Highlights

• Mortal Kombat has been around for over 30 years, surviving bankruptcy and evolving with new features and characters.
• Some of the bosses in Mortal Kombat have become notorious for being difficult and frustrating for players.
• Shao Kahn, the emperor of Outworld, is considered the best and most iconic final boss in the Mortal Kombat series.

NetherRealm Studios' premiere fighting game, Mortal Kombat, debuted in arcades more than 25 years ago. Originally released by Midway, Mortal Kombat became infamous due to its barbaric, bloody moves known as Fatalities. The series has since seen comics, movies, and tons of merchandise released in the U.S.

The games are also known for their difficult boss battles. While some are easier than others, several bosses have become infamous for blocking players from finishing their games by racking up their Continues or emptying their pockets of quarters. Mortal Kombat has had all sorts of different bosses, but some have brutalized players more than others over the course of several generations.

Updated October 2, 2023, By David Heath: For a series famous for killing people, Mortal Kombat has lived on for over 30 years now. It could have gone down with the ship when Midway Games went bankrupt, but it lived on when the property was bought by Warner Bros. and the development team became Netherrealm Studios. If anything, they've gotten stronger, adding more features, gameplay tweaks, and guest characters.

That, and they've made more final bosses to break the game's mechanics, the spines of players' mains, and every player's patience. Some are old classics given new life to revive a 90s kid's worst nightmares. Others are newer designs to torment Gen Z. Either way, they've been added to this list, and rearranged to rank them based on challenge, design, and their impact on players.

9 Blaze

Blaze first appeared in the background of the Pit Stage in Mortal Kombat II before becoming a secret character in Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance. Not unlike Cinder from Rare's Killer Instinct, Blaze's body is covered in flames and, as such, uses fire-based elemental attacks. As unassuming as he looked, this fire-covered being held immense power. However, he didn't become a boss until Mortal Kombat: Armageddon.

In storyline, he was imprisoned to guard the last dragon egg. Once that hatched in Mortal Kombat: Deception, he was freed to unleash Armageddon. As such, he's one of the most powerful figures in the franchises, but also one of its weakest designs as he's quite generic. Armageddon made him bigger and more intimidating, but not more interesting.

8 Dark Kahn

Wait, wasn't this list only for the main franchise? Why is this Shao Kahn-Darkseid mish-mash here? While Mortal Kombat Vs DC Universe wasn't the worst MK game around, let alone the worst fighting game, Netherrealm Studios would have been forgiven for moving on from it. Yet their next project, Mortal Kombat 2011, was abbreviated to MK9. Armageddon was the 7th in the series, and there was no other big MK release between it or MK9.

So, as weird as it sounds, MK vs DC is actually MK8. Dark Kahn was formed when both Shao Kahn and Darkseid had their interdimensional escapes interrupted, causing them and their worlds to start fusing. To make sure they'd fuse, Dark Khan would force the MK and DC cast to fight each other by infecting them with Rage. He's intimidating enough, though for a fusion of MK and DC's biggest baddies, he looks more generic and boring than either on their own.

7 The Deadly Alliance (Shang Tsung & Quan-Chi)

After Mortal Kombat 4, the two sorcerers Shang Tsung and Quan-Chi teamed up in Deadly Alliance order to revive the Dragon King's Army and use it to take over the Realms together. The two even managed to kill Shao Kahn and Liu Kang, which surprised players. Players could even pick them as default characters on the roster. Hsu Hao and Cyrax had to be unlocked, but not the final bosses.

The duo came back as Titans in Mortal Kombat 1. Or, to be more accurate, Shang Tsung did the fighting while Quan Chi acted as his Kameo assist character. At least they weren't default characters, as one is a pre-order bonus and the other is DLC. Even so, they still came off as just another fight than a climactic battle. For a deadly alliance, the two were anything but, with Shang Tsung doing much better on his own.

6 Shinnok

Originally featured in Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero, Shinnok was a fallen Elder God who was trapped in the Netherrealm and sought to take power following Shao Kahn's defeat in Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. Revived via his amulet via Quan-Chi, this shape-shifting sorcerer returned to Outworld and aimed to take over the Realms and get revenge on his archnemesis Raiden.

Shinnok was the final boss of MK4, where he was basically a retread of Shang Tsung. But instead of shape-shifting in kombat, he could swap move sets a la Tekken 3's Mokujin. For someone who was supposed to succeed Shao Kahn, he looked more like his court jester. Mortal Kombat X improved his look by giving him his own fighting style and a snarky, Emperor Palpatine-esque personality. But then again, he technically wasn't the final boss in that game.

