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YMMV / Mortal Kombat 9

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  • Abridged Arena Array: Rooftop (Daylight) would be a common stage pick as it's the longest in the game, enabling zoners (including the incredibly popular top tier character Kabal) to maintain their keep-away game much more effectively.
  • Ass Pull:
    • The fact that the original timeline ends with Shao Kahn winning and getting the ultimate power. The intro to Armageddon depicts Onaga nabbing Shao Kahn and carrying him off to his doom, and Onaga took the combined power of all the fighters to defeat. Thus making the idea that Shao Kahn could just defeat him and then get through anyone else in his way to the ultimate power a very big stretch. Especially when one takes into consideration that Shao had to poison Onaga to overthrow him and Shao's ending in Deception outright states that Shao is incapable of defeating the Dragon King in a one-on-one fight.
    • In the penultimate chapter, Sindel kills several of Earthrealm's champions by herself without much effort. It's done for the sake of the story, which made a point about heroes making "unthinkable sacrifices". In reality it's a very blatant example of Cutscene Power to the Max and The Plot Reaper, since nothing in previous continuity hinted that Sindel had such levels of power; while Shao Kahn had given her Shang Tsung's souls to increase her power, this just raises more questions since Shang Tsung himself wasn't that strong, and considering the heavy-hitters present, even Shao Kahn on a good day shouldn't have as much ease killing them all as Sindel did.
    • Shao Kahn paying for Quan Chi's services with the souls of Earthrealm's warriors. Aside from the game never showing such a deal took place, Shao Kahn shouldn't have any jurisdiction over Earthrealm's souls, and the Netherrealm's rules state that it only accepts souls that are evil or tainted.
    • Both Nightwolf and Cyber Sub-Zero's endings have them get possessed by Shao Kahn's soul after killing him. There is no indication Shao Kahn could do this, especially since he never does this in any other ending save for Skarlet, and even she simply took his power after absorbing his blood. Not even the other Cyber Lin Kuei get this ending, so it comes off as an out-of-nowhere Cruel Twist Ending.
  • Awesome Ego: Johnny Cage, of course.
  • Base-Breaking Character:
    • Quan Chi. He's either a trollish Magnificent Bastard, or a boring Invincible Villain and spotlight hog due to being retconned into the events of the first few games. For some of his detractors, him being knocked down a peg in Mortal Kombat X seems to have balanced his oversaturation in this game.
    • Kratos. You've got the fans who think he's a great addition to the roster, the fans who are vehemently against his presence in the game, the fans pestering NetherRealm Studios to add a Xbox 360 exclusive character, and the fans who just don't care about him being in the game.
    • Cyber Sub-Zero is one among the fans thanks to being seen as not only unnecessary, but a rather cheap way to change the timeline as well. It doesn't help that the narrator has no voice clip for his name and that his ending is just a cutscene with absolutely no voice acting at all. Many fans dislike fan-favorite Sub-Zero being cyberized then unceremoniously killed off, while others like the change and find Cyber Sub-Zero's moves and playstyle sufficiently different to make him an engaging character in his own right. Then others contest that his moveset makes him too good, verging on a Game-Breaker.
  • Breather Level: Challenge 150, Gor-Owned, is much easier than anything near it in the Challenge Tower. This is mostly due to the challenge involving you playing as Goro. You keep his ridiculous armor and damage resistance, and you even get a considerable damage boost. Not even the requirement of having to defeat five people without healing makes this at all difficult.
  • Broken Base: Chapter 15 in Story mode is one of the most divisive Wham Episodes in Mortal Kombat history. This is all because of one scene: a powered-up Sindel comes in near the end of the chapter and single-handedly kills most of Earthrealm's protectors, necessitating Nightwolf's Heroic Sacrifice to defeat her. This scene is often considered one of the worst-written in the entire franchise, as so many characters are killed off in ways that can feel anti-climactic and underwhelming (Stryker and Cyber Sub-Zero die from nonlethal-looking punches), and the way the good guys are killed off one by one makes it look like they're holding the Idiot Ball by not all attacking at the same time. However, fans of Nightwolf have a much easier time finding things to like about the chapter, as it gives him a much-needed Day in the Limelight, with his Heroic Sacrifice to stop Sindel being a major Moment of Awesome for him.
