MK9 is a start-from-scratch game post-Armageddon. They confirmed ages ago that the only definite returning characters were Scorpion and Subby

Snap, so much for editing my original post, lol. Oh well, all is well I guess.

But in response to your comment, two points.

First off, we all know what game proceeded that comment. And I don't think the comment implied, "but if we do something other than a pure sequel to MKarmageddon, then we'll hold MK9 to the same standard we're holding MK8." Those comments were made under the pretense that they weren't going to make a crossover game.

Second, after such a negative backlash to MKvsDC, the logical step would be to make an MK game that looks and feels like MK. Having only two originals from the MK cast is not how you make a recognizable MK game. Then again, MKvsDC was in itself an illogical move (that's why many of us were skeptical to last second before confirmation), so who knows.

But finally, saying "Sub and Scorp are the only confirmed characters" isn't the same as saying "only Subzero and Scorpion will return in the next MK." It was a fishing hook; of course they're would be more classics. That was just a cryptic way of saying "this is a neo-mk game. Things are going to be different." But they're not going to bury the real money-maker of MK, the icons. When they made the MK films, we didn't get the gore, we got the characters.

Remember what Tobias and Boon said after MK4 came out: "The only thing you will recognize in the next MK will be the fatalities."

An M-Rated MK???? No way!!1!!11

Can't wait!

Motion Capture on the Fatalities? Finally some believable/smooth/fluid animations on-- what I hope to be-- a very realistically brutal portrayal of Fatalities. A revamp of the graphics/fighting engine, a whole new cast of characters (of course including Scorpion & Sub-Zero), Online, No gimmicks, and you got yourself a winner!

I still love the mk team and I can't wait for the new game. I just am cautiously optimistic. The last 4 games were rather hit and miss on different elements.

Also after the cluster fuck mka left the story in I actually would be up for a reboot of the series. If that were an option.

It's really good to know they're still working on the next game. I'm just wondering how Midway is still able to fund the development, until the buyout. Even if Warner buys the MK studio, I hope they let the team continue the original plan for the next game.

I also wonder if they're using the Unreal engine 3 again.

Finally good news. Since Deception we were waiting for this.

Add a good story, a small cast of characters, a good gameplay, dark felling, blood and gore. Thats all we want.

I and hope that this time is released for PC too.

Why does it seem like those aren't Boons words? Saying "U r" and : \ faces seem unlike such a person.

I don't know why you think it doesn't. But why the heck wouldn't it be. It's safe to assume it's Boon, he's given us info about DLC and he talks to other members of the MK team on twitter. And he doesn't only post about MK of course.

I really could care less if its M rated or not. Its all about the engine.

The M rating and gore is simply to satisfy the nitpicking that's gone on for the past couple games who feel they need more gore, more blood and better fatalities. While that always was the bread and butter of MK. People don't take the fighting aspect seriously which is why MK DA was a step in the right direction only to be watered down in later installments.

Hopefully the next game has a fluid, fast engine.

The only returning characters will be Scorpion and Sub Zero.

Full Roster (30 playable characters)

15 (available at start)

1. Scorpion
2. Sub Zero
3. Ragewire
4. Thermo
5. Gorax
6. Sarah
7. Kin Kai
8. Morevil
9. Tony
10. Urabai
11. Yoko
12. Axil Cage
13. Diva
14. Irabot
15. Tin

Next 10 (unlockables)

16. Victor
17. Abby
18. Fest
19. Haggen
20. Get Some
21. Kane
22. Qeuy Sin
23. Lace
24. Potent
25. Raven

Final 5 (Super Unlockables with various deals from companies)

26. Cammy (Street Fighter)
27. Ryu (Street Fighter)
28. Eric Draven (The Crow)
29. Venom (Marvel)
30. Link (Nintendo/Legend of Zelda)


Story is simple

With everyone but Scorpion and Sub Zero destroyed from Blaze and the aftermath. A new set of warriors look to take control. About as good as it gets from Boon.

Wait a sec: you want the roster to be Subzero, Scorpion, and 28 new characters?

Sorry, but that's insanity. Ever since MKDA, one out of every three new characters has been worth a damn. And the MK team isn't going to make 28 new characters anyway. That's a lot of work. And why would you even want that? Either you believe the characters of previous installments were crappy, or you have an insurmountable amount of faith in the creative effort of Boon's team.

And why say MK was watered down after Deadly Alliance? I see what you mean with MKarmageddon, but MKD was an improvement in every way over MKDA. It just wasn't properly tested and full of bugs, the design was far better.

