If Jax does only boxing moves they'll call him a ripoff of Balrog and nobody'll use him.

I always wanted Jax to be a brawler. Pick you up and slam you, bash your brains in. No weapons, nothing fancy, just flat-out ass whooping. He's so strong he doesn't NEED to use a lot of skill. the MK2 comic (it's canon) said he was one of the strongest people on earth, just gifted like that.

That sounds unlikely, considering many fighting games have the boxer character. Specials, personality, and style of boxing would separate him from the rest. Baraka should be the brawler. Pure controlled chaos and no sense of direction.

http://img171.imageshack.us/img171/4760/youcannotmatchmyspeed.jpg

I would have liked to have seen Reptile with a calmer, classier fighting stance. I like that he's so fast, though.

In my dream MK game, though - I say this in the chat a lot - Reptile would have a Bloody Roar-esque ability to morph from a 'human form' to a 'beast form.' THEN his fighting stance could become that savage one we see in MK9, maybe different moves/specials would be available . . .

Goro: I think he should be really slow and really powerful. He'll be lucking to get a throw or short combo in, but when he does it will do lots of damage.

If Baraka ends up returning I would like to see a more agressive animalistic type of fighting style for him. I mean Tarkatans are a blood thirsty savage race that show no mercy and it would be cool to see that in Baraka one day.

Me too. I think if you have huge metal arms, you probably don't need boxing technique to bash some brains in. I prefer to think of Jax as a no nonsense brawler with more strength than anything else. I thought his stomp fatality suited him well and was excellent for that reason. At the same time though I didn't like the beefed up Jax because I think the leaner version of him emphasizes his arms more. I'd like to see the more sleek Jax with the metal arms, using his trademark throws and things like axehandles, lariats, various clubbing blows, and maybe the odd stomp.


And I think trying to be faithful to various specific martial arts is kind of unnecessary in an over the top game like Mortal Kombat which features alien lizard men fighting flamethrowing trash compactor ninjas. I'd like to see some characters appear to have techniques based on certain martial arts maybe, but if you spend any amount of time fighting you realize that for the most part, regardless of what martial art you learn a roundhouse kick in, it's just a roundhouse kick in principle much like the roundhouse kick you're going to learn in any other martial art even if the application is a little different. Basically, to oversimplify: a punch is a punch and a kick is a kick, I don't think "styles" are really all that important in a videogame which strives for equal effectiveness for all characters.

As far as playstyles are concerned, I'd like to see Kung Lao be made more of a rangey character between his hat throw, and dive kick thing, with the ability to teleport in. Raiden I think should probably be a little the same, with the ability to teleport out to create distance. Jax could maybe be your command throw character or something, maybe sub zero could be more about setting up traps with his freeze and ground freeze. I dunno. It's a different mechanic in 2D.

I always thought Raiden would be a speedy, hit and run type in his fighting style. I mean he could always outright kill you. But what does he do? Turns into Static at will, flies around, throws small bolts to stun and disorient.

Cheap shit...like a guy who knows you better than you do. A sensei stereotype...I always figured Raiden would act more like he does in the first movie. He's got power but he's mostly laid back and cryptic...they should try that in the games.

I know it doesn't seem like something a god would do, but Raiden is technically supposed to be seen but not heard. It could work if they did it right.