Nowadays a cartoon about Mortal Kombat would seem ridiculous. The game is based on the craziest characters imaginable going at each other with pseudo martial arts techniques and firing any manner of projectiles at each other. Putting that in a setting meant for children would be nearly impossible. But in the 90s, it seemed perfectly reasonable for a studio to buy the rights to a Mortal Kombat cartoon from Midway in order to sell this to grade schoolers. In a way, it could be thought that kids play the game anyway at the local arcades or on their favorite home console. So what’s the big deal?

Well, what these studio executives failed to realize was that in order for a Mortal Kombat cartoon to work, you would have to strip everything that made the original games so great.

Enter the short-lived series Mortal Kombat: Defenders of the Realm. Lasting a whole thirteen episodes, this series is never mentioned alongside other cartoons of the 1990s like Spider-Man: The Animated Series or Animaniacs. And there’s a good reason for that. The cheap series was clearly made just to cash in on the popular video game franchise, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t any interesting facts about the show. Whether it’s behind the scenes secrets or things you could see on screen, this cartoon isn’t boring to discuss. Here are 15 dark facts about the failed Mortal Kombat cartoon. Intro over. Fatality.

15 It Crosses Over With Street Fighter… Sort Of

Possibly the most anticipated video game crossover to never happen, fans have been begging for some piece of media that shows Ryu facing off against Liu Kang. We’d love to see Scorpion screaming “GET OVER HERE” to Akuma and Princess Kitana throwing a steel van at Chun Li. We’ve never gotten a game or comic or anything like that, but we did get a crossover on TV… in the lamest way possible.

The USA Network (the network who aired this show along with the 90s Street Fighter cartoon) decided to create an original character named The Warrior King who would cross over all their cartoons. He was introduced in the Street Fighter cartoon in the ninth episode of season 2. He later would make a blink-and-you-miss-it cameo in the MK cartoon in episode 9. Yup, it was kind of terrible.

14 Nightwolf’s Hidden Ability

Much like comic book franchises, there is a mix of magic and science inside the Mortal Kombat universe. Any awesome Saturday morning cartoon needs somebody who will act as the tech support. There’s no shortage of people who can fulfill that role in the show. Jax or Sonya Blade would seem like the obvious choices since they’re military special ops members. Or even Stryker, since he is a police officer who might have some computer knowledge. But all those options are tossed out in favor of… Nightwolf.

Somehow, the man who has spent his entire life communicating with spirits and living by himself was able to learn how to use supercomputers and create advanced technology for all the Earthrealm defenders. It actually is brought up one time as a joke in episode one and is never really mentioned again. WHY YOU SO SMART NIGHTWOLF!?

13 Shao Kahn Is Weaker Than Anyone Expected

Shao Kahn is one of the most intimidating big bads in video game history. A muscle-bound sorcerer who has absorbed millions of souls over his thousands of years in Outworld, Kahn is not one to be taken lightly by any warrior from any realm. The problem with him in this show is that he is a complete wuss.

They might have got his appearance right and even gave him an okay voice (not quite intimidating enough for me), but aside from that, Shao Kahn in this cartoon is weak. For one thing, he never really fights the heroes, instead letting others do most of his dirty work. In the final episode, Shang Tsung throws a fireball at him and Kahn flees from the encounter. Even Mokap could take this version of the Outworld Emperor.

12 The Merchandise Malfunction

Mortal Kombat was, and still is, a super popular video game series. So obviously, there’s going to be a flood of merchandise relating to the franchise. And that’s okay! But did the show have to be so blatantly obvious about it?

In the show, there are a number of elements that exist solely so the toy makers could slap a price tag on them. These include the Dragon Jets, flying machines that each of the heroes is apparently proficient in. And let me tell you, it’s pretty funny to see Sub-Zero in one of these things. We also can’t forget the addition of Nightwolf’s pet sidekick Kiba, who is also the source of Nightwolf’s power. Gotta have cute pets, right?

11 Sloppy And Awful

Even by the mid-90s, cartoons had progressed to the point that you could look at them and be genuinely impressed by how expressive and beautiful they are. The noir and art deco styles of Batman: The Animated Series and even something like Ren & Stimpy had impressive expression work. This cartoon, on the other hand, had no redeeming qualities in terms of its visuals.

To start with, all the colors seem very bland and flat. This would be okay if it was made in the early 80s, but by this time in the 90s, animation had evolved far past this. The bigger sin is how poor the fighting looks. Nothing feels like it has weight to it, and all the characters feel too floaty for their own good. This shot of Sonya is particularly bad in motion, and it looks like her feet are flailing into the zombie’s chest.

10 Tarkartan = Nomad

Obviously, in a Saturday morning cartoon about Mortal Kombat, there was going to be some necessary changes to get it past the censors. Liu Kang is not going to be biting anyone and transforming into a dragon, and Scorpion will not be throwing spears through the chests of his enemies. But other changes are just bizarre and unnecessary. Chief among these would have to be the change to the Tarkatans.

The Tarkatan race is the race of nomadic monsters that roam Outworld and usually serve the big bad of whatever game they appear in. They have committed some horrendous acts in the franchise and they look extremely vicious, but their name is just a name. Apparently, the word Tarkatan was too extreme for the USA Network and they changed their name to simply Nomads. I guess humans are called Sedentaries in the show.

9 A Stain On The Studio’s Reputation

As bad as the show is, it really shouldn’t be this terrible. Yes, they’ve got several things working against it, but they at least have a good animation studio working for them.

