Kitana is a fictional character in the Mortal Kombat media franchise originally by Midway Games and later by NetherRealm Studios . Debuting in Mortal Kombat II (1993) as a player character and as a royal from the fictional realm of Edenia. She uses steel fans as her primary weapon. In the series, Kitana is aligned with multiple characters, especially Mileena who originally served as her clone , however, as the series evolves, Mileena suddenly becomes the older sister of Kitana and takes her place being the empress of Outworld. Kitana also shares the relationship as the love interest for the series' protagonist Liu Kang .
198-463: During the development of the original Mortal Kombat (1992), a character known as "Kitsune" was intended by Mortal Kombat 's co-creator John Tobias to be in the game but was removed, that character later came into existence under the name "Kitana", which is derived from two words "Kitsune" and "Katana". Throughout the Mortal Kombat series, she eventually becomes one of its mainstays. Kitana
396-427: A stop motion model which was created by Curt Chiarelli. Shang Tsung , the game's main antagonist and final boss (who was played by two actors, Eric Kincade and Ho-Sung Pak , although only the latter is credited in the actual game) is a sorcerer who can transform into any playable character in the game at any time during a battle. He serves Emperor Shao Kahn, but secretly possesses ambitions of his own. Shang Tsung
594-406: A "Mirror Match" against a duplicate of the player's chosen character. The player must then fight in three endurance matches, each of which involves two opponents. As soon as the player defeats the first opponent, the second one enters the arena and the timer resets; however, the player's health meter doesn't regenerate. After the third endurance match, the player fights the sub-boss Goro, followed by
792-496: A 1/6-scale limited-edition polystone Kitana statue in 2012, while Pop Culture Shock Collectibles released a 1/4-scale character statuette in 2013 and a 1/3-scale version in 2018. Other items included a character mousepad, a life-sized cardboard standee , and Halloween costumes. Critical reception of Kitana has varied, often with emphasis placed on her good looks and sometimes on her relatively complicated personality. Ben Kendrick of Game Rant noted that "apart from possessing one of
990-410: A Chinese acrobatic outfit consisting of an embroidered vest, a unitard , and sneakers ; she is wearing her ox horns unadorned, but kept in place with yellow ribbons. In Street Fighter IV , Chun-Li's alternate outfit consists of black tabard with gold accents at the bottom, while her ox horns are unadorned, just like in her Alpha appearance, only this time it is held by red ropes with golden balls at
1188-478: A Shadowlaw assassin, Vega , arrives to kill her. The shower scene has been censored to varying degrees in versions of the English dub. After a brutal fight, Vega is kicked through a wall and sent plummeting several stories to the ground, but Chun-Li succumbs to her injuries and slips into a coma. She remains hospitalized for the rest of the movie, as a distraught Guile promises her that he will make Bison pay. After Bison
1386-485: A big impact as her Fan Wave leaves foes open to combos." In the Game Gear version of MKII , however, Kitana's fan lifts the opponent too low and too far away for an easy combo. Kitana's combo abilities were severely downgraded for Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 (and, by extension, Mortal Kombat Trilogy ), for which she received no new special moves unlike most of the other characters. According to Nintendo Power , "with such
1584-523: A capable fighter who once again "is at her deadliest in the corner" and is also especially good if played against Baraka and Cyber Sub-Zero . Prima observed Kitana in MK2011 as her "cheapest" (unduly overpowered) incarnation so far, stating "Kitana is not only one of the most damaging characters in the game, but in addition to the Fan Lift and Square Wave Punch, she can combo her Air Fan almost any time an opponent
1782-508: A combination of attacks while the enemy is still airborne and defenseless. The idea became so popular that it has spread to many other games. Another of the game's innovations was the Fatality , a finishing move performed against a defeated opponent to execute them in a gruesome fashion. In the single-player game, the player faces each of the seven playable characters in a series of one-on-one matches against computer-controlled opponents, ending in
1980-514: A failed assassination attempt against Bison and Sagat before they are all captured and taken to Bison's fortress. Chun-Li is held prisoner in Bison's private chambers (in an approximation to her traditional game costume), and after she relays the story of her father's murder, Bison mocks her and her fighting skills in response, which provokes Chun-Li into attacking him, having planned all along for an opportunity to personally attack Bison. She actually gains
2178-401: A final match against Shang Tsung . Between certain levels, players can compete in a minigame called "Test Your Might" for bonus points, breaking blocks of various materials by filling a meter past a certain point through rapid button presses. The first material the player must break is wood, followed by stone, steel, ruby, and finally diamond, with each successive material requiring more of
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#17328633614092376-741: A lie, Kitana turns against Kahn and allies with Earth's champions to defeat him. The ninjas returned as playable characters in the 1995 upgrade Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 , in which Kitana is tried for treason after killing her evil twin Mileena, but before a verdict is reached, Kitana escapes and joins the Earth heroes to reach Sindel and warn her of her true past. Kitana and fellow Edenian Jade free Sindel from Shao Kahn's mind control, which enables reigning Mortal Kombat champion Liu Kang to defeat him and results in Edenia and Earth returning to their peaceful states. During
2574-502: A little unfriendly and her combos are a touch difficult." EGM Strategy Guide for UMK3 stated: "She had deadly corner traps with damage in up to 90 percent [in MKII ]. Now, her fan-raise combos have been severely crippled to almost not being worth it." Nevertheless, X360 called the CPU Kitana "the worst possible character to come up against" in the single-player Tower mode of UMK3 , as she
2772-528: A main character in the 1996 animated television series Mortal Kombat: Defenders of the Realm , a loose adaptation of Mortal Kombat 3 . She was voiced by Cree Summer . She appeared in three episodes of the 1998 syndicated live-action television series Mortal Kombat: Conquest , with the role split by Audie England and Dara Tomanovich. She is fully aware of her Edenian past and the deaths of her parents at Kahn's hands but has no direct relation to Mileena. Kitana
2970-871: A male gamer's satisfaction, and not geared towards the needs of women garners at all." In contrast to her good appearance, Chun-Li's design in Marvel vs. Capcom Infinite was the subject of negative responses by fans resulting into Capcom revising it in a patch. Many fighting game characters from the 1990s that have been directly inspired by Chun-Li in terms of both graphics and gameplay include Li Xiang Fei in Real Bout Fatal Fury 2: The Newcomers , Liu Feilin in Fighter's History , and Sekka in Double Dragon V: The Shadow Falls . Similarities with Chun-Li were further observed in various other characters, such as
3168-492: A man who is actually their father King Jerrod, Kitana learns the truth after her past and decides to turn against Shao Kahn in the upcoming Mortal Kombat tournament. Jo reprised the role in one episode of the 2013 second season. Kitana was voiced by Grey DeLisle in the animated film Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpion's Revenge (2020), featuring in a fight scene against Liu Kang in the Mortal Kombat tournament. DeLisle reprised
3366-590: A melee weapon, a projectile, or to lift her enemies airborne. In Mortal Kombat X and onward, Kitana's play style is split into three fighting variations like those of the game's other characters. According to Boon, Kitana's "Kiss of Death" Fatality , first seen in MKII , was inspired by the demise of villain Mr. Big (Dr. Kananga) in the 1973 James Bond film Live and Let Die . Kitana's other most commonly recurring finisher has her decapitate opponents with her fan, which has been featured in almost all of her game appearances and
3564-691: A mission in which they are successful. In the spinoff game Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks (2005), after Kitana was found to be no longer loyal to Shao Kahn, she was placed into a spell-induced trance and forced to fight the Earth heroes, Mileena, and Jade before being freed by the Shaolin warrior monks Liu Kang and Kung Lao . Eventually, Kitana slays Mileena. Following this warning, Kitana returned in Mortal Kombat: Armageddon (2006), accompanied by Liu Kang's spirit in order to keep him whole until she found
3762-475: A move on the Game Boy. The unresponsive two-button controls are almost impossible to master. The game play is also abysmally slow, and the fighters don't always connect, even when they're close to an opponent." Additionally bemoaning the difficult-to-discern graphics, weak animation, and minimal sound, they deemed it the worst version of the game. Reviewing the Game Boy version of the game, Nintendo Power stated that
3960-441: A mysterious organization known as Shadowlaw. Chun-Li serves as the tour guide for Ryu and Ken when they pay a visit to work on their training; Ken is smitten with her and later buys her lavish gifts, including an engagement ring. Despite being underage, they enter a club in a dangerous part of town that hosts an underground fighting ring so Ryu and Ken can prove themselves as street fighters. After Ryu soundly defeats several opponents,
4158-484: A name for the game. Ed Boon has stated that for six months during development "nobody could come up with a name nobody didn't hate." Some of the names suggested were Kumite , Dragon Attack , Death Blow , and Fatality . One day, someone had written down "combat" on the drawing board for the names in Boon's office and someone wrote a K over the C , according to Boon, "just to be kind of weird." Pinball designer Steve Ritchie
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#17328633614094356-573: A new generation of warriors must challenge Goro. According to the Mortal Kombat series' canon, Liu Kang wins this tournament under Raiden's guidance, defeating Goro and Shang Tsung and freeing the many souls that Tsung had imprisoned over the centuries. Scorpion pursues Sub-Zero and finally faces him after the end of the tournament, killing him and avenging his own death. Sonya rescues her special forces squad whom had been held hostage by Shang Tsung. She fails to apprehend Kano, however, who escapes
4554-919: A number of mobile games, including #Compass , Destiny Child , Granblue Fantasy , Power Rangers: Legacy Wars , and Valkyrie Connect . She makes cameo appearances in various Capcom games including Asura's Wrath , Breath of Fire , Final Fight 2 , Mega Man 9 , and We Love Golf! . Furthermore, her costumes can be worn by player characters in Capcom's Breath of Fire 6 , Dead Rising 3 (a DLC costume for Frank West ), Monster Hunter: World , Monster Hunter Explore , and Onimusha: Dawn of Dreams (as an alternate costume for Ohatsu), as well as in Square Enix 's Gunslinger Stratos 2 (a costume for Mika Katagiri) and Sony 's LittleBigPlanet (a DLC for Sackgirl). A playable Chun-Li character skin has also been added to Fortnite . Chun-Li, under
