What is it with you?

Anime/Manga can be all sorts of looks. It can be very dark and detailed looking, or even resembling American comic books. Just because the American market gets all the shit like Naruto, doesn't mean a little Japanese influence would hurt the series at all.

At the end of the day though, I can't think any Japanese company would touch MK in a million years. It doesn't sell well there.

Ok. EA? Can they make a good fighting game? Better than Midway maybe, but what we really need is someone who has the money to spend a long time getting the game right before releasing it.

Who has more money than EA? Def Jam: Fight For New York is one of the coolest, most unique fighting games I've ever played. So yes, they can make kick ass fighting games.

Just imagine, Scorpion's Hell stage that looks like it jumped right out of Silent Hill. With grotesque figures and tormented souls in the background. I'd probably **** my pants everytime fighting in that stage.

I didn't even think of that... Damn... Now I WANT it to happen!

Cool. Is it well balanced as well, or is it considered a broken game? We need to have a team who can create a fighting mechanic that isn't full of holes.

No, it's completely well balanced. The only thing that migh've put some people off is that it's Hip-Hop themed, so you got real rappers beating the crap out of each other. But even then, I know many people who aren't Hip-Hop fans, but still love that game.
The mechanics are a bit wrestlingy, but it's just a matter of lowering the amount of throw moves, and adding martial arts, which is what they did from Def Jam 1 to Def Jam 2, and even more so to Def Jam for PSP. Which is the second one, but with a different storyline and completely revamped fighting mechanics, which involved more dirty fighting techniques like throwing sand in the character's face, or when they're down, sitting on top of them and punching them in the face.
Point is, they have a solid, realistic framework, which they varied from game to game. So I can see them modifying it to be an all out Martial Arts system.

There is no such thing as a completely balanced fighting game. There is always a hole.

Well obviously, but not anything particularly noticeable.

That's where you're wrong.

May I present to you:


Even though MK4 is my favorite video game, I must admit that SSBM was more well balanced.

Ha-ha. Please tell me you’re joking.

Why would that be? The Super Smash Bros. series are very well balanced

More than SFIII: Third Strike, GG XX or Mark of Wolves?

The infinites that my friends have done to me beg to differ.

I think I've even read about people complaining that Smash Brawl took so long to come out, because Nintendo took their sweet time balancing the game.

One thing's for sure, it's a hell of a lot more balanced than the MK games. Heck, characters even pull off their moves in a more realistic and natural fashion. And their characters come in all kinds of shapes and forms. You won't see any stiff and clunky movements. Unless you're playing as R.O.B.. Who's a robot.

I kinda second that.

I rest my case.

BACK ON TOPIC: Midway was going downhill anyway. I already know that by the time I come out with a video game, MK will have ended. That would be good for me, since I'm working on a fighting game.

Sadly, it's not much of a notion, since MK Deception has more infinites than characters among other things and in my own opinion ranks on a top 100 list of most broken games of all time.

MKA was an improvement though still very broken. It's true that the team despite their technical expertise weren't aware of some things when they started MKDA (like why throws shouldn't be blockable), but they have improved game by game, and it's not really the team's fault entirely I think. It's the amount of time they have to churn out games with a team that size.

Unless you have a massive development team and/or loads of time (because you have loads of money) a fighting game franchise you update every year won't have even remotely the working needed to achieve a stable fighting game. And this is a fighting game problem, because it's easier to make a broken fighter than a broken shooter or racer, and especially when you have online to factor in. And it's circular, since the less money you have the less time you have the quicker you have to keep churning out games the crappier they are the less money they give you the less time you have...

Midway has to recover or die and pass on the franchise to a bigger, bolder, and richer company before we can see a truly AWESOME Mk game. Don't get me wrong, I love MK, and I've liked the MK games for PS2 and Xbox, but MK deserves to be truly kickass once again.

People might bring up Super Smash Bros when talking about Fighting Games, but the fact that Super Smash Bros is a polished game, doesn't make it a replacement for Mortal Kombat.
Frankly, I enjoy playing MK more, broken and all. I wouldn't play MK if it had SSB mechanics. SSB has no competition, because it's a completely different type of fighting game.

I'd consider it a beat em' up.

Konami's getting into the fighting market with their Castlevania fighter.... can't say I'm impressed.

Everyone has their own ideas about what MK should or should not be. For me, all I want is for MK to be a competative fighting game again. No true hardcore fighting fan will touch the MK series because it's arguably the worst example of homogenous, tactless combat this side of button mashing. MK needs characters with different speeds, sizes, strengths, weaknesses, etc., instead of just dial-a-combos and special attacks.

Despite what some people think, MK does have its share of fans in Japan. While it may not be as universally accepted as Dead or Alive, Street Fighter, or Tekken, it still has a following, and I'd love to see a competative studio make a competative product out of our venerable franchise.

There's no such thing as a perfect game. Any game, perfectly dissected, has major holes inside of it. The trick is to enjoy th parts of the game you like for as long as possible.

