Alright, so I got dragged back into playing some Mortal Kombat 9 recently. Dusting off the old skills, you know? And it got me thinking about the characters again, who felt strong, who felt weak, the whole deal. After a few sessions, getting absolutely wrecked sometimes and sometimes pulling off wins I had no business getting, I figured, why not try and actually rank them? Just for myself, really. See where my head was at after all this time.
Getting Started – The Initial Mess
First thing I did was just jot down all the names. Seeing them all listed out… man, that roster was pretty solid. Then came the hard part. I didn’t want to just copy some old list I saw years ago online. That felt cheap. I wanted this to be based on how I felt playing them or fighting against them, like, right now, mixed with all those hours I sunk in back in the day. So, I started dragging names around on a notepad file. It wasn’t pretty.
I tried grouping them initially. Like, “Okay, these guys are definitely top tier.” Cyrax, Kabal… some of the usual suspects popped into my head immediately. Then the “definitely bottom tier” pile. Sheeva, maybe? It gets fuzzy down there. The middle ground was where things got really messy. So many characters felt… viable? But maybe not amazing? It was a headache.
Sorting Through the Chaos
I spent a good chunk of time just playing matches in my head. Remembering specific fights. Like that one time my Ermac got completely shut down by a ridiculously good Kitana player. Does that make Kitana top tier? Or was that guy just way better than me? Probably the latter, let’s be honest. But it sticks in your mind, you know?
So I started thinking about matchups more. Who gives who a hard time? Who has tools for most situations? That helped a bit. I made some rough categories:
- The Big Guns: Characters who felt like they had answers for almost everything, or just ridiculously strong pressure or combos.
- Solid Contenders: Really good characters, maybe missing one little thing or having a slightly tougher matchup here and there, but totally capable of winning big.
- Middle of the Pack: These are the characters where you gotta work a bit harder, maybe exploit specific knowledge, but they can still hang. Lots of characters ended up here initially.
- Needs Love: Characters who felt like they were swimming upstream most of the time. Maybe they had one cool trick, but overall it was a struggle.
Even with these groups, I kept moving people around. Sonya Blade, where does she go? Great pressure, but felt kinda stubby sometimes. Smoke? Awesome mix-ups, but maybe took bigger risks? It was tough. It really hammered home how balanced MK9 actually was, for the most part. Or maybe how unbalanced in weird ways, depending on who you asked.
My List (For Now, Anyway)
Okay, so after way too much fiddling, here’s kinda where I landed. Don’t take this as gospel, seriously. It’s just one guy’s opinion based on playing and remembering stuff. Tomorrow I might change my mind.
S-Tier (The Monsters):
- Kabal
- Cyrax (Robot)
- Kenshi (Yeah, DLC, but strong)
A-Tier (Really Damn Good):
- Kung Lao
- Sonya Blade
- Ermac
- Kitana
- Johnny Cage
- Liu Kang
- Raiden
- Smoke
B-Tier (Solid & Workable):
- Scorpion
- Sub-Zero
- Noob Saibot
- Sektor (Robot)
- Jax
- Mileena
- Reptile
- Cyber Sub-Zero
- Quan Chi
- Shang Tsung
- Freddy Krueger (DLC)
C-Tier (Gotta Work Harder):
- Baraka
- Stryker
- Jade
- Nightwolf
- Sindel
- Rain (DLC)
- Skarlet (DLC)
D-Tier (Uphill Battle):
- Sheeva
See? Even looking at it now, I’m second-guessing some placements. Putting Freddy in B? Maybe he’s higher? Is Raiden really A or just B+? It’s endless. And honestly, player skill matters way more than tiers most of the time, especially outside of top-level tournaments that barely happen anymore for this game.
Anyway, that was my little project. It was fun revisiting the game and thinking about all this stuff again. Kinda pointless maybe, but kept me busy. Made me appreciate the game again, warts and all. It’s just my take from my playtime.
