I thought they were great and personally liked the randomness of them with regards to certain characters having what, usually one of these abilities.

Makes for an interesting deceision which 1 only would you pick for your created warrior.

I also loved them as well. They could only add mroe to the game. I have'nt heard anythign about them returning(im assuming they will be), But i can't wait for some new techniques to master as well! MK247

In one of the trailers, Nightwolf's arrow seems to be stuck in the body of the opponent, maybe this is something similar to the impale?

i hope the power-ups return, they were really useful in Mk:Da and added a lot of strategy to each fight