I ain't against coming back to the 3d and being able to dash and sidestep but MK4 was kind of blank in terms of gameplay imo. Really fast even when you are trying to avoid or stay far from an attacking Goro but clueless on defense as a result. I'm cool with MK9 in terms of pace.

The MKDA era had the best over the 3d MK games. Kind of giving the player some time to think about his defense or attacks and fast once you landed the first hit of the combo.

yeah, mk4 was stupid when it comes to diversity in combos and fighters health and speed but, the physics of it was great. it didnt allow to many juggles and you can get about 2 hits max in air combos. the maximum damage thing is not needed, just scale back on damage. ALL fighting games will most times have an infinite or 2 but you can fix that via patch these days quickly.

maybe im just a sucker for fast pace fighting games. there could be an option like in the old street fighter games for the speed of the game too.

the combo speed is what sets mk3/4 apart from mk9 though. the combos flow so smooth in those games and at a faster rate. the punch sound effects make the hits seem hard and hurtful, unlike the new ones.

now mk should always be in 2d to me, i not sure if someone can come up with a good game for it. im really waiting to see what tekken does with street fighter in 3d. maybe they may have somthing up their sleaves that will change my mind!

Yeah, not expecting much from Tekken and SF wrapped up together but let's see. I guess having an option for setting the pace or speed if you will would end up with even more complaining on the online feature. Making ppl agree with their opponent on a pace and then using it as an excuse for why they have a hard time. Complaining about the fact that it's too fast or too slow since they let the other player choose.

I don't play online much since a time but juggle combos are my favorite parts! I really like Virtua Fighter as a result of that so i'd keep them and the infinite combo, since as you said, online patches always fix that.:( They are basically just cool combos for show on practice modes.

lol. noobs will always complain about something, because they dont put in the time to be good at the game, they just want to button mash and win. NOW I agree fighting games should have a fighter that has an easy learning curve but also complex rewarding fighters too.

and while on that topic.mvc and blazblue did an excellent job of making the game easy for casuals to jump right in and play, but also has deep technique that is required to become an elite tournament player.

Most fighting games have at least one cheap/easy learned button mashing fighter who'll unleash hell no matter what the player is doing with the controls so yeah. MK is a good exemple of one where someone can unleash basic combos, followed by projectiles, Scorpion spear and teleports if he never stops smashing the directional inputs along with the 4 basic attacks. A player that puts the effort in learning, if he doesn't provide a good challenge and starts to panic when he's about to lose can start rapidly mashing the controller and end up more dangerous than he was previously. Sux, but there is always a slight chance for that to happen. But i honestly think that options in MK like the death traps, setting the pace of the fight and so on, could tire players that actually learn how to avoid death traps.

Some fighting games set out to punish noobs, almost 100% of the time but playing even these games with always changing your pace because you face a different player? Meh. When i start learning one i'm getting used to its pace. I wouldn't be interested in fighting MK at a ridiculously slow or fast pace only because my opponents tend to have me switch a lot.

well juggles could still work in the game. but that "volley ball" jump punch needs to go because it makes juggling to easy. juggles should have to be timed hits and should stop giving big damage after about 6 hits. damage scale should kick in like blazblue continumm shift does. if a fight is bigger, he should fall faster(less juggles) and lighter fighters should fall slower(more juggles).

i love how mk3 had a balance of juggles and quick chain combos. i want the quick chain combos back more than anytthing. just have it in a free style relaxed combo system, like mvc3 and 2.5d street x tekken. i guess they would call them "target combos"....

I wonder if Ed boon will ever go back to 3d. The main thing in my opinion that messed those games up was the slow pace. I know some people didnt like it because special moves were no longer useful. So in a way the moves does need to be faster. Even though i dont like the 3d games, I will try to lay some ideas that would help mk work in 3d.......

The specials could act like a heat missle, so you couldnt just side step to dodge. You would have to parry, block or jump over the attack. The only way you should be able to sidestep is if you do at the last minute, and your reward would be meter or your oppenet would left open to be punished.

Players would also need the run so you could close in opponents faster to punish their mistakes.

You should have to double tap up to go sideways and hold it if you wanted to keep walking, same with the dash and run(just moving forward).

