Well, they did have a secret character in MK3, it was Robot-Smoke. Also, they did have a secret character in MK4, it was Noob-Saibot. But I do agree some of that aura of the mysterious feeling has gone wayside.

Remember when in MK2 you could fight Noob Saibot if you won 50 matches in a row in a 2 player game? (VS game?). Also remember when you could fight smoke if you used a special combination in the portal stage when Dan Forden appeared? How about if you just used low kick before the question mark stage, so that you could fight Jade?


This is the kind of innovative thinking that needs to take place in MK8.


This is an excellent and it gives people something real good to think about.

Yeah... Sercet characters would be cool...

MK3 Smoke and MK4 Noob Saibot weren't memorable to me because they fell outside of the traditional secret fighter methods from MK1 and MK2.

Also, since MK3, and with the exception of the DK in MK6, all sub bosses and final bosses have been playable. That's another factor that decreases the series mysterious aura.

You've forgotten Moloch's unplayability in DA...How rude...
Anyway, I'm for it, so long as the secret is useable by all fighters and reasonable (ie Khameleon and Reptile in MK).

I've been screamin' this message for years now man. So hell yea I agree.


There's so many different ways to introduce "secret characters" into a Mortal Kombat game. Here's a few either off the top of my head, or that I've voiced before.

1. The way Liu Kang found Reptile in the movie.

This could seeming happen "by chance" while in the midst of a fight, or this could happen somewhere in a "Konquest Mode" or Mortal Kombat RpG.

2. "Conditions" - i.e. "you must have the blood code on, you must only be using your weapon, and only use low kicks to initiate a fight with the secret character....in a secret lair....in a distant universe....far far away...long, long ago. lol.

3. Climb, crawl, roll, into // onto // a "secret arena". *gasp!* but wait, it is the Houans' chamber of necromancy where you discover a new character.

Raiden could be in the background bringing Liu Kangs corpse back to life while you fight "the spirit" of a character that if you beat them.....you unlock them as a playable character. (*hurry up and save the game if you beat the spirit* lol!)

4. Listen....I DO NOT WANT PLAYABLE BOSSES!! haha

I mean come on, what's the point in having playable access to the guys who are supposed to be the "huge threat"? Kinda defeats the purpose if you can "just touch" the "invincible monsters"......

And actually, before I dig myself too deep here. The first character that was a boss, that was eventually playable was Shang Tsung..... They did that character correctly though imO. "Chain of command" made him "not the BIGGEST boss". And so, in the next game, give him a new look, some cool moves, and a pretty cool story to boot. Tah-dah

It was like, " That fucker Shang Tsung was incredible in Mk1. What could possibly surpass him in power?....bigger....bad-der Shao Kahn. Oh"

The "Dragon King" Onaga should have never been playable, nor Moloch, Blaze, Motaro, Goro, Kintaro, or Shao Kahn.

Too, I think once you surpass the "super human" boss, and cross over into aliens and big monsters, you gotta consider the power scale. Don't put a "Humanoid" boss in a game together with an "Alien" boss unless they're fighting each other. Helps show how powerful each side is.

And then too....SOMEBODIES GOTTA DIE!! hahaha! You gotta kill one of them so you don't dilute the "power in the threat". There almost alway has to be a successor. See what I'm saying? As it is now, we really can't tell who has what in scale of power....who's the biggest baddest bad guy on the roster?.....Right now isnt' Onaga plotting against Shao Kahn?....But Onaga's the bigger threat to the realms right? haha....doesn't make any sense.

meh...

The secret fighters and all of the secrets in general had played a big role in the past MK's, and kept them mysterious.
I can remember clearly, spending hours to search secret characters in MK 2 & MK 3.

Remember the secrets messages in MK 2 after you beat the game ?
I also liked the slot machine in MK 3.


The secrets must return in order to ressurect and update the new Dark MK.


And hey booN, just take a look at the past MK's and make not only Dark MK, but filled with secrets and mystery.

To be fair though that was Armaggedon. The only characters who really had a proper storyline was Blaze, Daegon and Taven as they were really the 3 characters the game was based around. Everyone else was just everyone who has ever thought in mortal kombat to arrive playable.

Also Armaggedon had you having to go through konquest mode to unlock Meat, Daegon, Taven and Blaze so its not all bad I guess.

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Now Deception. Onaga wasn't playable, and he was the only 'boss' character seeing as though both Noob and Smoke may have been a sub-boss but they are regular characters rather than boss characters. Still it was pretty stupid to have them all playable.

Also the following characters were unlockable: Noob-Smoke, Jade, Kenshi, Havik, Shukinjo (unlocked similar to how Meat, Daegon, Taven and Blaze are in Armageddon), Li Mei, Raiden, Liu Kang, Kira, Tanya, Sindel, Hotaru. Which are unlocked either through the Krypt with Koins or hidden in chests throughout Konquest, for me that still is rather a challenge enough.

HOWEVER MK Unchained had them all playable from the start (along with 6 extras) which I can see ruined the fun a little. It can be annoying when they remake a game but take out the fun of having to collect the characters, if it was up to me... to risk boring a player who has already got the characters on the previous game incarnation I would rotate the order and completely change the methods the player needs to collect all the characters.

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MK Deadly Alliegence was slightly strange. Seeing as though the sub boss was unplayable yet the main final bosses were. Very wierd... still it had 11 secret unlockable characters (Nitara, Drahmin, Hsu Hao, Frost, Jax, Kitana, Raiden, Reptile, Cyrax, Blaze, Mokap) which isn't bad. The fact that Moloch was unplayable but the actual final bosses were playable wasn't suspensful as it was irritating, I prefer it the other way round.... like it was in Deception.

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MK4 though did pretty much the same thing with Goro (not playable from start) and Shinnok (Was playable from start) only Goro could be played which was better. I like to unlock the bosses, rather than have them playable at the start so I didn't mind this really. Also you had Noob to unlock in a unique way which was great, and Meat, and also in MK:Gold you had Sektor.

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MKT I will allow to have the bosses selectable from the start, but it introduced (well sort of, his glinch in the SNES Umk3 doesn't really count lol) Chameleon. So that wasn't without it's suprises.

With Umk3 you had Classic Sub Zero, Ermac and Mileena through the kombat kodes (which I will admit isn't exicting), and technically Human Smoke through a button combination. Noob and Rain remained unplayable, bear that in mind.

Mk3 had Robot Smoke hidden and unlockable (made playable from start in Umk3) and Noob (unplayable)

Both of these had the bosses (Motaro, Kahn) not playable except with kodes which ruin the fun

Mk3 pretty much worked the same as Umk3/Mk3 except the way to fight the characters, I wil say right now, ARE EFFING CLASSIC, and I do miss them like you all do. The fact they wern't playable from the start adds to the suspense, also the bosses were not playable either from the start. But I feel it should have had some sort of unlocking device to play as them, even if you can't save it and have to repeat it each time lol.

Mk1 had Reptile I guess, I can't remember if you were able to play AS him if you beat him or not. The bosses remain unplayable.

It is impressive how they build up the bosses. I mean with Goro as a shokan and Shang as an old man in MK1, to a more powerful shokan Kintaro to the much stronger warlord Shao Kahn, and in mk3 Kahn returns with Motaro who is even stronger than Kintaro. From then on it went downhill, then sort of came back with Onaga and Blaze.