  • Fan Nickname:
    • Cyb-Zero for Cyber Sub-Zero.
    • "Portal Kombat": The release date of the game itself, simply for coinciding with that of Portal 2's; the temptation to switch out the "M" in "Mortal" for a "P" proved to be too great. And, considering that portals factor into the backstory so often...
    • Gravity Squeeze for Ermac's "Cannonball Slam" X-Ray Move, due to its aesthetic similarities to Magneto's Level 3 in MvC3.
    • Kittentaro: Kintaro's more feline appearance in this game. This can also be applied to his Babality.
    • Mortal Kombat 9 itself is a fan nickname, as the game's official title is Mortal Kombat. Depending on what community you're a part of, Mortal Kombat 2011 is also a common nickname.
    • Thunder Idiot or God of Blunder for Raiden due to his many Idiot Ball moments throughout the game.
    • Raidude (used by Johnny once in Story Mode) also seems to be picking up in certain circles.
    • Cyblax for Cyrax's human form; used primarily by the game's competitive community, as Cyrax's human and robot forms have subtle but game-altering differences in their movesets.
  • Genre Turning Point: While it first appeared in its predecessor, the critical success of MK9 seemingly convinced other developers to incorporate a chapter-based story mode where players switched between characters throughout the narrative into their own fighting games. Naturally, this element appeared in future MK titles, as well as Netherrealm's other big series.
  • Good Bad Bugs:
    • Some of Goro's and Kintaro's weaknesses can be exploited via these. They can't comprehend uppercut spamming on Normal difficulty, and are also impotent against diving kicks, especially Cyber Sub-Zero's, which is a Godsend when you fight both of them towards the end of Story Mode.
    • There's also a glitch that lets you do most characters' X-Rays with other characters.
  • Harsher in Hindsight:
    • The ending to Mortal Kombat: Conquest, where Shao Kahn kills everyone, is oddly prescient of this game, which ends with Shao Kahn killing almost everyone. In both cases, Raiden unwittingly caused the destruction, and Kahn used super-powerful proxies to fight in his stead instead of fighting himself.
    • Sindel's brutal killing towards the heroes became a lot harsher with her reveal as a DLC in MK11 where it turns out that her incarnation here has been retconned to be an Evil All Along power-hungry queen, meaning that maybe being imbued with Shang Tsung's souls didn't brainwash her further, she was happily murdering those heroes on her own will.
    • The arcade endings where she rules Edenia as a benevolent queen or ends up ruling alongside Kitana and Ermac (who is now controlled by the soul of her deceased husband, King Jerrod) are also ruined by the reveal that she's evil and had actually killed King Jerrod herself for being "weak".
      • With the release of MK1, this becomes Heartwarming in Hindsight because not only is Sindel brought back to her previous good alignment as a benevolent and well-meaning queen, the soul of Jerrod takes control of Ermac and after Sindel’s death at the hands of an evil counterpart, she joins Jerrod within Ermac and the two fight to control Ermac from the other souls making up the golem.
  • Heartwarming in Hindsight:
    • Johnny Cage hitting on Sonya at the very beginning of the game paid off, as Cassie Cage's presence on the Mortal Kombat X roster shows.
    • Kitana’s ending, where she, Jade, and Mileena join together to fight evil is made canon in MK1, where Mileena is a hero despite being infected with a disease that deforms her and makes her into a psychotic cannibal. While, Jade doesn’t appear in the game proper, intros mention her as a friend of Kitana, showing that she’s still in the New Era timeline.
  • High-Tier Scrappy
    • Kabal takes the cake. He has effectively rendered the metagame completely useless considering that he's a tier onto himself. He has no crippling weakness and functions as a zoner, grappler and can rushdown. His instant air fireball allows him to retreat while having multiple projectiles on screen at once. He is a definitive Game-Breaker.
