Anyone who grew up during the heyday of fighting games remembers how scarce female fighters were. Admittedly, the rosters were much smaller at the time, but even amongst the eight characters (on average) for each game, there would usually be just one woman amongst the bunch.  The perfect examples of this are in the two most popular games of the era: Street Fighter II had Chun-Li, while Mortal Kombat had Sonya Blade as each game's respective token female character.

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Thankfully, a lot has changed since then, and now fighting game franchises like Mortal Kombat are full of iconic female fighters who can kick just as much ass as the men, and in many cases, even more so. And this is certainly true in the MK series, as some of the most ferocious competitors in a given entry's roster are the female kombatants.

Updated on March 29th, 2021 by Julian BeauvaisOn the heels of the success of Mortal Kombat 11 and the impending release of the brand new Mortal Kombat film, now seemed a good time to revisit the epic video game fighting series. Although characters like Scorpion, Sub-Zero, and Raiden are immediately recognizable in relation to the franchise, Mortal Kombat has always included strong, skilled, and popular female characters, like Sonya Blade, Kitana, Mileena, and Cassie Cage. There have been several new additions to the franchise in recent years that needed accounting for, especially with the roster of the new film being unknown in some areas.

23 KHAMELEON

Khameleon Mortal Kombat Armageddon

Khameleon has always lacked much to make her distinct, initially being a character based on the amalgamated move sets of Kitana, Mileena, and Jade. As a matter of fact, Khameleon is so undervalued by the creators of the series that she only appears in the non-mainline Mortal Kombat Trilogy and the all-encompassing MK: Armageddon.

Even when given the opportunity to flesh out her character further in Armageddon, Khameleon still got short-changed on an interesting story or competitive moves. As her whole gimmick is to copy the female ninjas and blend in with them, she succeeds a little too well, as he does nothing worth taking notice of.

22 SAREENA

Sareena in Mortal Kombat X meets Kitana

Despite debuting in Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero and having developers consider adding her to the roster in games since then, Sareena didn't actually become a playable character in a main release until Armageddon.

Though Sareena's true debut as a playable character came in 2003's Mortal Kombat: Tournament Edition for Game Boy Advance, her move set was just a mishmash of characters from the console version of Deadly Alliance. As one of the three demon "sisters" and the only one to betray Quan Chi, she has the potential to be interesting, but it's hard to get excited about a character who's barely been seen in the franchise.

21 TANYA

Tanya with shealthed nagata strikes fearsome pose on Edenia background.

It's a widely held opinion that Mortal Kombat 4 is the worst entry in the mainline MK series. The transition to 3D left the game mechanics in need of some polish, but there's also the problem that most of the new characters just plain sucked, including the likes of Reiko and Kai. The developers have been wise enough to ditch most of the game's cast, but for some odd reason, they keep bringing back Tanya.

Besides appearing in Armageddon and Deception, Tanya was added as DLC in Mortal Kombat X, leaving fans scratching their heads as to why such a third-rate character would make the cut over fan-favorites like Baraka. Tanya's big claim to fame is that she is a traitor to Edenia, but honestly, who isn't in the Mortal Kombat saga?

20 ASHRAH

Ashrah bio card in Mortal Kombat: Deception

Yet another female demon from the depths of the Netherrealm is Ashrah. Offered the chance at redemption and a soul cleansed of evil, Ashrah accepted and became a traitor to her kind. Ashra's motivations are respectable enough, as none of Earthrealm's warriors have any fondness for the evil of demons.

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The biggest drawback to the character is her costume. Although it's a nice change of pace for a female fighter in the series to have an outfit that covers more than a bathing suit would, Ashrah's accouterments are just plain dull. It looks like she stole Raiden's hat but combined it with an impractical veil and a bunch of white clothes that will show every bloodstain. With her Raiden-esque movelist, Ashrah carries the potential to be a top-tier character with just a little retooling, but she's not there yet.

19 KIRA

As a general rule, characters that are carbon-copies of previous ones or "creatively borrowed" from other series are never particularly compelling or well-received. As a hybrid of Kano and Sonya Blade, Kira's introduction in Deception immediately drew comparisons to these two old favorites, giving her a huge hurdle to overcome in being unique and interesting.

Not only is Kira a member of the Black Dragon clan like Kano, she directly steals his cannonball special movie, as well as one of his fighting styles from Deadly Alliance. Kira also steals from Kano's rival, taking Sonya's kiss of death special move where she blinds her opponent, as well as one of Sonya's fighting styles from Deadly Alliance. There's nothing wrong with Kira's personality or appearance, but players need to see something more from her than just copying other people's moves to truly welcome her into the series.

18 KIA

Kia from Mytholgies in the Netherrealm.

Following the success of the first three Mortal Kombat games, Midway decided to take the franchise in a new direction while delving into the backstory of a popular character at the same time. Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero charted the history of the original Sub-Zero, Bi-Han, as he tries to retrieve an amulet for the sorcerer Quan Chi.

The game was notable in that it was a side-scroller and not a fighting game, and as such, was complete with the requisite level bosses, of which Kia was one. Part of a trio of demon sisters from the Netherrealm, Kia’s boomerang blade attack was arguably the weakest of the three, but she still remains a viable character for future games and films should designers and filmmakers choose to include her in their projects.

17 JATAAKA

3 Split Panels - Jataaka & Quan Chi from Mythologies, Netherealm, and Jataaka live action actress from Mythologies.

Another of the three demon sisters that worked for Quan Chi, Jataaka served her master well. A tougher boss than her sister Kia, Jataaka employed a Darth Maul-style lightsaber to stop the elder Sub-Zero from accomplishing his mission of stealing the orb in Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero.

Like her two demon accomplices, Jataaka has had few appearances in the franchise following this outing, the most recent being in a story mode scene in 2006’s Armageddon. Perhaps developers will mine the lore for new characters in future games, as Jataaka is just too cool of a character in look and fighting style to leave consigned to history!

16 NITARA

Nitara from Mortal Kombat Stares into the Camera with One Eye Blindfolded.

As a vampire, Nitara's appearance is kind of cool, but her storyline was cut off from everything else happening in the franchise. Her race came from a world of vampires that had become tethered to Shao Kahn's, and Nitara wanted to help her people break free. She formed an alliance with Cyrax to retrieve an orb that would allow her to sever the connection. In her ending, she smashes the orb with no problems, and that's the end of her journey in Deadly Alliance. It's way too neat and conclusive for a fighting game.

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Nitara doesn't really have any rivals in the series, and she doesn't have any interesting plot twists either. Deadly Alliance did bring us a few noteworthy characters, so it's not like the developers didn't know how to make interesting fighters. Nitara just didn't wind up being one of them.

15 CETRION

Cetrion prepares for a fight with arms outstretched in intro scene from Mortal Kombat 11.

Cetrion is a recent addition to the Mortal Kombat canon, having made her first appearance in 2019’s Mortal Kombat 11. An Elder God whose appearance and power set resembles that of an Earth-mother goddess, it’s hard to envision Cetrion as a villain. Yet, as the daughter of the game’s main villain, Kronika, Cetrion works tirelessly to support her mother’s goals.

Cetrion definitely has some hard-hitting and fluid combos that look as pretty as they are deadly. Yet, it’s extremely disconcerting to spend time wailing on someone who resembles the symbol of our environment, especially considering the poor state the Earth's environment is in.

14 SKARLET

Skarlet from Mortal Kombat 11 cuts her hand with a bloody knife in intro scene.

After years of being rumored as a secret character in the franchise, Skarlet made her long-awaited debut in the 2011 edition of Mortal Kombat where the franchise's timeline got retconned to avoid the events of Armageddon. Though the roster of the game primarily drew upon the characters of the first three games in the series, a few newcomers did make their way into the title. One of these was the downloadable warrior Skarlet, a new female ninja who was composed of blood.

