Outside of Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat has the most iconic roster of fighting game characters though a majority of them haven’t had the opportunity to have adventures outside of the mainline titles.
Series Co-creator Ed Boon recently commented pretty directly as to which of his kombatants would receive the spotlight “if (when?)” NetherRealm Studios creates a new Mortal Kombat spin-off game.
Jim’s Retro Emporium took to social media to ask the internet which duo most deserves their own spin-off game like Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks.
There were four pairs included with the post showing Jax and Sonya, Raiden and Fujin, Scorpion and Sub-Zero or Kitana and Mileena though there’s no real shortage of interesting pairs to choose from.
This apparently caught the eye of the man who’s worked on Mortal Kombat for over 30 years and got a pretty clear response from one of its creators.
“Without a doubt, if (when?) we do one, it will be Scorpion and Sub-zero,” wrote Boon in his reply.
Seeing this isn’t very surprising considering the creative leader’s love for the yellow ninja, and it would also fulfill the hopes of a canceled project from almost 20 years ago.
All the way back in 2010, Boon revealed there was something of a follow-up to Shaolin Monks in the works once it released in 2005, but instead of Liu Kang and Kung Lao, the focus would have been on the leading ninjas.
“When they finished [Shaolin Monks], the guys at Paradox were gonna do another one called Fire & Ice,” said Boon via Game Informer. “It was gonna be a co-operative Scorpion and Sub-Zero game. They actually started the early stages of that game, but they couldn’t do it in time and under budget, so the project was canceled and kind of went away.”
Without a doubt, if (when?) we do one, it will be Scorpion and Sub-zero. https://t.co/P8PAf5bU6D
— Ed Boon (@noobde) July 3, 2024
While Sub-Zero did already get a leading role in his own game with in 1997 with Mortal Kombat Mythologies, Scorpion has never really gotten his own game despite arguably being the face of the franchise.
It is interesting that Boon still seems very keen on making more Mortal Kombat spin-offs, but that’s also nothing really new with the topic of a Shaolin Monks remaster or something else coming up multiple times over the past decade.
Every few years it seems like NetherRealm talks about trying something different outside of fighting games between releases, only to go and develop another mainline Mortal Kombat or Injustice anyway.
Many fans would probably say Shaolin was the only good MK spin-off, but it also happened to be the last outside of the realm of mobile titles.
With the modern gaming landscape, it would be a risk for NRS to step outside of their comfort zone and develop a big new project, but after the uneven reception and retention of Mortal Kombat 1, perhaps that’s what the studio needs.
Boon has been more actively engaging with fans online lately outside of this too and asking them what changes they’d like to see for MK1 and showing off the first look at Takeda in the game.
As for where else the ninjas could show up, Street Fighter 6’s Director recently said he’s open to a Mortal Kombat crossover, so that could be in the cards someday too.
Is there another duo you’d much prefer receive their own Mortal Kombat game? What genre or style would you like it to be? Let us know in the comments.