Mortal Kombat 1: The 10 Best Animalities, Ranked

Summary

• Animalities return in Mortal Kombat 1 with more detail, creativity, and gore than ever.
• Iconic characters like Ermac, Shang Tsung, Mileena, and Kung Lao showcase brutal and unique animalities.
• Characters like Omni-Man, Johnny Cage, Liu Kang, and Peacemaker bring their own cinematic and patriotic twists to the mix.

The ever so classic animalities have returned to the Mortal Kombat series in Mortal Kombat 1. Thanks to the Khaos Reigns DLC pack, animalities are back, and more detailed, creative, and gruesome than ever before.

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Fight!

Animalities have become an iconic and unique staple of the Mortal Kombat universe, allowing characters to be creative, goofy, or just downright disgusting.

10 Ermac

Ermac is many, his opponent is just one. Such is the case with his animality, as Ermac transforms himself into a swarm of hungry, vicious locusts. The swarm overwhelms the opponent, raising them into the air while blood and gore flies around.

What results is a nasty and disgustingly cool animality where the opponent is devoured and torn apart, left as a completely cleaned up and broken skeleton. Ermac is a legion of souls, and this animality is a perfect representation of this aspect of the character.

9 Shang Tsung

No animality showcases the true nature and personality of a character the way Shang Tsung's does in MK 1. Transforming himself into a massive serpent, Shang Tsung slithers across the ground towards his helpless opponent.

Upon wrapping around his opponent, Shang Tsung tightens his grip, bites, and twists, leaving his opponent a mangled, twisted mess. The best detail in this is the opponent's skin color changing after the serpent strangles them, creating a disturbing but detailed visual.

8 Mileena

Far less graceful and far more brutal than her sister, Mileena puts her claws and her teeth to work in her animality. Taking the form of a massive orchid mantis, Mileena tears into her opponent and devours them violently.

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Mileena eats her opponent's head clean off, just like what real female preying mantis' do to their mates, making it both educational and violent.

7 Kung Lao

The ever-so-over-confident monk Kung Lao showcases his more vicious side with his animality, as well as his precise, brutal offense. Kung Lao transforms into a tiger, brutally tearing into his foe and creating the horrific visual of tearing his opponent's face off.

However, Kung Lao isn't done here, as he bites into the back of his opponent and tears their spine out clean, and then poses over their body. It's both brutal and magnificent, and allows Kung Lao to look as cool as he always feels.

6 Homelander

The All-American monster manages to turn up his patriotism even further in his animality. A regular bald eagle isn't enough for him, as Homelander transforms into a costumed griffin of mythological lore.

Griffinlander, or Homegriffin, then ragdolls his opponent around the air with ease, before destroying them with a concentrated burst of heat vision. It's the Vought-esque presentation that makes this animality over the top and fascinating.

5 Quan Chi

The NeatherRealm demon sorcerer manages to bring out an ancient creature for his animality, but with a twist. Quan Chi transforms himself into a massive Tyrannosaurus Rex, but one that is a green, rotting skeleton of a being.

As Quan-Rex bites into his foe, he tears them apart and devours them, leading to his opponent's corpse dropping into the hollow skeleton's abdomen. It's goofy, ridiculous, violent and morbidly hilarious, and fits the classic Mortal Kombat vibes perfectly.

4 Omni-Man

Omni-Man's fatality travels away from the realm of normal animals, and into the cosmic world of Viltrumite threats. A perfectly comic-accurate Easter egg that is a treat for any Invincible fan, Omni-Man transforms into 'Hail Mary', the same Kaiju creature that nearly killed Omni-Man before.

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Kaiju Omni-Man brutalizes and crushes his opposition, throwing him around before finally breaking his opponent with his massive teeth. It's a brutal image that wouldn't actually feel out of place within the bloody world of Invincible.

3 Johnny Cage

Of course, Johnny Cage has to have the most theatrical, cinematic, big-budget animality. Deciding to pull on some classic Hollywood tropes, Cage brings out his entire cast and crew, while transforming himself into a great white shark.

What follows is an incredible visual homage to one of the biggest movie posters ever (you already know which one). Had there been a bit more gore, the animality would have been on top, but this is still an incredible visual that fits the A-lister perfectly.

2 Liu Kang

The flaming God of this timeline, Liu Kang decides to use his powers to create an extravagant and strangely beautiful animality. He takes the form of a phoenix, wrapping around his opponent with glowing bright flames and massive wings.

The phoenix then combusts into a burst of pure, raging fire, leaving behind nothing but a pile of ash. While this seems anticlimactic at first, the phoenix then rises from the ashes, more powerful than ever. A beautiful visual.

1 Peacemaker

It's hard to one-up the Homelander in terms of being a proud American, but Peacemaker (and Eagly) manage to do so with ease. Transforming into an eagle just like his buddy, Peacemaker opens fire on his opponent with a ridiculous array of weaponry.

While the goofy violence and over-the-top artillery is astonishing, it's Peacemaker's victory pose with his opponent's skull, and then Eagly flying away with the American flag, that truly wins over the performance. A true masterclass in patriotism from these two fine American heroes.

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