This new warrior for Shao Kahn had kind of a cool gimmick but was very scarce on personality. Back in era of the first few games, violence was enough of a selling point for the series— but by 2011, violence in games was nothing new, so there was little shock value to Skarlet's brutal moveset. Revamped to show more personality and backstory in Mortal Kombat 11, Skarlet's future looks bright, but she wasn't anything more than a one-off in her debut.

13 SHEEVA

Sheeva looks down on a vanquished opponent in Mortal Kombat 11

Introducing Sheeva in Mortal Kombat 3 seemed like a good idea since Goro and Kintaro were such intimidating bosses in the franchise, and gave fans a playable version of the Shokan race to use and stomp on people with. But like the early days of the ninjas in the franchise, Sheeva just doesn't have enough differentiating herself from others like her. It's hard to think of much that separates Sheeva from the other four-armed fighters.

The team behind the Mortal Kombat franchise has managed to take other characters with good concepts and make them interesting in terms of story and thankfully, has done so again with the Mortal Kombat 11: Aftermath expansion content. With layers of complexity and shifting alliances, Sheeva has developed far beyond a female Goro clone.

12 FROST

Frost Mortal Kombat Deadly Alliance

The Mortal Kombat franchise is replete with Lin Kuei members, the most famous of which is, of course, Sub-Zero. Deadly Alliance introduced the first female member of the clan, with ice powers just like Sub-Zero's to boot. Frost employed a lot of the same abilities fans had seen Sub-Zero swap in and out of his repertoire from previous games, which was both a positive and a negative.

On the plus side, Frost's style gave fans of the debilitating freezing attacks another option to try them out and find their favorite. The downside is that because Frost was so similar to Sub-Zero, it was hard to justify having both of them in the same game, and no newcomer is going to win a popularity contest with Sub-Zero.

11 JACQUI BRIGGS

Jacqui Briggs in a Mortal Kombat X promotional image

By the time Mortal Kombat X was being developed, there was a strong push to introduce some fresh blood into the franchise. Rehashing the roster of the original trilogy each game was becoming somewhat tiresome and the series needed new characters that fans actually cared about. Creating someone like Jacqui Briggs (daughter of series favorite "Jax" Briggs) was a welcome move, but she unfortunately got outshined by a number of different newcomers in MKX.

In terms of fighting style, Jacqui has her dad's penchant for incorporating guns into her repertoire but isn't quite the powerhouse that he is. Perhaps following in her dad's footsteps a little too closely, she quickly winds up playing second fiddle to the other heroes. In much the same way Jax takes a backseat to Sonya, Jacqui winds up falling to the wayside while Cassie saves the day. There's potential in Jacqui but fans are waiting to see her step out of Jax's shadow a bit more in future games.

10 FERRA

Mortal Kombat X, Ferra and Torr promotional image

Ferra was an extremely unique fighter who immediately attracted the attention of fans. Not only was this the first child to fight in a Mortal Kombat game, but she was also the first fighter to fight alongside someone else simultaneously. Visually, the duo was very compelling with Ferra riding Torr's back, but based on their story, they didn't have long together as a team.

At the end of their story mode, Torr ends up dying, while Ferra becomes an enlarged, hulking creature like Torr was. Their people exist symbiotically, with one riding on the other until adulthood, at which time the younger one becomes the new brute to be ridden. Although it looks like Torr is gone for good, if Ferra returns, fans are expecting her to look very different. Hopefully, her story will be more compelling as well, matching her novel appearance with narrative substance.

9 LI MEI

Lei Mei overlooks her youngder self on Outworld Background.

Deadly Alliance may have had a weak roster overall, but Li Mei had the honor of being the best new female character of the bunch. Even though she ended that game with her soul trapped in a mummy by Shang Tsung, seemingly taking her out of action for good, her backstory was equal parts tragic and compelling. Her inclusion in the sequel to Deadly Alliance, Deception, showed the developers' belief in her potential, and Li Mei's contribution to the story was greatly expanded. Her time spent as a mummy seemed to have altered her personality, and although she initially wanted to destroy Onaga, when she finally met him, she allied with him and became his queen instead.

