Mortal Kombat 2/YMMV

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • Draco in Leather Pants: Shao Kahn, VERY often, for both sides of the fandom. Very, very tiny leather pants...
  • Ensemble Darkhorse: Every new character!
    • The younger Sub-Zero.
    • Kitana.
    • Jax.
    • The secret characters: Jade, Smoke and Noob.
    • Mileena, who is regarded as the most iconic villainess of the series.
    • Baraka. The creators have admitted in one of their videos that Baraka is one of their most popular characters, albeit not having been in a lot of the games. Case in point: his inclusion in the DC crossover.
    • Kung Lao.
  • Even Better Sequel: Due to being The Same but More of the original.
  • Evil Is Sexy: Shao Kahn. Just look at that body!
  • Foe Yay: Mileena towards Kitana, natch. Her Deception bio even has Mileena note that her hatred of Kitana consumes her every thought. Seems to be absent in 9 though.
  • Game Breaker: Kitana's fan lift/pummeling combo, a nigh-indefensible move so widely abused that it was nerfed by a software update that made it difficult to corner an opponent. Some players found a workaround anyway.
  • Launcher of a Thousand Ships: Sub-Zero VI. Let's see... we've got Scorpion, Noob Saibot, Smoke, Kenshi, Sareena, Frost, Kitana, Jade, Mileena...
  • Memetic Mutation/Never Live It Down: Smoke's initial appearance in 2 was as a gray Scorpion recolor with crazy speed. His cyborg version has even more attacks taken from other characters. Combine that with one of his vocal grunts being heard by many as "Yoink", he has become famous as a move thief, matched only by Shujinko.
    • It doesn't even have to be techniques. Nowadays, Smoke's "Yoink!" is Played for Laughs if he steals anything.
  • Most Annoying Sound: Kahn's commentary got the honor of rivaling Liu Kang's voice.
  • Nightmare Fuel Station Attendant: Mileena, which becomes very apparent during her "Man-Eater" Fatality and ending.
  • Polished Port: Unbelievably, the Game Boy version turned out really well. Yes, the character roster had to be cut down due to hardware limitations, but the graphics and music are very good, the controls are perfect, and the gameplay is actually faster than the other versions.
  • Porting Disaster: The Midway Arcade Treasures 2 version had the start button exclusively function as the pause button. This made unlocking Smoke impossible.
  • The Woobie:
    • Kitana has a history of being repeatedly deceived and/or manipulated by several villains throughout the series. She, during Mortal Kombat 2, falsely believes Shao Kahn to be her father. In Deception, she is under the control of Onaga; and in Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe, she's being manipulated by both the rage sent by Dark Kahn, and then by Quan Chi. It hardly seems to affect her though. She breaks in her Unchained ending, though, after Blaze tells her that her premonitions were true and Armageddon is coming.
    • Smoke's misfortunes also seem to pile up with each sequel. To date, he's been converted to a cyborg against his will, deactivated and hung as a trophy after Mortal Kombat 3, and reprogrammed as an evil minion in Deception. Smoke: one way or another, his life sucks.