The 10 Most STRESSFUL Moments in Mortal Kombat Games

10 Most Stressful Moments in Mortal Kombat Games

Welcome to MojoPlays, and today, we’re taking a look at the 10 most stressful moments we’ve ever had to endure across the “Mortal Kombat” series.

Test Your Might

Various

The “Test Your Might” minigame has always been something both stress-inducing and fun. In case you never played these minigames (...somehow), you have to mash the attack buttons until the meter reaches a specific zone. You’ll then have to press a completely different button to stop the meter from rising or decreasing. Of course, there are times where this is comically easy, but in games like MK9 where the bar can get significantly small, the tension becomes more and more strenuous as you try to reach that zone and nail the timing.

The Krypt

“Mortal Kombat X” (2015)

Speaking of things that require perfect timing, MKX featured one of the most unique approaches to the Krypt, a series staple where players could go grave-robbing to unlock various characters, stages, costumes, concept art, and more. Although, MKX took it from being a simple menu and turned it into a full-on adventure mode. You’ll gather items and solve puzzles to unlock new areas, but there is one aspect that is sure to keep you on your toes. Creatures like wolves and spiders will occasionally ambush you and force you to defend yourself with a quick-time event. These moments can really catch you off guard and cause you to lose some Koins. So, maybe keep your visits short?

Raid Towers

“Mortal Kombat 11” (2019)

Towards the end of MK11’s post-launch support, the Raid Towers were pretty fair and still maintained some challenge. But once upon a time, Raid Towers were the worst part of the Towers of Time section. More often than not, these Raid Towers gave your opponents too many BS powers to exploit and boasted way too high of a health pool. It felt like all of that time spent finding strings and learning your mains was now a waste of time. If the odds were always stacked against you, what was even the point in participating in a Raid Tower? Thank the Elder Gods these were nerfed in a somewhat timely manner.

Konquest’s Kombos

“Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance” (2002)

If you played a ton of the old 3D “Mortal Kombat” games, then maybe these aren’t super difficult for you since you’re used to input delay on old hardware. For the rest of us, the Konquest mode in “Deadly Alliance” was more frustrating than we had anticipated. Some characters and their stances were a lot harder to learn than others. Things got even more stressful once the game started throwing in stance changes in the middle of combos. That said, there are reasons some of us favor “Deception” way more than “Deadly Alliance”, and this is definitely one of those reasons.

Finding Floyd

“Mortal Kombat 1” (2023)

Floyd was a neat little novelty for NetherRealm Studios to add post-launch, but it came at the cost of more headaches than we needed. See, Floyd was locked behind a pool of thirty-seven different “challenges”, and a random selection of ten of those challenges were assigned to each player. Yes, every player got their own set of ten challenges with absolutely no way of knowing which ones they got until AFTER they accomplished them. What’s worse is that Floyd is not an easy opponent by any means. So, if you lost, you have to do all ten challenges AGAIN. And if you managed to get a couple of these tasks that are harder than the others, good freakin’ luck. Some of us couldn't be bothered to go through the whole process.

Bullet Hell Invasions

“Mortal Kombat 1” (2023)

While we’re on the subject of MK1, we gotta talk about the abysmal Invasions mode, specifically all those levels involving projectiles. One of the weirdest parts about Invasions mode is just how many of these damn levels plague each region. These levels task you with avoiding projectiles shooting from outside the screen. With MK1’s clunky movement, this is a lot easier said than done. Admittedly, there aren’t as many of them as we’re probably making them sound, but for how long they go for, they sure do pop up more frequently than we’d like.

Challenge #300

“Mortal Kombat” (2011)

This was probably the most obvious choice for this kind of list. Challenge #300 is one of the most infamous tasks in the entirety of “Mortal Kombat” history. Choose your best fighter and face Goro, Kintaro, a ball-happy Mileena, and a block-disabling Shao Kahn. And you have to fight them all with a single health bar. This can be a grueling gauntlet if you’re not playing a character with a spammable move, especially considering the special armor properties that Goro, Kintaro, and Shao Kahn wield. Like we said, choose your best character for this fight and hope for the best.

Deathtraps

“Mortal Kombat: Armageddon” (2006)

Now, this part of “Armageddon” was another example of “stressful but fun”...for the most part. Just about every stage in “Armageddon” featured special environmental hazards called “deathtraps”. As you approach these hazards, you’ll notice a special area appears on the ground. Should a player get hit with a certain attack like an uppercut or knockback, they’ll launch land directly into the deathtrap, instantly ending the round. Some maps had deathtraps that were fairly easy to avoid. Others were in more congested areas. Either way, you had to be mindful of where you and your opponent were heading here.

Hidden Boss Fights

Various

The older “Mortal Kombat” games really gave us a double dose of stress when it came to finding hidden boss fights. Hidden fighters like Reptile, Ermac, Noob Saibot, and special variants of regular fighters were often tied to ridiculously hard challenges. These were usually tied to finishing fights with stage hazards, winning rounds without blocking or only using specific attacks, or getting consecutive Flawless Victories. These methods alone were such a mental strain to execute that by the time you even get to the secret fights themselves, you’d wind up losing all skill. And somehow, this isn’t even the most stressful moment in the franchise.

FINISH HIM

Various

Performing finishing moves has and always will be the most stressful aspect of “Mortal Kombat”. No matter how often you try to remember the inputs, you’re always bound to screw up a button or your character’s position on the stage. It's especially difficult when you have weird position requirements like “Mid” or “Sweep” that never feel quite right. As a result, you’ll often finish fights with a whiffed attack or a simple punch, which aren’t exactly fun ways to end fights in MK. It almost makes us thankful for the tokens that only require holding two buttons down.

Which “Mortal Kombat” stressed you out more? Let us know down in the comments, and be sure to subscribe to MojoPlays.