Portal



thumb|160px|right|The Portal - Arcade Version

The Portal is an arena in the Mortal Kombat series. The Portal was introduced in Mortal Kombat II and was later featured in several other games in the series.

Description
This arena lies in the Highlands of Outworld. The Portal remains still, with the exception of lightning striking in the center. This gateway is very unstable and unpredictable. Shadow Priests stand guard as watchers. Where the portal actually leads to remains a mystery.

In the Sega Genesis version of Mortal Kombat II, there was a blue palette-swapped version of the Portal that was used to fight the secret characters Jade, Smoke and Noob Saibot instead of fighting in Goro's Lair.

The MKII version of the Portal also reappeared in Mortal Kombat Trilogy with an added pagoda-style temple on each end of the arena. The towers from the Hidden Portal can be seen on one side of the arena (now filled with characters from MK1 to MK4 on separate towers if observed closely), with the Portal arena on the other.

In Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks, the Portal is the basis of several areas in Outworld (essentially its hub). Each of these areas are generally guarded by two Shadow Priests that must be defeated before the bridge to the portal will appear.

In Mortal Kombat 3, the Portal reappears again as the stage where one confronts Smoke. It has gone under a slight change however. It uses the floor from the Pit III and several tournament ladders are strewn across the landscape before the portal.

In its updated version in Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, a light blue version of the arena appears as Scislac Busorez (renamed Lost Bridge in the N64 version of Mortal Kombat Trilogy) where the opponent faces off against secret characters, namely Classic Sub-Zero, for whom the arena is named after, albeit scrambled. The arena is unlocked in the normal arena scroll after the player unlocks all of the secret characters.

In Mortal Kombat: Deception, the Portal appears as a combination of its II and 3 incarnations. One side displays the MK3 version (complete with filled ladder spaces using portraits from MK1 to MK4) and the other shows its MKII incarnation.

In Mortal Kombat: Armageddon, the Portal receives another visual design and is now multi-tiered. The default tier resembles a worn down version of the the Evil Tower whilst the lower one features a portal in the background and is used as a deathtrap. Those unfortunate enough to get knocked into the portal will have their bodies ripped apart and crushed as their pieces are sucked further in, a reference to Raiden having warned Liu Kang and Kung Lao about unstable portals in Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks.