played by stuntman Ridley Tsui. He shot missiles instead of his harpoon from his chest, and overpowers Liu Kang in battle until Sub-Zero intervenes, enabling Liu Kang to finally destroy him. The plot ignored Smoke's history with Sub-Zero save for a brief mention of his initially having been after Sub-Zero before being reprogrammed by Shao Kahn to go after Liu Kang and Kitana to keep them away from Sindel. A computer-animated Smoke makes a very brief appearance during the ending of the 15th episode of Mortal Kombat: Conquest ("The Serpent and the Ice") following Sub-Zero's betrayal of the Lin Kuei and the death of the grandmaster. Smoke is summoned by the clan's interim grandmaster as the next warrior to hunt down and kill the traitor, at which point he begins emerging from mist as a faint, grey figure with glowing red eyes just as the screen fades to black. Smoke makes multiple appearances in the 2021 WB animation movie Mortal Kombat Legends: Battle of the Realms donning his MK9 alternative costume. Reception The character has been met with a mostly positive reception. He finished in a three-way tie with Cyrax and Sektor atop GamesRadar's list of "gaming's most malicious machines" ("No one does killer cyborgs quite like MK"), while Robert Workman of GamePlayBook ranked him eighth in his 2010 list of the best series characters. 411Mania.com ranked Cyber Smoke as the best MK character while adding that his presence was missed in the reboot. Smoke placed thirteenth in UGO Networks' 2012 list of the top 50 Mortal Kombat characters. Smoke has also gained attention for his "Earth Detonation" Fatality from MK3, for which Topless Robot listed him as the eighth-goofiest MK character, citing the "batshit insane" finisher as well as the smoke flowing around his body. In 2010, IGN ranked it as the series' best-ever finisher (titling it "Smoke Asplodes the Earf"), and, in 2014, rated it second in their top-seven list of the series' most brutal Fatalities. "Smoke indiscriminately kills eight billion men, women, children, and himself, just to embarrass his opponent after a fistfight." UGO simultaneously voted it the best Fatality and the second-most gruesome finisher in 2007 and 2011, respectively. GameSpy included it in their 2009 list of the top ten biggest video-game explosions. However, Game Informer voted it the most confusing finisher. David Saldana of 1UP.com rated it as one of the fifteen worst Fatalities in