I mean why don't we just run down the list here.... Terrible communication: They either ignore, troll (Ed mostly, even in his own Q&As, he can't even take it seriously), or get snarky/passive aggressive/short. They knew better than to double DLC... Nah, they don't care, Rain and Shang DLC Again (or pre order again too, in Shang's case). They knew NPCs irritated people (whether they said they wouldn't or not, I know for a fact Ed said, at the very least, "we saw people weren't too happy with NPCs". So even if they never said never, they still did something they knew wasn't liked, again), guess what? More NPCs AND we'll make it characters you liked AND this time we'll redesign them. The list goes on, but this company just does not give af about the fans period.
Mortal Kombat already had a kind of multiverse. The Realms don't exist in the same dimensional space. It's why a Realm can 'merge' with another Realm, if defeated in 10 consequetive death tournaments. The winning Realm canibalizes the essence and energy of the losing Realm. Their dimensions bleed over into one another, for the merger to take place. Meaning that both worlds exist in the same location, in the same universe, but in different layers of reality. So that's already a type of multiverse that existed in the old lore. But NRS writers started to ignore all of that; making the existence of the different Realms, as well as the Tournaments, irrelevant. Instead, they adopted the super hero movie version of what a multiverse entails, at the cost of what made MK unique, and at the same time ruining the potential of telling stories through that old format. Shit writers, shit decision making, a lack of vision, and a kind of middle finger to John Tobias.
Exactly right @XaeeD The original MK lore had enough complex characters and backstory to sustain itself...there were many character arcs, origins, and unfinished endings to play around with. And the tournament added a sense of desperate urgency for the Earthrealm heroes to triumph. There was NO NEED for the multiverse arc, and NO NEED to "reboot" or "retcon" any of the backstory. That would be like constantly restarting the Harry Potter franchise or even an anime like One Piece; both already had a complex and deep world to explore. This is one of MKs biggest disappointments
As a lifelong MK fan since MK2 Mortal Kombat has truly lost its identity plain and simple. Tekken and even Street Figther know who their audience is and most importantly are also are proud of their history you can feel that in both games with T8 and SF6. MK1 feels like it can’t decide if it wants to be Mortal Kombat or Injustice.
MK has lost its identity? 😂 What about Tekken which was supposed to be a Virtua Fighter like, with combats close to the reality? Today, Tekken has lost all its identity and the characters have fireballs or special moves like in 2d fighting games! Just compare Tekken 2 or 3, with Tekken 8 to see that Tekken doesn't feel like Tekken anymore. The only game which is faithful to its roots, is Street Fighter.
Lol, I guess you dont know what imrpovment and refinement mean huh? The core Tekken gameplay is spacing, small pokes, punishing and juggling. It has always been like this since Tekken 1 now up to Tekken 8. They only improved the game. In every sequel the game just got better and when they did try to change the core gameplay it flopped. They tried to change it in Tekken 4, no spacing, less punishing and more aggressive gameplay with very less juggling. You clearly do not know what your talking about. @davidolivier1983
@@davidolivier1983 Homie MK1 can't decide if it wants to be an actual Mortal Kombat game with some new or evolved mechinics like both Tekken 8 and SF6 added or if it just wants to be another Injustice. Stop it Mortal Kombat has lost its identity and its been that way since MK9, stop living in dental. MK1 is so bad you have MK pros jumping ship and streaming Tekken daliy over a game they get paid to play, idk about console numbers but steam numbers for MK11 are higher than MK1 who would've thought that was even possible? I hope Mortal Kombat continues to burn because they deserve it for the mistakes they've been making for years.
The sooner NRS gets that violence alone doesnt sell their games anymore, the sooner we'll get good games out of them again. I dont care how realistic the grab animations are or how elaborate the Fatalities are if I'd rather watch paint dry than play a match.
