Quan Chi

Quan Chi is a fictional character in the Mortal Kombat fighting game franchise created for Midway Games by Ed Boon and John Tobias. First appearing as an original character in the 1996 animated series Mortal Kombat: Defenders of the Realm, followed by his official in-game debut in 1997's Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero, he is the most powerful sorcerer and necromancer to come from the eternally-damned Netherealm. Quan Chi is a malevolent opportunist who will ally himself with anyone who can help him further his own goals, and his conniving nature has earned him several enemies, including Sub-Zero and the ninja specter Scorpion. As one half of the eponymous pair in Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance, he forms a tenuous partnership with Shang Tsung and works with him to eliminate the Mortal Kombat champion and main series protagonist Liu Kang, and the evil Outworld emperor Shao Kahn. Quan Chi plays a notable role in the 2011 Mortal Kombat reboot title as he is written into the continuity of the first three games, and will be returning in the upcoming Mortal Kombat X.

Despite featuring as a player character in only four series titles to date, Quan Chi has quickly become a significant villain in the Mortal Kombat canon, appearing in multiple story modes and character storylines. Reception to the character has been generally positive, but decidedly split in regards to his Fatality finishing moves. He has additionally appeared in other series media such as the television program Mortal Kombat: Konquest and the Mortal Kombat: Legacy web series.

In video games
In the events of both Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero and Mortal Kombat 4 (1997), nefarious free-roaming sorcerer and necromancer Quan Chi assists the disgraced former Elder God Shinnok—who had been banished to the Netherealm by Raiden after centuries of warring—in defeating the realm's then-ruler Lucifer in exchange for power and the opportunity to co-rule the Netherealm at Shinnok's side. Shang Tsung reveals to Quan Chi the location of Shinnok's long-lost amulet, but Quan Chi is unable to retrieve it himself due to the presence of four elemental guards who protect it, and he therefore proposes a deal with the Lin Kuei clan of assassins: he would destroy their rivals, the Shirai Ryu, in exchange for the assistance of one of their warriors, namely Sub-Zero. Quan Chi convinces him to find a map leading to the location of the amulet, while having sent Hanzo Hasashi (Scorpion) on the exact same quest in the hopes that the two would meet in combat. Indeed, Sub-Zero kills Scorpion during the course of his mission, while unaware of Quan Chi's true motives. When Sub-Zero delivers the map, Quan Chi, true to his word, wipes out the Shirai Ryu, then sends Sub-Zero on another mission to find the amulet itself. Mythologies featured a trio of new characters in Sareena, Kia, and Jataaka, members of the cult known as the Brotherhood of the Shadow who served as Quan Chi's personal assassins. Once he finally claimed the amulet, he returned it to Shinnok, who was unaware that it was a meaningless duplicate while the sorcerer kept the genuine article for himself. However, Sub-Zero defeated Quan Chi with the aid of Sareena and then stole the (fake) amulet from Shinnok. Sent into exile following his defeat, Quan Chi would spend the following years assisting Shinnok in preparation for his forthcoming assault as well as heading the Brotherhood of the Shadow. In addition to his role in the series storyline providing the plot twist in the Scorpion/Sub-Zero rivalry, Quan Chi appeared in the endings of four characters in Mortal Kombat 4, while his own noncanonical conclusion simply shows him turning against Shinnok and destroying him with the amulet.

Quan Chi is one of the two title characters of Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance (2002). He escapes from his imprisonment and torture at the hands of Scorpion in the Netherealm, with the assistance of the Oni Drahmin and Moloch, but he swiftly ditches his rescuers and flees through a portal into Outworld, where he comes across a mummified army of the dormant Dragon King Onaga. Quan Chi brokers a deal with Shang Tsung for his assistance in reviving Onaga's army in exchange for a supply of souls that would preserve Shang Tsung's youth. Before they could act on this, they first had to eliminate their two most formidable enemies: first was Shao Kahn, to whom Shang Tsung and Quan Chi had feigned their loyalty beforehand before killing him offscreen; and then the perennial Mortal Kombat champion Liu Kang, who Quan Chi distracts long enough for Shang Tsung to kill him by snapping his neck. Shang Tsung, however, had secretly made a deal with Drahmin and Moloch behind Quan Chi's back, promising revenge against Quan Chi for his previous desertion of them. Still, together with the assistance of Onaga's army and a horde of Tarkatan warriors, the Deadly Alliance kills Raiden's chosen defenders—Johnny Cage, Jax, Sonya Blade, Kitana, and Kung Lao—and then defeats an overpowered Raiden. The partnership soon breaks, though, when Shang Tsung attempts to steal the amulet and control Onaga's army himself but is stopped by Quan Chi. The newly-reborn Onaga desires the amulet himself to control all realms, resulting in Quan Chi rejoining Shang Tsung (and Raiden) to fight the Dragon King, but all three are killed in a blast that destroys Onaga's palace during the battle, thus enabling Onaga to acquire the amulet.