4752-502: A playable character in the 2011 Mortal Kombat reboot, originated in MKII by way of false player rumors of a glitch that would turn Kitana's outfit red. Martial artist Katalin Zamiar played Kitana and the game's other palette-swapped female ninjas in MKII , with Kitana's steel fans used for filming constructed from a reflective paper material. She was hired for the role after meeting Boon and Tobias, who were members of her fitness center at
4950-710: A police officer. The Street Fighter Alpha prequel series built upon her backstory, while Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike shows her retired and teaching martial arts to young children, only to be forced to return to law enforcement after her student Li-Fen is abducted by Urien . Chun-Li returns in Street Fighter IV , where her in-game narrative shows her at crossroads in her life, eventually returning to both street fighting and law enforcement. She returns in Street Fighter V , where she assists in stopping Shadaloo's Black Moons and first meets Li-Fen when she rescues her from
5148-500: A powerful laser beam. Carlos Pesina plays Raiden (spelled "Rayden" in the MS-DOS and console ports), a thunder god and guardian of Earthrealm who competes in the tournament as a mortal, and seeks to guide Liu Kang and the other Earthrealmers to victory. Daniel Pesina , Carlos' brother, plays the Hollywood movie star Johnny Cage . Cage's acting career has faltered and he seeks victory in
5346-666: A prototype was made, development was halted in order to fully focus on the SNES port of Mortal Kombat II . In the United States, RePlay reported Mortal Kombat to be the second most-popular upright arcade cabinet in September 1992. It then topped the RePlay upright arcade cabinet charts from October to November 1992, then from February to March 1993, and then in November 1993. It also topped
5544-525: A screenshot of her showing her knickers ". Her return in Street Fighter III: Third Strike has been called as the main and best addition to the game by IGN and GamePro ; Virgin's head of distribution Peter Jones chose the "saucy, sexy, dangerous and fast" as definitely the best character of the game. Retrospectively, Xbox 360 Official Magazine – Australia used her and Samus Aran as examples of gaming's original sex symbols prior to
5742-399: A small amount of damage from regular moves while blocking. However, the dedicated block button allows users to defend against attacks without retreating and blocking characters lose very little ground when struck, thus making counterattacks much easier after a successful block. Mortal Kombat further introduced the concept of "juggling", knocking an opponent into the air and following up with
5940-414: A small repertoire, Princess Kitana will be sorely challenged by experienced warriors," even as her fan toss is faster than many other projectile attacks. Sega Saturn Magazine opined that "Kitana's lack of enhancements doesn't make her as exciting to play as some of the other characters, though her excellent juggle combos still work - and they can do loads of damage," According to Total 64 , "her moves are
6138-472: A special set of conditions. Reptile is given no backstory in-game, but later games establish him as a humanoid reptilian . Reptile believes himself to be the last living member of his species and although he personally opposes the conquest of Earthrealm, Reptile serves Shang Tsung, having been falsely promised by Tsung that he would revive his species if Outworld wins the tournament. Goro, Shang Tsung, and Reptile were non-playable characters. The Masked Guard in
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6336-508: A staged prison break, Chun-Li uses a homing device to trace him to, and then infiltrate, the Allied Nations' headquarters, where she is shocked to discover that he is still alive. However, Guile does not want her vendetta against Bison interfering with his own. He orders Cammy and T. Hawk to take Chun-Li into custody, but she manages to escape. With Balrog and Honda, all posing as traveling carnival performers, she works with Ken and Ryu on
6534-629: A strong female character in arcades? She was drawn attractively, just like Ken and Ryu, but in no way was she a diminished character because she was female." Video game scholar Jennifer deWinter felt it was furthermore very "interesting and surprising to have such a strong Chinese character in Chun-Li coming out of a Japanese game." Nevertheless, PSM noted by 1997 how "a vocal minority believes that [gaming's] female characters do very little to attract women. These people argue that Chun Li, Lara Croft, and most other female game characters are designed primarily for
6732-690: A television reporter working in Shadaloo in her personal quest to track down and kill Bison, who had murdered her father during a peasant uprising. Her relationship with Guile is acrimonious from the start, as he bluntly rejects her interview request and chides Chun-Li for his own inability to trace a signal broadcast by Bison. Chun-Li allies herself with E. Honda and Balrog , who work as her news crew and whose reputations were ruined by Bison's mafia connections, and later forms an initially uneasy alliance with Ryu and Ken working with Guile in attempting to locate Bison's secret fortress. After Guile's fake death during
6930-621: A test version seeing limited release halfway through the development cycle. As a demo version of the game, which featured only six characters (all male), became internally popular within Midway offices, the team was given more time to work on it, resulting in the addition of Sonya to the roster. Footage for the game's digitized characters was filmed with Tobias' personal Hi-8 camcorder. The final arcade game used eight megabytes of graphics data, with each character having 64 colors and around 300 frames of animation. The team had difficulty settling on
7128-552: A tournament is being held on Shang Tsung's Island, on which seven of its locations serve as stages in the game. The introduction to Mortal Kombat explains that Shang Tsung was banished to Earthrealm 500 years ago and, with the help of the monstrous Goro, can seize control of the Mortal Kombat tournament in an attempt to doom the realm. For 500 years straight, Goro has been undefeated in the tournament, and won nine consecutive tournaments. If Goro wins again, Shao Kahn, Emperor of Outworld, will be allowed to take Earthrealm. To prevent this,
7326-433: A way to reunite him with his body. They later meet with Nightwolf , who offers to relieve Kitana of her burden by absorbing Liu Kang's soul, allowing her to fight against the coming evil. Kitana ultimately perishes alongside the rest of her allies during the battle. In the non-canonical crossover game Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe (2008), Kitana was transported to Metropolis , where she encountered Wonder Woman . As she
7524-410: A white waistband. The dress is modified to allow a far wider range of movement than a generic qipao. In Street Fighter II: The World Warrior , Chun-Li was originally depicted wearing a red qipao instead of blue. It can be also either red or white within some games since Street Fighter II: Champion Edition and Street Fighter II: Hyper Fighting , respectively. In Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite ,
7722-693: A younger Chun-Li and one of her first assignments for the Hong Kong police. She is working with her partner Po-Lin, a young policewoman who has a very personal score to settle with Shadaloo. Notably, one of the cases in which Chun-Li gets involved in the miniseries is the murder of Go Hibiki, Dan's father, by Sagat's hands. In the Street Fighter vs. Darkstalkers crossover series, she is a rival turned and uneasy ally of Morrigan . There have been multiple Chun-Li lookalike contests in Japan, United States and elsewhere during
7920-408: Is "fast, impossible to sweep, and capable of rendering any opponent incapable with a waft of her fan." According to Dreamcast Magazine , Mortal Kombat Gold' s returning "old favourites like Sub-Zero, Kitana and Baraka" too had by then "dated moves and fatalities." Her combos improved in the later games, and according to BradyGames ' official guide for Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance , "Kitana stays at
8118-521: Is actually a setup to get Ken to fight him in a cage match. The whole time, Chun-Li is under the influence of Vega's love potion, but it wears off when Vega is defeated. Bison then accosts Chun-Li and she realizes that he is the leader of Shadowlaw, who, unbeknownst to her, had also hired Cammy to garrote Chun-Li's father, an attack he barely survives. Chun-Li plays her largest role in the five-part finale, when she and Ryu are kidnapped and brainwashed by Bison via cyberchip embedded in their foreheads and like in
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8316-761: Is airborne." According to Prima's guide to MKX , "Kitana is one of the more unique characters in the game" due to her inheriting many of Jade's special moves, and she "is a zoning character at heart, but she can play offensively or defensively" depending on a variation chosen. The guide recommended the "Mournful" variant for former Jade players, and the "Assassin" variant, which "tries to take the generally defensive style Kitana has in MKX and add some offensive firepower to it," for veteran Kitana players. Kitana debuts in Mortal Kombat II (1993) alongside her sister Mileena as Outworld emperor Shao Kahn 's personal assassins. While she
8514-554: Is also one of several Street Fighter characters featured in Archie Comics ' Worlds Unite event, which saw several Capcom and Sega franchises crossover in the Sonic the Hedgehog , Sonic Universe , Mega Man , and Sonic Boom comic lines. In UDON 's Street Fighter comics , Chun-Li again became a central character, involved in the hunt for Bison and Shadaloo. However, in the comic,
8712-511: Is an expert Chinese martial arts practitioner. Her profile indicates her training in several styles of Chinese kempo (" Chinese martial arts ") at the age of five, especially tai chi , which she would later complement with sanda (combat wushu ) and fighting styles from all around the world, such as taekwondo , full contact karate , judo and capoeira . She has been noted in-universe for her fluent English, investigating skills, penetrating eyes, beauty and acting talent for deception. Chun-Li
8910-630: Is biologically her older twin sister at birth and they have a steady relationship with each other as well as their mother, Sindel. Due to being slightly older, Mileena is set to inherit the throne, but her family fears her potential banishment from the throne due to her affliction with the Tarkat disease. They are initially deceived by Shang Tsung and General Shao into believing Earthrealm is plotting against them until Fire God Liu Kang and his allies expose their atrocities. Though they are reunited with their father, Jerrod, after he takes control of Ermac's body, Sindel
9108-527: Is centuries old, having stolen the souls of slain warriors to prolong his own life. Shao Kahn , Emperor of Outworld, is unseen in-game but is mentioned in story text. Kahn is a cruel and merciless conqueror, and will be allowed to take Earthrealm if he wins this final tournament. When fighting on the Pit stage, the player could qualify to fight the secret character Reptile , a green-clad palette swap of Scorpion and Sub-Zero who uses both characters' moves, by meeting