Yeah....Both MK 11 & 1 to me personally feel more like something out of Injustice or Avengers rather than MK. Especially there costume designs and Marvel/DC sounding music. And the Soundtracks from the modern entries just don't hold a candle to the stuff from the 90s era and especially the tunes from the 2000 era 3D trilogy. (Deadly Alliance) & (Deception) & (Armageddon). Like I personally am not calling the NRS songs garbage per say and 11's composer is an award winning movie composer apparently. But his mostly super hero style of music honestly just doesn't feel like it fits in MK yah know?.
Oh, I'm so glad to read this comment! I insist on this point in my Steam reviews. While gameplay is a foundation of the game, art direction determines its appeal, identity and makes players return to a franchise to their own characters. But NRS has been destroying it systematically and now it has reached a new low. I dread it immensely.
Yeah and I don’t understand how Tanya looks completely different, it’s weird and honestly they should have made the new design of Tanya as a new character instead since she looks nothing like the old one. The only thing that can save MK1 now are the guest characters like homelander
Yeah, honestly at this point I just can't bring myself to play MK anymore, the character designs are so bad. Even the deception costumes in the new game somehow look worse, despite being one of the coolest costumes these characters have had. The character outfits all around are just shit, random colours, over patterned and over designed, and don't even get me started on the faces of characters
The character designs were shit. The story literally made the majority of the male characters look like complete morons. After I seen Sindel smack around Shao Khan without showing much struggle , or seeing Mileena struggle with her transformation & still was able to defeat Dark Raiden, It was a complete joke. The game itself did a good job of committing hara kiri in the face of games like SF and Tekken
Lame sterile story aswell besides the blood it's basically a marvel movie, the story should be fucked up & raw as hell, these games got the violent gameplay but not a violent story to match
Yeah and the terrible gameplay design with Invasions mode. Instead of trying to learn combos and getting good at the game, you're made to just use special relics which is the only way to win boss fights lmao. And the stupid levels with the projectiles that play worse than flash games i've played years ago (which were free to play, this game costed over 70 dollars.)
I'm a lifelong MK fan. A casual who loves the characters, world and story and enjoy the fighting aspects enough to enjoy the package. Thank you for taking NRS to task in hopes the next game can right the ship in some way. They're killing one of the greatest IP's in gaming for hardcore and casual gamers alike.
Ngl I have no idea how anyone can like the story and world lol it keeps being retconned every game and is lame as hell. You're fighting literal gods in MK and it's more lame and underwhelming than just Jin and Kazuya fighting each other
@BoOb-yd4dk I think they are both to blame. NRS seemed happy with a casual mainstream community and that's the thing. Mainstream casual are not real communities they just looking for the flavor of the month and will leave at the first mistake. Street fighter, Tekken, Guilty gear, Smash etc. Have die hard communities that love the mechanics of their respective games and aren't just there because it's popular and edgy. So yeah I blame the "community" for not sticking together and also blame NRS for not bothering to build a real community instead of appealing to ultra casuals.
@@yagamifire7861MK used to be dark. Deception was the perfect example of what MK should be as far the tone, story, and kontent. It still blows my mind current-gen MK1 doesn't have half the modes or features that game had. What's even crazier is Deception is Ed Boon's favorite MK game!
Are we truly surprised? After what we delt with mk11 watching other AAA titles get update after update, DLC content etc (i dont give NRS the COVID excuse) MK1 should've been free to play. The fact that they showed off the 1st reveal trailer with upscale graphics forcing players to buy a ps5 just for mk1 is criminal. Not only that but sell us a slightly optimized closed beta version of the game with the full roster patched in. To release the game on the switch and not the previous gen was a slap in the face. This is the eulogy of MK1. No DLC no guest characters are going to save it. Rest in pisss NRS
Yeah exactly why I didn't buy M1K: I wasn't going to buy a PS5 just to be disappointed again (after MK11). And so I waited, for once, as opposed to preordering. Can't say I regret that decision. Eventually I'm upgrading my system anyway, but not for this game. I'll purchase a new console once Dragon's Dogma 2 is released, and then I'll buy Tekken 8.
