I personally like the simple MK legacy explanation of their inner powers being magnified once in outworld or however you want to word it.

^So if we go with this explanation, what happens when they are in Earthrealm?

Sub-Zero uses snowballs?

Yes Sub-Zero uses "snowballs" and he's from Earhrealm. He is also a cryomancer. I don't know how much I can trust the Mortal Kombat wiki, but according to that, cryomancers originate from Outworld.

MK shouldn't make sense.

Does anything ever happen in earth realm?

The 10th Mortal Kombat tournament competition was held on Shang Tsung's island which I assume is in Earthrealm since in MK2, the chosen warriors had to be lured to Outworld to meet their "doom" by Shao Khan himself.

wut.

Half of Mythologies happens in Earthrealm. That's before MK1, and Sub has all of his powers. In fact, he has MORE powers than he has in any other game, like the most powerful technique he's ever had, the "Polar Blast", which freezes an ENTIRE ROOM in a quick flash.
MK1 technically happens in Earthrealm, although Shang's Island is actually a magic place that moves between Earth and Outworld like kind of a Bermuda Triangle thing.

MK3 pretty obviously happens in the middle of New York City.

Large parts of Shujinko's story in Deception happen on Earthrealm and he gains a ton of powers before he ever leaves.

MK9 made it canon that Johnny has been using his powers in his movies all along, and the audience THINKS they're just special effects.

Basically, the Legacy bit about them not having abilities until entering a more magical environment wouldn't work at all in the games because it's already canon for most of the characters that they had chi powers and knew about them long before they met Raiden or started fighting Outworlders. Besides, Legacy didn't even stay consistent with itself, because Sub uses his powers in season one before coming to the tournament.

The thing that bothers me the most about the MK abilities is Kung Lao's hat. I hate that it just reappears on top of his head after he throws it. I know thats being nitpicky, but I felt the team really missed an opportunity with MK: Shaolin Monks. Right at the start of the game, they could've explained that some elder god designed it (a smith-god perhaps) and gave it to the White Lotus as a gift. One sentence is all it takes.

Somebody also mentioned how the MK Fighters could withstand all those brutal specials and x-ray moves. This really shouldve been explained in MK9, esp since it was meant to be a reboot. I've always had my own theory that the elder gods who watch over the tournament bestow upon the fighters a gift of temporary Immortality. Then when they feel you've been defeated, they say "FINISH HIM" and that shroud of Immortality is removed. Again, one sentence in story mode would satisfy us. LoL

Lol so true all it takes is one sentence. See what I mean though? The fact that some of these characters just have abilities such as Kung Lao's hat just raises questions. You can argue that they are "the chosen ones" but that won't explain HOW they got their powers, only WHY to some degree.

I assume that when MK1 was in development, the characters and their move sets came first and then the story came later. If this is true, why DIDN'T they finally explain this with MK2011? You're right, it was a missed opportunity.

As for the brutality that is dished out in MK, MK9 and especially MKX with Kano's x-ray is definitely over the top, and how the victim survives is questionable but I guess the fact that "it's a fighting game" works here. Why?
Because we have games like Marvel vs Capcom where War Machine can send a barrage of missles at his opponent and have the opponent still emerge without a single scratch.

So should that be explained? Not so much. Another poster on here said that Mortal Kombat shouldn't make sense and that answer right there is as straight as it gets. Can the story really be made better with a simple explanation for powers? We've come this far right?

I would rather them not to explain anything than give us more lame explanations.

Well, it is pretty simple, really.

Raiden and Fujin are gods.

Liu Kang, Sonya, Jax, Kano and all the other non-magical humans have their powers from their Chi which is a power drawn from within. Except for perhaps Nightwolf who uses Spirit power as a shaman.

Sub-Zero has cryomancy in his blood, as he is a descendant of an Outworld race of Cryomancers.

Smoke is an Enenra in human form. He was once a normal human, but in a ritual he was changed into a demon.

Quan Chi is self-taught and has made Soul Stones around in the Netherrealm in which magic is stored, because while in the Netherrealm, the realm itself taps magic from their bodies.

Scorpion was raised as an undead spectre, his powers given to him by Quan Chi. The same with Noob, who is an undead wraith.

Shinnok is a former Elder God and he's possibly given Quan Chi and the other members of the Brotherhood of the Shadow some powers.

Kitana, Jade, Sindel and Tanya are all Edenians, a race with a natural affinity for magic as they are descendants of gods.

Rain, Taven and Daegon are all demi-gods, their father being the god Argus and their mother being the powerful sorceress and seeress, Delia.

Shao Kahn was a god of Outworld and knows soul magic which he taught Shang Tsung. He is also the reason why Ermac and Skarlet has their powers, as he created them.

Mileena is half-Edenian and half-Tarkatan, so she draws her powers from both those races. The Tarkata, like Baraka, was bred from Netherrealm demons and Outworld mutants.

etc etc etc...

All in all, they all draw their powers from various sources. There's not one explanation that covers all of them - except for maybe that it is a game.

hahahaha this.