Li Mei was a pretty decent character, and if Bo Rai Cho can stage a return, fans wouldn't mind seeing one of Deadly Alliance's other newcomers on a future game's roster as well.

8 KRONIKA

Kronika smiles evilly into the camera from Mortal Kombat 11

The Mortal Kombat franchise has never been short on epic final bosses and sub-bosses that were not only enragingly difficult to defeat but were compelling characters in their own right. As a matter of fact, it’s hard to imagine the mythos without the likes of a Shao Kahn or a Shang Tsung.

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After almost 30 years of history, Mortal Kombat introduced its first female boss with Kronika in Mortal Kombat 11. An Elder God who also happens to be the mother of the fallen elder god, Shinnok, Kronika wields an insane amount of power and has worked to effectively destroy the universe. Her ethereal nature, lightning-quick moves, and Tilda Swinton-like appearance add to her awesome mystique. It’s only a matter of time until Kronika assumes a more prominent role in future games.

7 SINDEL

Sindel in Mortal Kombat 2011

Considering Sindel’s connections to characters of importance in Mortal Kombat, it’s surprising how few of the games she’s been in. After her debut in Mortal Kombat 3, she disappeared until the events of Deception— hardly befitting someone who is not only the rightful queen of Edenia and Kitana's biological mother but also Shao Kahn’s brainwashed queen.

Someone on 2011's Mortal Kombat development team must have felt the same way because Sindel infamously had a very prominent role in the story. She single-handedly killed the majority of the heroic characters in the game, which led to them being revived as revenants under the power of Quan Chi. Narratively, the elements are definitely there for Sindel to be a more prominent character in the franchise's mythos.

6 JADE

Hooded and masked jade prepares to fight with arms in stance Mortal Kombat 11 intro scene.

Jade was intriguing when she first appeared in Mortal Kombat II as one of the three secret characters in the game. Due to her quick moves, impressive offense, and periodic invulnerability, she was also a pretty good character to pick if someone was looking to give "Player 2" a hard time. Jade always had some pretty lethal combos, and even in her later appearances, there was a lot of potential for unique attacks, thanks to her signature staff.

For most of her time in the franchise, Jade has pretty much been defined as being the best friend of Kitana. In a series where lasting friendships are rare, that’s a cool little detail, but it also puts Jade in a role that makes her seem secondary to the princess. In recent years, Jade’s had a few more details added to her history, like being a general in Kitana’s army, but it’s hard not to just view her as an accessory to the story of other characters.

5 CASSIE CAGE

Cassie Cage Mortal Kombat load screen

Despite being such a newcomer to the franchise, Cassie immediately caught a lot of people's attention. As the daughter of Johnny Cage and Sonya Blade, you'd expect her to be really cocky but also a fierce opponent, and she certainly lives up to those preconceptions. Cassie has the skills to hang with some of the top fighters in Mortal Kombat but she's also so confident that she debuted one of the funniest and most memorable fatalities in the game: Taking a selfie with her dead opponent and posting it to social media.

Even in the context of the franchise's story, Cassie is undoubtedly impressive. When everyone else was falling by the wayside against Shinnok's corrupted form, Cassie became the last woman standing. In a clear passing of the torch moment, Cassie was the one who took down this latest threat to the worlds of Mortal Kombat and took her place as someone to lead the franchise into a new era.

4 D'VORAH

D'Vorah in Mortal Kombat X

When new characters get introduced in a fighting game, it's always interesting to see which of them— if any— will catch on with players. Luckily, Mortal Kombat X really struck gold and produced a number of characters who fit right in with the franchise, including the freakishly odd D'Vorah.

The insect-like fighter managed to be unnerving even by today's standards. She brutally killed Baraka by ripping out his brain and later killed Mileena by filling her with insects that devoured her from the inside in a scene that would make even the most seasoned veteran of Mortal Kombat's stomach queasy. There's no way anyone who played Mortal Kombat X could forget D'Vorah, arguably the best female fighter that the franchise has seen in a long time.