FUCK....YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS. This made my day. It would be epic if this was a reboot of MK1.

Anyone else with me on this?

No?


Didn't think so.

I have seen several posters on different threads similar comments that a Mature rating only means more blood and gore to some people and other posters who want exactly that.

I for one do want a very M-rated game but that doesn't mean more gore or blood to me. Actually the blood was one aspect of mkda, mkd, and mka that was highly exaggerated. I found it to be a con quite frankly. I hated all those gigantic blood drops sliding off character's legs and those gigantic blood puddles. The mk team went so over the top with the violence, gore, and blood that those games while having an M-rating I found to be rather immature and light hearted.

With the exception of mk4 every game since mk3 has had those cartoony aspects to the violence. It is a conscious decision on their part to soften the impact I think.

I for one do want a m-rated game but I want a serious and dark approach to the material. That doesn't mean don't have humor. A mix between mk2 and mk4 would be nice but a little more grown up please. Reptile's mk2 fatality is a nice example of the dark humor that should be kept. Quan Chi ripping off your own leg and beating you with it is another one. Humorous but still brutal.

Less Joel Schumaker and more Christopher Nolan with a little Tim Burton thrown in for flavor.

That is what an M-rating means to me and what I would like it to mean for the mk team as well. An M-rating is about more than just the gore and blood imo.

hell yeah the dark knight was amazing

Yes. A M Rated game, is just not about blood and gore.

I would like to see a dark feel and atmosphere to the game. And this reflecting to characters storyline.

But Mr. Boon can not forget about developed a good fighting system. If they cant this time, the MK Team can give up.

At the moment this is all speculation anyway. They did say ages ago (like you said, before the announcement of MKDCU) that they were planning for only subby and scorpion to return in MK8, but they haven't confirmed/denied anything since then. I'm on your side with the rest of the characters, though, it seems logical that they include more classics than those two, especially after the backlash MKDCU created. Still, Boon remains illusive.

Good point. Made me think about the M rating so I just wanna post some thoughts.

==

Think about it, "Mature" rating. It's not really about blood and gore so much as it's about what should be deemed inappropriate for a less mature crowd. Gauging by what kids now days have access to, and are exposing themselves to, trying to establish a line that we can draw seems tough. It's a blurry issue at best, really.

However, since they kinda have to go by how the ESRB system separates the M from the T ratings, content in the game should look appropriate for young adults on up. 17+ yr olds at least.

Looking at it like that, they'd have to kinda ask themselves; "What was it that I enjoyed when I was 17yrs old, that my parents just could not tolerate me being exposed to?" Then....modernize that sort of thing, conceptualize it, and try to put it in the game effectively.

I'm a little older than 17 now, so some of things I'd like to see from a Mature MK are as follows:

1. Mature Themes - Basically these are just "grown up" situations. Complex situations that provoke the player to think about the consequences of an act. The Politics of issues that occur in the game with the characters, the concept of the consequences of Death//Murder (i.e.: if we kill him, what's the gain for us,a and what happens to his family..ect).

There's also things like how seduction can influence a potential mate...or victim (not to be confused with "I want sex in the game", because I really would prefer that they never do that in MK). True deceit//betrayal has psychological consequences on a person or character that adults may understand better than most youth.

Now, these sorts of situations don't need to be terminally serious.... after all it's a video game I'm talking about here. But the point is, we should be able to obviously tell that this game is actually for a mature audience.

2. Stronger Language - Even Wolverine said "Im gonna cut your got-damn head off" in his latest movie appearance....so yea, I think stronger language should be in a M rated MK. No character needs to be a complete and utter foul mouth, of course. But if they showed an artistry for the communication intuitiveness between conversing characters, profanity or curse words, and slander, then I think it should definitively be in MK.

In other words, we're smart enough now not to go as far as slurs (racial/cultural/sexist ect), but, there's still alot of "color" in calling someone a prick, an asshole, or something else even more colorful than that. The sting is just as bad. ha!

They need a wordsmith, a better one, or for the one that they have now to be challenged on this front. One that can not only create a more serious//real//aggressive tone in the way these characters communicate with each other, but can also allow the communications to show intelligence, and happen organically. Veer away from anything that sounds scripted, forced, immature, or downright corny.

The days of "video game character talk" are largely over. Y'gotta basically treat it like a movie script....and you can always tell when there's bad scripting in a movie because the actors come off as...liek....OMG s0, DUH.