Quan Chi did not appear in Mortal Kombat: Deception (2004), but returned in Mortal Kombat: Armageddon (2006) with the entire series roster. He was among the many characters therein not given a biography, though he was mentioned by name in six of the seventeen official bios that were created, including that of Sareena, who made her playable debut in the game. He is additionally revealed to have teleported right before Raiden's explosive blast and owns the amulet once again, and now wishes to acquire the ultimate godlike power granted from defeating the elemental Blaze. To that end, he has formed an uneasy and distrustful alliance with fellow villains Onaga, Shang Tsung, and Shao Kahn, while informing Edenian traitor Rain that he is the son of Edenian protector god Argus, in addition to the half-brother of the game's main protagonist Taven and his brother Daegon. In Armageddon's Konquest mode, Quan Chi suggests that Onaga, Shang Tsung, and Shao Kahn team up to defeat the forces of good, but he was actually working under Shinnok's orders to lead the other villains to the Pyramid of Argus. During the massive battle royal among the combatants, Quan Chi is first seen taking an elbow to his knee from Jax, but he shrugs off the injury and sends up an army of skeletal warriors that Jax easily dispatches right before Kahn fatally strikes him from behind. Quan Chi is later seen engaging Kenshi in a swordfight on the pyramid steps before stabbing Kenshi through the midsection, but he himself is not seen again after Shang Tsung (disguised as Ermac) throws him off the pyramid.

Though Quan Chi was not part of the first generation of Mortal Kombat games, he was the only character from the three-dimensional era included in the storyline and playable roster of Mortal Kombat (2011), the alternate-timeline reboot of the first three titles. In the game's story mode, he makes his first appearance during the Shaolin Tournament with the resurrected Scorpion serving as his personal assassin. Scorpion has entered the tournament to seek revenge against Sub-Zero, whom he (wrongly) believes slaughtered his family and clan. Raiden, in his effort to prevent Armageddon (as seen in the opening sequence), convinces Scorpion not to kill Sub-Zero after defeating him in combat in the Netherealm, but it goes for naught after Quan Chi manipulates Scorpion into the deed by showing a graphic vision of the Lin Kuei's murder of Scorpion's clan and then his wife and child. He and Scorpion join forces in the tournament to face Liu Kang, but both are defeated. During the second tournament in Kahn's Arena in Outworld, Quan Chi refers to himself and Shang Tsung as a "deadly alliance" when they team up to battle Kung Lao (and are beaten). In the retold events of Mortal Kombat 3, he revives the deceased Queen Sindel in order to enable Kahn to invade Earthrealm, in addition to having resurrected Sub-Zero as Noob Saibot, who assists him in his plans. With Quan Chi entrenched as Kahn's second-in-command, Kahn eliminates Shang Tsung and transfers his powers to Sindel, while Quan Chi constructs a Soulnado (a magical twister built from tormented souls trapped between Earthrealm and Outworld) in a graveyard with the objective of taking every soul in Earthrealm, starting with a group of soldiers he had held captive. However, Nightwolf defeats Quan Chi in battle and kicks Noob Saibot into the Soulnado, destroying it, but Quan Chi escapes when Nightwolf shields himself from the ensuing explosion. After Sindel massacres the Earth warriors who had assembled to stop Kahn's takeover, Raiden seeks cooperation between Earthrealm and the Netherealm and offers Quan Chi their souls as compensation, but Quan Chi has already acquired them, which Raiden then combats and defeats in succession. Quan Chi then inadvertently causes Raiden to have an epiphany when he scoffs at Raiden's claim that the Elder Gods are obligated to prohibit Shao Kahn from taking over Earthrealm; Raiden then realizes that Kahn must merge Earth and Outworld in order to prevent Armageddon, which would in turn force Kahn to face judgment for doing so without victory in Mortal Kombat. When Kahn is finally killed by Raiden in a brutal fight, Earthrealm lies in ruins and Johnny Cage and Sonya Blade are the only surviving warriors. Quan Chi appears at the conclusion with Shinnok, disdainfully picking up the remains of Kahn's helmet while declaring that Shinnok's plan "worked to perfection," which involves Shinnok and Quan Chi spearheading the Netherealm's impending invasion of the weakened Earth and Outworld.

