So uh which MKs are worth playing for the story? I played the first 3 (and UMK3) to death and then 9/X/XL/11. So by my count there are five missing in there. 8 is like a weird crossover game right?
Also for anyone who totally missed it, MK: Shaolin Monks is a REALLY good spinoff beat 'em up style game that basically retells MK2's story (and maybe also 1? I don't remember). That one is totally worth playing. Alas I think it's stuck in the PS2 gen.
Edit: By beat 'em up I mean you do a lot of beating-up in Shaolin Monks. It's probably more comparable to God of War on PS2 than it is to, say, a typical Final Fight style brawler.
Edit 2: Looks like all the PS2 MKs (5/6/7 I guess) are super inexpensive nowadays, maybe $10 each on Ebay. Prolly gonna give them a whirl.
There's like no good way to play Mortal Kombat 4 at this point though. Guess I'm figuring out N64 emulation.