    • Cyrax is a bordeline case; his infamous touch-of-death combos propel him above nearly every other character in the game which generally qualify him but Kabal's toolkit being as broken as it is meant that Cyrax is only the second best character in the game and one of very few who can challenge Kabal if played right, a relief for spectators who would otherwise have to sit through multiple Kabal mirrors in tournament.
  • I Knew It!:
    • Seeing as Deception's Konquest mode established that Kenshi (the blind swordsman from Deadly Alliance and one of the few Ensemble Darkhorses from the post-MK3 era) had been around since the time of the first game (he had apparently Missed the Call for joining the tournament, and thus missed his chance to enact his revenge on Shang Tsung), many assumed that he had a good chance of making it onto the roster here. He was confirmed as DLC.
    • There had also been a fan theory since the time of Gold (thanks to Cyrax's ending) that the Lin Kuei's ranks do not consist exclusively of Chinese people (or those of Chinese ancestry in the case of the Chinese-American-Cyromancer Sub-Zero bros., who were taken to China against their will by their father). Smoke and Cyrax's bios confirm this to be true; the former hails from Prague and is named Tomas Vrbada, while the latter is Motswana and was recruited to join the clan.
  • Low-Tier Letdown:
    • Shang Tsung. He can only morph into to the character being fought, and they can block this to prevent it. His moves aren't that great, one of which even leaves you open for attack, and is easy to do by mistake when throwing combos involving uppercuts. And 2 of his big advantages, his grab and Soul Steal, are useless on the bosses. He can be played okay in the right hands, but even then, he's moderately good at best.
    • Sheeva as well, considering that for all her power her specials offer, she doesn't have much to work with in combos and specials and is rather large to boot.
  • Memetic Loser: Cyber-Sub Zero, to the point where Reptile gets more of a break in comparison. One of his Fatalities involves him blowing himself up along with his opponent (which is baffling, as the opponent is dazed and unable to fight back, rendering such an action pointless), he's one of only two characters to die in their Arcade ending (the other one being Nightwolf), and he gets killed in a very undignified manner by Sindel in Story Mode.
  • Memetic Mutation:
    • Combining Sub-Zero's versus portrait with those of other characters has yielded hilarious results.◊
    • HE MUST WINnote 
    • This dialogue, from Challenge #20 in the Challenge Tower:
    Scorpion: "I HATE TEDDIES!"
    Mileena: "But I worked so hard on it. You MUST accept it!"
    • Thanks a particular leak about DLC, "DLC BASEMALE is my main/is God Tier" looks like it's working its way up as well.
    • Stryker and Kabal's conversation in the middle of Chapter 12:
    Kabal: "Stryker, check her [Mileena] out! What do you think? Friend or foe?"
    Stryker: "Foe."
    Kabal: "Dressed like that?"
    Stryker: "Definitely foe."
    • ... And Kano is still frozen.note 
    • This was forged by the Gods. note 
  • Narm Charm:
    • Some of the game's corny dialogue and extreme hamminess is what makes it so good and endearing.
    • The amount of gibberish in this game is ridiculous and yet, so awesome as well that many fans were disappointed that later games toned it down.
  • Older Than They Think:
    • People praised the game for innovating when it came to single player content in a fighting game. This is despite that it had already happened several times before. Furthermore, this isn't the first time the franchise had a character-episodic Story Mode. Even the much-maligned 3D games, starting with Deception, had a story mode and some extra single player modes; it's just that no one really cared at the time.
    • This isn't the first game in the series to have Tag Team matches. It is, however, the first one to have a proper tag team mode that's implemented.
  • Porting Disaster:
    • Maybe due to insufficient testing to ensure compatibility on a variety of configurations, the PC version may play perfectly to some, while others experience problems like inconsistent framerate — you may play the first round of a fight going with a fast forward button, then the second in slow motion — or sudden framerate drops when some visual effects are played. It can be remedied only by fiddling with some configuration files. Also, the compression of the cutscenes is lower than in the console releases, which causes a jarring contrast with the higher resolutions allowed on PCs; fans have released a higher-res movies pack.
