Kombat style.

No, seriously.

Scorpion's supposed to be the only member of the cast who uses Japanese Ninjutsu.

But canonically, Ninjutsu is just a stolen and modified version of the Lin Kuei fighting style...so in theory, Sektor, Cyrax, Smoke, and the Sub-Zero brothers would all fight very similarly to him if it wasn't important gameplay-wise for everyone's punches and kicks to look unique.

Liu Kang's obviously an homage to Bruce Lee and uses his Jeet Kune Do.

Sonya has a stance designed to look like Tae Kwon Do.

Bo' Rai Cho is the inventor of Drunken Boxing.

Kano's supposed to know Aikido because the inventor of Aikido was the founder of the Black Dragon gang.

Jax fights more like a Pro Wrestler than anything.

I think that's it for the obvious standouts and story-based ones.

it has been said that they have no specific styles per character. but i know that the moves aren't mo captured by professionals like "martial artists".

NRS have said @ the Mortal Kombat (2011) Machinima Live Stream Game-play, that most moves are performed @the drop of there head and pp can go and mo-capture stuff them self.

so nobody in this game uses a specific martial arts style..... by stance of the characters i would say that they are all drunk, except for kung lao, ermac and noob.

Shang Tsung's current choice of stance suggests Wing Chun or any other southern short fist style. Sektor's is a bit reminiscent of Ba Gua Fan.

Sub-Zero's fighting stance suggests frozen stupid, because that is the most countereffective stance I have ever seen.

Liu Kang uses Jun Fan Wing Chun, the same as Bruce Lee. JKD is the philosophy of no-style, almost homogenous with the meaning. Lee's own style owns much to Ip Man and Wing Tchun. Same with Cage

Similarly and hillariously, Kung Lao also wispers southern short fist style during his combos, which is exactly how the shaolin did not fight. Then again, a shaolin monk trained for MK would probably not limit himself to one particular method and limit himself.

Most of the stances have no real use, or are otherwise flawed. Sub-Zero being the worst offender, Sheeva just letting her arms sideways (when they need to cover you from the front or be in the front to attempt something), Kano...

i have to say, you have some great knowledge of martial arts. i wished NRS had your knowledge of martial arts, that would make a hell of a difference and more sense too.

It seems like they do.

They just consciously appear to go for what looks cool instead of trying to capture the fighting style down to the letter like Virtua Fighter does.

VF just does what a fighting game has to do, if you get used to a character in let's say VF, that character would fight/feel the same in the next VF game bc pp are used to that character and his fighting style. off course they don't want every character to feel/fight entirely different with every new VF game like MK does.

and besides this, have you seen how some of those kicks look?? not cool, for example ermac's kick looks like his legs are too short. his not the only one tho.

In fact Liu Kang does practice (Jun Fan) Jet Kune Doo, wich is the combat style Bruce Lee taugh Ted Wong. I practice Wing Chun and I can tell you Liu Kang doesn't use Wing Chun but Jet Kune Doo. Bruce Lee practiced Wing Chun mostly and other styles wich he fused later on his own style. I've met some people who practiced with him (my si-fu for example) and they are different styles.

And about the shaolin not using sourthen styles, Wing Chun is a southern style, and a short one, and is one of the original 5 styles from the monks who scaped from the temple raid, so it makes perfect sense for Kung Lao to use short techniques. Kun Lao in fact is the closer to Wing Chun from the roster, his pose is very similarexcept for the close fist, most of his kicks are low or midle and his techniques follow most of Wing Chun principles of attacking and defend the center line without exposing yours, etc. BUt it isn't 100% Wing Chun, probably fused with other original Kung Fu styles.

Which game was it that NRS went to all that effort to incorporate realistic fighting styles for the MK characters? It seems like NRS still used design influences from these established styles.

I would say that Jax uses a combination of Muay Thai and Pro Wrestling moves while Sonya uses a form of Tae Kwon Do.

It's cool that with at least some of the characters, they managed to incorporate some resemblance to martial arts styles. See, this is sort of a testament to the idea that martial arts can work in MK and even be incorporated into this fighting system. However, it'd have to be a mix in certain cases. I mean, as much as it makes perfect sense for Scorpion to be using Ninjutsu, I bet some would complain if it was done quite accurately since there'd be a shortage of kicks.

