MK1: Quan Chi (DLC)

My first impression picking up Quan Chi in MK1 was that NetherRealm had quietly created a completely different character wearing a familiar face. Long-time fans expecting the aggressive rush-down mix-up machine from MKX will need to adjust fast. This Quan Chi is a zone-control sorcerer built around patience, screen positioning, and portal manipulation, and his floor for new players is genuinely steep. The kit itself is a lot to unpack. His gameplan revolves around placing Zone portals that buff his abilities and lock down screen space, while skull projectiles, including a larger purple variant that consumes opposing projectiles mid-flight, keep opponents honest from full screen. His bone prison move immobilizes opponents in place without entirely stopping them from attacking, which creates tricky read situations. Portal-extended limbs track opponents across the screen, and skeletal summons handle close-range pressure when enemies do get in. It adds up to a character that can feel oppressive from any distance once he is set up, but the setup itself takes real game sense to execute. Combo players will find pockets of damage, too, with the right Kameo Fighter pairing allowing sequences that breach well past 30-40% in a single touch, and dedicated players have pushed optimized wall combos even further. The tradeoff is severe. Quan Chi has the lowest health in the base MK1 roster, and his defensive options when cornered are some of the weakest in NetherRealm history. His crouching pokes are poor, many of his strings have gaps that armor reversals can exploit, and getting past his setup phase without losing half your health bar to an aggressive opponent requires good reads and even better Kameo selection. Pair him wrong and he feels fragile. Pair him with the right assist, and his unsafe specials become much harder to punish. Aesthetically, this version absolutely delivers. The Lovecraftian eldritch creature that emerges through portals to claw and grab opponents is a genuinely weird and cool design choice. The skeletal summons, green skull projectiles fired from ground or air, and necromantic visual touches on his block stance all reinforce the sorcerer identity in ways older Quan Chi iterations only hinted at. His Fatalities are strong, even if the Cthulhu-style creature is curiously absent from them. The character who shows up here makes sense as a villain, looks the part, and feels distinct from any other fighter on the roster. For casual players who just want to pick up a cool-looking MK character, the complexity will likely frustrate before it satisfies. The portal setup, the Zone buffs, and the Kameo dependency all demand investment. For fighting game players who enjoy zoner archetypes or anyone who liked the Warlock variation from MKX, this is a much deeper, weirder, and arguably more interesting take on the character, with a genuine high-ceiling payoff for the time spent. Alex, Scout Team