Shao Kahn - Merchandise and Reception

Merchandise and Reception

A Shao Kahn action figure was released in 1996 by Toy Island in the Mortal Kombat Trilogy series. He was also one of the characters featured in the collectible card game Mortal Kombat Kard Game.

Shao Kahn has received generally mixed reactions from critics. He had been nominated to Nintendo Power Awards '94 and '95 in the category Worst Villain of the year (in the sense of "best"), coming second place for 1995. In elimination of GameSpot's vote poll for the title of All Time Greatest Game Villain, Shao Kahn won against Officer Tenpenny from Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas but barely (49.9% to 50.1%) lost to General RAAM from Gears of War. In 2010, Game Informer featured him on their list of gaming's "crappiest" fathers, commenting he "is more like an abusive, drunken stepfather than a crappy biological father also a terrible husband", and summing up: "Holy crap this dude sucks."

In their retrospection listing of MK characters, UGO' stated most favorite thing about him was the fact that "his speaking voice is the voice of the announcer heard throughout the series." In 2011, ScrewAttack ranked Shao Kahn as the fourth best Mortal Kombat character. GamePlayBook ranked him as the fourth worst Mortal Kombat character, criticizing him for looking like if "he failed WWE training camp". In UGO's 2012 list of the top Mortal Kombat characters, Shao Kahn placed at 16th.

The character's incarnation in the 2011 Mortal Kombat has been criticized for how hard it is to defeat him to the point of frustrating gamers. That year, CraveOnline included him on the list of five "bosses you want to kill but can't". In 2012, Complex.com ranked Shao Kahn from Mortal Kombat II as the "coolest" boss in fighting game history, stating, "In the history of fighting games, no boss has ever been cooler or more exciting to lose against."