9306-432: Is defeated by Ryu and Ken, Chun-Li pulls a prank on Guile by making it appear as if she has died while he was away. Chun-Li is a regular character in the 1996 American animated series Street Fighter , voiced by Donna Yamamoto. The character reprises her film role as a reporter while she again seeks to avenge her father's death at the hands of Bison, which is shown in flashback in the second episode, "The Strongest Woman in
9504-451: Is depicted as a warm-blooded woman, fighting for the protection of her realm and its people. Kitana has been featured in various media outside of the games, such as films and comics. She is well-received by critics for her appearance, personality, and character development. Early development of the original Mortal Kombat featured a character named "Kitsune", conceived by series co-creator and character designer John Tobias and inspired by
9702-528: Is described as a Caucasian man orphaned as a child in Japan , and his vicious nature led him to be raised in the Japanese underworld. In later games his origin was retconned , establishing him as having an Australian background. Kano cares little for the tournament and seeks to steal Shang Tsung's treasures. He is also a cyborg , having one of his eyes and part of his face replaced with cybernetic implants which can emit
9900-439: Is expanded in Mortal Kombat 2011 where she cuts off the defeated opponents' arms before beheading them. Kitana was chosen as the best Mortal Kombat II fighter by the editors of Sega Power and Super Play for being "good all around" and due to her quick attacks and perceived similarities to Chun-Li . Amiga Power too called her "a really good character to pick" and Cinema Blend stated Kitana "could absolutely dominate"
10098-440: Is killed shortly afterwards by her evil counterpart from Titan Shang Tsung's timeline and passes the throne to Mileena. To defeat Titan Shang Tsung, Liu Kang brings over Kitana from an alternate timeline where she defeated Kronika and became a Titan, and they passionately embrace each other before recruiting more Titan allies to face off against the threat. After Titan Shang Tsung's defeat, Titan Kitana returns to her own timeline, and
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#173286336140910296-488: Is not longer obsessed with revenge against M. Bison and is instead portrayed in a more calm lifestyle while continuing to teach young children martial arts similar to the original ending from Street Fighter II where the fighter is now looking for a more peaceful lifestyle. Chun-Li's fans have included the rapper Kid Ink , and female gamers such as Codemasters manager Laura Peterson and media personality Violet Berlin . The creation of Street Fighter II: Champion Edition
10494-450: Is once again responsible for the death of her father, though the exact identity of the killer is not revealed. In Malibu Comics ' short-lived Street Fighter series, Chun-Li is depicted as having known Ryu and Ken since her late teens, as well as having a romantic interest in Ryu, though both make their first appearances therein fighting each other after he sneaks up on her from behind. Chun-Li
10692-411: Is one of unlockable player characters for the versus mode. Prima Games ' guide to Shaolin Monks states she is "quick enough for moderate damage, and has some of the most potent special moves in the game," but her limitation is she needs to be fighting at close range to make use of it. Regarding Mortal Kombat: Armageddon , however, Prima declared Kitana "a tough character to win with" and "like many of
10890-566: Is presented as a woman with a strong sense of justice, and her motives for fighting crime range from avenging the death of her father to protecting innocents. She especially cares for kids, showing repulse for the use of brainwashed young girls in Street Fighter Alpha 3 and the kidnap of a girl in Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike . In the latter game, she decides she will teach her fighting style and philosophy to children. Chun-Li
11088-480: Is revealed that she is among the fighters brought back to life by Quan Chi in the Netherrealm to fight against Raiden. In Mortal Kombat X (2015) Kitana returns as one of Quan Chi's revenants. She fought Jax and Cassie Cage . Following Quan Chi's death and Shinnok's defeat, she and fellow revenant Liu Kang became the Netherrealm's new rulers. In Mortal Kombat 11 (2019), Kitana's revenant aligned herself with
11286-449: Is shocked by his choice to let her live. In the second tournament, Raiden approaches Kitana and reveals that her belief that she is Shao Kahn's daughter is false. Riddled with uncertainty, she secretly entered Shang Tsung's flesh pits and came across the recently made Mileena. Prior to meeting Kahn, she blames Shang Tsung for replacing her, only to be surprised by the revelation that the Emperor
11484-470: Is so exhausted that she pulls out from the tournament and her injuries prevent her from doing much when Ryu and Bison confront one another Chun-Li also appears in Masahiko Nakahira's 1996–1997 manga Street Fighter: Sakura Ganbaru! , in which she participates in a police raid to an illegal underground fighting circle, saving Sakura from human traffickers who operated in the place. Later on, she follows
11682-423: Is ten thousand years old, she resembles a younger woman. In her ending, Kitana turns against Kahn after learning that her parents were once rulers of Outworld until they were forcefully overthrown by Kahn, while Mileena is actually an evil clone created by the sorcerer Shang Tsung . Kitana and the series' other ninja characters were excluded from Mortal Kombat 3 (1995), but her backstory is expanded therein with
11880-461: Is the first female playable character to appear in a fighting game to gain mainstream recognition. She is an expert martial artist and Interpol officer who restlessly seeks revenge for the death of her father at the hands of the evil M. Bison , leader of the Shadaloo crime syndicate. Since her debut, Chun-Li has become a pop culture icon and one of Street Fighter 's most iconic characters. She has appeared in nearly all subsequent installments of
12078-431: The 3rd Strike version of the game. Since her main designer, Akiman, was busy with other assignments she was redesigned by other members from the staff, taking the most time and effort out of all characters. Her inclusion into Street Fighter EX was deemed natural by the studio Arika , with producer Ichiro Mihara describing her as one of the three essential Street Fighter characters along with Ryu and Ken . In
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#173286336140912276-506: The Play Meter arcade chart in December 1992. It was the second top-grossing arcade game of Summer 1993, below NBA Jam , according to RePlay . It was one of America's top two highest-grossing arcade games of 1993 (along with NBA Jam ), exceeding the $ 300,000,000 (equivalent to $ 630,000,000 in 2023) domestic box office gross of the film Jurassic Park the same year. It also topped
12474-521: The Street Fighter Alpha games, where she was redesigned by Eri "Erichan" Nakamura, Chun-Li wears a sleeveless tight outfit, her arms and upper body were visibly much stronger than those of any other female character in the franchise, however many artists choose to depict her as petite and slim, in official and unofficial artworks alike, drawing only her legs strong due to her emphasis on kicking moves. An early version of Chun-Li in Street Fighter IV
12672-400: The 2023 reboot ) is a 1992 fighting game developed and published by Midway . It is the first entry in the Mortal Kombat series and was subsequently released by Acclaim Entertainment for nearly every home platform at that time. The game focuses on several characters of various intentions who enter a martial arts tournament with worldly consequences. It introduced many key aspects of
12870-522: The Marvel vs. Capcom series are reminiscent of her early gameplay, featuring her as one of the fastest characters in the games, taking advantage of the faster gameplay of the games as well as game mechanics such as multiple jumps and air dashes; her X-Factor power-up in Marvel vs. Capcom 3 features an increment in speed. Chun-Li's normal moves are balanced among punches and kicks, but most of her special moves are kicks. Her most recognizable special moves remain
13068-509: The Mortal Kombat series, including the unique five-button control scheme and gory finishing moves called Fatalities . Mortal Kombat is considered by critics to be one of the greatest video games ever made . It spawned numerous sequels and spin-offs, beginning with Mortal Kombat II in 1993. Both games were the subject of a film adaptation in 1995. However, it also sparked much controversy for its depiction of extreme violence and gore using realistic digitized graphics and, along with
13266-472: The Mortal Monday commercial. This port didn't require a code to be entered to access the uncensored content and thus was given an MA-17 rating. While this port was technologically inferior to the better-looking SNES port and had loading times, it resembled the arcade version more faithfully in actual gameplay. It also featured the authentic CD-DA soundtrack, taken directly from the arcade version, but some of
13464-489: The PlayStation 2 , and a Mad Catz wireless joypad for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 . Other assorted merchandise included Diesel sneakers, women's lingerie, a figure-style flash drive USB stick, a postage stamp from Japanese Philatelic Association came with its own collectible figure, and a figurine that came with a DyDo drink. There are also Chun-Li themed pachinko slot games, including Chun-Li Ni Makase China! ,
13662-665: The Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) and Sega Genesis , and handheld console ports for the Game Boy and Game Gear . While the SNES version's visuals and audio were more arcade accurate than those of the Genesis version, it has less precise controls and due to Nintendo 's "family friendly" policies, replaces the blood with sweat and most of the Fatalities with less violent "finishing moves". The sweat effect, which
13860-520: The sprites I thought she didn't look right, so I had them changed to tights instead." Akiman added that they "wanted Street Fighter II to be more entertaining than its predecessor . That also helps explain how Chun-Li came to be. Having a female character in the game completely changes the game's dynamic, she brightens up the entire palette. We needed a reason for her to fight, and so an evil empire [of M. Bison] came to mind." He also said: "To be honest, I spent some time worrying about putting Chun-Li,
14058-418: The "best babes in video games" of 2011, but commented that she had "the deepest emotional core of any of the Mortal Kombat characters." Den of Geek commented that "Kitana became one of the breakout stars of the series" upon her MKII debut, "easily having more meat on her character than Sonya ever did." There have been controversies and mixed or negative critical reception of the character. In 1994, she
14256-407: The "character designer, [Daigo] Ikeno, is kind of into thick girls, so as an artist he feels that the most beautiful thighs he can give Chun-Li would be of the wide variety." Chun-Li sprite's panty-flashing animation frames have been censored for the home console releases by Nintendo . In response to fans that were disappointed with Chun-Li's absence from Street Fighter III , Capcom added her to
