Mortal Kombat mouse pads for the desk

Our Mortal Kombat mouse pads and desk mats are Padrift designs inspired by the fighting game series, printed sharp and fade-resistant across the entire surface of a 3 mm neoprene pad. Under the fabric top is a non-slip base, and the edges are stitched all the way around so they don't fray. The range covers eight desk sizes, from 11.8″ × 15.7″ (30 × 40 cm) to 23.6″ × 47.2″ (60 × 120 cm), and you'll find the sizes for a specific design on its product page. Each pad is printed when it's ordered.

Mortal Kombat reached arcades in 1992, created at Midway by Ed Boon and John Tobias. Its fighters were digitized from filmed actors, which made them look startlingly real next to the cartoon sprites of other fighting games, and its story was simple: a tournament held on a sorcerer's island decides the fate of Earthrealm. Since 2010 the series has been made by NetherRealm Studios for Warner Bros., through the 2011 reboot, Mortal Kombat X, Mortal Kombat 11 and Mortal Kombat 1 in 2023. The games are known for their over-the-top finishing moves, and these designs leave all of that out. What carries over to a desk are the emblem, the colors, the arenas and the fighters themselves.

The dragon medallion

The series' emblem is a dragon curled inside a circle, usually drawn in gold or bronze, and it has appeared on every game's title screen in one form or another. It is a perfect shape for a desk mat because it works at any size. On the 11.8″ × 15.7″ (30 × 40 cm) pad, a single medallion in the upper half stays visible beside your hand. On an XL, a large dragon set faintly into black, like a watermark behind the keyboard, gives a dark setup a quiet centerpiece. Gold on black suits warm lighting and black hardware; a red dragon on black suits red RGB.

A desk for a fight stick

Plenty of fighting game players use an arcade stick or an all-button controller rather than a gamepad, and both are large, heavy boxes that tend to slide on a bare desk when you press hard. A desk mat solves that. The non-slip base grips the desk, the fabric top gives the stick something to hold onto, and the neoprene softens the impact of fast inputs. Depth matters more than width here: the XXL, 23.6″ × 35.4″ (60 × 90 cm), is deep enough to keep a stick in front of a keyboard, and the 4XL, 23.6″ × 47.2″ (60 × 120 cm), adds room for a second player's stick beside it.

Choosing a ninja by desk color

Mortal Kombat's ninjas started out as the same fighter in different colors, which makes them the easiest way to match the series to your peripherals.

• Scorpion: yellow and black, for a black setup with yellow or amber accents.
• Sub-Zero: ice blue, for a white or gray desk with cool lighting.
• Reptile: green, for green keycaps or a desk with plants.
• Smoke: gray, for a minimal monochrome desk.
• Ermac: red, for red RGB.
• Rain: purple, for violet lighting.
• Noob Saibot: black on black, for an all-black setup.

A single ninja suits a small pad, and a row of them in their colors makes a long mat look like a set of keycap swatches.

Fire and ice on one mat

The rivalry between Scorpion and Sub-Zero runs through the whole series, and it gives a long mat a ready-made composition: flames and yellow at one end, frost and blue at the other. The keyboard sits on the line where they meet, and the mouse lands on whichever side you prefer. A split design like this also suits a desk shared by two players, each with their own end, and it lets a keyboard with zoned lighting glow orange on the left and blue on the right to match.

Raiden for cool lighting

Raiden, the god of thunder who protects Earthrealm, wears a wide straw hat and white robes and is surrounded by blue-white lightning. He is the brightest figure in the series and the right choice for a white desk with cool lighting. Lightning crackling across a pale gray ground, with Raiden's hat as the only solid shape, makes a striking design that stays calm enough for a work desk. On a dark desk, the same lightning against black glows like an electric RGB strip.

Kitana, Mileena, Jade and the rest

Mortal Kombat II added a trio that follows the ninja color logic: Kitana in blue with her steel fans, Mileena in magenta and Jade in green. Their colors make them easy to pair with a desk, and Kitana's open fans are a graceful shape for the small pad. Beyond them, Sonya Blade's special-forces look suits olive and khaki accessories, Johnny Cage's sunglasses make a simple joke for a small pad, Kung Lao's broad-brimmed hat is a clean silhouette, and Liu Kang, the original tournament champion, suits warm red and black. Set any single fighter at the left end of a long mat so the keyboard never covers the figure.

Arenas already shaped like desk mats

Fighting games are seen from the side, which means their stages are wide, horizontal panoramas, exactly the shape of a long desk mat. The bridge of The Pit under a night sky, Goro's Lair, Shang Tsung's courtyard, the twisted trees of the Living Forest and the throne of Kahn's Arena were all designed to stretch across a screen from left to right. Printed on an M, L or XL, a stage background puts the keyboard where the fighters would stand, with the scenery running out to both ends. Empty stages without any fighters keep the mood and suit a desk that's also used for work.