Quan Chi makes a brief appearance in the 2005 beat 'em up title Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks, as well as the story mode of the 2008 crossover Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe in addition to featuring therein in Raiden's and Lex Luthor's endings. He is not playable in either game; Midway had planned to add Quan Chi into MKvsDC as downloadable content but he was axed late in the process, despite Boon's announcement at the time that the character was "almost done."

On October 2, 2014, Quan Chi was revealed as the latest playable addition to Mortal Kombat X in a trailer released by NetherRealm Studios at IgroMir, in which series executive producer Shaun Himmerick described the character as "a master manipulator" while in the new game "his schemes are fully realized. Using his necromancer powers, Quan Chi has built an army of revenants from the fallen Earthrealm warriors."

Design
Quan Chi became an instantly ubiquitous presence in the Mortal Kombat canon in 1997, serving as the main villain for the two series titles released that year; MK co-creator and programmer Ed Boon described Mortal Kombat 4 as "the Quan Chi show." He was played in Mortal Kombat Mythologies by Richard Divizio (Kano, Baraka, and Kabal), who also provided motion capture and voice work for the character in MK4. Divizio called Quan Chi "definitely" his favorite of all the characters he had portrayed in the series, and found acting in the cutscenes for MK Mythologies "exciting."

The character first appeared in Defenders of the Realm and MK Mythologies as a tall, bald figure wearing an aquamarine bodysuit under a black tabard with a high collar and tall spikes on the shoulders, accented by a yin-yang symbol mounted on the sternum. Designed by MK co-creator John Tobias, this style was carried over into Mortal Kombat 4, but for Deadly Alliance, the first release following Tobias' 2000 departure from Midway, Quan Chi's design was minimized, with him going shirtless and revealing a well-built physique with only a black bandolier across his chest, in addition to simple black pants and knee-high boots, with Shinnok's amulet usually attached to his belt; this has remained his primary template in all his MK appearances thereafter, while his first design returned as an alternate costume in several games. In conceptual sketches by Deadly Alliance character designer Allen Ditzig, Quan Chi was seen brandishing a "mysterious living weapon"—a staff topped with a grotesque head capable of spewing green mist and flies from its mouth. Though the staff never made it into the game, the concept was used in the creation of new character Drahmin, one of whose offensive moves involved shooting flies at his opponent. The one element of Quan Chi's design that has remained unchanged is his albino skin tone, with simple parallel black stripes extending upward from his eyelids and extending over the top of his head in his first appearances, then enhanced in Deadly Alliance and onward with an extensive collection of red tattoo-like markings on his head, back and arms, in addition to an elliptical red gem planted in the center of his forehead.

Gameplay
Quan Chi's signature special move since his MK4 debut has been his "Skull Ball," a glowing, green skull-shaped blast of energy that he shoots at his opponents; it was waist-high and impossible to duck, but reduced to life-sized in future installments. Alex Vo of GameSpy considered his specials in Armageddon to be "decent," but his Escrima fighting style could lead into "lengthy attacks which ... can take out more than 20% of a life bar." Quan Chi was unlockable in MK2011 after completing the story mode; Mitchell Saltzman of GameFront described Quan Chi therein as capable of "frustrating players with his long, drawn out, and damaging combos," while his "Teleport Stomp" maneuver—present in every game except Deadly Alliance and renamed "Sky Drop" in the reboot—was best used against opposing players who overused projectile attacks. Quan Chi's "X-Ray" attack is the only one in the game where his opponents actually injure themselves, starting with smashing their own head with a hard skull-shaped object he casually tosses at them, followed by a self-inflicted neckbreaker. According to Prima Games, Quan Chi was one of the weakest characters in MK9, winning at least half of their test matches with him against only three other characters, for a poor 38% overall victory rate.