14454-437: The "dizzied" mechanic, but that it was fun to have one's opponent get dizzied and get in a free hit. Boon and Tobias decided they could eliminate the aggravation of getting dizzied by having it occur at the end of the fight, after the outcome had already been decided. An early version of the game used two more buttons for middle punch and kick attacks. Mortal Kombat was reportedly developed in 10 months from 1991 to 1992, with
14652-548: The "women who fight" stereotype in his 2012 list of the fifteen most stereotypical characters in video games, for being "half-naked skanks who can fight, hurl lasers and perform aerobatic attacks while wearing thongs, high-heeled boots and keeping their giant breasts under scarves," claiming that this has caused "female gamers [to] slide away from this series." [REDACTED] Media related to Kitana at Wikimedia Commons Mortal Kombat (1992 video game) Mortal Kombat (written as Mortal Kombat I to avoid confusion with
14850-603: The 1992 Hong-Kong film Super Lady Cop , Cynthia Khan 's character Ling is nicknamed "Chun Li" in an inspired role, including using some of Chun-Li's moves. Others who have dressed as Chun-Li have included Japanese gravure idols Akina Minami , Erina Kamiya, Yuka Kuramochi and Yuri Morishita , former Italian model Francesca Dani , Japanese model Haruna Anno, Korean MMA fighter Jenny Huang, Russian bodybuilder Julia Vins, Japanese model and media personality Kayo Satoh , Japanese singer and model Kyary Pamyu Pamyu , American actress Ming-Na Wen (aside from having portrayed
15048-404: The 1994 American film, she acquires her signature outfit while under Bison's captivity. The chip puts her into an overly aggressive state, which she displays by snapping an opponent's neck in combat, and she later manages to overpower Guile in battle before Ryu and Ken, during their victorious final fight against Bison, succeed in destroying the equipment triggering the chips (in addition to reducing
15246-596: The 1995 Mortal Kombat film, but found her character otherwise uninteresting as compared to Robin Shou 's Liu Kang. Ben Steelman of the Star-News described her as "basically Princess Leia in black leotards," but Jim Sterling of Destructoid noted Kitana's "more sensible makeover" therein in contrast to her in-game designs. Michael Saunders of The Boston Globe wrote in his 1997 review of Mortal Kombat Annihilation that Soto "never seems to do much more other than look exotic in
15444-468: The Courtyard stage was portrayed by Mortal Kombat developer John Vogel. Rumors were spread of two characters, Ermac and Nimbus Terrafaux, who were also supposedly secret fighters in the game. However, the name Ermac was the result of a text glitch and the character didn't really exist, while Nimbus was a prank started by Electronic Gaming Monthly . The developers liked the idea of Ermac so much that he
15642-453: The Earth heroes in their victorious final battle over Kahn's forces. Soto underwent five weeks of martial arts training for the first film, and additionally learned Brazilian stick fighting for her use of the character's steel fans in Annihilation . Kitana was not included in the 2021 feature film Mortal Kombat , but will appear in the 2025 sequel played by Adeline Rudolph . Kitana is
15840-577: The Earthrealm heroes in defeating the sorcerer. The film's producer Lauri Apelian commented that the two main female characters (Kitana and Sonya Blade , played by Bridgette Wilson ) "needed to have a strength and an independence and an intellect that went well beyond their beauty and being sexy." Kitana has a lesser role in the 1997 sequel Mortal Kombat Annihilation , in which she is mostly kept in Shao Kahn's captivity before being freed by Liu Kang. She joins
16038-579: The Genesis version accounting for the majority of sales. An additional million cartridges of the Game Boy version were sold. As of 2002 , the original arcade version has sold 24,000 arcade units and grossed an estimated $ 570 million . The game also generated licensing fees from films and TV shows, bringing total game and licensing revenue to $ 1.5 billion as of 2002 . The arcade game received mixed reviews upon release from Computer and Video Games and Sinclair User . The digitized sprite graphics were praised and compared favorably with Pit-Fighter , but
16236-704: The Hyakuretsu Kyaku, a series of quick kicks from a one-legged stance (usually referred to as Lightning Legs/Kicks in English), and the Spinning Bird Kick, where she spins while upside down in a front split kicking all around her. Chun-Li can also use the Kiko-Ken, a ranged energy projectile similar to Ryu's Hadouken , and a concentrated static energy burst known as the Kiko-Sho. Chun-Li, canonically born on March 1, 1968,
16434-594: The Kitana from Liu Kang's timeline replaces Shao as the General of Outworld's army while continuing to advise her sister. Kitana had a brief appearance in a Midway-published Mortal Kombat II comic book prequel that was written and illustrated by series co-creator John Tobias and served to introduce the game's new characters. She is a minor character in Malibu Comics ' 1994-1995 Mortal Kombat comic book series, first appearing in
16632-453: The Nintendo version's widely reported censorship of blood and dismemberments affected sales, and was widely criticized by gaming media for censorship issues into the following decades. In 2006, IGN named it as the eighth worst arcade-to-console conversion. Nintendo's decision to make the game more family-friendly was also included on GameSpy 's list of the dumbest moments in gaming. Reviewing
16830-560: The Sega CD sales chart in June 1994. In November 1993, Acclaim announced that they had shipped more than three million copies of Mortal Kombat for home systems, counting the SNES, Genesis, Game Boy and Game Gear versions combined. The game sold 3 million copies worldwide in its first three weeks of release. In the United States, it was the top-selling Sega Genesis and SNES game in January 1994. In
17028-455: The Shadowlaw base to ruins), returning Chun-Li to normal. Chun-Li appears in the 1999 anime OVA Street Fighter Alpha: The Animation , voiced by Yumi Tōma in the original Japanese version and again by Lia Sargent in the English dub. There, she is as an Interpol agent who investigates a mad scientist called Sadler who works for Shadaloo. She believes the trail can lead her to her father, who at
17226-519: The Special Forces agent Sonya Blade , who enters in pursuit of the dangerous Black Dragon organization. Her team is captured and held hostage by Shang Tsung, forcing Sonya to participate in the tournament. Sonya was inspired by actress Cynthia Rothrock . Richard Divizio portrays Kano , a savage criminal and mercenary. Kano is a member of the Black Dragons, a powerful organized crime syndicate. He
17424-453: The Super NES release, Nintendo Power praised the games graphics, animation and sound as "excellent" while noting that four of the finishing moves are unidentical to the arcade game. The review criticized the game as "pretty easy unless you set the difficulty to hard." GamePro ' s review of the Genesis port echoed the comparisons mentioned in their SNES review, but noted that while all
17622-588: The United Kingdom, it was the top-selling home video game in October 1993, the top-selling Sega Master System game for four months in 1994 (from May to August), and the top-selling Mega CD game in June 1994. By July 1994, the home cartridge versions had sold more than 6 million units worldwide and grossed over $ 300,000,000 (equivalent to $ 630,000,000 in 2023) in sales revenue. As of 2000 , it has sold 6.5 million cartridges across all home consoles, with
17820-497: The World". In the 1997–1998 anime series Street Fighter II V , Chun-Li is voiced by Chisa Yokoyama in the original Japanese version, while Lia Sargent reprises her role in the English dub. Chun-Li is introduced as the 15-year-old daughter of Inspector Do-Rai, a Hong Kong police chief who has schooled her in the martial arts. While attempting to bring down a drug smuggling operation in the country, she works with Interpol to investigate
18018-464: The advent of Lara Croft and Chilango wrote of her, Lara and Mai Shiranui as the video game women "about whom we fantasied in the 90s" and described Mai as "SNK's response to the overwhelming success of Chun-Li." Nicholas Ware in a dissertation titled You Must Defeat Sheng Long to Stand a Chance noted that Chun-Li's journey across the Street Fighter game is consistent due to her desire to defeat Bison, she and other character wanting to take down
18216-501: The animated films Wreck-It Ralph and Ralph Breaks the Internet alongside several fellow Street Fighter characters. In the 1990s Street Fighter II manga by Masaomi Kanzaki , Chun-Li remains in her established role of an Interpol agent investigating Bison. As the story progresses, Chun-Li participates in a tournament arranged by Shadaloo, eventually coming up against Vega, portrayed here as her father's killer. She defeats him but
18414-475: The arcade version fatalities are included in "Mode A", they are noticeably cruder in appearance. They also criticized the fact that the port was developed for the three-button controller , saying this makes some moves awkward to pull off, but concluded, "Great graphics, sound, and control in combination with the special Mode A setting make the Genesis Mortal Kombat a beat-em-up force." Highly praising
18612-428: The arenas feature the wrong music (such as Courtyard playing the Pit's theme). Several remixes of the Mortal Kombat theme music were included as bonus features, including the remix used later for the film adaptation. Some copies of this version are incompatible with model 1.1 of the Sega CD; Acclaim offered to replace any such discs that were mailed to their Oyster Bay headquarters with working copies. Mortal Kombat
18810-448: The beginning, one of the things that's separated us from other fighting games is the crazy moves we've put in it, like fireballs and all the magic moves, so to speak." According to Tobias, the game's ultraviolent content hadn't been originally intended and was only implemented gradually as the development progressed. The concept of Fatalities in particular evolved from the "dizzied" mechanic in earlier fighting games. Boon said that he hated
19008-401: The best aerial ability in the game, but she steadily gained an array of different moves through the games, such as a projectile attack or an anti-air defensive move, which steered her towards a more balanced type with an emphasis on poking and control of neutral game thanks to a rich set of non-special moves of relatively long range. She has been noted to be one of the most powerful characters in
19206-412: The brothers Daniel and Carlos Pesina planned to create a ninja-themed fighting game, however this idea was rejected by Midway's management. Instead, Midway sought to make an action game based on the upcoming movie Universal Soldier and featuring a digitized version of martial arts film star Jean-Claude Van Damme , but he was already in negotiations with another company for a video game that ultimately
19404-432: The chance to rule Edenia by her side, which he reluctantly rejects due to his duty as Earth's champion. In a special-edition MK4 comic book released with the 1998 PC version of the game, Kitana arranges peace between the warring Shokan and Centaurian races. In Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance (2002), Kitana leads a preemptive strike against Shao Kahn's forces, but Kahn is killed by unknown assassins later revealed as
