Top 20 WORST Mortal Kombat Finishers

Welcome to WatchMojo, and today, we’re counting down our picks for the Top 20 WORST Finishers in “Mortal Kombat”!

For this list, we’re NOT focusing on the spectacular finishers the “Mortal Kombat” games are known for, but on those… less-than-stellar examples. Hey, when you’ve been in the game for nearly three decades, not every finisher is going to be an eye-opener.

Which finishing move did you dislike the most? Be sure to sound off in the comments below. Now, FINISH HIM!!

For a character that wants to be the human equivalent to Sonic the Hedgehog, you’d think Midway would come up with something a little more clever. After all, this dude can run at high speeds and slice up his opponents with his intimidating hook swords. But, no, what do we get in MK3? Oh, he uses a respirator to inflate his victim’s head! Yeah...that makes sense. What else do you expect from the game that forgot to include Scorpion?

“Mortal Kombat 11” boasts some of the best finishers in the series, but there’s one character who can’t seem to follow up with the same level of consistency in badass-ness - Kano. We have a love-hate relationship with the assassin. Unfortunately, it’s hard to sell his cool factor when one of his finishers is just a series of headbutts. Stylish, but still about as lame as a balloon head.

Raiden’s arc in the original games was a “noble god who becomes corrupted with rage and turns into a vengeful deity”. One of his fatalities in “Deception”, however, turns him into a bit of martyr. He charges his victim up with electricity so much that it causes both of them to explode? We suppose it makes some sense, but why would Raiden do this? How could he protect Earthrealm from all evil when his cooked remains are scattered?

Don’t get us wrong - Rain is a cool character. Unfortunately, his fatalities are a mixed bag as we’ll see here and a little bit later. His finishers in MK11 aren’t dreadful, but it brings a bit of disappointment in regards to who isn’t in the game. Look, we appreciate the Queen reference, but what was the point of Ermac, Reptile, and Smoke showing up outside of that? Rain didn’t call upon their powers, and they still aren’t in the game. It just feels like a contrived tease.

Yeah, this time we have two fighters sharing the same boring fatality! In MK4, Reiko utilized a finisher where he kicks his victim’s torso so hard that it dismembers them with their limbs in place. Pretty cartoon-y for an Outworld warrior. But what makes this finisher upsetting is how it's recycled for Goro in the expanded Dreamcast re-release, “Mortal Kombat Gold”. Couldn’t have given the big lummox anything better, huh?

We can forgive the Queen finisher in MK11, but this was simply...what even is this? Rain manages to uppercut someone so hard that they launch into the air in slices...and land on their head? This is some insanely weird “Looney Tunes” stuff right here, and “Mortal Kombat” has some cartoonish fatalities. This is really what you give to the Prince of Edenia, the lethal water ninja? It simply isn’t impressive.

Our favorite Shaolin monk has seen some really cool finishers since the early days of the franchise. However, there was a bit of a stumble in “Mortal Kombat X” with the “Sore Throat” fatality. So...he just rips out their throat and shoves it into their mouth. Liu Kang has had way better finishers than this, and this probably one of the most anti-climactic, ho-hum ways to end a match. Guess they can’t all be spectacular, huh?

Ah, Jarek, the one we shall always remember as the “brutality” punchline. Seriously, have you seen Jax’s ending? It’s comedy gold! Not only was Jarek just a pathetic replacement for Kano, but he also holds MK4’s worst finisher. All he does is slice off his victim’s head and torso with eye lasers. Funny thing is the lasers don’t even line up with his eyes! So, not only is it the dullest finisher in MK4, it’s also the least polished. A double whammy!

Yeah, we ain’t done with you yet, “Gold”! You did our boy Goro wrong, and this is far worse than the recycled torso kick of death! You’re going to sit here and tell us the best fatality you could come up with for our four-armed lug is a charged uppercut??? We aren’t asking for something super wild and complicated, but...an uppercut!? This is such a disservice to the character.