Film Roman is an animation studio that has quite a portfolio. Operating since 1984, the studio can claim cartoons such as Garfield and Friends and a couple of Hellboy straight-to-DVD films which were positively received. More importantly, though, is that they’ve animation work for The Simpsons, Family Guy, and X-Men: Evolution. Clearly, they are a talented studio capable of producing some beautiful animation, but they must have been using their backups on this show.

8 A Sad Debut For Quan Chi

Most Mortal Kombat fans assume that Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero or Mortal Kombat 4 was the first appearance of the slime-ball villain who wiped out Scorpion’s clan. Most Mortal Kombat fans would be wrong, however, because the walking albino sorcerer made his first appearance not in a video game but in this TV show.

In episode eight, entitled “The Secret of Quan Chi,” the villain finds a magic crystal that grants the ability to influence minds. He causes the Defenders to turn against each other but Nightwolf saves the day. Props to the show, though, as his personality is similar to the games. He’s craven, sneaky, and cowardly. He also has an affinity for snakes, which in retrospect is funny because of his partnership with Shang Tsung in Deadly Alliance.

7 Reptilian Removal

Changing the names of the Tarkatans to Nomads was weird enough, but most people who casually played Mortal Kombat probably didn’t know that anyway. What did they know was the savage leader of that race, Baraka, with his protruding arm blades. They also know of Reptile, the green ninja you fight at the bottom of the pit in the first Mortal Kombat. Well, too bad they’re not in this show!

Nope, instead of Reptile and Baraka, make way for Komodai and Karbrac. I seriously can’t even think of a reason for this. Why in the world did they have to change the names of these characters? At least their fans can rest easy knowing they technically were spared from this show.

6 An All-Star Cast, Wasted

There are several things wrong with this cartoon, but the voice cast definitely isn’t one of them. While on paper the cast is fantastic, they don’t have much to work with and end up being entirely wasted.

First off, we have Rino Romano. Unfortunately, he was only in one episode voicing the purple ninja Rain. But this man has the honor of voicing both Bruce Wayne in The Batman cartoon and Peter Parker in Spider-Man for PS1. Next up, we have Ron Perlman, who provided the voices for both Scorpion and Stryker. Finally, we have the amazing Clancy Brown whose credits include the voice of Mr. Krabs, Dr. Neo Cortex, and Lex Luthor. In this cartoon he plays Raiden, because of course he does. Brown is a god.

5 The Broken Backstory

Reptile has to be the most messed with characters in the Mortal Kombat franchise. Despite being the super cool mysterious ninja that you had to jump through hoops to fight in the first game, Reptile slowly devolved into a minor villain who always loses to the heroes. The show doesn’t seem to give much respect for our green assassin either, as they changed his entire motivation for the things he does!

In the games, nearly of Reptile’s race was exterminated by Shao Kahn in his conquering of their homeworld. In this show, however, it’s shown that there are several Saurians who are still alive. That Reptile man gets no respect, no respect at all! He also loses to a bionic armless Jax, so so much for your acid spit, ya lizard.

4 It’s Actually Superior To Another Cartoon

For all the criticism I’ve given Defenders of the Realm, I should really be grateful for its existence. No, I’m serious, because after all, it’s miles better than another Mortal Kombat cartoon that was made a year earlier in 1995 to tie in as a side piece to the original film.

Known as Mortal Kombat: The Journey Begins, the short film was released on VHS to kind of act as a primer to showcase the characters who would later be in the movie. If you thought the animation in Defenders of the Realm was shoddy, the animation in here is even worse. More insultingly is that they do disservices to both traditional animation and CGI. In particular, the fight scene between Scorpion and Sub-Zero above is the most awkward I’ve ever seen. And I’ve seen some stuff on the internet, man!

3 Somehow, It Remains Canon

The Mortal Kombat movies of the 1990s are mostly considered to be pretty bad. While the first one could be considered a guilty pleasure that you might watch while gathering up your buddies for a goof, the second one is an absolute travesty that looks like a fan film somebody cooked up over a weekend. If you wanted to remove that film out of your brain and replace it with something slightly better, though, you could!

Defenders of the Realm came out before the second movie, but still served as a sorta-sequel to the first one. It can’t be in canon with the second movie due to some characters being introduced in the cartoon and messing up the continuity (like Nightwolf for example). Oh well.

2 Raiden Is All Wrong

Seeing as how the cartoon is in the same continuity as the film, interpretations of some characters are different from the games. The biggest among these is Raiden. In the games, he is mostly a super serious protector of Earthrealm. In the first movie, though, Christopher Lambert portrays him as a little bit of snarky sarcastic jerk. It does make for some good comedy, but it does make us wonder if this person is best to protect Earth.

This version of Raiden isn’t afraid to insult his subordinates, mock them for their shortcomings, and in general is more concerned with being the funny guy in the group at times. To his credit, he is the best part of the show. God of Thunder? More like God of Savagery in this show.

1 A Tale Of Two Shows

Consider this last slide as an example of how wide the range of shows can be on a single network. While the Mortal Kombat cartoon was based off an extremely gross video game and was toned down to make it on TV, the USA Network also showcased the WWE’s Monday Night Raw. What were some things on that show in the 1990s? Well…

Just everything about the WWE in the 90s was a bit crazy. There were just so many storylines that pushed it a bit too far, and they were somehow allowed to air on TV. But over the top fatalities? Too much. It’s strange that Mortal Kombat wasn’t allowed to be anything more than it was, and yet the WWE could basically air whatever. Yeah, they’re for different audiences, but it was on the same channel…