I actually felt the the bosses in this game were far too overpowered.

Every other hit thrown at them would be rendered void by some bullshit golden light surrounding the boss. Also, in many cases the boss would hit you while you're hitting him, and only the boss' hit would connect.

I only found Shang Tsung fun to fight against amongst the deisgnated bosses, as he put up a fun and challenging fight.

Yeah, MK2011 bosses (except Shang) are terrible, Kintaro especially.

They should be more like regular characters in terms of moves, but do more and take less damage when you fight them as bosses. Maybe have their super meter fill up faster (like 1.5x faster for example).

The boses seem stupidly overpowered at first, but become dreadfully easy once you discover how to fight them. The golden light you see when you hit them are their armor frames (or super armor) in action. During any of their attacks they cannot flinch or have their attacks interrupted due to the armor frames. The trick is to block their attacks and then counterattack after they finish the attack.

The bosses used to have fast hitting attacks in the old days, but for whatever reason they gave them super slow armored attacks in this game. It makes them annoying to fight for those who don't understand how their attacks work, and boring as hell for those who do. If they worked more like normal characters they would be fun to fight and they would work as playable characters.




Agreed, Kintaro does suck. Kintaro has terrible basic attacks and relies entirely on his fairly spammable special attacks. Kintaro used to be one of my friend's favorite characters but he stopped trying to play as him in this game after using him for a few minutes.

All good ideas, that's pretty much what they used for Shang Tsung.

The greatest boss fight I have ever seen in a fighting game was Eternal from Eternal Champions: Challenge from the Darkside. He just has various phases you need to defeat. I'm not saying that Mortal Kombat needs to copy that, but I want a boss fight that truly means I'm at the end, this is the final battle, I need to kill this guy to finish everything... and battling Kahn did not feel like that. In fact for the longest time, I just hated completing arcade mode because I had to deal with this guy. After finding every nitpicking thing that I can use for an advantage to kill him, that was it. I never felt satisfied.

I would definitely appreciate it if the boss fights become different for the next game... Just no more of this cheesy overpowered crap. Let me feel intimidated again.

Just played through Tag ladder with my brother and I have to share what happened with the bosses. We were playing as Scorpion and Sub Zero who are not our best characters, but still characters we are good with nonetheless. We were playing on Expert and we made it through the normal kombatants only losing one round along the way.

By the time we make it to Shang Tsung my brother is practically falling asleep while playing and it takes us 7 minutes to defeat him. I beat him a few rounds by myself but my brother kept dropping the ball until he started to wake up more. After Shang Tsung we fought Goro. We took turns fighting him with my brother fighting him the first round and I the second, both rounds were easily won. The Shokan Prince was punked out in under 45 seconds.

Then came Shao Kahn, the big bad, the boss of boss, the final challenge. My brother fought him the first round and beat him without losing more than 25% of his health. I fought Shao Kahn the second round and beat him with only three moves: Spear, Uppercut, Teleport. I barely took 15% damage. Whoever designed the bosses is either an incompetent moron or somebody who hates the boss characters (or both).

Oh yeah, now that you mentioned tag... Why on earth didn't they increase Kintaro's, Goro's and Shao's health like they did with Tsung. Goro and Kintaro are especially easy to beat in tag mode.

When I played the tag ladder for the first time, I was hoping bosses would have tag partners too...

I was hoping for a Goro/Kintaro type of deal in the least, but somehow NRS couldn't figure out they had two Shokans and a tag team ladder.

My problem with them is that they're so hilarious cheap that to win you have to resort to cheap boring tactics yourself to win.

Fixed. The Bosses aren't tough like they used to be, they are generally crappy with a few overpowered traits. Their basic attacks are generally the same strength as a normal kombatant's attacks and because they lack working combos they are actually weaker then a normal fighter. The combos that the bosses do have are so slow that the second hit can be blocked even if the first connects. In addition to this their basic attacks are so slow moving that they can easily be dodged or blocked most of the time and are punishable if blocked. Their Armor frames are only active during the attack, so it doesn't help them out if their attacks are blocked or evaded.

Their Special attacks on the other hand are either good, bad, or cheaply overpowered. Goro's spinning slaps do far to much damage if they connect and his Goro grab is way too overpowered in addition to having broken attackboxes (it can't be jumped over). Kintaro's ground fireball can be used three times in a row to juggle somebody, and can be linked to his air grab for a ton of damage. Other than that their special attacks are fine, if anything Goro's ground pound and Kintaro's Teleport stomp are underpowered.

Shao Kahn is the king of cheap specials with his shoulder charge, upward charge, and hammer toss. His shoulder charge stumbles his opponent and recovers quicker then they do from stumbling, meaning it can be repeated without his opponent being able to do anything other than get hit or die from chip damage. His upward charge is capable of juggling his victim repeatedly until they are dead. His Hammer toss is especially stupid in more ways than one. When it hits somebody it stuns them momentarily, in theory giving Shao Kahn a free hit. Except anybody hit by it is still capable of blocking so the only thing it sets up is another hammer toss.

Their X-ray attacks are beyond overpowered considering each of them deal over 50% damage. Surprisingly enough Shao Kahn's is the weakest and easiest to dodge, while Goro's is tied for being the strongest and is by far the easiest X-ray to hit with in the entire game. In addition to this they cheaped out and didn't give the bosses breakers and only Goro's leaping stomp has an enhanced version.