Shitty DLC characters too! The Superhero crap is so god damn lame. Sick of it. I can go my whole life without ever seeing another super hero and I’ll be fine.
God damn, I miss MK9 so much. The amount of hours I spent on that game, insane. The whole time I'm thinking "MKX is gonna be a BETTER MK9...IT'S GONNA BE AMAZING". Just to get some mk-injustice hybrid with a fucking dumb variation system, a stanima bar, and no dash canceling...what a joke.
Mkx was an amazing game...I absolutely loved it more than MK9. The variation system was cool as hell, amazing. I wish it became a mainstay in the series.... Having so many versions of my favourite character to play without it feeling overwhelming was so cool. Only gripe I have with mkx is the shit story and the relative lack of classic characters in the roster
Will say the combo system in X feels a bit more fluid and dynamic and it plays a bit faster. But, yeah the look of X is not great and the story was absolutely garbage. Then there was 11….
Man I haven’t played this in months lol. I’ve lost all interest. With all the changes and no changes I could care less. Paid over 100 for an unfinished game
Same bought it for 70 dollars on a whim and played a total of 2-3 hours same with mk11. I loved mk9 and X but this game was the last of my blind loyalty
I think the shills are one of the worst problems of the community. As long as you have certain dawgs and poets that are constantly jumping to the defense of NRS, NRS will never change what they're doing.
Yeah but how much influence does a shill have? They only influence those who take them seriously. It's not so much the shills, but everybody listening to the shills.
@@TheJatonEffect I'm sure they have a huge following. But that's my point. It's that 'community' that watches their videos and views these clowns as representative of the Mortal Kombat fanbase. So the shills' influence depends on how many people from the community pay them attention. I haven't clicked on any of those CZcamsrs' videos for many years now. I hated those guys back when they first started, because they simply didn't resonate with me. Their opinions are meaningless to me. That also says something about all of those who do follow them. The problem here is that there's a huge community of fans out there, who love MK without really understanding the franchise's original sense of direction. They hopped on the bandwagon after Injustice or during MK11, and so of course thát generation of players listens to your dawgs, poets and uncages; because that's the target audience. I mean, those CZcamsrs belong in the same category. In that sense, the shills are overly excited ignorami, easily entertained and extremely reactionary, emotionally, and at the same time, their whole audience could be described as shills just the same. So to me, there's not much of a difference between those shills and their fanbase. I view them as third generation fans; kind of pseudo fans. Like how you could be a huge fan of Michael Crichton's literature, and then there's a kid who really loves the Jurassic World movies, and when the former criticizes those movies, the latter defends them, because the kid lacks the substance, nuance and insight to understand why the older fan hates those movies so much... if that makes any sense.
At this rate, Mugen and Soul Calibur character creations are the best substitute for an MK fix. Least with those two, it actually lets you change the pallete colors freely, instead of having 4-5 ugly presets. (Sold separately.)
I think if NRS didn’t keep trying to reinvent the wheel with their games, then there would be more stability and not as much issues in their games. I’m a big MK fan, but NRS definitely needs to reevaluate their creative process and hopefully they don’t run into similar problems in the future.
The weirdest part is how they could've done it well. Look at Street Fighter and how everytime they "reinvented" was just adding a new feature to the game. To SF3 Parries, SFA and their counters or style selects, SF4 and focus attacks, SFV with V-System, and now SF6 with the Drive System. The gameplay was always samey yet the things around it made it shine. If only MK saw that and went with it. Imagine a MK9 or MKX style with MK11 Moves and Krushing Blows and the freedom of air combat like MK1. Would have been a good evolution and still familiar to old fans
@@darksigma0282that certainly is one of their worst things is that every game restarts the whole way you learn to play it and that nothing carries over from the previous games. I would like to see a game with the heaviness of the strikes and attacks from MK11 and the Krushing Blows (do away with literally everything else), the speed of MKX and overall movement and combo system, the look and brutality of MK9, and the potential tactics from M1K and I think it’d be decent. But, NRS is not going to do that.
