Mortal Kombat 11 is by far the best game in the franchise. It’s the biggest, the boldest, and the most rewarding to play, time and time again. With the best fighting mechanics, the franchise has ever seen, Mortal Kombat 11 is a clear frontrunner for those looking to get in Mortal Kombat. The graphics are top-notch, the fatalities and specialized attacks are rewarding, and it comes fitted with a fantastic story that you can't go wrong with.

Mortal Kombat X might be the most important MK title on this list, as it took Mortal Kombat into the stratosphere. Finally, Mortal Kombat over the top gameplay was featured in crisp 60FPS, which showcased just how brutal MK was, and how fun it was to play. X introduced some creative new fatalities, a few new characters and was later supported with some worthwhile DLC's.

Mortal Kombat (2011) the ninth installment of the franchise, and the first MK title to be developed by NetherRealm Studios, is credited with rebooting the franchise. Most people look at reboots as horrible ideas but MK9 restored the franchise by bringing it back to its 2D roots. And for the first time, Mortal Kombat actually had a functional training mode and a cohesive story that reminded fans why they loved the games so much.

Mortal Kombat Shaolin Monks is a spin-off from the main franchise that took a beat ‘em up approach to combat instead of the typical MK fighting mechanics. Of all the spinoffs to come out of the MK franchise, Shaolin Monks, has the best story and while the gameplay may not have been the tightest, it was fun for some quick runs.

There’s nothing like the original. Back in the day when cheat codes for games were still a thing, Mortal Kombat burst on the scene in a spray of blood, guts, and glory that’ll never be forgotten. The game was and still is so compelling for some people that they've spent hours learning every character, every move, every technique, and every combo. Even going so far as to keep notebooks of button presses to try and memorize fatalities that involved extremely long combos.

Mortal Kombat II had a lot to live up to considering its namesake. Back when the original MK launched, there was nothing like it. The levels of gore and violence were unmatched. Mk 2 reworked some core fighting mechanics and made it easier to play, while also making it harder to master. It might not be the flashiest or most fluid MK title, it gains points for how revolutionary it was at the time.

Mortal Kombat Deception took everything special about Deadly Alliance and built upon it. Deception refined the game's combat by adding more in-depth characters and beefed up the single-player campaign, leaning into the lore of the MK universe and telling you more about your favorite characters than just their preferred method of pulling out their enemies spines.

Most people don’t remember but Mortal Kombat crossed over with the DC Universe in 2008, and it’s actually a really fun game. In some ways, it helped pave the way for Injustice Gods Among Us years later. It’s nowhere near as dark as Injustice, and nowhere near as bloody as Mortal Kombat because of the T rating Warner Brothers and DC forced onto the game. But it retains some of the classic Mortal Kombat charms while letting comic fans get their DC fix.

Mortal Kombat 3 continued where Mortal Kombat 2 had left off. With combat improvements, new characters, new arenas, and new gameplay strategies like the Dial-A-Combo system and the run button that let you engage your opponents in different ways and constantly keep them on their toes, Mortal Kombat 3 is not a bad game, it's just not our favorite.

Mortal Kombat Deadly Alliance is where things start to take a turn for the worst. The game is seen as a course correction from MK4, and while MK4 is largely looked at as a disappointment, Deadly Alliance did improve the 3D fighting, if only slightly. While Deadly Alliance was itself a disappointment it did realign the franchise with its roots, while improving the 3D combat system.

Mortal Kombat Armageddon just didn't feel right. You'd think a game with 62 playable characters would be full of fun, but MK Armageddon suffered from too much of a good thing. It included every major and most minor characters to have ever been part of the MK franchise but nothing in the game worked the way it was supposed to, especially not the “Create-a-fatality” feature that just came off as half-baked and pretty boring.

Mortal Kombat 4 just didn’t work. When Mortal Kombat moved from 2D to 3D in 97 with the release of MK4 everything looked terrible, and the team working on the game was clearly just starting to understand 3D modeling and animation. Some of the game’s core was there in terms of the fighting mechanics but it just didn’t feel very good to play. It's commonly agreed upon as the worst title in the franchise.