Like his in-game offense, his Fatalities vary from the use of magic to outright brutality. In MK4, Quan Chi was able to mimic opposing players' finishing moves, but his second involved tearing off his opponent's leg at the hip and then savagely beating them nonstop with the still-bleeding limb as the screen faded to black for the next match, making it the only neverending Fatality in the series. It was carried over into the 2011 reboot (enhanced with the explosion of the opponent's head in the process), while his other Fatality saw him summoning a sword composed of green energy that he used to dismember and decapitate his opponent, similar to Scorpion's "Split Decision" finisher. However, his Fatality from Deadly Alliance, the "Neck Stretch"—in which Quan Chi leaps onto his beaten opponent's shoulders and pulls on their head to stretch their neck to an impossible length—became one of the most infamous Fatalities in the series due to its cartoonish appearance and lack of blood or gore. It indeed proved the least popular Fatality among many of the Midway staff; lead storyteller John Vogel revealed that the finisher was "a funny idea" that was instantly disliked after its addition into the game, but the developers were forced to leave it in due to time constraints. Sound designer Dan Forden cited it as an example of the team at the time "getting a little low on creativity," and programmer Nick Shin declared that it "totally didn't make sense." Boon deemed the "Neck Stretch" his least-liked Fatality, but also called the "Leg Beatdown" his all-time favorite.

In other media
One year before the release of MK Mythologies, Quan Chi made his official MK debut in Mortal Kombat: Defenders of the Realm as the titular character in the eighth episode. He is an independent sorcerer who has an alliance to no one, and is first seen watching a vision of the Earthrealm defenders in battle against Shao Kahn's cybernetic soldiers three hours into the future. When this event actually occurs, he takes advantage of their distraction by teleporting himself uninterrupted to the realm of Zaterra, where he enters a cave and steals a glowing red crystal called the gem of Tetsurri. When he passes through a portal into Earthrealm, he has assumed the form of a youth (simply a smaller, thinner version of himself with a head of black hair), pretending to be a refugee from Outworld seeking sanctuary when he encounters the defenders. As part of his ruse, Quan Chi exposes them to the gem when he offers it as a gift. Though Kitana prevents the team from accepting the gem, it nonetheless triggers acute personality changes that cause increased hostility among the heroes. According to Raiden, the gem contains powers that darken the human soul and "set brother against brother," and its effects will only get worse over time. The Earthrealmers travel to Zaterra amidst much infighting to find and destroy the gem, but, according to Quan Chi, only the "greatest warrior" can accomplish this. As Nightwolf was not exposed to the gem, only he is able to overcome Quan Chi's black magic and smash the object to pieces, thus breaking the spell over the Earthrealmers. Aghast at the foiling of his plans, Quan Chi disappears in a puff of smoke, and the heroes escape the cave as he collapses it. He was voiced by Nick Chinlund, and his name was hyphenated in the episode title ("The Secret of Quan-Chi").

Quan Chi was to make a cameo at the end of the 1997 film Mortal Kombat: Annihilation alongside Shinnok in the Netherealm, to where Shinnok had been previously banished for attempting to interfere in the final match between Liu Kang and Shao Kahn at the film's climax. They appeared together on the final page of the 1996 first draft of the script, with the only line of dialogue coming from Shinnok ("Together, Quan Chi, we will be unstoppable"). Quan Chi was portrayed by a Thai extra who did not speak English, and the scene was actually shot, with an on-set photograph additionally published in the December 1997 issue of Sci-Fi Entertainment, but the producers were unable to get the footage added to the final print in time. Quan Chi nonetheless appeared on the packaging of the Russian, Chinese, and Italian DVD releases of the film.

He was a featured character in a special-edition tie-in comic book that was included with the 1998 PC home release of Mortal Kombat 4, where he cons his way into the otherworldly realm of Edenia by posing as a refugee from a realm that, he claims, was annexed by an evil ruler. He offers Queen Sindel a mysterious orb that she accepts, but the orb opens a portal through which Shinnok and his Netherealm denizens (including Reiko and Scorpion) emerge, and they capture Edenia. Quan Chi's machination had been set up in advance with the assistance of the traitorous Edenian Tanya, which in turn established her storyline in the game. He is then seen on the last page awaiting the Earthrealm combatants emerging from a portal into the realm that was opened by Sonya.

