characters, his offense is split into three gameplay variations. He retains his ability of mimicry in "Impostor", which allows him to steal one of his opponent's special moves during battle, in addition to gaining an aerial teleport. "Bone Shaper" has Shinnok conjuring a scepter crafted from bone that he uses for combo attacks, and for "Necromancer", his signature skeletal hands are used as his primary weapon. Prima Games described him in the game as "a character that relies almost entirely on the attacks he gains from his variations." Other media Shinnok was planned to feature in one episode of the 1996 animated series Mortal Kombat: Defenders of the Realm in which he would seek to "avenge his past" against Raiden, but the episode was never produced. Shinnok has a minor role in the 1997 film Mortal Kombat: Annihilation, in which he is played by German actor Reiner Schöne and his design and backstory differ from those seen in the games. He has a regular human appearance with neck-length blond hair while depicted in the script as the father of both Shao Kahn and Raiden, and is not identified by name on-screen until the film's conclusion. In the original closing scene that was shot but cut from the final print, he and Quan Chi are seen together in the Netherealm with Shinnok speaking the line, "Together, Quan Chi, we will be unstoppable." He makes a one-panel appearance in a special-edition tie-in comic book included with the 1998 PC release of Mortal Kombat 4, in which he and his Netherealm denizens capture Edenia upon emerging from a portal created by an orb that Quan Chi (posing as a refugee from another realm) had given to Sindel. Shinnok appears in the animated film Mortal Kombat Legends: Battle of the Realms, and is voiced by Robin Atkin Downes. Reception Shinnok was ranked 44th in UGO Networks' 2012 list of the top fifty Mortal Kombat characters. Robert Workman of GamePlayBook rated him seventh in his selection of the ten "Worst Mortal Kombat Characters Ever" in 2010. "The most threatening this guy gets is when he summons giant hands to squeeze someone to death." Den of Geek ranked Shinnok 35th in their 2015 rating of the series' 73 playable characters, critical of how he was built up "as this Satanic ender of worlds" in Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, but was "just a lazy Shang Tsung" in