Make no mistake Crow, MK's popularity has waned in the last several years. I remember the 2D era, back in the early/mid 90's when there was MK, Street Fighter, and everything else was a distant 3rd to those two series.
So in that regard, perhaps the word "iconic" differs from what hardcore MK fans who have followed MK since the height of it's popularity (MK1 and MK2) through until now versus casual gamers, casual fighting fans etc might know and remember from back in the day.
In other words, "iconic" to them might simply mean "memorable." I would wager that alot more people would remember breaking backs and doing the gotcha grab with Jax back in the early/mid 90's than throwing a ball of maggots with Drahmin or doing a punch/kick combo from across the screen with Kenshi.
Sure, characters that have been in the series longer will be more memorable (Rayden has been in 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, and 7 verus Kenshi's 5, 6 and 7) but I think that Midway is partially to blame for that issue.
Most fighting games grow their roster over time, replacing a character here and there while only adding a few with each installment. The Tekken's, DOA's, Soul Caliburs and especially Virtua Fighters of the genre seem to strictly adhere to a paradigm of fine tuning the fighting system, making current characters more compelling/balanced while bringing in a few new ones to change things up a little bit.
But starting with MK3, Midway has basically gone to turning over half of the roster, bringing back characters from past games that were MIA for a while while adding several new characters. Thus the MK roster amounts to what Armageddon had (something like 70 characters give or take). Most modern fighters haven't accrued half that number even with several sequels.
So yeah, when you have that kind of sheer volume, the Mavado's, the Hsu Hao's, the Striker's and even the Kenshi's get lost in the shuffle. When you have that many characters, the most memorable ones are the ones that have been around the longest. The memorable ones are the ones that people remember from the height of the series popularity. Characters like Jax then, who I think was absolutely ruined in MK:DA, gets the nod over characters like Kenshi or Havik or Tanya.
Of course, the other thing working against alot of the new characters is, as someone else said, the story issues and character designs of newer characters. Kira is a prime example of this problem. She has ZERO original moves. She has a cool look, but her move sets are directly lifted from previously existing characters right down to the special moves that were lifted directly from Kano and Sonya.
Kenshi has the same weapon as Scorpion and in MK:D, alot of his special moves are also used by Ermac.
Havik also has an awesome look, but his fighting style is lifted directly from Quan Chi, his special moves are silly and his story as an agent of "chaos" is rediculous, as he's basically a plot device and nothing more.
So yeah, being memorable, being around when MK was at the height of it's popularity and not having been ripped from a prexisting character or having a lame story all kind of work against newer characters. All of these things work against Midway in the development of this game.
That's why I firmly believe that in order to save this franchise, the MK team REALLY needs to go back to the drawing board. Stop with the fighting gimmicks, stop with the minigames. Make a compelling fighting game based on a great fighting engine with compelling characters with interesting stories (that weren't written by a five year old with ADD and a crayon).
If Christopher Nolan can take the same universe that belched Batman and Robin all over the masses and turn it into Batman Begins and The Dark Knight, then the MK team should be able to take the MK universe and create something new, original and fun to play again. If they have to scrap 95% of the roster to do so (and I think they should) and go in a new direction then so be it.
But if MK vs DC is showing me anything, it's showing me, through the current list of characters announced, that MK peaked in the mid 90's, and it's going to take a drastic face lift to the franchise in order to make this game as relevant as it once was. Shocking people by having Batman vs Sub Zero isn't going to work for the next game. The game has to be GOOD, and adding modes like free fall kombat and test your might, to me, is like putting lipstick on a pig.
I'm not bashing this game by any means. It looks like it could be really fun actually. Especially the new combo system. But I'm just trying to answer the question as to why MK1 and MK2 characters are the only ones that have been announced so far.
Until the MK team can give players a REASON to remember more recent characters or brand new characters, the public (casual gamers, casual fighting fans, non-MK fans) will only remember or acknowledge the best parts of MK's past.
Perhaps that's why the six themes on this site all happen to be characters from MK1 or MK2? Just throwin that out there, but I don't see a Bo Rai Cho Theme or a Daegon Theme anywhere.