5 Kronika

Mother of Shinnok and Keeper of Time, Kronika controlled the fates of everyone and everything within the MK Universe via her giant Hourglass. She created good and evil, and tried for eons to balance the two. But each time, one would overwhelm the other, forcing her to destroy it and start fresh. Raiden's timeline meddling in MK9 and his victory over Shinnok in MKX led her to try wiping the slate clean again in Mortal Kombat 11.

As a Titan, Kronika is among the most powerful beings in the Mortal Kombat universe. She is a tough boss who can summon allies to fight for her while she tries to reshape the Sands of TIme. Otherwise, she tends to teleport and play the zoning game with long-ranged projectile attacks, being more boring to fight than challenging. Which is a bit of a shame for MK's first woman final boss as she has a unique design and interesting backstory.

4 Corrupted Shinnok

MKX opened with Shinnok getting beaten down by Johnny Cage and sealed within his own amulet. With the help of Quan Chi, Shinnok returns to Earthrealm to complete what he started: taking control of Earthrealm's Jinsei, the source of its life force. By corrupting it, he could kill off all life in the realm and make himself more powerful. The result was Corrupted Shinnok, who looked much more on par with MK's better bosses.

Even though Netherrealm couldn't resist reusing Dark Kahn's skull face and glowing cracks, Corrupted Shinnok gained a reputation for being one of the hardest MK bosses in recent memory. Some players took over 50 tries to beat him on the game's harder difficulties, and he wasn't that much more merciful on Normal. Of course, that didn't him in the lore, as he would canonically end up beaten by Cassie Cage and reduced to a head in MK11. Raiden was right: some fates are worse than death.

3 Onaga

Hatching from the egg Blaze was supposed to guard, Onaga was Deadly Alliance's aforementioned Dragon King, and was the final boss of Deception. The former king of Outworld was the most powerful being until Shao Kahn disposed of him and seized power for himself. With most of MK's heroes down for the count, and his Dragon Army revived, Deception saw him ready to take Outworld back.

Much like Kintaro and Motaro, Onaga doesn't get launched by uppercuts, nor can he be thrown. His attacks hit hard, and his grabs deal intense damage. Aside from his retreat moves, Onaga can also breathe fireballs and breathe flames in streams. He's since made a few cameos in later games, with his Dragon Army returning in MK1, but he hasn't been seen as a full character since Armageddon made him playable for the first and only time thus far.

2 Shang Tsung

The original final boss of the first Mortal Kombat, Shang Tsung could shape-shift into any fighter in the game and summon fireballs. Unfortunately, his debut was otherwise underwhelming as he was easier than the sub-boss Goro. It didn't help that he had less animation than the rest of the roster. His moves got better in later games, where he was either a regular roster character, or the better half of the Deadly Alliance with Quan Chi.

However, as a character and a design, he's arguably the best in the series. He's a schemer who knows exactly how to twist situations into his favor. Whether he's pulling the strings of bigger baddies or working with the good guys, he always has a Plan B or C to stand out on top, as he showed in the MK11: Aftermath DLC and MK1. Shang Tsung loves being evil so much that, ironically, it makes him more endearing and entertaining as a character.

1 Shao Kahn

There aren't enough words to describe the sheer power and ferocity of Outworld's emperor. Following Shang Tsung's defeat in the original Mortal Kombat, the sorcerer fled back to the Kahn and begged for another chance to prove himself. Shao Kahn would grant Shang Tsung back his former youth and kidnap Earthrealm's fighters, forcing them to compete in Outworld's tournament to open the way for his invasion.

Serving as the final boss of Mortal Kombat 2 and 3, this powerful brute followed Kintaro and Motaro, respectively, and was just as powerful and difficult. Shao Kahn's projectile and shoulder ram abilities later came accompanied by a mid-ranged sledgehammer and an anti-air flying knee strike. These moves would return in MK9, where their armor and stun made him just as cheap and testing as the classic games.

Even when he was made playable, and thus losing most of his cheap tactics, he stood out as one of the biggest and scariest characters on the roster. Midway and Netherrealm have tried topping him with bigger, badder, even smarter bosses. But their skull faces, sly sneers, or cheap moves couldn't help them fill his boots. Like him or loathe him, Shao Kahn is MK's best and most iconic final boss.