@@doomkrieg3817 yeah was saying something similar to that, just have what was good in previous games and carry it over. That's what made SF and Tekken shine, because each new title just improved on the basics. It's sad how MK has pretty much devolved as time went on. If you told me during the MKX/SFV days that "Street Fighter is faster than Mortal Kombat", I wouldn't believe you
@@darksigma0282 you know it’s weird. Real weird cause I’ve been noticing a lot of games that are a series or I suppose franchise are going backwards in development. So this’ll get mighty weird cause I’m going to compare apples to oranges potentially here, but stick with me here. MK9 to MK11 is what Crash Bandicoot 3 is to Crash Bandicoot 4. If you’d like me to elaborate further I am willing to do so. But that might turn into a small essay.
@@doomkrieg3817 go ahead. Honestly didn't know Crash 3 went backwards. Thought it went forwards by friends account. Only issue was item collection, THAT was the real downside
32:37 “When you have a great idea that works, that sells, you build on it.” THANK YOU SO FUCKING MUCH TOM!!!!! I genuinely think thats one of their BIGGEST issues. They don’t keep whats good and scrap whats bad like SF and Tekken. They are so stuck on drastically reinventing the wheel every game regardless of the good or bad features that comes with that design philosophy. I genuinely don’t understand why tf would they get rid of mechanics/features that your players ACTUALLY LIKE?!?!?
Exactly. I'm a casual player of MK, and as such I would happily just play that one game only because I liked it back in the old days. But this constant habit of reinventing it not only from a gameplay point of view, but even art direction and storylines has wore me down. NRS has no grasp of its own product, it's pretty evident by now.
Historical context does matter sometimes lol. That's like asking why did Rome fall, and your answer is "the barbarians took it over" It's true, but it's not really an answer
As problematic as mk1 is i doubt tekken has much to do with the situation. 3d and 2d fighters are too different to compare, idk why so many ppl do that. I for one never played 3d bc i just dont like em, im sure im not alone
MK has an uncanny valley feel to it. The more REALISTIC the animation looks, the LESS believable it IS. It doesn’t look like a fun video game, but like a slice of life people are trying to ESCAPE. It’s too “real looking.” Also, so much violence doesn’t make SENSE. You kill somebody at least 20 times BEFORE you can do a FATALITY … it makes the waiting for the opportunity to do a FATALITY a worthless affair. It’s supposed to be a FIGHTING GAME (with fighting styles), not a murder fest. LESS IS MORE.
I agree!! You forward to the fatalities now they’re a that big of a deal. Also I think the addition of the non MK guess characters is corny. Get back to the original MK.
@@Jackhuncho well, I remember when in TONY HAWK UNDERGROUND you would 2 or 3 special characters that could unlock with a CHEAT CODE. Remember those?? In 1 TONY HAWK game you could unlock Ironman and in ProSkater 3 or THUG 1 I think you could unlock Wolverine. The point is, if they are going to have special characters, they should make it SPECIAL (like the FATALITIES). They should just have 2 or 3. It should be a big deal to see Terminator or Ash from Evil Dead…. Not just 1 or 5 or 6 characters.
I'm 41 years old and have been a fan of this franchise since the original game release in 1992. Fell in love with the MK lore, the characters, the gore, the cosmology, the humor and the wonderful community that shares the same love. I agree with all of your criticisms, all of which are fair and very well considered points that touch on every aspect of the franchise and technical details to do with gameplay. It really does feel like MK has finally run out of steam. The magic is gone, and there's just a complete lack of creativity and innovation from the developers. Even worse than this, it seems that the developers have forgotten what used to make this such a fun game to play. The demise of the MK scene is sad to watch, but sadly inevitable I guess. Your channel is an excellent anthropology of MK history and evolution, and I'm glad newcomers will be able to learn about the cultural impact of MK by watching your content. Peace.