    • While still perfectly playable, the PlayStation Vita version has very weak texturing (basically heavily compressing the console game textures with no extra work done to make them look good, giving everyone a very haggered and zombie-like appearance). This is especially jarring in Story Mode since the cutscene videos are taken from the console version, meaning you see everyone in full quality then the game engine takes over and the quality drops sharply.
  • Rescued from the Scrappy Heap:
  • Signature Scene:
    • But of course, a powered-up Sindel killing most of the Earthrealm heroes.
    • Noob Saibot's "Make A Wish" fatality is widely regarded as one of the most memorable fatalities from the rebooted trilogy and arguably on par with the famous Spine Rip fatality from the original game.
  • Shocking Moments:
    • Sindel is powered up by Shao Kahn in the story and slaughters most of Earthrealm's heroes, presenting a radical change to the timeline.
    • Sub-Zero is captured and turned into a cyborg instead of Smoke in this timeline, complete with a new moveset.
    • Noob Saibot's "Make A Wish" fatality, where he splits the opponent in two like a wishbone alongside his shadow clone. This fatality was widely recognized for its gruesome nature and is arguably as memorable as the Spine Rip from the first game of the series, to the extent that the Wikipedia page on Mortal Kombat controversies uses it as the page image speaks volumes about its impact.
  • Special Effect Failure: In the PS Vita version, there's a big Art Shift when going from cutscene to gameplay, much more than was noticeable in the console version (which was practically seamless). It doesn't help that most shirtless characters look like their muscles are just painted-on now. The PC version also has this problem if your resolution is set higher than the resolution the cutscenes play at.
  • Stress-Relieving Gameplay: Some enjoy the idea of having Freddy Krueger as a DLC fighter as this means they can finally deliver torture upon him with Fatalities and make him suffer as much as his victims did. Special mention goes to the PS3/Vita versions, where you can beat Freddy up as Kratos, meaning that you can have Freddy get a taste of what the Greek Gods received at the hands of Kratos.
  • That One Attack: Shao Kahn has two of note; his Hammer Throw and his Upward Shoulder. The former has a noticeable wind up, but it stuns the player for a very long time. The latter sends the player into the air, and Shao Kahn hits the ground before they do, allowing him to do the attack again and keep juggling them. Both attacks trap the player in a Cycle of Hurting allowing Shao Kahn to take off as much as forty percent of their health, with the only thing keeping him from depleting all of the player's health with them is because he is programed not to.
  • That One Boss: All the bosses in grand tradition are this, but Shao Kahn regardless of match up is an SNK Boss that will send you home crying for mommy.
  • That One Level:
    • Challenge #251, you must KO Shao Kahn with Shang Tsung, AFTER facing Baraka and Sindel on maxed out A.I.s. This is on top of the fact Shang Tsung has a rather mediocre move list.
    • Challenge #257 pits you against Noob Saibot with reduced damage taken, damage boosted x3, a super meter that never drops below 2/3, and input-reading A.I. Fun times. Fittingly, this challenge is simply called "Hell."
    • Challenge #269 requires KOing 3 Shao Kahns as Stryker, with no health restore. It practically forces you into a tedious hitscan spam.
    • Challenge #300: You have any choice of character, but you must fight all three bosses (and Mileena) back-to-back with one health bar as they get bonuses up the wazoo while you are crippled constantly with disadvantages. Subverted in that the game tones down the difficulty the more times you fail (one of the only times it does so).
    • Fighting against Goro or Kintaro on their own is already pretty tough, so imagine having to fight them both at the same time in 1 vs. 2 during Cyber Sub-Zero's chapter in the story mode.
    • The final story mission. You face an overpowered, A.I.-maxed Shao Kahn with Raiden. Kahn is absolutely merciless in this mission and his already impressive defenses are boosted to inhuman levels. This mission is almost impossible to beat without using A.I.-abuse moves.
