Animations still suck. I'm not seeing any professional martial arts style fighting, just wild punches, no economy of motion whatsoever. And why is GL throwing palm strikes and extended front kicks? That is so not his style. They obviously put no effort into making the characters actually fight in character. Not only that, but at least 85% of animations I've seen are recycled from old games. Yum, leftovers.

That would seem really out of place.
I wouldn't mind getting a look at it to see if I've got any ideas, but I have a horrid feeling you might be right about a cartoon-style sentry, or something horrible like that. So much for that glimmer of hope!

and? If this game is at least playable why the hell does that matter at this point. Its obvious from everyone that's actually gotten their hands on the game that its a world of improvement over the last few, isn't that enough?

...Because with other fighters such as Tekken, SoulCalibur, etc... they don't use the same recycled moves and animations from the old games, right? It's not often a fighter sequel starts off from complete scratch, even so they DID do a decent amount of content from scratch... you must be blind not to notice anything at all. It's just a fighting game... take it or leave it.

Most games make an effort to get the base right the first time. They also honor their IPs with more attentive design in character fight styles -- something quite aptly described as lacking for a character like Green Lantern (to say nothing of the MK cast).

With some irony, I actually think MKDA put a pretty solid foot forward.
We do seem to have been on a path of unravelling much of that, however. Rather than iterate as other major franchises have to refine and embue their characters with marketable individuality, we seem to be shuffling, reducing and breaking apart the details, using noisy distractions to patch-over the cracks for promotion.

It's becoming a popular deflection to claim MK is designed to be an inviting fighter for more casual gamers, but as someone who sticks to the shallow end when playing, I can only describe the clunky and bitsy fighting of the last few installments as anything but.

Tekken and Soul Caliber honestly needn't change their fighting
animation because well, nothing is wrong with them. They are
smooth and very fluid movements. Why fix what isn't broken?
But nevertheless, MK vs DC (based on the live footage I saw)
definitely plays better than the last 3 titles and thank god for that.

Always with the Tekken and Soul Calibur comparisons. If you like Tekken and Soul Calibur, PLAY Tekken and Soul Calibur. If every video game was the same, why bother playing more than one?

MK isn't exactly in a position to be deferring to it's rivals.
Not that the context of any criticisms are directed toward imitation. Most references to Tekken or Soul Calibur concern standards of product and quality. The latest marketting trend might pretend Mortal Kombat doesn't want to be part of the fighting genre, but that does nothing to downplay the creative expectations of a series that includes - and arguably values - story and characters.

Seperating the development of characters and fight mechanics is counter-productive. Solutions to gameplay blemishes are easily accounted for by improving efforts to cast and derive a full illusion from these iconic characters.

the game is a epic failure for gameplay.
90 % of the string are high hits, so when u see a string comming all u have to do is duck under and uppercut.


if u thought this was going to finally be the game they got it right, u were fooled again.

its an utter mess.

It's not so much that I'm comparing to those specific games, those are just examples off the top of my head. I'm comparing it towards fighting games in general, my point being that several fighters use recycled moves and animations... it's not much of a bad thing as the OP describes it to be.

Is it wrong for me to use Tekken and Soul Calibur as fighter examples? Are they not fighting games? My statement was more of a RAVE to fighters rather than a RANT because I love them all and I play them all, same features or not. I don't understand what your case is.

True....and the game looks a lot better than previous installments. But that doesn't mean I'm not going to point out its flaws. True, Tekken and SC probably reuse a lot of animations, but as the dictum goes, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. MK's animations on the other hand, have been very broken and desperately in need of a fix. But instead, they've dusted off the same, tired, old, low quality animations and reused them in the least appropriate places. All in all, when you add up the amount of new content, it doesn't really equal a collosual success. I've seen a lot of games that impress me and this one only impresses in that it managed to slightly surpass my already meager expectations. I could go on about the crappy writing and horrible voice acting but then we'd be up all night.

Crappy writing and bad VOs have been a series staple since MK4, but Soul Calibur and Tekken both sufer from this as well.

Yeah, but nobody plays SC or Tekken for the acting or the writing. On a side note, it's not nearly as bad as MK's.

that's completely subjective and highly debatable. They're both equally as bad. Hopefully we'll have subtitles and and an option to turn VOs off.

"Crappy writing and bad VOs have been a series staple since MK4, but Soul Calibur and Tekken both sufer from this as well".


So then are you saying that you like the crappy writing and bad voice overs?

I'm a Tekken and Street Fighter fan for much the same reason I'm an MK fan -- I play for the characters and story. While some instalments might disappoint in that department, a game like Tekken can feel like a very satisfying purchase for it's range of FMV endings, additional materials and mini-games, and of course, it's fluid and effective gameplay.

Just food for thought.

No actually I'm not, What I was saying was these elements are expected. Nobody bitches when these elements appear in other fighting games.

That's because you have stupid fanboys that have been playing the last few MK's like a game from the adventure genre or something with a rich story. Wheres my proof? Well its plastered all over this board if you take a look at some people's posts. Where ALL they talk about is the fatalities, alt costumes, story etc. Instead of playing MK like a real fighting game where you use strategy.

Which is why this franchise was in the crapper in the first place. As much as I love the MK Mythos, This franchise needs to focus on the fighting first and fluff second.

Dude you double posted so MINION might come after you... Just warning

Other than that I think it's good to hear such a great review even though I skipped through the spoiler section
I am only worried that your opinion might be swayed by the fact you're an MK fan

What I also meant to say was that you probably do have other people that bitch about Tekken or Soul Calibur having a weak story (in their opinion) but they could possibly not be too much into gameplay. There are also people that possibly care about both story and gameplay of course.

You'd be crazy not to care for (want) both. Even fighting games need a polished story to go along with polished gameplay.

I concur, I want both, but gameplay comes first in my book.

I can't argue with you there.

You know when I was playing fighters growing up I had no clue how to play them and didn't know jack about fighting mechanics. Now that I'm older and can see things from a clearer perspective, I am aware of such things.

It's all chaos really.

I mean could you blame some 8 year old child who doesn't know how to wrap his mind around wake up games and say they are responsible for a series like MK not being a good fighter and just liking it for the rest of the distractions? And with all the feedback the team receives about making the game better in terms of fighting, they clearly just don't care about it as much. I say this because even someone said on here that some team member working on the Psi- Op's game tried to show them what was wrong with the game play from previous games and I believe that person said he got fired. Can you believe this? The MK team should know better. I think these guys are old enough and smart enough to realize that guy was trying to help them.

It all depends on what you are looking for really. Edit: But yes if I were to add a story to a fighting game, I would most definitely at least have it make sense.