Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks

Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks from 2005 rewrote the story of Mortal Kombat II as a cooperative action game for one or two players, developed by Just Games Interactive rather than Midway itself. The game starts back on board the ship from the end of the first tournament and gradually guides players through reworked versions of iconic arenas – from the Pit to the Outworld – this time as fully walkable 3D environments instead of the static backgrounds from the arcade fights, so players could for the first time walk through places they had previously only seen as a fixed backdrop behind their opponent. Instead of short 1v1 fights, players accompanied the monks Liu Kang and Kung Lao through much more open locations than in the original game, completed side quests, collected hidden items, and unlocked bonus content referencing the history of the whole series, including nostalgic detours into earlier tournaments and characters who never appear on screen in the main story at all.

Combat played out as a fluid hack-and-slash with long combos, special strikes and throws, and classic fatalities usable even on regular enemies, not just bosses, which was a new approach for the series – the player could deliver a flashy finish even on an ordinary grunt, not only on the level's final boss. The game was packed with fan service – hidden rooms, era-appropriate references to older entries, and playable side trips into other parts of Mortal Kombat mythology – and thanks to two-player co-op throughout the whole game, it offered an experience no other entry in the series had had before.

Why play it: Shaolin Monks is an ideal choice for players who enjoy beat-'em-up-style action carnage while staying within the Mortal Kombat universe – ideally with a second player at your side, since it's precisely the walkable co-op and re-explorable arenas from both the first and second games that make Shaolin Monks a one-of-a-kind entry the series never offered again, before or since.