I definitely agree with you on MK introducing too many new characters in games.

Now on the characters changing dramatically each game...MK has not really had a winning formula (if I can call it that) since UMK3. VF, Tekken, and Street Fighter all have solid engines that only require minor tweaks and new moves introduced because they have a solid foundation. MK on the other hand has not really had one....well ever. You mentioned that VF and Tekken have something in common, well here are a few more things that the above mentioned 3 fighting games have in common that MK doesn't:

No infinites
No crazy (60%+) corner combos
Almost no glitches
Well balanced characters
and
None of these games are considered broken, which is a term that was probably coined to describe MK games.

With all of that being said, I love MK. I play all of these other games, but I'm more excited about a new MK game than I ever could be for the others. The only way that we will see small improvements over a span of games instead of a major overhaul is if NRS finally takes the fighting engine seriously. I mean it has to be WAY better than anything they have built in the past, it needs to be extremely balanced across characters, and they need to respond quickly to any sort of exploits that are in the game after launch. Until they do all of the following, we will continue to see drastically different fighting engines in each MK.

By the way, great post and I completely agree with you, but only after MK has a solid foundation. (keeping fingers crossed for the new one!)

What's Tekkev?




just kidding.

But I for one don't think they CAN if ya know what I mean.

Tekkev is the result of my typing on a mobile phone in a moving metro train

Deception is pretty much the poster child for everything that went wrong with the MK franchise, and it's no different in regards to this thread.

They had a solid foundation to work on with Deadly Alliance and decided to just fuck it all up by haphazardly mixing and matching fighting styles to characters, randomly dropping new characters and introducing a bunch of newer ones, and attempting to shoehorn in like a billion different story directions that didn't have any business being in the game.

Hopefully NRS doesn't make the same sort of mistake after MK9. Hindsight is 20/20 so they should take advantage of it.

Nice sonya sig!!!

I would have to agree with you Saizero... MK needs to find a formula that works and stop changing it around so much.

Ever since Armageddon I haven't cared to learn any characters because even my old favorites feel so unfamiliar.

In MKvsDC I only play with about 3 characters from the entire roster.

I got so used to the MKDA/MKD/MKA play style of my favorite characters.
Then here comes MKvsDC and it comes to a sudden halt. Now I have to learn my characters all over again for MK9.

I can tell you with all honesty, I will probably play with 10 or less characters in MK9 because I just don't have the time in my life like a 5 year old to dedicate hours to a game and learn everyone's moves and style of fighting.




I have to disagree about introducing characters though.

In MK2 almost half of the cast were new characters... that didn't mean the game was bad. What made it a good thing was the characters were awesome.

MK3's problem was it left the mystic realm and it was all modern technology mixed with a little bit of Outworld here and there - that and so many favorites had just dissapeared. They threw away fan favorites or gave them redesigns that looked hideous (Sub-Zero).

UMK3 tried to reconcile MK3's mistakes by shoving in the color swaps. It was too little too late. By that time the MK fanbase suffered serious losses.

If I had to rank MKD, it'd be second place to MK2 (MK2 being first place). The characters weren't that bad, except for Kira and Shujinko.

The thing is, they never really got it right. They tried different directions for the game, because they weren't sure what was right for the series. I like to think that they have FINALLY found the right playstyle for the game. It's been long overdue, but it's here!

From now on they just need to make improvements. No more overhauls. No more "wiping the slate clean".

I would LIKE them to do this. Establish a good fighting engine and tweak it in each subsequent installment.

Unfortunately, up until now they've been piss poor at the "good fighting engine" part.

I genuinely hope so.

I hope this is the fighting engine they keep tweaking now until the end of time.

Just a quick question.
I'm new to the forum and I've just been reading the various threads. I'm just wondering what do you guys mean when you describe MK as a "broken" game? I'm not sure what this means.

I have to agree with you on this one. Once they have a solid base to work with, they can make tweaks here and there. If the new fighting system is good enough, they could even have martial arts moves in there without the whole style switching thing.



Broken essentially means being unbalanced. That usually refers to someone or some move being overpowered.

UMK3 (arcade version) is hands down best MK game to date from a gameplay perspective. as long as people don't exploit the flaws in it, it's still the best fighting game to play against someone 1 vs 1.

MK9 should hopefully be the best since UMK3 and maybe better in some ways if they get he balance of the game right.

either way i am sure based on what i am hearing that MK9 will easily be better than the 3D MK's as going back to a 2D plane is nothing but a good thing and they apparently upped the SPEED of it quite a bit vs the 3D ones.

but without a run button it has me worried a little bit as the run button/combo's is what made UMK3 a big leap forward over MK2. the only thing MK2 really had going for it was sound/atmosphere as it's still the best game to date in that dept as the bridge in MK2 (arcade) was great when they screamed and then SPLAT.

yeah... as long as people don't exploit the flaws...

I can say the same shit about Deception.

First 80 percent of the MK2011 roster should be in every game, and at the very least every character from MK1-MK2 should be in every game.

I think characters should have changes from game to game, but not so many as MK4 Johnny to MKDA Johnny. I think that moves should be tweaked and the gameplay should be tweaked, because I don't want to be playing the same game over and over again.