19602-545: The character in the 1994 film), former Japanese muscle idol Reika Saiki , Chinese doctor and bodybuilder Yuan Herong, Chengxiao from the Korean-Chinese idol group Cosmic Girls , and Turkish media personality Aşkım İrem Aktulga who was transformed into Chun-Li in the show Red Bull Shape Shifters . Some of them have been also male, such as Japanese wrestler Hiroshi Tanahashi or Australian stunt actor and wrestler Ladybeard . Street Fighter player Ricki Ortiz built
19800-407: The character of Princess Mariko from Jordan Mechner 's 1984 computer game Karateka . She was intended to be an unplayable herald -like character who wielded a single ornamental fan and was " Shang Lao 's princess daughter — the spoil of victory for winning the tournament" who would ultimately betray her father after she fell for the game's protagonist Liu Kang . Kitsune was ultimately omitted from
19998-467: The console. This version was given an MA-13 rating by the Videogame Rating Council . The Game Boy version was largely cut down from its arcade counterpart. It had laggy controls and a limited button layout. It also omitted Johnny Cage, Reptile and the bloodier Fatality moves. However, players could play as Goro via a code. Johnny Cage was apparently intended to be a playable character, but
20196-808: The cooler weapons" in the series, she "lacks the entertaining/alluring oddity" of her counterpart Mileena. GameFront opined the same year that Kitana has "not [been] a very compelling character." Though she and Mileena were included in GamePro ' s 2009 list of the seventeen best palette-swapped video game characters alongside the series' male ninjas, Dan Ryckert of Game Informer wrote in 2010 that he did not want these characters, aside from Scorpion and Sub-Zero , in future series installments. Kitana's "Kiss of Death" from Mortal Kombat II has met with critical praise. Response to Kitana's alternate-media incarnations have been variably received. Laura Evenson of San Francisco Chronicle noted Talisa Soto's attractiveness in
20394-445: The crime he did not commit, but fails. Chun-Li then works hard on finding further evidences to clear her friend's name while hunting the terrorist group. In non-canonical spin-off series Street Fighter EX , Chun-Li is a police officer investigating Shadaloo in search of her missing father. Besides the core Street Fighter series, Chun-Li has also made appearances in many other Capcom-produced fighting games, including all titles of
20592-450: The difficulty in pulling off the moves in the game, finding that some players will "be frustrated by the awkwardness of the commands" and that "those unfamiliar with the game will frequently find themselves accidentally discharging specialty moves while attempting a simple spin kick or other stunt." Reviewing the Game Boy version, GamePro commented, "If you think the moves on the other systems are hard to execute, wait until you try to pull
20790-793: The early 1990s, with valuable main prizes such as the Nissan 300ZX or the Honda CR-X . Later such contests have been performed on a much smaller scale. Chun-Li's character was used to promote the film Ready Player One in Japan. In 2018, Japanese company Onitsuka Tiger collaborated with Capcom for Chun-Li to wear their new Mexico 66 SD line of sports shoes, and the 30th anniversary of Street Fighter collaboration between Capcom and Japan's Saga Prefecture featured singer and actress Kayo Noro dressed as Chun-Li. Previously, actress Miki Mizuno also dressed as Chun-Li in another promotional event as did pop singer Maki Miyamae to perform Chun-Li's official song on
20988-433: The events of Mortal Kombat Gold (1999; a Dreamcast -exclusive upgrade of Mortal Kombat 4 ), fallen Elder God Shinnok and his cohort Quan Chi invade Edenia, aided by the traitorous Edenian Tanya . When Quan Chi and his forces later leave the realm to focus on attacking thunder god Raiden and the Earth heroes, Kitana escapes to aid her allies in defeating Shinnok. With Edenia freed once again, Kitana offers Liu Kang
21186-466: The fastest characters. The development team for Street Fighter EX attempted to bring Chun-Li back to her roots as an agility-oriented character by, among other things, restoring her Spinning Bird Kick and removing the fireball attack she acquired in Street Fighter II Turbo as they felt the projectile attack had too radically altered her originally agile fighting style. Her appearances in
21384-508: The fight, appointed Kitana as the new Kahn of Outworld in recognition of her skills in combat. After Kronika kidnaps Liu Kang, Kitana and her Outworld army aided Earthrealm's allied forces against Kronika's army until Raiden merged himself with Liu Kang to become Fire God Liu Kang. As the rest of her allies fought off Kronika's forces, Kitana joined Liu Kang in breaching Kronika's keep. However, Kronika reverses time for everyone except Liu Kang, who faces her and his allies' revenants alone. In one of
21582-664: The first game of any kind that featured her in a starring role. Chun-Li is widely regarded as one of the most popular characters in the series. As she is the first playable female fighting game character she has been dubbed as the "first lady of Fighting games", the "original videogame super-babe", and such. During the 1990s, GamePro chose her as the most iconic character of Street Fighter II and years later called her "everyone's favorite feminine fighter". Mean Machines Sega noted her being "a firm favourite among Saturn Power described her as "subject of childish giggles as computer journalists everywhere try as they might to grab
21780-486: The fused realms of Outworld and Apokolips and fighting the DC Universe 's heroes and villains while Raiden and Superman destroyed Dark Kahn. In the rebooted timeline of Mortal Kombat (2011), which retells the events of the first three Mortal Kombat games, Shao Kahn sends her and Jade to participate in a Mortal Kombat tournament. Kitana tries to defeat Liu Kang, but ends up being defeated. Anticipating her death, she
21978-529: The game after they ran out of time. Her name means 'beautiful spring' in Chinese as Chūn (春) means 'the season of spring', and lì (麗) means 'beautiful' in Mandarin dialects . Yasuda recalled they only had five weeks to make Chun-Li in the game and he was deeply worried about the quality of her design and how she would be received. Chun-Li "was wearing pants right up until the very end [of the development]. When we made
22176-458: The game being developed by Iguana Entertainment was scheduled to be published on the Atari Jaguar , but it was never released. In 2004, Jakks Pacific released the game as one of its Plug It in & Play TV Games , developed by Digital Eclipse . It is a unique port made directly from the arcade code by Chris Burke, who was the sole programmer on the port. Due to hardware limitations from
22374-530: The game but included in the sequel Mortal Kombat II , with her storyline revised as her being the stepdaughter of the game's main antagonist Shao Kahn. Tobias renamed the character "Kitana" as her original name was rejected for being Japanese and thus not compatible with "Shang and Shao who were both Chinese in origin" (before the games "ultimately became a hodgepodge of nonsensical Asian mythological hooha anyway"), with Kitana serving as "a combo of Kitsune & Katana " that sounded "generically Asian enough." She
22572-516: The game's endings, Liu Kang defeats Kronika and is able to bring Kitana back to help him forge a new timeline. In the DLC story expansion Aftermath , Kitana was brought back to life by Fujin and Shang Tsung to join forces with Sindel in the battle against Kronika. Nevertheless, she was shocked to discover her mother's real character when she was unable to prevent her from betraying Earth and Outworld. In Mortal Kombat 1 ' s rebooted timeline, Mileena
22770-541: The game's final boss, the Dragon King Onaga , who additionally uses her to defeat and imprison Sindel and then install Mileena to pose as Kitana. However, Jade frees Sindel before imprisoning Kitana, and together they flee to Outworld to figure out how to free Kitana from Onaga's influence. Meanwhile, Liu Kang's spirit is able to remain amongst the living after his murder, and he enlists the reformed ninja Ermac to help him free Kitana and his friends from Onaga's control,
22968-443: The game, SNES , Genesis , Game Boy , and Game Gear , on September 13, 1993, a date dubbed "Mortal Monday". In the same year, a comic book, Mortal Kombat Collector's Edition , was written and illustrated by the game's designer artist John Tobias and made available through mail order , describing the backstory of the game in greater detail. The comic was advertised during the game's attract mode and would later be sold, although it
23166-533: The game, alongside Ken and Yun. Street Fighter Alpha 2 and Alpha 3 feature Chun-Li's original outfit from Street Fighter II as an alternate version of the character with alternate special abilities and Super Combos. CVG opined she was "the most-improved character in Alpha 2 , and possibly the #1 character in the whole game." She was considerably weakened in Street Fighter EX , but has remained one of
23364-407: The game. However, GamePro 's strategy guide ranked Kitana as only the seventh best of the 12 fighters in MKII (citing her devastating combos , powerful "Fan Throw" move, and good sweep and reach hindered by slow release of the fan-based special moves and limited attack patterns); it was her clone Mileena who landed on the top of their chart. According to a retrospective by Complex , Kitana "had
23562-416: The gameplay was compared unfavorably with Street Fighter II and Fatal Fury 2 . Upon release on home systems, the game received generally positive reviews. GamePro hailed the SNES port of Mortal Kombat as having graphics closer to the arcade version than the other three initial home ports, with cleaner definition and a better color palette, and said that while four of the fatalities had been cut,
23760-599: The graphic have been simplified but that "the essence of the Super NES and arcade games have been well-preserved" while noting that "the animation, not surprisingly, is considerably slower than the Super NES." Chun-Li Chun-Li ( / tʃ ʌ n ˈ l iː / ; Japanese : チュン・リー , Hepburn : Chun-Rī ) is a character in Capcom 's Street Fighter video game series. She first appeared in Street Fighter II: The World Warrior in 1991 and
23958-505: The graphical detail and sharpness, as well as the bloody action when the violence code is enabled, GamePro declared the Game Gear version to be "everything its 16-bit big brother is, plus it's portable." They noted that the audio is fairly basic and, as with all four initial home ports, it has issues with the controls, but considered it an overall impressive achievement for a portable system. It later won GamePro ' s 1993 hand-held game of
24156-446: The heroine, into such a plain setting. Ordinarily, you don't see women participating in global martial arts tournaments. Just by adding her we were starting to push things to the 'fun' side. I didn't think about it at the time, but thinking about it now, from the moment we put Chun-Li into the game we were already pushing things towards the full-on entertainment side." Chun-Li was designed with an exceptionally strong physique because she
24354-504: The home releases of Night Trap and Lethal Enforcers , prompted the formation of the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB), a U.S. government-backed organization that set descriptor ratings for video games. Mortal Kombat is a fighting game in which players battle opponents in one-on-one matches. The fighter that drains the opponent's health bar first wins the round, and the first to win two rounds wins
