Before you test your might in Mortal Kombat X, take a look at the strange history of Reptile!
Reptile has recently been announced forMortal Kombat X, and it isnt so surprising.
The series owes a lot to the green, scaly, slobbering ninja.
He started out as THE character to fight in the first game.
A regular to the series, sure, but still the ever-so-beatable henchman character.
A jobber, if you will.
Ive discussed his debut at length in my article onMortal Kombatsecret characters, but heres the gist of it.
From there, youd fight a green ninja that had both Scorpions spear and Sub-Zeros ice ball.
Of the ten characters in that game, he was the only one without anything resembling a story.
Who was he?Whatwas he?
Was he part of Sub-Zeros ninja clan?
Reptile finally got a story when he was tossed intoMortal Kombat IIas a regular character.
Sub-Zero went after Shang Tsung and got knocked back by an unseen enemy.
Reptile revealed that hed been there all along, albeit invisible.
Then Scorpion showed up to kick his ass because Scorpions totally on Sub-Zeros side now.
Kudos if it is).
Reptiles race known as Saurians, Raptors, or Zaterrans was nearly extinct.
Without his mask, Reptile was revealed to be a lizard man.
He could secrete a force ball that would knock his opponent into the air.
He could spit acid.
He could turn invisible, which was pretty much worthless.
One Fatality featured him turning invisible and then cutting his opponent in half.
Not sure why he had to be invisible for that to work, but sure, why not.
But things only got worse for Reptile.
By the time he returned inUltimate Mortal Kombat 3, he was still Kahns lackey.
That meant either he didnt know about his races peril or he simply didnt act on it.
Reptile weighed his options and decided to betray her for the nigh-unbeatable skull-faced barbarian.
That didnt work out for him either.
As time passed, he would become more and more of a tremendous loser.
Though that game did give him that sweet winning pose.
I always thought that looked especially cool.
He did have a bigger role in theMortal Kombatmovie, where…well, he looked terrible.
It was so cool and cutting edge!
It didnt matter that it looked so fake.
It was a novelty.
Reptile was entirely CGI, and he didnotage well at all.
When Liu Kang got too close, he spat acid into his eyes.
It didnt really do anything permanent, but it was a nice shout out to the games.
This was in no way questioned or explained as a fight scene broke out.
Reptile lost, reverted to his salamander form, and Liu Kang stomped on him.
Coincidentally, Reptiles race appeared in theDefenders of the Realmcartoon.
The groups leader was basically Reptile, but had a different name.
Everything about him and his race was beyond cheesy.
Reptile was later killed by Kahns Shadow Priests.
Reptiles finest moment was the time he ate a giant bowl of worms while somehow never removing his mask.
Reptile would return inMortal Kombat 4.
Once again, Reptiles ending doesnt exactly make him look like a million bucks.
Then the games intro movie showed Shao Kahn getting killed off.
Only wed find out later he still wasntreallydead.
Anyway, Reptiles look emphasized his lizard-like nature and made him look more like a walking crocodile.
It was explained in-story that he was devolving, which presumably was making him a bit dumber.
Nitara used trickery to play Reptile and Cyrax against each other and use them towards her goal.
Reptile caught on too late and unsuccessfully attempted to hunt them down.
Reptile, after years as the ultimate follower, would end up serving Onaga as an underling.
Just not in the way he would have liked.
Reptiles hunt for Nitara led him to the location where a magical egg was being kept.
It cracked open and an energy poured forth, enveloping Reptile.
Onagas soul took over his body, mutating it into something bigger and more powerful.
The Dragon King had returned, ironically in the form of one of the series weakest characters.
InMortal Kombat: Deception, Reptile made a strange non-Onaga cameo.
Sindels ending involved her being able to magically remove Onaga from Reptiles body.
Regardless, the game saw Onaga defeated, and he was split from Reptiles body.
Reptile appeared as a boss inMortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks, an alternate take on theMortal Kombat IIstoryline.
It was a good look for him.
There was no Outworld or magic.
Just freaks and serial killers fighting to the death in the criminal underworld.
Reptile didnt do much outside of exist for shock value.
As expected, Reptile returned inMortal Kombat 9.
In the rebooted version of the first game, Reptile was quickly eliminated from the tournament by Johnny Cage.
Kind of sad considering how in the original version of the game, Reptile was such a legendary challenger.
Since Reptile wasnt playable in Story Mode, he proceeded to lose every fight.
He also didnt get any dialogue for whatever reason.
Mostly, he whispered news into Shang Tsungs ear.
At least he got to stand tall in his non-canon ending for once.
After killing Shao Kahn, Reptile demanded Shang Tsung genetically engineer the return of his Saurian people.
So yay Reptile, I guess.
Best of all, you could fight Reptile in his originalMortal Kombat 1form.
Reptiles back again for the new game.