Oh, and Chrome, you're spot on about Sub-Zero's fighting stance. I still hate it, and it sucks even more that Cyber Sub-Zero has more of the fighting stance that I wanted for Sub-Zero.



You're referring to MK: Deadly Alliance, MK: Deception, MK: Shaolin Monks, and MK: Armageddon.

I liked how Raiden had Jiu Jitsu in MKDA, but had zero throws or takedowns, or any sort of grappling whatsoever.

If I had to give Subzero's style a name I'd call it, "Troll Under the Bridge"

Is there a fighting style in existance that is similar to sindel's???

Over the head flip kicks and hair whips??
Awesome

You're missing a crucial point.

Virtua Fighter has no projectiles,and any of the special moves the characters might have are purely physical. Of course they can't afford to drastically change them from game to game without basically making a completely different character.

Now,MK is extremely heavy on projectiles,teleports and specials. And they generally don't tend to change from game to game.

MKDA notwithstanding,Cyrax's fighting style was always based around the trap setups with the bombs and the net. Sektor's gameplay was always based around keepaway with the missiles and the occasional tactical rushdowns under the cover of those missiles. Kabal's style was always based around waiting for the opponent to momentarily leave himself open and instantly punishing the fuck out of him. And so on.

It's the characters' arsenal of special and how they utilize them are what you would call the equivalent of a "fighting style" in MK. The actual martial arts the characters use in CQC are purely decorative (although, admittedly, MKDA-MKA tried to change that by introducing grapple-based styles and such).

I'm curious as to what kitana's stance may be similar to Cuz I can't stand it one bit she's lucky she's my favorite -____-

Dirty brutal street fighting

I think Sonya uses Mui Thai, not because of the stance, but because of her arm moves. Elbows + backfists.

Pretty sure they stopped referring to specific martial arts on purpose because of all the complaints from actual practitioners that the styles presented in the 3D games were inauthentic and/or poorly executed.

What Wing Tchun do you practice?

Because by oral history it was taught to Yong tsun by Ng Mui, who is a shaolin nun. The original Shaolin Chan buddhist cloyster was bereft of women, as they cannot enter buddhist sanctities (in accordnace to the original Indian religion) What I mean is that Wing Tchun is not a style internal to the cloysters hard external styles.

This was developed at a time anyway when the shaolin were also a social power, not just a sect. I think it is completely reasonable to assume that knowledge was hoarded around the temple and it's warrior culture.

I have Jeet Kune Do (the book), and it clearly states that the definition of style is a misnomer. The analogy to water in Lee's philosophy is that one of formlessness. His main goal was to do away with rigid preset forms that constitute "style" -how we use it in this thread currently- to give way to more flexibility.

Essentially he was an amalgamist, his fighting school, which is not a style as everyone forms his own presets (hell JKD wrestling is entirely possible) according to situation, build and need. This is the same motto JKD uses now: "Using no way as a way. Having no limitation as limitation."



On note: most martiala rts have very similar concepts when it comes to the basics. Grappling techniques in judo conincide 100% to the grappling in knightly Castellan wrestling. The fundamentals are same. Combat is math one part, so what works and is sensible to do with your body is also quite expected to surface as an idea elsewhere.

Regardless of Bruce's philosophy or intentions, he did have a specific way of moving, punching, and kicking, which many characters in video games imitate, and you have to call it something. It's not Wing Chun and "Jun Fan" is his own Chinese name. You can't go saying, essentially, "Liu Kang's fighting style is Bruce Lee", that just makes you sound like you suck at speaking English.

So we call it JKD.

That indeed was an crucial point that i have overseen. i know that the game-play isn ́t similar to VF but can better be compared to SF, but i made that comparison with VF bc you came with it.

what i meant to say with "i wished NRS had your knowledge of martial arts" is more bc they suck when it comes to martial arts in general. the moves look clumpy and most aren't even done by professionals but NRS self.
in MK 1/2/3 etc. the moves were all mo-captured by martial artists, and therefore the moves looked better performed than they look since MK vs DC. The moves do not look cool if you compare them to the older animations. and that's simply bc most moves aren't done by professional MA. the only professional was Carlos Pesina, and bc of that alot of moves have very similar animations or very similar footing.

I believe that Ermac is using some form of Wushu.