24552-423: The initial inspiration for Chun-Li came from the 1983 anime film Harmagedon: Genma Wars (featuring early character design work by Akira creator Katsuhiro Otomo ), which had a Chinese female character called Tao. Chun-Li was originally known as just 'Chinese Girl' among the development team. She had a backflip attack that was popular among testers but deemed too strong, and unfortunately had to be cut from
24750-486: The introduction of new character Sindel . Kitana is revealed as the daughter of Queen Sindel and King Jerrod, who ruled the Outworld realm of Edenia until it was invaded by Kahn and his forces, during which Kahn kills Jerrod and takes Kitana as his daughter. After Sindel commits suicide rather than serve as Kahn's consort , she is resurrected and used by Kahn as a means to illegally invade Earthrealm. Realizing her life had been
24948-403: The island on a boat. Reptile, unsure of his fate, flees to Outworld. Raiden then teleports the surviving Earthrealmers to safety as Shang Tsung's island crumbles into the sea. Returning to Hollywood, Johnny Cage uses the experience to revive his failing acting career and develops a highly popular film franchise called Mortal Kombat. In Outworld, an outraged Shao Kahn refuses to accept the outcome of
25146-453: The issue. "I witnessed as her thighs made a sudden jump into gigantism in SFIII . When we first put her in the game, her sprite was just an outline and her thighs weren't that big...but as the artists starting coloring her in, her legs got thicker and thicker." However, they all felt the larger legs increased the expressiveness of her animations. Regarding then-upcoming Street Fighter IV , Ono said
25344-531: The keeper of time, Kronika . As a result of Kronika's actions however, a past version of Kitana and Liu Kang were brought to the present. While he traveled to Earthrealm to find out more about what happened, she stayed in Outworld to find Shao Kahn, who had also been brought to the present. To aid the new Outworld emperor Kotal Kahn , Kitana forged alliances with Outworld's disparate factions before leading them into battle against Shao Kahn; personally defeating and maiming him herself. Kotal, who had been crippled during
25542-433: The killer of Chun-Li's father is Cammy, prior to her being freed from Bison's control. Chun-Li battles Cammy when they meet face to face for the first time and ultimately forgives Cammy and turns her sights on Bison himself. Eventually, she receives an invitation from Shadaloo to enter a tournament being held by Bison. In 2008, UDON also released a four-issue special miniseries Street Fighter Legends: Chun-Li , which focuses on
25740-446: The letter C when it has the hard C sound. While the arcade version of Mortal Kombat was unlocalized for Japan, it had an official release there in 1992 by Taito , who published imports of Midway's games in the Japanese market. The launch of Mortal Kombat for home consoles by Acclaim Entertainment was one of the largest video game launches of the time. TV commercials heralded the simultaneous release of all four home versions of
25938-641: The life bar for Chun-Li "shorter than for the other characters because women are not as strong. But Nishitani didn't want to do that. We both had legitimate reasons, but then we came to an agreement to not make it shorter." Chun-Li is particularly well known for her very muscular legs, while depictions of the rest of her body are more variable. According to Capcom composer Yoko Shimomura , Chun-Li's big thighs originated from Akiman's personal fetish. The size of Chun-Li's thighs massively increased in Street Fighter III . Capcom producer Yoshinori Ono commented on
26136-462: The long-running series Marvel vs. Capcom (ever since X-Men vs. Street Fighter , including Shadow Lady , a dark version of Chun-Li that underwent harsh experiments on Bison's orders and was transformed into a brainwashed cyborg ) and Capcom vs. SNK (as a rival to SNK character Mai Shiranui ), and in Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Ultimate All-Stars and Street Fighter X Tekken . She and Ryu are
26334-497: The lukewarm response to the SNES version of the game, developer Sculptured Software , who handled the Super Nintendo port, proposed releasing an updated version for the system titled Mortal Kombat Nitro , which would feature additional content such as new costumes, an expanded story mode with multiple endings, and Goro, Shang Tsung and Reptile made playable in addition to the restoration of the original fatalities and blood. Although
26532-563: The match. Each round is timed; if both fighters still have health remaining when time runs out, the one with more health wins the round. Two players can start a game together, or a second player can join in during a single player's game to fight against them. If a game was in progress at the time, the winner continues it alone; if not, the winner begins a new game. Mortal Kombat uses an eight-directional joystick and five buttons, including two punch and two kick buttons, each further differentiated between high and low. Attacks can vary depending on
26730-600: The meter to be filled up and thus awarding more points. Two players can compete in the minigame at once and the last two materials are only accessible through two-player mode. The minigame returned in various forms in Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance , Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks , Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe , Mortal Kombat: Komplete Edition , Mortal Kombat X , and its DLC counterpart, Mortal Kombat XL . The game takes place in Earthrealm , where
26928-411: The most powerful projectile attack, and along with Mileena, the fastest throws and sweeps." "Kitana's big combos in the corner" were among Ed Boon's own personal favourite things in the game: "When I saw people do Kitana's combos I knew there was something special, because people were taking the game to a new direction." EGM described Kitana as "a force to be reckoned with" and predicted she would "make
27126-504: The most violent possibilities are against women," whose own "fatality moves are highly eroticised." Patrick Sunnen's book Making Sense of Video Games judged their portrayal as "formidable female opponents" to be potentially progressive, yet arguably made just to increase "the sexist potential of the individual fights", and described Kitana's Fatality of decapitation with a "deceptively feminine razor-sharp fan" to be castration -like. Chad Hunter of Complex chose Jade and Kitana to represent
27324-620: The move sets of Jamm in Golden Axe: The Duel and Miyabi in Raging Fighter , or the looks of Mei Mei in unreleased Mission: Deadly Skies. Her success furthermore directly contributed to the creation of such characters (besides Street Fighter 's own Cammy ) as Mortal Kombat 's Sonya Blade , followed by Kitana and Mileena ; popular fighting characters that resemble Chun-Li include Lei Fang ( Dead or Alive ), Ling Xiaoyu ( Tekken ), and Pai Chan ( Virtua Fighter ). In
27522-618: The name "Blue Phoenix Ranger", appears as a playable character in Power Rangers: Battle for the Grid via downloadable content. Chun-Li is set to appear in Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves as part of the first season of downloadable content. Chun-Li was a central character in the 1994 Street Fighter film, played by Ming-Na Wen . Chun-Li was given a surname ("Zang Chun-Li") and posed as
27720-466: The new finishing moves which replace them "are pretty cool, though not as bloody." Comparing it to the Genesis version, they found that the controls are less responsive but the sound is better due to the higher quality and inclusion of the announcer's voice. They concluded, "Despite some control glitches and the altered Fatality Moves, Mortal Kombat for the SNES is a great representation of an arcade classic that will more than satisfy most gamers." However,
27918-476: The only Street Fighter characters to appear in every Capcom crossover title, including the SNK vs. Capcom fighting game series by SNK and the tactical role-playing games Namco × Capcom , Project X Zone and Project X Zone 2 by Namco (where Chun-Li is paired into a single unit with Morrigan Aensland from Darkstalkers ), as well as appearing as a boss in the platform game Street Fighter X Mega Man . She
28116-524: The organization; in her prologue story, Chun-Li recalls how she learned of her father's death. In Street Fighter 6 , Chun-Li continues to raise Li-Fen and train students in Metro City's Chinatown district, while also being promoted to become a director of Interpol. Li-Fen also acts as her eyes and ears during her Interpol work. Upon learning a terrorist group known as Amnesia attempts to assassinate Ken at Nayshall, Chun-Li tries to stop them from framing him for
28314-427: The original Japanese version and by Lia Sargent (credited as Mary Briscoe) in the English dub. She is investigating M. Bison's Shadowlaw organization suspected of murdering several diplomats and requests to work with Guile; he initially balks at this as he wants to pursue Bison himself, but later they become inseparable. In a famous instance of fan service , an explicit scene showed Chun-Li showering in her apartment as
28512-452: The original arcade music and sound effects. An Amiga version was released in early 1994 in Europe only, with graphics based on the Genesis version, controls limited to either one or two action buttons, and a minimal soundtrack with music arranged by Allister Brimble . The DOS version was eventually released on GOG.com . The Sega CD version of the game was released featuring a video intro of
28710-399: The original version of Street Fighter II . Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike marked a strong departure from previous incarnations as it featured a large number of revamped moves. Later games have looked to balance between her Street Fighter II and 3rd Strike styles. Chun-Li started as a weak and fast close-range fighter compared to the bigger male characters from Street Fighter II with
28908-455: The other fighters and end up in a tussle with Sadler's android enforcer, Rosanov, who beats them severely. Ryu ultimately manages to destroy both Rosanov and Sadler, though Shun dies in the process after making peace with Ryu. In the aftermath, Chun-Li returns to Interpol In the season 6 (2010) Halloween special of the cartoon series American Dad! , Toshi's little sister Akiko goes trick-or-treating as Chun-Li. Chun-Li made cameo appearances in
29106-444: The other low tier character types, she's lacking in almost every aspect" (even as she "is a little better on defense than she is on offense"). She was rated overall only 4/10 for this game. Their official guide for Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe , on the other hand, called her "one of the more dangerous characters in the game due to her speed and extremely effective move-set." Prima's official guide for 2011's Mortal Kombat deemed Kitana
29304-560: The player's distance from the opponent. All player characters have a shared set of attacks performed by holding the joystick in various directions, such as a leg sweep and an uppercut. The latter attack knocks the enemy high into the air and causes a large amount of damage. Most special moves were performed by tapping the joystick, sometimes ending with a button press. Unlike previous one-on-one fighting games, few moves require circular joystick movement. The game's blocking system also distinguished itself from other fighting games, as characters take