  • They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
    • Noob Saibot. Not much was done with his character other than what was already known about him in the alpha timeline, and an opportunity to have his rivalry with Scorpion more fleshed out was completely wasted.
    • Freddy Krueger. While his moveset takes inspirations from the Elm Street franchise as a whole, his appearance is based on the remake's Jackie Earle Haley (aka the Replacement Scrappy) instead of the original film's iconic and beloved Robert Englund (though Englund provides Freddy's vocal effects in-game) and is The Voiceless in contrast to his usual penchant for one-liners. Fans often lament that Freddy had to make his appearance before the franchise implemented its signature pre-fight dialogue system beginning with Mortal Kombat X, whose Guest Fighters were all The Voiceless, while Freddy's big claim to fame is as the slasher villian who talks. Him not returning for X also means he was unable to have a rematch with Jason.
    • Skarlet is quite possibly the most liked female character to come out of franchise since the classic trilogy of games (more or less) with an impressive move set and unique fatalities, interesting storyline with a lot of potential to grow and being a Fan-Preferred Couple with Ermac. Unfortunately, she's a new DLC character who isn't worked into the plot outside of a background cameo. However, Mortal Kombat 11 would later rectify this by having her on the base roster and giving her a role in the story.
    • Unfortunately owing to the console exclusivity, Kratos was never tournament legal during the game's competitive lifespan as the 360 version was preferred in tournaments and Xbox owners could not reasonably be expected to buy a PS3 and a copy of the game just to be able to lab as/against him if they did host tournaments on them. It's telling that Netherrealm would not go on to include any console exclusive characters after this game.
    • Stryker and Kabal, other than having A Day in the Limelight chapter, have no real relevance to the story. Stryker's chapter in particular feels much more like a common filler, with it being present only to introduce the third arc of the game from the eyes of someone who was completely external to the events prior.
  • Unexpected Character:
  • Unintentionally Unsympathetic: Kitana's disgusted reaction to Mileena, who she calls an abomination and refuses to acknowledge as family. Keep in mind Mileena has just woken up and hasn't actually done anything yet. Kitana's outrage comes across as Fantastic Racism. However, given the context of Mileena’s creation (to replace Kitana as a more deadly and loyal daughter for Shao Khan), Kitana could just be reacting out of shock, as her tower ending shows her making amends to Mileena and letting her join her and Jade to combat evil forces.
  • Villain Decay: Due to the story mode being from the hero’s perspective, none of the villains ever win a match, making all of them seem less threatening then before. With the exception of only a handful, most seem like Jobbers.
  • What the Hell, Costuming Department?: This game's (main) outfit for Sonya is the source of a lot of mockery online. Instead of giving her a sporty outfit as is common for her character, she wears a military vest that's too small for her to close due to her large... tracts of land, and no shirt (or bra) underneath, causing her to have an Impossibly-Low Neckline. This, combined with her Combat Stilettos and the strong implication that this was her work outfit that she was wearing on official business, made more than a few players cringe. For some players, it verges close to Fan Disservice due to how tacky it looks. The visceral reaction to her main outfit may be part of why she's significantly more covered up in her military-themed outfits in X and 11. The playerbase generally agree that while still clearly fanservicey, her alt outfit is significantly better in design, and many wish it was her main outfit.
  • Win Back the Crowd: This game won over the fanbase and then some after a dry spell of games that were either derided as being broken (Deception), rushed (Armageddon), or mediocre (Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe). The sheer effort placed into this game and all of the features included made this a hit. As stated by The Fighters Generation's Frank Yagami:
    "Mortal Kombat was arguably "dead" in the hardcore fighting game arena after the glory days of MK2 and UMK3. It took about 15 years, but Boon and company finally did next-gen Mortal Kombat right. MK9 is by far the best Mortal Kombat game to date. At the very least, Mortal Kombat can once again be competitive with the top fighting games of the genre. Way to dig yourself out of "the pit" MK!"

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