I'll be 41 next month. I remember huddled around the Genesis with my friends and being blown away by the game. Played MK 1 for two weeks and was really disappointed. Hopefully they get back to their roots.
The developers don’t care about the hardcore fans. It’s just about the $$$ and dlc…greedy bastards just lost my business. I own every MK game released. That’s about to change for the best 😂
Agreed. I'm 42, but it's over for me. Sad to see MK go down this road like you said. I'm at the point where unless they give it to Tobias, I'm out for good. Don't see that happening though.
MK9 was a resurgence. They started squandering that goodwill immediately with MK 10, and to a lesser extent Injustice 2. The moment they started messing with character designs I knew it would only get worse. When developers are more worried about wagging their fingers at you for liking what you like, they're less focused on the (other) things that matter. Even worse, it was pretty damn bad hearing that there was broken tech in MK 9 and one of the devs, at a goddamn tournament, said "just take the hit" when asked what to do. I never in my life thought Id ever be hoping for MK to fail, but it needs to happen. They need to be reset. The woke element needs to be excised. People who care need to be brought into NRS. People who care about quality need to be brought into Warner Bros. I will never go so far as to say Boon's own co-creation needs to taken from his hands, but he does need to be made aware of how he's dropped the ball.
I spent 2 weeks wondering why it felt like my combos would consistently drop whenever I was second player. I thought I was losing my mind and maybe I'm just trash...then we found out that NRS literally messed up the hit boxes for the second player......I haven't played since I found that out
MK11 considered garbage by sweaty asses, because they weren’t able to do those 80% damage combos… for me MK11 was great, full of content, good visuals that suits MK universe(better than MK1), ok story, ok soundtrack etc. The only thing I didn’t like about MK11 is the roster, too many special forces…. MK1 is the real garbage, the only good thing about MK1 is the roster and that’s it, everything else is trash…
@@V-95Kyou can’t be saying it’s garbage by sweats when you even had pros stating the same thing about mk11 is straight up fucking garbage, in relation to kbs, the stupid handling of custom moves, the balancing of certain characters and custom movesets etc., the story being the worst out of NRS, people were also complaining about customisation as well about how they were just paletteswaps as well as questionable choices in terms of making the grind unbearable and how much they were pricing for the actual editions of mk11. Mk11 only has more content but it’s still just as shit as mk1 from what I am seeing (if not more) due to how the game was ridiculous catered towards people who never played fighting games their entire life
MK11 is “meh” and forgettable, but I wouldn’t call it garbage lol. It’s not a good EVO type of game which is understandable with hardcore players. It’s an alright fighter 😄
Honestly, the death of Mortal Kombat is chalked up to them playing it too safe with everything. They came on to the scene pushing the boundaries of censorship in gaming... paving their own lane and now they are trying to appeal to a certain audience that isn't even true to their core. I hate using the term "woke" but that's exactly what comes to mind. Too many of those type of developers/entities/people tampering with the essence of Mortal Kombat. This was the first time I loaded up an MK game and didn't feel the edgy/creepiness that MK is known for. I know they are going for the whole Liu kang perfect dream world story line but this game is just too clean/safe/polished in all the wrong areas. I want to play mortal kombat... not a fortnite fighter...
Also the community is horrible. They all hyped/praised this game during the beta... when I easily noticed it was horrible compared to playing the streetfighter beta. I'VE NEVER PLAYED SF in my life and instantly knew it was a better fighter.
I hope this is a wake up call for those who have been blindly defending this franchise since MK11. I also wonder how many people will forget about this the next time a shiny new MK game comes along
I always liked the character and lore of Mortal Kombat more than playing the games.The most fun I've ever had playing a MK game was Shaolin Monks 2 player with my brother. The MK movie is one of my favorite Martial Arts movies also. With all the money and sales MK makes, I don't know how NRS constantly screws up their games instead of improve them.