Nightwolf would get some awesome finishers when he returned in MK11, but in the 2011 reboot, things were a little rough for him. One of his finishers was a simple axe to the head followed by a decap. This was way too short and uninspiring for a fatality. It would have been cooler if he caught the head mid-air and recalled the second axe through the waist. Just a few more seconds could have made this a stylish finisher. Yet here we are!

This beastly beefcake has been scaring the crap out of us since the first “Mortal Kombat”. So, it kinda sucks that his appearance on this list is due to his lackluster unimaginative fatality. All he does is take out his sai and gently stabs them into the opponent! DUDE! You got FOUR arms! You couldn’t do something a little more wild?

Given that Reptile is umm … reptilian, you’d think he would transform into something within the same animal family, for his “Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3” Animality. Well what did Midway end up going with? (Turns into a monkey) … WHAT? He didn’t even kill him! At least Scorpion’s animality had some humor to it - he turns into a penguin of all things! Despite being called SCORPION!

Two in a row for Reptile, and this one is somehow worse than the animality! When he made his playable debut in MK2, we were hoping Reptile would get some cool fatalities. Well, one of them was pretty awesome. The other saw him go invisible before ending his opponent with a fatal blow. Like… why not just do that in the first place? What was the point of going invisible?! Talk about lame!

Speaking of lame, Nightwolf! He’s had some of the most boring fatalities in the entire franchise, but we couldn’t give him every spot on the list. So, we picked his absolute worst one from “MK: Deception”. [chucks an axe into opponent's head]. THAT’S IT. Yeah, you pump that fist in the air. You deserve it after putting all that energy into throwing your axe. Now, excuse us while we go play with a character who’s actually fun.

Let’s be clear that we are specifically focusing on the Ultimate MK3 version of the Spine Rip, not the fatality as a whole. Typically, you’d see Sub-Zero grab his victim’s head, yank it off, and everyone smiles...except for parents...and grandparents...and politicians. However, Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 really messed things up …. (Grab’s head and screen cuts to black) Congratulations, Midway, you let the haters win. We thought Scorpion’s Army also cutting to black was also stupid, but the spine rip? Way to desecrate a classic.

Look, we understand MK1 couldn’t make fatalities as spectacular as they are now, but even when comparing everyone’s finishers, Liu Kang’s is downright awful! This is all he does: [Does a cartwheel and uppercut] We get the guy is supposed to be some peaceful monk, but this is supposed to be “Mortal Kombat”! We came for blood, and we want a fountain of it!!

This one is, perhaps, the most infamous among the MK community. In “Deadly Alliance”, Quan Chi can perform a fatality where he jumps onto you and... [stretches opponent's neck.] What? … WHAT? Where is the logic in any of this? How does this kill you? How’s that even medically possible? It’s weird, it’s confusing, and it’s WTF on all levels.

This was one of the battles that the SEGA Genesis won during the Console Wars. Because Nintendo enforced a “Family-Friendly” policy for their systems, Midway was forced to remove the blood and gore from “Mortal Kombat”, replacing it with sweat. Some of the fatalities were also toned down, take a look at Kano [Show Kano grabbing opponent’s chest no heart] did he tickle him to death? while Johnny Cage now does … I’m not even sure what this is.

One of the worst parts about “Armageddon” was that no one had specialized fatalities anymore. Instead, everyone utilized the “Kreate-a-Fatality” system, which ended up taking away their personalities. Now, anyone could break an arm. Anyone could tear out a bone. Anyone could snap a neck. Anything you could do, your opponent could do, and it made “Mortal Kombat” extremely dull and lifeless.

If we’re being brutally honest, EVERYONE’s fatality sucks in the DC crossover, including the “Heroic” Brutalities. None of them look remotely lethal, and some of them take place off-screen. Even the fatalities that do look lethal are uninspired and unimaginative. And if we had to pick the worst one of the lot: It would be Kano’s insipid Knee Stomp. Bland, boring, and utterly basic, this was proof that a series like “Mortal Kombat” should never dip below the M-rating ever again.