I agree here that Mk has kind of veered away from "the formula"(so to speak). However, I don't think it's entirely necessary to "stay" so close to Earth to have a Mortal Kombat. Actually, I think that's part of what makes me buy the next Mk over and over...
The sense that something in the story, and or game setting will be different.

Instead where Mk truely suffers as of late to me, is in it's Creativity, in it's Gameplay fundamentals, and in its Story, and an array of its own elements. And then being able to tie all these things together to make an Mk game.....that makes sense to be the way it is.

Let's see:

1. As far as it's story, I feel like we should know more about each character that makes it into a game. Background, any sub-plots there might be, and overall character build up(powers and what each character is capable of...ect).

After all that has been established, why are they in this latest Mk game? If they're a returning character, what new martial arts did they learn if any? Shouldn't this effect what costume(s) they are wearing? Who taught them and how much time did they spend learning new arts? So that we get a sense of time from Mk. An Mk tournament is supposed to happen every 100yrs. Yes, that means that since Mk1, we've only had 1 actual "Mortal Kombat Tournament"(thanks Xd84). What new friends or foes have they acquired? ect...


As far as the overall story of the game, "when, where, how, what, and why" again. And then, how do each of the characters in the game tie into this story? This part hasn't been so terrible. It's more when they get into the "individuals" does it start to become a mess. MkAs endings and lack of bios are a perfect example of this.

2. As far as gameplay, I'm not a pro. But even people that have only played early games and then this latest couple Mks can feel how broken the system is. There's a gameplay thread Here

The parry and blocking systems are sad when you consider practicality and their fundamental functions in a game. There's glitches all over the fighting system. I mean, there's so many it's numbing. (look around in the stickies on this site)
The martial arts are both "stricken to a fault" to and are not "tailored" to the characters and their persona's. Qualities such as "tailoring" stopped being about the character so much, and started being about the "Exact-Martial-Arts". And then it wasn't so much that the styles were "correct" but it was more about basic distinctive moves within that style are what we got. Which is a crappy strategy to execute if you're going for "correctness".

I think they should use actual martial arts, but as a base that caters to a character. Stuff like a characters stance should've stayed the way of pre-Mk4. As a pure example, take Raidens' Nan Chuan stance in MkDa>> and ditch it. Let him stand how we(whoever the creator is) think he should.
Then, incorporate some things from the actual style into the characters move list but remain creative about his overall - style of fighting. The point here is, we should feel like we're playing with "our favorite character", and not the style our favorite character got stuck with... Even if it makes sense systematically to do so.

3. Now, since I'm a conceptualist, I see sooo many missed opportunities to exploit elements of Mortal Kombat that are already there. For one example, a few people around this site know I like that cartoon
"Avatar: Last Air Bender"(btw, I'm 25, lol). There's all of the "elemental" potential in a nutshell. Earth, Wind Fire, Water//Ice, Spirits and Sorcery//Xx-"Mancy"(necro, pyro, cyro)...and everything else in between can be drawn from a source like that.

There's also tons of missed opportunity the way of Training in MK.
Practice mode has been consistently "side-stepped" throughout the games. We should be spending an enormous amount of time in the "dojo" building our characters up, and learning specialties for the use of off and online play.
There should always be something else we haven't "mastered" about either our favorite characters, or our created characters. After all that's what's always displayed to us....that "you must study and train to become great"(or whatever)..

This kind of idea could even be used to explore more about a character. Bringing everything together could mean adding such an element as "konquest mode" into the equation, but on an indiviual level. For instance, send Sub-Zero on a mission that takes him though "Hell" to help build up a resistance to his opposing element. As a result he gains the ability to do a more powerful//higher tier ice move, or something more relative to that mission. Maybe he learns a move that let's you "protect yourself", or "resist an assault". Could even look like frozen fire or something weird like that.

A Shaolin Monk focuses "Chi and Ki". Any "mancer" has roots in dealing with the dead, or inanimate persons or items. Sorcery is almost always rooted in "magic", or an unknown science".

You see? The elements to make Mk waaay better are there, they're just not using them for some reason and it's making the games' design suffer.

Oh yea, "ImO".



Well, here again, I don't see anything wrong with introducing new characters.....Or even alternate worlds or dimensions. The problems more lie in each characters build up.

Nitara for one, should be painfully recognized with factuated folk-lore. She should have moves that mimic super agility. As I understand it, Vampires have to use up energy not to move a super-pace. She should have a move that tries to portray a Vampires persuasion over her subjects or humans. We should get info on her describing what generation Vampire she is, and how that effects her "power". Has she turned anyone? Was she turned or birthed? We don't know any of these simple things. We just recently learned why she's really even in Mk with her MkA bio release.

I really despise how Master Bo Rai Cho has been portrayed thus far. I prefer his interpretation in Mk Conquest that Mk t.v. show. I think if they ever have a sensei character again, he should be mostly seen in the dojo...training the applicable characters.
As it would be when you create a character who is a ninja....you go see "GrandMaster Sub-Zero"....makes practical and systematic sense. Not just one or the other.

___

So, overall I feel like Mk is still Mk. But it's just veered away from itself in the ways of creativity, gameplay, and it's never really gotten "better" story-line wise.

I would like to see MK8 more like MK, it's a bit too dark and gothic, I agree. I want the next game to be an official mortal kombat tournament, no tricks, no gimicks, no flashy storylines. Just the tournament.

How Bo Rai Cho is pseudo gothic I can only guess....

And whats wrong with Nitara? An oriental myth has no place in MK? Yeah right, rather drown the previous efforts of characters seen in MK3-4, if something, those were god-awful.