3. Intense Action//Violence/ Terror - It's Mortal Kombat...so duh. If this "stuff" is not in there, it's not a Mortal Kombat game.

The only times I would pull back on this, is when there's something that seems too "try-able for some fan". So, if you think you can cut someones head off with a hat...you're the idiot if you actually go try that. However, if I show you how to cook up crack in my game or something crazy like that...then that's my fault.

Of the three I underlined though, I'd like to see more Intense Action and alot of Terror from MK. Violence doesn't need to really be emphasized because it's implied if the other two are around to any viable degree. A punch or kick is violent. How many and how fast that happens, invoke the terror element.

Intense action suggest that we should have to make decisions quickly over and over. Terror suggest that there are consequences to those decisions. So, yea, that's what I want.

I think it's rare that we see an excellent mix of martial arts and terror happen, so I'd wish that they aim for that. It's an open lane that hasn't been mastered by anyone yet. Tony Jaa (for Kung Lao or Liu Kang) meets Stephen King+Rob Zombie sounds about right for this. Modern, Action, Horror, Drama.

4. Mature Humor - There's a common sense about adults that you don't really encounter when you're younger. It mainly stems from realizations about surviving on your own. Simple mistakes that you may or may not wish you could go back and change, or science and facts that you learn the hard way instead of the easy way...ect. Mistakes you make because of love or hate.

I'm not looking for MK's humor to delve deep into this sort of thing (in a future MK movie I would though), I'm looking for them to recognize it in an M rated setting. Jokes about the government, jokes about some girl//guy or the way someone is behaving like a child when they're supposed to be thousands//millions of years old...ect.

Personally, I like dark...dry humor, practical humor, or humor that pokes fun that the dynamic of a situation. Irony, puns that almost cross the line, or humor that pokes fun at peoples understanding of content within any given religion.

For instance, that game Dante's Inferno has the 9 circles of hell in it, right? Well, I would expect Scorpion to have some pretty interesting things to say about that considering he basically lives there. Stuff that nobody alive can relate to, but is still funny just because Scorpion is trying to kill you.

At that point though, I'd expect it to be more entertaining // "enjoyable to the point of laughter" than anything else. "Scorpion has a personality, even if it is sinister, vengeful, spiteful, and extremely serious."

I think the rest of the humor in MK should really just be coming from the circumstances of a fight. I'm talking like, the bodies reaction to a punch or kick, and all the ways that seeing someone get there ass handed to them, can be funny. A few of us fans are now martial artists, so to put some of this realism in the game makes it funny because we understand how the body is supposed to react. "What if I poke you here?", "What if I tried to literally tear your ribs from out of your chest?" lol.

And besides that, we got stuff like the UFC out now, if it looks like an over exaggeration to something that's real, it's probably funny.

5. Horror // Terror - Horror is really only different from Terror because it has the emotional response//connect to it. Terror is the looming cloud, the dark side of your curiosity. Horror is the realization of something terrible.

I want both in MK in full force.....for a video game.

Bad dreams//Nightmares, "Stalkers in your neighborhood" are terrifying. Actually seeing or realizing a homicide has happened is horrifying. A good example of instant horror would be; jumping off a diving board into a pool of water, but before you hit the water, you wake up, to find that second before you hit the water...there was no water in the pool. "Thump". That's brutal too.

6. Blood & Gore - Blood and gore ....hm. I'll say I pretty much liked how they handled it in MKvsDC. Gimme a bit more blood than that, and we're good.

Gore should really only be happening around a fatality. It seems like the only time when its' appropriate. If it happens any other time, I'd guess it would take away from the Fatality experience.



Alright, that's 6.

I actually am. I would love to see remakes of the past MK games, in order, starting with MK1. Improved gameplay with new mechanics would help a lot.
Where you and I might differ, is that I would want a lot of the fighters we know of now thrown in as playable characters as well (Reptile and Ermac for a start, maybe Kitana, Mileena, and Jax hidden), and I would also want to keep it 2D.

^ It's one of those things that would have to be done just right. MK's history and nostalgia is its strongest crutch

Something tells me that they will sell more copies, than they expect...

Thanks for the comment Predator151. I have to say first off that you always write long posts. At the very least they are all thought provoking. But still long. In the past I have mostly agreed with your posts and ideas as really cool concepts.

I just read your recent post on what could be done with a real M-rated mk game and fucking hell! You literally read my mind. I mean that. I agree with 99% of everything you just wrote. The only real disagreement I had was when you mentioned Stephen King and Rob Zombie. Stephen King writings has always struck me as juvenile. While I like Rob Zombie his recent remake of Halloween while I enjoyed it was still typical Rob Zombie and didn't entirely come together thematically for me.