I actually think they should pivot away from making subpar fighter games, and instead get into animated movies.....I mean, they are already apart of the WB. And I feel like the storytelling could really shine in a series of films vs. video games
You actually articulated exactly why I faded from NRS MK after MKX. I never really thought about it, but I agree. It’s the constant restarts and lack of communication from devs. Great vid, Tom.
Mk1 was odd...the hits landing and doing combos feels good, but I dunno it feels limited I wish it had mkx or 9 gameplay but with assists and the invasion modes are boring as hell
For sure their best titles were MKX for MK and IJ2 for IJ…. A lot of ppl like mk 11 too but universally seems like MKX is like a bit more or respected, and then when you mention gameplay mechanics MKX is better, no auto meter, no break away Vs breakers, no unfair KB requirements, actual variations with a theme that goes with it, kept your base set it just changed the function/properties or enhanced your specials or stings that fit your variation theme, n add variation moves. Where in mk 11 it was more limiting like swap one move for another, more like loadouts tbh. And while I didn’t like IJ2 as a competive game cuz I did not like the zoning, it was certainly more fun casually and a good time than mk 11 for me. Mk9 just had the best roaster tbh. And ij1 is just inferior than ij2. MK1 is stale asf, same CZcams combos, lack of features like lobbies, connection issues, Johnny cage being too good for no reason, cameos tho cool, should’ve just gone for 1v1. Quan is so ass in mk1 bro compared to X. Idk maybe cuz X was hype and year 2 was hype with esl. Mk11 was like forced to carry 4 years, but they didn’t compare to mk x competitive scene tbh .
As a complete product, MK9 was the best thing that came out of NRS. Yeah it had its problems, but it's still their best game. I couldn't let go of mk11 bc I thought they could bring it back, but after playing SF6 I don't really feel like even trying mk1. There are better stuff out there nowadays.
What is going on inside NRS? This game was in development TWICE as long as their last several titles, yet it was launched in a bad/incomplete state, not to speak of how it comes up short on a competitive level, and how it looks worse than MK11..
Tom, I think you should really do a few of these history type videos. I still recall the DOA history videos you did way back that highlighted some behind the scenes details of the offline competitions and tournaments, and they were very interesting. You've been in the fighting game scene for such a long time you must have some entertaining and informative stories about the ebbs and flows of the different fighting game franchises over the years.
Bro I'll be honest I haven't played a MK game since MK9. I loved MK9 it was made for the fans. It was a game with loose mechanics and little rules that made it so fun to explore so much craziness as player. It really was a MK game like the ones before. NRS being obsessed with making it a tight mechanic game for the pro circuit is what ruined it imo.
a serious issue with MK has been not sticking to one base, you don't have to relearn Tekken and SF, you need to pick up the upgrades. Raiden is another person in each new game, and I've hated it Yet I still know what to do with King from T5
I said it before and I'll say it again.... even with all the problems, MK9 is the best NRS game. It's such a shame that because of few morons, the game is no longer available to purchase "officially". People still play it online to this day. Btw Tom, speaking of MK9 bugs.... nothing comes close to Reptile. One of the most buggiest characters ever made!
Hopefully you guys making a vid on the sleazy way Namco added micro transaction? (They waited for the reviews to drop and gaining the goodwill of MK1 & SF6 fans, to announce the micro transaction)
We at NRS have had a lot of meetings recently about the state of the game and we have decided to bring all of our effort to bear in winning back our beloved fans. In season 2 we are releasing the first black female lesbian character with a penis in Mortal Kombat history. When they/it releases we are also introducing the brand new microaggression system where your character gets buffs based on the systematic oppression that they have faced from the patriarchy. Every player will have an opportunity at the end of a match to determine whether they identify as the winner and achieve immediate elder god status. Every elder god will have the ability to buy the season specific kombat league cosmetics for only $99.95. Rest assured, all connectivity issues will immediately be resolved within 6 months, because we care and we are listening.
