The Second Mortal Kombat Tournament (MK2, 1993)

Lore & Background

Shao Kahn extends the invitation to Raiden, the thunder god and protector of Earthrealm, who gathers his warriors and leads them into Outworld. The new tournament is far more dangerous because Kahn fights on home ground. In series canon Liu Kang wins again, defeating Shao Kahn and his bodyguard Kintaro. The game also establishes that Scorpion killed the original Sub-Zero, Bi-Han, in the first tournament, and that Bi-Han's younger brother Kuai Liang took up the Sub-Zero name. Among the twelve playable fighters, newcomers include Baraka, a mutant warlord of Outworld's Nomad race who led the attack on the Shaolin Monastery; Jax, a U.S. Special Forces officer come to rescue his partner Sonya Blade; and Kitana, Shao Kahn's personal assassin, who is suspected of secretly helping the Earthrealm warriors.

Did You Know?

• Mortal Kombat II brought multiple Fatalities per character to the series, along with non-lethal finishers such as Babalities and Friendships.
• Reptile was originally introduced as a hidden opponent in the first Mortal Kombat (1992), not as a new playable fighter in MK2.
• Smoke appeared in Mortal Kombat II only as a hidden, non-playable character; he did not become playable until later games.
• The game was set entirely in Outworld and was later followed by Mortal Kombat 3 (1995) and the spin-off Shaolin Monks (2005), which retells its events.