29502-469: The qipao has a very noticeable silky sheen. Her other ensemble includes a pair of white combat boots and brown tights. She usually wears her hair in " ox horns ", with silk brocades and ribbons in her hair. Another iconic part of her design are the large spiked bracelets she wears on her wrists. In the Street Fighter Alpha games (set during the time period before Street Fighter II ), Chun-Li wears
29700-469: The realm and then bewitches her into believing she is Kahn's daughter. Kitana was a supporting character in the 1990s Mortal Kombat feature films, unmasked throughout and portrayed by Talisa Soto . She is introduced as a companion of Shang Tsung and described only as his adversary due to her being the rightful heir of Outworld and thus a threat to his rule should she ally herself with the Earth fighters. Kitana eventually joins main protagonist Liu Kang and
29898-568: The role in the Legends sequel Battle of the Realms (2021), in which Kitana works alongside Kahn's forces in invading Earth before rebelling against him and allying with the Earth fighters. Action figures of Kitana were released in the UK by Toy Island in 1996, Mezco Toyz in 2015, and by Funko , as both a Funko Pop! vinyl figurine in 2017 and a traditional figure the following year. Syco Collectibles released
30096-692: The role." The 2011 Mortal Kombat Legacy first-season episode "Kitana & Mileena" was nominated for a Writers Guild of America Award in the category of "Outstanding Achievement in Writing Derivative New Media". Kitana is considered a prominent sex symbol in the Mortal Kombat series, in a display of what one author described as manifestation of "pseudo-Japanese Orientalist fetishes ." According to Joey Esposito of MTV , "it's obvious that Mortal Kombat II added in some more, let’s say, sexually suggestive characters in Mileena and Kitana," Danny Gallagher of MTV's Guy Code ranked Kitana among
30294-440: The same day as all the aforementioned platforms. According to Phylene Riggs of Acclaim, an NES port was also planned at one point, but cancelled before it entered the programming stage. A port for DOS PCs was released in late 1993. The DOS version is the most accurate port of the arcade version in terms of graphics and gameplay. It was first released on floppy disk and later re-released on CD-ROM, with that release upgraded with
30492-495: The second season of Street Fighter: Assassin's Fist titled Street Fighter: World Warrior in a significant role. In addition, she also makes cameo appearances in the 2008 Korean film My Mighty Princess (on a poster ) and in the 2018 film Ready Player One . Gemma Nguyen portrays Chun-Li in the official crossover between the Power Rangers and Street Fighter titled Power Rangers: Legacy Wars—Street Fighter Showdown . In
30690-473: The series and several Capcom spinoff games. She is also featured prominently in Street Fighter -related media, including two feature films, multiple anime and comic book productions, and other official series merchandise. She has earned much positive fan and critical reception for factors such as her backstory, athleticism and in-game playability, and she is considered a trailblazer for female characters in fighting titles and general video gaming. Chun-Li's design
30888-524: The short, Ryu morphs into the RyuRanger and Chun-Li teams with Tommy Oliver , Ninjor and Gia Moran to battle M. Bison and evil Power Rangers. Nguyen reprised her role in the fan film Street Fighter: Enter the Dragon , intervening in the fight between Fei Long and Balrog near the end. Chun-Li is a central character in the 1994 anime film Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie , voiced by Miki Fujitani in
31086-536: The sound and gameplay. The game was also a part of the 2005 compilation Midway Arcade Treasures: Extended Play . Like the Mortal Kombat: Deception release, it has sound issues. On August 31, 2011, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment released Mortal Kombat Arcade Kollection , consisting of Mortal Kombat , Mortal Kombat II and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 , as a downloadable title for Microsoft Windows , PlayStation 3 , and Xbox 360 . After
31284-428: The success of Capcom 's Street Fighter II only helped them convince the management of their idea. Boon said the development team initially consisted of four people — himself as programmer, artists John Tobias and John Vogel, and Dan Forden as sound designer. The game's budget was around $ 1 million. According to Richard Divizio and Daniel Pesina, Mortal Kombat had actually begun when Tobias along with Divizio and
31482-429: The technique to create new characters. The four-armed warrior and a prince of Outworld, Goro serves as the sub-boss of the game; being a half-human, half-dragon beast, he is much stronger than the other characters and can be unaffected by throw attacks. Goro has won the last nine tournaments consecutively, and will allow Outworld to conquer Earthrealm if he wins the tenth tournament. The character's sprites are based on
31680-495: The television. In 1997, actress and pop star Rie Tomosaka played Chun-Li on television as well. A wide variety of Chun-Li figures have been produced by various manufacturers, including by Capcom itself, Ace Novelty, BigBoysToys, Funko , Kotobukiya, Pop Culture Shock Collectibles, S.H. Figuart, SOTA Toys , Storm Collectibles, Takara Tomy , and Tsume-Art, among many others. Artworks of her were also featured on an officially licensed animated Nubytech/UDON joypad for
31878-444: The three-issue miniseries Goro: Prince of Pain (1994), joining other MKII characters in searching for Goro in Outworld. Kitana's role in the six-issue miniseries "Battlewave" (1995) has her attempting to rebel against Shao Kahn. She was additionally the subject of the 1995 one-shot "Kitana and Mileena: Sister Act", in which her background from the games is intact, except she is already an adult when Shao Kahn kills Jerrod and seizes
32076-497: The time, was missing and presumed alive. She assists Ryu and Ken in finding a kidnapped boy named Shun who claims to be Ryu's younger brother. While tracking Sadler, she accompanies Ryu to where Akuma lives and witnesses as Ryu is almost overcome by the Dark Hadou. She accompanies Ryu, Ken, Birdie , Dan , Guy , Dhalsim , Sodom and Rolento to Sadler's hideout, where she sneaks into the facility with Ryu and Ken. She and Ken rescue
32274-465: The time. Zamiar did not return for Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 due to legal issues with Midway Games, and was replaced by Becky Gable. Kitana was included in early versions of Mortal Kombat 4 before being replaced by new character Tanya . For the series' transition into 3-D beginning with Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance , Kitana and the other ninja characters were given their own distinct redesigns. Most of Kitana's special moves utilize her fans either as
32472-672: The tip. This outfit is completed with red shoes, gold earrings and black and gold bracelets. Her alternative wardrobe in Super Street Fighter IV includes a costume inspired by Mai Shiranui and in Street Fighter V she has a Halloween downloadable content (DLC) appearing as Morrigan Aensland . She has by far most costumes out of all characters in Street Fighter V (a total of 17 by 2018), including some with different hairstyles. Chun-Li's gameplay style changes notably from game to game, with for example Champion Edition restoring her flipping attacks that have been removed from
32670-512: The titular Deadly Alliance of Quan Chi and Shang Tsung, who had formed an alliance to kill Kahn and Liu Kang before attempting to revive the mysterious Dragon King. Despite her grief, she leads the Earth warriors into an assault on Shang Tsung's palace, where she faces Quan Chi but is outmatched and killed alongside her allies. As a result of her death in the previous game, Kitana is unplayable in Mortal Kombat: Deception (2004), in which she and her slain companions are resurrected and controlled by
32868-530: The titular character in the 2009 film Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li , she was played by Kristin Kreuk , her last name was changed to "Xiang" as well as being a pianist turned fighter. Her father was named Huang Xiang and was a businessman Bison abducts and forces to work for him. While she was depicted as Chinese-American, her goal of avenging her father remained unchanged and she succeeds killing Bison with help from her mentor Gen and Charlie Nash . The film
33066-414: The top of the heap as far as kombatants go. In any stance, she can pump out over 30% with relative ease, making her one of the deadliest in the hands of a beginner or a master." Kitana was later found to be capable of infinite-loop corner combos in her "Mournful" variation in Mortal Kombat X . In Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks , Kitana is fought as a boss character twice in the game's main story mode and
33264-441: The tournament as a way of reigniting his fame. He is loosely based on Jean-Claude Van Damme , particularly his performance in the film Bloodsport . Daniel Pesina also portrays the undead revenant Scorpion , a ninja who was murdered in cold blood by Sub-Zero some time prior to the events of the game and brought back to life to avenge his own death. Scorpion possesses fire-based abilities. The yellow color of Scorpion's outfit
33462-597: The tournament, setting up the events of the second game . The player receives information about the characters in biographies displayed during the attract mode . The bulk of the game's backstory and lore was only told in a comic book , but some additional information about the characters and their motivations for entering the tournament is received upon completion of the game with each character. Mortal Kombat includes seven playable characters, each with their own unique Fatality and all of whom would eventually become trademark characters and appear in several sequels. The game
33660-612: The trails that lead her to an assassin which turns out to be Gen , from whom she suffers an utter defeat. She is last seen in Russia, parting ways with Sakura and Dan, with Cammy under her care. In the manga adaptations of Street Fighter Alpha , Chun-Li is again an agent of the Interpol. She encounters Ryu, who has fallen from grace and had hired himself out as a bodyguard to drug smugglers, and winds up befriending him and Birdie as well as Ken, also rescuing Cammy from being captured by Sodom. Shadaloo
33858-418: The trio are marked for death by the ringleader as a result, and while on the run they encounter and battle various street gangs before being rescued by Chun-Li's father. Traveling with Ryu and Ken to Spain, Chun-Li is stalked by an obsessive Vega, who presents her with a severed bull's ear, intercepts her outside her hotel, sneaks into her room to kiss her while sleeping, then invites her to a masquerade ball that
34056-455: The uncommon processor used by the Jakks Pacific units, the backgrounds are static and feature no parallax scrolling . Also in 2004, the premium edition of Mortal Kombat: Deception on the PlayStation 2 and original Xbox included the game as bonus content played via emulation of the original arcade code. While it was promoted as "arcade perfect", there were some emulation issues with