True, but some games have larger, more apparent holes or many more holes than other games.

The idea is to have as few holes as possible, or at the very least patch them up in later installments. Tekken and Virtua Fighter do that all the time, testing the games out in arcades to find any mistakes, fixing them as they go along, and then putting out a highly refined product on the market.

MK skips that step and goes straight to consoles. That doesn't bode well.

Time. Something they would have had probably more of if they didn't waste a portion of it on mini-games and the Konquest Mode.

They should have done the same with the sequels as they did with Deadly Alliance. Just concentrate on the fighting aspect. The only types of mini-games I want to see in an MK game is "Test your might". Seriously, who ever asked for an MK racing game? And if they want to make Konquest games, they should make it a separate title.

Brilliantly said. You don't see Street Fighter having Puzzle Fighter as part of its gameplay or Mario Kart squeezed onto the Smash Bros. disc. MK needs to concentrate on the FIGHTING first and foremost. If we really wanted "diversion" games, we'd play Mario Party or Wii Sports or something.

Jack Burton doesn't want MK to end...it's the only fighting game he truly knows...

I know there are better looking games out there than MK; I know there are games out there that probably play better than MK. Hell, there are probably games out there that may have better stories behind them, but the bottom line is this: I grew up with this franchise. The only fighting games I own (aside from all my WWF/WWE wrestling games) are MK games. I'm just a casual player of Tekken and Soul Caliber. I've rented games from those franchises on a whim before, but I've never actually been compelled enough to buy them. Call me crazy...call me whatever you will, but my loyalty has and always will be with MK (here's hoping after I declare this they don't go do something incredibly insane that would test my loyalty...that would suck).

I don't quite know what does it for me with this franchise. I guess I could start by saying I've liked a lot of the storylines in the MK games. I've always been intrigued by the main plots and all the interconnected subplots in each game. The whole thing with Scorpion and Sub-Zero, then later Scorpion's vendetta with Quan Chi...the Deadly Alliance...I could go on and on with storylines I've liked.

I'm drawn to the MK characters moreso than I am to those of other fighting games. I'm not sure why...I would say character development, but a lot of you would probably grill me for that, as many have argued that the character development is often ignored by the MK team. I love Raiden, Kung Lao, Liu Kang, Fujin...well, I guess the characters as a whole (except poor Mokap, or Mokrap as I like to call him...).

I like the multiple realms concept of this franchise. I thought the introduction of Outworld to MK II was just awesome. I think that really factored in to the overall appeal the game had on everyone, among other things. I thought it was kinda cool for a change to freely explore places like Earthrealm, Outworld, Edenia, the Chaosrealm, etc. in MKD, and I liked the way Outworld was depicted in MKSM. Just getting to see these places in-game was a neat experience.

I like being able to pick out elements that reference or are inspired by other sources I'm familiar with and tie them all together. I thought it interesting to find Raiden's design was inspired by the 3 Storms from "Big Trouble in Little China." I thought it interesting they based Liu Kang off of Bruce Lee (easily my favorite martial artist), Johnny Cage off of Jean-Claude Van Damme, etc. Little things of that nature fascinate me, and I can't find more things that do this in any other franchise besides MK.

To sum that all up, I love MK. Period. I grew up with it, I played it, I lived it...sorta. Granted, I'm no fan boy of this brand; I know I've done my own fair share of criticism toward the franchise for things, but I like to think the criticism keeps the quality up in a lot of cases.

That all aside, would I trust another company with the MK license, should Midway ever go under (which I'm not wishing it does)? My answer is yes, but I would want the following things guaranteed first:

1. One of the original co-creators of MK has to remain as team leader, and possess ultimate control of the product over the publisher:

I want to at least ensure that one of the creators of the MK team has control, namely Ed Boon or John Tobias (hell, both would be great, but I doubt that would happen). I want one (or both) of them there because it was their idea to begin with. Granted, I've not always agreed with their decisions (namely Boon, and I freely admit I've used him as a scapegoat before...), but I at least want him to be there to give the franchise some sort of direction. With Boon or Tobias in control, I'm sure they would hire some of the original MK team to work for the new publisher, so that would be good for maintaining the essence of the franchise.

As for ultimate control, Boon (or Tobias) would know the franchise better than a new publisher would, so final decisions about the product should be made by him (them). However, since the publisher gives the team the money to work with, then I could see them still having influence over the team. Therefore, I'm living in a "perfect world" on that one. Hopefully the publisher won't be overly demanding as to what the product should be, etc. The money issue sparks my second point.

2. The company that acquires the MK franchise needs to have a good amount of money behind them:

Money fuels the project. Money buys the team everything they need to make a kick-ass game. The company needs to have deep, deep pockets, so that money isn't a big issue when producing a game.

These are the only things I have so far for a list, but you're all welcome to add if you wish. These are the two necessary things I would want addressed before I even thought of the MK license with another company.

And THAT'S what Jack Burton has to say at this time.