So in the end the bosses are very poorly made characters that were either only partially completed, given very little effort, or programmed by an incompetent imbecile. Their basic attacks are too weak and too slow to be of any use, so they compensated by giving them a few broken special attacks and ridiculously overpowered X-ray attacks. The Bosses have to rely on these cheap specials and X-ray attacks to win because it is the only thing they have going for them. They are already fairly easy to beat but if you took away their overpowered traits they would just be glorified punching bags. It's too bad they couldn't have been made as balanced characters that receive an upgrade when the AI uses them.



DAMAGE COMPARISON
Damage against normals, [against Sub Boss], {against Final Boss}

Uppercut
Normal Character: 12, [8], {6}
Goro: 16, [11], {8}
Kintaro: 7, [5], {3}
Shao Kahn: 4, [3], {2}

NOTES
*Shao Kahn's strongest physical attacks are the same strength as Kintaro's uppercut.
*Goro's other attacks are around 7 damage with his second strongest being a sweep kick that does 9.
*Attacks do slightly less damage to the Shokan sub-bosses and even less to Shao Kahn.

So yeah instead of giving the bosses strong attacks they gave them weaker attacks (with the exception of Goro) and just gave them defense so the normal characters wouldn't be too much stronger when fighting them. Why the hell they would do that is beyond me.

YES. I have been compaining about this shit for a long time now.

BUT, you have to admit, MK2011 was a step in the right direction if you compare the bosses/sub-bosses to the ones in MKDA/MKD/MKA

The bosses in this game are hilarious. Kintaro, you back dash and throw projectiles until you see him teleport, avoid it and then punish.

Same with Goro. In Injustice, regime superman on very hard is hard as fuck so I think NRS learned their lesson.

The most fun I had fighting a boss/sub-boss character in MK was Goro in MK4. Loved the mo-fo's moves and they hurt a lot too! His throw (grab the opponent with lower arms, multi-smash their face with upper arms and throw away like garbage) was badass and it did something like 35-40% damage lol.

I found out that this isn't true, the combo meter DOESN'T count SK's hammer hit as the first hit in the X-ray, so it actually deals over 60%

It's a real shame they weren't playable - that would have been a REAL reward for completing Challenge tower. Worst of all it means you can't practice mode them meaning you can't find out (easily) how much damage their attacks deal.

I might be in the minority here but I actually liked the bosses from the 3D era quite a bit. They were about the same speed as the playable characters, had stronger attacks, short but brutal comics, and a few powerful specials. The bosses in MK9 are just too damn slow for their own good and are far too reliant on their special attacks and X-rays.Moloch and Onaga are far more fun to fight than the new bosses, and Goro was much more fun to play as in Armageddon compared to his MK9 incarnation.




Couldn't agree more. Goro in that game was frighteningly fast, incredibly strong, and an all around nightmare to fight. The bosses in the old days used to be so overpowered and tough to defeat.




Just tested it and you are quite correct, his X-ray does inflict the most damage. While it does the most damage though it is still the easiest of the Boss X-ray attacks to avoid or counter.

Couldn't agree more, the bosses would have been infinitely better then the flesh pits Mileena costume. As they are right now however I can guarantee you most people would not be happy with them as playable characters. I am able to play as the bosses and test out their moves and with the exception of maybe Goro they are very lacking.

Kintaro is incredibly boring to play as because his main strength is projectile spamming. His fireball move is an excellent projectile, and his firebreath is great for keeping people from getting too close. If an enemy does get too close all he really has at his disposal is his his grab, air grab, and his fairly cheap fireball juggle move. His basic attacks are slow and weak, while his teleport stomp move is too slow and easy to counter to be of any use. Too give you an idea of how much he sucks one of my best friends enjoyed playing as Kintaro in MKT and MKA, but stopped playing as Kintaro in MK9 after a few matches.

Shao Kahn isn't very fun to play as either because his basic attacks are almost useless and his special attacks are WAY too good. His normal attacks are the weakest in the entire game and with the exception of his kick and hammer sweep are incredibly slow. His Shoulder charge moves on the other hand are very cheap can be spammed indefinitely. The hammer toss is especially stupid because the only thing it sets up is another hammer toss or his X-ray. Interestingly enough Shao Kahn is the only boss to have a normal grab like a playable character. MK vs DC had the best example of a playable Shao Kahn, this game has the worst.

Goro is the only boss who is somewhat playable but he still isn't perfect. Half of his basic attacks are useless but he actually does have some that are worth using. His special attacks are all good but not overly cheap or powerful with the exception of his Goro grab and spinning slaps. Like the other bosses though his combo is too slow to function properly and most of his basic attacks are easily countered if blocked. Goro also has an enhanced version of his leaping stomp, which is the only boss special attack to have an enhanced version.

Overall the bosses are somewhat underwhelming as playable characters and AI controlled opponents, and would need some reworking if they were made playable. They are one of the few examples of poor game design in what is otherwise an exceptional game.

Actually, I find it more easier just jumping over them and comboing. It's also seems to work against Shang Tsung.