Yes, i know some ppl in my surroundings that hated the slow pace fights of the 3d era. Not that they hated the games but the pace only. I thought it was decent. As i said, a little better on the defensive side.

Not against going back to the 3d stuff, but looking at the difference between games like Virtua Fighter and Soul calibur in terms of speed, MK could still do a pretty decent work on the pace for the 3d. Maybe make it a little better/faster than the MKDA-MKA era, but not ridiculously fast. The heat missiles feature for the special should work only for a couple specials, specific characters only imo. Could add to the overall challenge to be able to avoid one with a sidestep, but have to defend harder against a different one.

First off, I don't believe MK4 was faster than UMK3. I don't have evidence to prove that, but my memories don't support that claim.

Second of all, we can make the game faster without going back to MK4's engine. That isn't too hard. I'm not sure why we'd want to, though. By having more temporal space between hits allows for different dynamics. It brings in the "too early" and "too late" factors that make good execution necessary, especially for dash-in combos.

Third, the MK4 combo system was TERRIBLE. It may have been faster, but that is literally the only (debatably) good thing about it. It was bland and broken in every other sense.

Fourth, patches are not that easy. They don't a gruelingly long approval process and patch changes may end up making the game worse if not tested properly (one reason why Jax is unbelievably good right now).

Finally... 3D Mortal Kombat isn't the way to go. Ever. Even when it was good, it wasn't Mortal Kombat. Mortal Kombat has a signature style that didn't translate into MK6-MK8. In MK9, I feel it did.

If want a fast 3D game, the solution isn't to change Mortal Kombat; just make a new game. Hell, give that prerogative to Killer Instinct 3.

I love the combo engine and game speed in MK2011.

I think the speed should be faster, I didn't like at all the dash nerf. Also, some characters have interrumptible strings.

Speed faster?...maybe,but MK4 isnt exactly an example of combo engine,geez....any scrub could play that game easily without any difficult.

It was perfect...then the did the needless, pointless dash nerf.

Just like you(and I) said, 2d MK is Staple of MK style. I feel that the fast chain combos are a staple of mk combo engine. UMK3 was the best game in terms of gameplay to most MK players. It still is played competitively at gaming events.

Now I would bring back the chain combos, but just in a freestyled nature. So you could still have time inbetween combos or do them quickly. You would be able to mix any punch to kick with any special. Keep in my mind this would create whole bunch of options for ground combos, plus you would still have juggles(air) combos after that to explore!! You wouldnt be able to button mash.....just like in MVC3 or BB. A skilled player that knows how the game mechanics work or the character match up, would destroy you.

I agree mk4 is trash. I just want the fast pace back mixed with UMK3 combo engine,which is what MK4 would have been if they wouldnt have rushed it(i believe).

Now Ive heard alot of complaints about the MK team not game testing enough for MK to be played at tournaments. I heard Tom Brady complain about block infinites. He even said that the MK team does not have what it takes to make a tournament worthy game, because of all the bugs and glitches. THAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN WEEDED OUT DURING GAME TESTIING STAGES.

I agree that patches for the game does take a long time thats why they should have tested the game alot before they brought it out.

yeah the dash nerf sucks. about the speed, it could be faster. but as far as MK4 ́s game-play, i prefer the current engine.

As for chaining combo's i can agree to some degree. complained about this to when i first played MK9. it should give the characters more differences in their combo's, and us more to explore in the game. its possible without having an unbalanced game, but requires lots of time and skills to program this.
if NRS is ready for adjusting their engine, this could definitely improve MK in terms of game-play. i find the game-play excellent, but it can always improve.

if we look at games like MvsC3 and SFxT. the game-play mechanics are a bit more expanded as u can chain every move to a special and also juggle like in MK9. and in SFxT u can also hold every special to increase the damage of that special. this increases the replay value and the creativity we can use.

MK should not stay behind just bc they dont want to do what other fighting games do. its important to have a difference, but not if it comes to stay behind in the fighting game genre. well the gore and grimy atmosphere should do enough for the differences if its done well. i could be wrong but as far as i know this is seen in more games.

this is really important for MK ́s future, i hope it gets noticed by NRS.