Aside from that minor nitpick, that is everything that I envisioned could be done if they were to make an actual mature THEMED game as opposed to one with mature CONTENT.

1. Mature themes:

I agree that because of the nature of the story and the characters themselves that there can be some nice ramifications to some of their actions maybe explored in the story. Like alliances or seduction done maturely. Thank you again for right off the bat stating also that this does not equate to sex in the game. Also that this does not mean that everything needs to be taken super serious because dark humor is a staple of mk and one of my favorite thing about the series.

2. Stronger language.

Agreed. But I would start with a well written script first. MK vs DC while it had some nice gems and certainly some real good moments (mostly the jokes) every thing else about it was very cheesy and hackneyed. That game really felt like it was made for 12-15 year olds. You will get them anyway, aim for an adult demographic.

3. Intense action// terror//violence

I think I get the gist of what you were trying to say with this one. I think by getting rid of the mkda, mk3 over the top cartoon antics a lot of this would kind of develop on it's own. Nobody should be farting, belchin, or puking. That establishes an atmosphere with a degree of levity that shouldn't exist. The only mood breakers should be related to some dark humor, like Reptile rubbing his belly after his mk2 fatality and going "mmmmm". That is one kind of thing that Rob Zombie seems to do well in his movies.

4. Mature humor

I already kind of touched on this but you did bring up a slightly different point but still really valid.

Mature characterizations of the characters. Flesh them out somewhat. You absolutely right that Scorpion should be an interesting character. He is a man who died and now resides in hell. He should have a unique perspective. There is no reason why he should be a one dimensional character.

I posted something sort of similar in regards to Sindel in one of QueenSindel(thebitch)'s thread. The mk team has such wonderful character if they would only explore them.

I mean kind of like what you were saying with Scorpion, Queen Sindel is a 10,000+ old monarch. She committed suicide after her realm was invaded and her husband murdered. Probably to stop Shao Kahn to invade earth or something. Now she has been resurrected. Use that. How does a 10,000+ resurrected monarch interact with her mortal allies from earthrealm? She is royalty also. What is her mindset? How does she view her now grown daughter who has been raised by Shao Kahn?

These are all mature themes that could be explored. Albeit within the confines of a fighting game.

6. Blood and gore

Ditto for me as well. MK vs DC with a little more blood and any gore would have probably been the perfect balance there. Some of the fatalities in that game were actually I thought very mature. But the lack of blood neutered them. Keep them realistic but still a little exaggerated. Johnny Cage's torso rip in both mk2 and mk4 is a brutal fatality but also one that no one could possibly imitiate at home.


Alright. That is it for me today. Gotta get some sleep. I just had to respond to your ideas though Pred, cause like I said you literally ripped them from my mind.

Will believe it when i see it ¬.¬

Will probably end up with Mortal Kombat vs Harry Potter Universe :p

I agree with Thrawn and Pred.

I want a truly Mature game, not a kiddie game with blood and guts.

The blood should be more realistic. Like Thrawn said, enough with the exaggerated, cartoonish, Kill Bill blood pouring and exploding all over the place. That should be saved for the fatalities only.

Also, they should drop the cartoon look. Characters, arenas, etc. should look realistic.

And the story should be as complex and intelligent as DA's. The last 2 games were so dumb.

That would be awesome. Any cross over with MK could work, as long as the opposing crossover is brought up to MK standards!

As far as a Mature rated Mortal Kombat is concerned. Erm... with the possible exception of Special Forces and the definite exception of MK Vs DCU, when haven't they been Mature rated?

Christ one crossover and the whole ethos of Mortal Kombat came crumbling down! So much so Mr Boon created twitter just to tell MK Fans: "Hey! Lissen!"

I just want it to be simple, to be honest. Less things go wrong when its simple.

They should definitely take the MK Vs DC style forward though. I mean the general look of the human characters, Not Superman and co.

They need one game to sort out the MK: Armageddon clusterfuck as far as storyline is concerned. Have a nice new little Krypt with a little paragraph as to what happened to each of them. Define who is "Dead", "Retired" and "Missing".

As far as gore is concerned, I dont want to see the spilling of organs. Or characters shitting themselves when they die. And drop the blood caterpillars.

I want new Shokan, Tarkatan and Centaur characters please Mr Boon. Expand Outworld and Edenia. We've got enough Earthrealm people.