: Dark Raiden From Mortal Kombat 2011 And MKX
Here it is, another dark/evil skin. But what can we say? We're suckers for good guys getting to dress badly. And, Raiden's bad look is really good. Dark Raiden has shown up in a couple of games, but we like to think this costume is what led Netherrealm to finally changing his "commoner potato-sack" look a bit and updating it for the current generation.
Klassic Raiden works in pixel form, but as soon as he goes HD, the design is much weaker. Thankfully, Dark Raiden is rad. He sports Shinnok's amulet on his chest, some glowing red eyes, and some classy gold trim all over his new outfit. Dark Raiden is brutal in-game, and his outfit has to match that tone.
1 Worst: Punk Cassie Cage From Mortal Kombat X Mobile Version
Finally, we'll end on the other side of "dark" that just looks awful. Back to the mobile game for a second, it has even more skins unique to it that we had no idea existed until today. And, one of the worst we've ever seen, is the Punk skin for Cassie Cage. The daughter of Sonya and Johnny looks like a rejected design from Watchdogs 2 more than she looks like a defender of Earthrealm!
It just doesn't match with anything recognizable about her design. For example, Injustice Scorpion looks more regal and bulky while still keeping the design aspects we all know and love about him. Punk Cassie cage looks like someone had an extra Punk-rocker costume from Halloween and threw it on her.