Jade was initially conceived by the series developers as "an evil version of Kitana" for her introduction in Mortal Kombat II,[8] in which she is a non-playable secret character whom players could fight after following a specific set of requirements.

She witnesses the deaths of Kitana and the thunder god Raiden's chosen fighters at the hands of the Deadly Alliance (Shang Tsung and Quan Chi) and their subsequent resurrection by the Dragon King Onaga.

They initially fight against the Earthrealm warriors, but Jade soon becomes suspicious of Kitana when she attempts to discover her true heritage, which in turn leads to her capture when she confronts Shao Kahn after coming across a grotesque clone of herself named Mileena.

As Raiden and Liu Kang commune with the Elder Gods, the Lin Kuei ninja clan and Sindel attack; killing Jade and several of her allies before they are resurrected as undead revenants and enslaved in the Netherealm by Quan Chi.

[15][16] Due to her plans to erase Raiden from history however, a time anomaly she created inadvertently brought past versions of Jade and Kitana to the present.

John Vogel, who worked on story and animations for Mortal Kombat: Deception, described Jade therein as "more of stealthy ninja type of character.

[27] Upon her playable debut in Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, her primary weapon became a magical steel bō staff, which was also used in her Fatalities, mostly for impaling her opponents.

[29][30] Sega Saturn Magazine's guide to Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 described her specials as leading into "some devastating combo attacks," adding that she was especially hard to win against as the CPU-controlled opponent.

[31] In their 1997 review of the game, GameSpot described both Jade and Noob Saibot in Trilogy as being "incredibly overpowered, with moves that run from rendering projectiles ineffective to making characters momentarily powerless.

"[35] For Mortal Kombat X, Jade's special attacks were given to Kitana for her "Mournful" gameplay variation, described in the game as her paying tribute to "her fallen best friend" by "employing the weapons of the deceased master assassin.

[38] She has no past relationship nor any interaction with Kitana in the film, and she secretly remains loyal to Shao Kahn while pretending to aid the Earthrealm warriors in her attempt to lead them into an ambush.

[46] Chris Plante of UGO wrote in 2010 that the character "seems to fetishize Eastern culture" in that she was "equal parts exotic slave girl and Asian princess, her most powerful weapon being her sexuality.

– and tired, sexed-up outfit" with her "creative finishers" and "her backstory, which has seen her develop from an uncomplicated assassin in Shao Kahn’s employ into a conflicted figure ultimately redeemed by her friendship with Kitana.

While discussing Sindel's killing of multiple characters in the 2011 reboot's story mode, Gadson noted that Jade's death was "the most gruesome in the entire cutscene; her white and male counterparts are only put down with punches and kicks.

"[53] Chad Hunter of Complex chose the Mortal Kombat 2011 versions of Jade and Kitana to represent the "women who fight" stereotype in his 2012 list of the fifteen most stereotypical characters in video games, describing them as "half-naked skanks who can fight, hurl lasers and perform aerobatic attacks while wearing thongs, high-heeled boots and keeping their giant breasts under scarves", which he felt had caused "female gamers [to] slide away from this series.

"[54] In a 2016 thesis discussing female representation in video games, Juho Matias Puro included Jade with Street Fighter's Chun-Li and Tekken's Christie Monteiro as "hypersexualized" characters "designed to aesthetically pleasure the hypothetical male, but their sexual identity and expression are non-existent.