A character select grid

Every Mortal Kombat begins at the character select screen: a grid of fighter portraits, one of which you pick before every match. Spread across the whole surface, that grid turns into a repeating pattern with a story behind it. Rows of small portraits look complete however much of them a keyboard covers, the grid gives a busy desk a sense of order, and the cursor-highlighted square can sit under your mouse hand. It is a nostalgic design for anyone who spent hours in arcades or on a couch picking the same fighter every time.

Test Your Might and a surprise in the corner

The first game had a bonus round called Test Your Might, in which you hammer buttons to break blocks of wood, stone, steel, ruby and finally diamond. That suits a mat that has to put up with enthusiastic keyboard use: a row of those blocks along the back edge, cracked in sequence. Mortal Kombat II added another famous joke, the sound designer Dan Forden popping up in the corner of the screen to shout "Toasty!" A small figure tucked into the lower right corner of a mat, under the mouse hand, is a detail only a longtime player will spot.

Realms beyond Earthrealm

The tournament takes place between realms, and each has its own palette. Earthrealm is temples, mountains and monasteries in natural stone and green. Outworld, ruled for most of the series by the emperor Shao Kahn, is purple and orange skies over dusty arenas. The Netherrealm is fire, dark rock and shadow. Edenia, Kitana's homeland, is a lush, green and blue paradise, the gentlest landscape in the series and a good choice for a light desk. Picking a realm is a subtle way to bring the series to a desk without putting a fighter on it.

Three eras of Mortal Kombat

The series has looked very different over the years. The early arcade games had digitized actors on painted backgrounds, a look that takes anyone who fed quarters into the cabinets straight back to the arcade. The 3D games of the 2000s added weapons and new styles, and NetherRealm's games since 2011 have become detailed, cinematic and glossy. Mortal Kombat 1, in 2023, rebooted the timeline once more with a new universe shaped by Liu Kang, now a fire god. A pixel-style design and a modern, detailed one can look like they come from different franchises, so choose the era that matches the person and their desk.

A version for a shared desk

Mortal Kombat played a part in American gaming history: its graphic content, along with the game Night Trap, was at the center of the 1993 congressional hearings that led to the creation of the ESRB rating board in 1994. That reputation is the reason to choose carefully for a family desk or an office. The dragon medallion, Raiden's lightning, an empty arena, the realms and the character select grid all bring the series to the desk without any of the violence it is famous for.

Sizes for the tournament

Sizes are set design by design, and the product page lists the ones you can order. These are the sizes that suit Mortal Kombat setups.

Setup	Size	Good for
Mouse only	S, 11.8″ × 15.7″ (30 × 40 cm)	The dragon medallion or Kitana's fans
Laptop desk	TCG Mat, 14″ × 24″ (35.5 × 61 cm)	One ninja in their signature color
Compact keyboard	M, 11.8″ × 27.6″ (30 × 70 cm)	A side-view arena behind the keys
Keyboard and mouse	XL, 15.7″ × 35.4″ (40 × 90 cm)	Fire at one end, ice at the other
Stick and keyboard	XXL, 23.6″ × 35.4″ (60 × 90 cm)	An arcade stick in front of the keyboard
Two players	4XL, 23.6″ × 47.2″ (60 × 120 cm)	Two sticks side by side, or a full stage

The L, 11.8″ × 31.5″ (30 × 80 cm), stretches a stage panorama across a shallow desk, and the 3XL, 19.7″ × 39.4″ (50 × 100 cm), takes a stick and a keyboard on a desk that can't fit the full XXL.

Gifts for a kombatant

Good recipients include anyone who grew up on the arcade cabinets, anyone who competes online in Mortal Kombat 1 and anyone who picks the same ninja every single time. If you don't know their main, the dragon medallion belongs to every fighter at once. If you can't check the size of their desk, an XL handles a keyboard and mouse on almost any of them; if they play with a stick, go deeper with an XXL.

September 13 makes a good date for a gift: on that day in 1993, Mortal Monday, the first game reached home consoles all at once. Allow 1–3 business days for printing; after it ships from Turkey, a US delivery normally takes 2–5 business days.

Cleaning after a long set

Dark ninja and Netherrealm designs show dust and lint, while Raiden's pale lightning shows marks where your wrist rests. A damp cloth once a week takes care of either. For a deeper clean, wash the pad by hand in lukewarm water with a gentle soap, rinse, press the water out with a towel and dry it flat. It never needs a washing machine, a dryer or an iron, and all three can damage it. Heading to a local tournament? The pad rolls up to travel and lies flat again a few hours after you unroll it.

A note on names

Mortal Kombat and the names of its fighters, realms and arenas are used here to describe what our designs are inspired by. Padrift is not affiliated with, sponsored or endorsed by Warner Bros. Games or NetherRealm Studios.