In the 1999 television series Mortal Kombat: Konquest, Quan Chi guest-starred in four of the show's 22 episodes, and was played by Adoni Maropis. In the ninth episode ("Quan Chi"), similar to his DotR storyline, he crafts a potion that magnifies the flaws of the lead characters (Kung Lao, Siro and Taja), while subsequent appearances featured Quan Chi joining forces with Shang Tsung to defeat Kung Lao in exchange for Shang Tsung teaching him how to steal souls (episode ten, "Unholy Alliance"); his building an army under the guise of a traveling circus (episode fourteen, "Festival of Death"); and Shang Tsung morphing into Quan Chi in his plot to assassinate Shao Kahn (episode nineteen, "Flawed Victory"). In a 2006 interview with Konquest fan page MKC Site, Maropis explained that he "honestly wasn't into the whole Mortal Kombat video game thing," but he "just felt this character" once his makeup was applied, a process that took two hours. Maropis added that he had to fight to use the vocal tone he had created for the character and had used in his first appearance ("I would begin with a simple 'aaaahhhh… perhaps' ") because the Konquest producers wanted him to lower the character's onscreen intensity, but they eventually relented and allowed Maropis to rerecord his dialogue as he preferred in his second episode appearance: "They let me be and let it all hang out."

Quan Chi made a brief appearance in the eighth episode of the 2011 web series Mortal Kombat: Legacy, at the climax of a two-parter featuring Sub-Zero and Scorpion. Bi-Han (Sub-Zero) has fatally stabbed Hanzo Hasashi (Scorpion) just as Hanzo discovers that his family has been slain by whom he believes are the Lin Kuei, but Bi-Han is actually Quan Chi, who changes back to his original form and resurrects Hanzo as an undead specter, promising him revenge against Sub-Zero in exchange for his services. Quan Chi was played by Michael Rogers, who had originally auditioned for Kabal but was brought back for the part of Quan Chi after plans for including Kabal in the series were scrapped. Rogers enthused in a 2011 interview that he "absolutely loved the role" despite not having played the games, but once he got the part he avoided any kind of MK media aside from the 2010 short film Mortal Kombat: Rebirth, because he "did not want any influences and wanted to come in with a fresh perspective" on the character.

Promotion and merchandise
Quan Chi was the centerpiece of print-media advertising for MK Mythologies that included the tagline "Meet the root of our evil," and Divizio was prominently featured with MK3 actress Lia Montelongo (Sareena) in a blooper reel that was included among the game's bonus materials. Quan Chi would additionally become the symbol of the first MK installment that ushered in the three-dimensional era of the games; Midway character artist Herman Sanchez explained that the MK4 cabinet design would serve to reintroduce the series to fans while enabling the machine to stand out in arcades, and therefore a "big old Quan Chi face"—a shot of Divizio in costume superimposed against a wall of fire—was displayed on both sides of the cabinet: "No one could miss it, and that's what ended up happening."

The character has seldom featured in official Mortal Kombat merchandise. He was included with Scorpion, Kabal, and Shao Kahn in a collection of 2.5" super deformed figures released by Jazwares in 2012, and despite his absence from Deception, Quan Chi appeared on several common "attack" cards in the 2005 Epic Battles collectible card game that starred the game's roster, but he was not given his own character card. A placeholder for a planned 3.75" action figure was displayed by Jazwares at the 2012 American International Toy Fair, but the figure never came to fruition.

Reception
Quan Chi was ranked fourteenth in UGO's 2012 list of the top fifty Mortal Kombat characters, for his role as one of the "prime villains" of the series. Ben Richardson of GameFront said of the character in 2011, "He’s Scorpion’s boss—pretty much the ultimate badass credential." In 2013, Complex named Quan Chi second behind only Shang Tsung as the series' most brutal character: "He's MK's root of all evil, having a hand in just about every villain's scheme." In 2010, Game Informer named Quan Chi as a character they wanted for the reboot: "Many of the characters introduced post-MK3 were forgettable, but Quan Chi stood out as one of the more interesting." Fans have rated Quan Chi slightly lower, such as when he was ranked the 29th-best character in a 2013 online poll held by Dorkly that rated the entire Mortal Kombat roster, while he was eliminated in the lower rounds in the annual "Supreme Mortal Kombat Champion" polls hosted by Mortal Kombat Online, losing to Sub-Zero, Scorpion, and Jade, respectively. Bryan Dawson of Prima Games listed Quan Chi in his 2014 selection of the "cheapest" Mortal Kombat characters, as he had "80-percent-damage combos if [players] land a hit and have enough meter to burn." His noncanonical Deadly Alliance ending, in which he kills Kano and Liu Kang's soul enters Kano's body shortly thereafter, was ranked at #181 in 4thletter's 2013 selection of the top 200 fighting game endings, and his MK2011 ending came in at #90, where his undead army, including Shao Kahn, defeats Shinnok, who had turned against Quan Chi beforehand in attempt to eliminate any threat to his rule. "That’s when we realize what an idiot Shinnok really is."

Topless Robot called the inclusion of Quan Chi in Defenders of the Realm as "the only contribution to [the] franchise that this series made." However, Nathan Adams of Film School Rejects said in his review of the eighth episode of Legacy, "It’s not clear by watching this episode who Quan Chi is; they don’t even mention his name," while adding that he "had to do some digging around on the Internet afterwards just so that I could understand what was happening" in regards to the plot. Quan Chi has also gained some attention for his physical resemblance to God of War character Kratos, who was added to the PlayStation 3 version of MK2011 as a guest character. Brett Elston of GamesRadar remarked, "[A]shy white skin, red markings, shoulder guards...and Quan Chi's got about eight years on Kratos." Nerd Reactor quipped about MK2011's then-newly revealed character-select screen, "We get to see ... Sub-Zero and Kratos, I mean Quan Chi, featured [in] the screenshot."

Finishing moves
While the character himself was well-received by critics, the reaction to Quan Chi's Fatalities has been more polarized. His "Leg Beatdown" Fatality from MK4 was rated ninth in ScrewAttack's 2010 ranking of the top ten series Fatalities, with the site commenting, "Quan Chi, you may be evil, but you the man." GamesRadar considered it one of their "ten greatest things about Mortal Kombat" in a 2007 feature. Richardson ranked it as the sixth-best finishing move in the series, though he described it as "blue-collar and non-magical." Game Rant rated it fifth among their top ten Fatalities. "[H]ow humiliating would it be to get beaten to death with your own leg?" WatchMojo rated it third in their 2013 list of the best finishers, calling it "the ultimate form of brutal humiliation." WhatCulture placed the finisher seventh in their 2014 selection of the series' "stomach-churning" Fatalities, and exemplified it as an "awesome example of outrageous overkill in gaming": "It’s one of the more mundane fatalities, but it’s in its ridiculously [over-the-top] repetition that its perverse beauty lies." Gameranx ranked it last in their 2012 rating of MK's top ten most gruesome Fatalities, simply stating, "He rips off your leg and beats you to death with it. Classy." Prima Games included the "Leg Beatdown" at #43 in their 2014 list of the series' top fifty Fatalities. "The guy clearly has some issues to work out, but we sure aren't going to tell him to his face." Bloody Disgusting's Bill Frye ranked the "no-nonsense" finisher seventh in his list of the top ten series Fatalities, and Luke Brown of Arcade Sushi rated it sixth in his 2014 selection of the series' ten "gnarliest" Fatalities.

On the other hand, the "Neck Stretch" from Deadly Alliance has been lambasted as much as the "Leg Beatdown" has been praised. It was included among Game Rant's picks for the series' worst Fatalities: "First off, no blood. Second, why even bother?" David Saldana of 1UP.com ranked it the number-one worst Fatality, describing it as "the most evil of evils in the MK universe simply resign[ing] himself to making you look like an ostrich." Hardcore Gaming 101 commented, "One highlight [of the game] in particular is Quan Chi's Fatality, but only because of how incredibly stupid it is." Brian Nelms of GameSkinny opined that for Quan Chi being "literally the big bad guy" in Deadly Alliance, the finisher was "a polygon-bending display of lame." WhatCulture said, "[T]he only stomach-churning aspect about [it] was that it actually got off the drawing board," while Quan Chi had "redeemed" himself with the "Leg Beatdown." James Deaux of Earth-2.net deemed it the "lamest" finisher ever: "In a series where people have their heads blown up, ripped off, sliced in half, torched, melted, and even eaten whole, the producers of the games felt that Quan Chi should one-down them by ... stretching their neck out an extra three feet." ScrewAttack ranked the finisher sixth on their 2011 list of the series' ten worst Fatalities (titling it "Quan Chi Makes You a Giraffe"), citing its lack of blood.