34254-462: The upper hand before becoming distracted by her comrades coming to her rescue, allowing Bison to escape before subduing them with knock-out gas and taking them hostage. When Guile and the Allied Nations launch an invasion on Bison's fortress during the film's climax, she and the rest of Bison's hostages are freed, and after Bison's forces are defeated, Guile promises her an exclusive interview, but only, he adds in jest, if she shows up in her costume. As
34452-490: The villain are overshadowed by Akuma. The characters remain popular as noted with Jackie Chan parodying her a in a movie as not only due to comic relief but also due to his connection with both China and Japan. For the Street Fighter Alpha trilogy, Chun-Li was given a storyline that parallels the younger Ryu as both appear to be focused on revenge according to GamesRadar . Chun-Li was redesigned with an entire new outfit that GamesRadar found it fitting for an anime series but
34650-591: The year award. Bill Kunkel wrote in Electronic Games that both Genesis and Super NES ports of the game as "superb, first-rate conversions" noting that the SNES edition graphically was better than the Sega Genesis version while noting that "the characters, while they don't move quite as quickly as their Genesis counterparts, are magnificently animated." Kunkel noted the exception of the character Goro who "suffers from comparatively crude animation". Kunkel noted
34848-476: Was a palette coloration added after Nintendo's decision to censor the game, could be reverted to the original red blood color via a Game Genie code input as "BDB4-DD07". On the Genesis version, the blood and uncensored Fatalities were available via a cheat code , spelled out "ABACABB", a nod to the 1981 album Abacab by the English rock band Genesis , who shared their name with the North American version of
35046-567: Was adapted for the 1995 movie soundtrack and incorporated the "Mortal Kombat!" yell from the Mortal Monday commercials. Jeff Rovin penned a novelization of Mortal Kombat , which was published in June 1995 in order to coincide with the release of the film. There were lines of action figures based on the game's characters. Four ports were released in North America and Europe as part of the "Mortal Monday" campaign in 1993: home console ports for
35244-616: Was also planned to appear as a giant robot in Cyberbots . Often, Chun-Li either continues her existing story from Street Fighter II or seeks to arrest the other characters in the game that she sees as suspicious. Chun-Li is additionally playable in other Capcom games such as versus puzzle games Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo , Super Gem Fighter Mini Mix (where she can turn into Jill Valentine ) and Street Fighter: Puzzle Spirits , and social games Capcom All-Stars and Street Fighter Battle Combination. She has made guest appearances in
35442-472: Was changed to blue to create his rival and murderer Sub-Zero , a ruthless assassin and member of the Lin Kuei, a mysterious clan of "Chinese ninjas." Armed with ice-generating powers, Sub-Zero has entered the tournament specifically to assassinate Shang Tsung, having been offered an enormous bounty to do so. Mortal Kombat would become famous for such palette swaps that would continue to be used in later games as
35640-438: Was cut out. Bits of his character data remain in the data files . The Game Gear version was similar to the Game Boy version, but with major improvements (color, faster gameplay, and tighter controls). Like its 16-bit counterpart, the game was censored unless a cheat code (2, 1, 2, Down, Up) had been entered, but lacked Kano and Reptile. A Master System port based on the Game Gear version was released exclusively for PAL regions on
35838-450: Was developed with digitized sprites based on real actors. Ho-Sung Pak plays Liu Kang , a former member of the secret White Lotus Society who enters the tournament representing the Shaolin temples. He is tasked by Raiden to win the tournament and save Earthrealm. Originally envisioned as a monk, Pak refused to shave his head for the role, leading Kang's final design to more closely resemble actor Bruce Lee . Elizabeth Malecki plays
36036-465: Was disapproved by the fandom. This led to the optional Street Fighter II outfit in Alpha 2 . The site praised her return in the Street Fighter III trilogy due to her more detailed sprites but found her new story about children she trains to be ridiculous. In a bigger overview of the series, Kotaku claims that Street Fighter 6 provided the best incarnation of Chun-Li over 24 years ago as she
36234-436: Was featured in a two-part episode of the 2011 web series Mortal Kombat: Legacy , which combined live action and animated sequences. She was played by martial artist and stuntwoman Samantha Jo , in her acting debut. The episodes are another retelling of Kitana's past from the games but with changes such as Sindel fusing her soul with Kitana's in hopes to avoid Shao Kahn's corruption before she commits suicide. When Mileena kills
36432-464: Was in fact inspired by an argument between two girls over which one of them would play as Chun-Li, which was witnessed by Capcom USA's Jeff Walker who then asked Capcom's founder Kenzo Tsujimoto to make a version allowing both players to play the same character. According to the Smithsonian Museum 's Chris Mellisinos, Chun-Li "was such an anomaly. How many times did you have the chance to play as
36630-493: Was introduced in 1991 in the original version of Street Fighter II ( Street Fighter II: The World Warrior ) as the franchise's first playable female character, an undercover Interpol agent seeking to avenge the death of her father at the hands of M. Bison and his criminal organization. Upon Bison's defeat, she fulfills her revenge and decides to return to her life as an ordinary girl; Super Street Fighter II allows players to choose this ending or another in which she remains
36828-663: Was later released in Japan for the Super Famicom, Game Boy, Mega Drive and Game Gear as Mortal Kombat: Legend of the Advent God Fist ( モータルコンバット 神拳降臨伝説 , Mōtaru Konbatto: Shinken Kōrin Densetsu ) and for the Mega-CD as Mortal Kombat: Legend of the Advent God Fist - Extended Edition ( モータルコンバット 神拳降臨伝説 完全版 , Mōtaru Konbatto: Shinken Kōrin Densetsu - Kanzenhan ) with no major changes from their western releases. A conversion of
37026-563: Was made into a real playable fighter in Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 . Mortal Kombat creators Ed Boon and John Tobias have stated that Midway Games tasked them with the project of developing a "combat game for release within a year", which the two believed was intended to compete with the popular Street Fighter II . According to Tobias, he and Boon had envisioned a fighting game similar to Data East 's Karate Champ but featuring large digitized characters even before that, and
37224-488: Was never released. Divizio then convinced Tobias to return to their original project. In the end, Van Damme was parodied in the game in the form of Johnny Cage (with whom he shares his name's initials, JC), a narcissistic Hollywood movie star who performs a split punch to the groin in a nod to a scene from Bloodsport . Tobias credited other inspirations as having come from the Asian martial arts cinema. Boon later said, "since
37422-547: Was one of the fighting game characters cited by Guy Aoki of AsianWeek as allegedly perpetuating existing stereotypes of Asians as martial arts experts. In the video game violence controversy themed book Interacting With Video , Patricia Marks Greenfield and Rodney R. Cocking used the "two Asian twin sisters, Kitana and Mileena" as an example of "highly eroticized Dragon Lady " stereotyping in video games. When Marsha Kinder accused Mortal Kombat II of misogyny in its handling of female characters, she alleged that "some of
37620-460: Was originally outfitted with a pair of sai before Ed Boon suggested that the character could be palette-swapped , which resulted in the creation of Kitana's twin Mileena and her being given the sai while Kitana instead brandished war fans . In 2009, Boon included Kitana among the series' most recognizable characters alongside Scorpion, Sub-Zero, and Liu Kang. Skarlet , a female ninja who debuted as
37818-438: Was primarily inspired by Tong Pooh, a female villain from Strider , an earlier Capcom game. Capcom designer Akira Nishitani , recounting the creation of the character, said: "Previously there were no women in fighting games. In Chun-Li's case, I wanted a woman in the game. I determined what her fighting abilities would be. Then China just came up as a possible homeland." Capcom artist and designer Akira "Akiman" Yasuda said
38016-533: Was quite difficult to get a copy outside of the United States. The comic was later included as a series of unlockable bonuses in Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance . Mortal Kombat: The Album , an album by The Immortals featuring techno music, was released in May 1994. It features two themes for the game, "Techno Syndrome" and "Hypnotic House", as well as themes written for each character. "Techno Syndrome"
38214-487: Was released in Japanese theaters as a double bill with a Studio 4°C -produced anime short that starred fellow Street Fighter character Sakura Kasugano and played after the movie. Chun-Li was played by a cross-dressing Jackie Chan in the 1993 live-action adaptation of City Hunter during the Street Fighter II spoof scene that positively surprised the original manga's author Tsukasa Hojo . Chun-Li appears in
38412-424: Was reworked following complaints from location tests that she was not " cute ". Ono later announced Chun-Li's controversial face in Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite would be also corrected based on a negative feedback from the fans. In the Street Fighter II sub-series and most of her later appearances, Chun-Li wears a usually blue qipao , an early-20th-century Chinese dress, with golden accents, puffy sleeves, and
38610-419: Was sitting in Boon's office, saw the word "Kombat" and said to him, "Why don't you name it Mortal Kombat ?", a name that Boon stated "just stuck." John Tobias recalled this a bit differently, saying it "came about during the trademark process in naming the game. We really liked Mortal Combat as a name, but it couldn't get past legal." Since then, the series has begun frequently using the letter K in place of
38808-428: Was suffering from "kombat rage" at the time, Kitana hallucinated Wonder Woman as an assassin sent from Outworld and challenged her. After being defeated, Kitana fled to a different section of Metropolis, where she was found and defeated by Scorpion and brought to Raiden 's temple, where she reveals she had a vision of Darkseid to become Dark Kahn. Following this, Kitana joined the rest of the combatants in traveling to
39006-437: Was the one who created Mileena. Before carrying out the execution, he locks Kitana in the palace and demands for his real daughter to be brought to him. Liu Kang quickly helps Kitana to be liberated, and they, along with Jade, flee to Earth to team up with their new comrades in the fight against Outworld's army. They help in the fight for Earth, but are slain by Kitana's evil mother, Sindel, along with other warriors. Ultimately, it
39204-448: Was the sole woman among a roster of powerful male characters in Street Fighter II . To overcome this perceived imbalance, she was devised as a character who had mastered Chinese kenpo and really pushed her body to the limit so that she could compete with such a cast of large and imposing men. She was nevertheless the fastest but physically weakest character in her first game. Capcom producer Yoshiki Okamoto said he wanted to also make
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