Just by looking at the games, I had the thought that the people in NRS don't know how to make a fighting game, and some vids have broke down aspects of MK11 such as near instamt regenerating meter or the number of frames in characters' jumping compared to other games proved that thought. The most recent podcast you did, however, REALLY opened my eyes when you talked about Ed Boon's reaction to making a fireball motion a traditional qcf motion. I wasn't a huge MK fan compared to KOF, SF, and Tekken, but back in arcade days, MK2 was the game that made me interested in the series. That, and the 90s movie. MK9 brought back that nostalgia I had, but unlike many, MKX didn't grab me the same way due to the change in aesthetics and the variation system. Never was a fan of that since it typically meant splitting movesets. And then, of course, MK11 happened. I am just disappointed that this is where we are today thanks to NRS being so bad at making these games.
I never got into the Injustice series because the series has always felt like Mortal Kombat mechanics/gameplay with superhero/villain skins. NRS didn't differentiate the games enough from each other, so it felt very samey to me. You can tell the difference between Tekken and Soul Calibur, Street Fighter and Dark Stalkers, KoF and Samurai Showdown.
Bruh, your voice and cadence of your speech sounds so much like the guy from "The After Prison Show". ...another CZcams channel. Good video. Nice job explaining the backstory.
I’m glad you brought up zoning in your last podcast it’s a huge reason why the fgc doesn’t respect mk they call us moron kombat lol it is probly the cheapest braindead meta in all of fighting games it’s a huge reason why sf & tekken players don’t play it because sf knows how to actually implement zoning where it’s still based on skill & no one wants to admit it because those same ppl advocating for it are the ones who message you after running away for an entire match throwing projectiles talking shit like they did something lol I’m telling you guys you have to experience other fighting games to know why people think the way they do I hope that the next mk is more like mkx where there is a higher skill gap & went back to the mk roots even if they brought back the original soundtrack would be good all we can do is wait & see
47 and been around when it started in the arcades of early 90s, home console ports, the 3D era and until now. MK has definitely lost its path and the torch is no longer lit. For me MKX was the peak and since then it has been on life support ever since. NRS need a new publisher, as WB are destroying the franchise with their greed and huge delays and radio silence because everything needs countless multiple approvals before anything is made public, no matter how small.
I like how Mk1 came out between two MUCH better fighting games (Street Fighter 6 and Tekken 8) so it can just be really obvious that it's painfully mediocre.
Which is exactly what happened to MK4. By 99 when it came out, they had to contend with the murderer's row of Street Fighter Alpha 3, Marvel 2, KOF '98, Soulcalibur, Tekken 3, and Dead or Alive 2. They stood absolutely no chance especially when they did what they're doing now by changing the whole game from what it had been for 3 games to go 3D.
It's true that the PS2 and Dreamcast were the first consoles to have arcade perfects ports that were affordable, but the Neo Geo did the same thing 10 years earlier. There were no tournaments held on it, because even a small collection of games plus a console cost about as much as a used car.
Yeah, that's something everyone overlooks. Those AES carts back in the day were literally just the arcade MVS carts in a nice-looking shell with a different connector.
31:55 this happens in tekken, characters have different hitbox and while a small character like xiaoyu restrein some of the juggles you can do to her bigger characters get combo'ed longer
This franchise died after MKX. I hated Mk11 and gave NRS one more chance with Mk1 but I'm done. Will always have great memories of the past games but I hate the new direction and mechanics that they are going with in these new games.
@@frstack3006 yeah but the rush down combat in it was super fun. also loved how you could be creative with the combos. Mk1 has gorgeous graphics but the gameplay is so meh.
This was so heartbreaking to listen to, but I'm not holding out hope. In Japan, when something doesn't sell, they improve the product. In the US, when something doesn't sell, they sell the IP.
@The Real MK Tom Brady, don’t you think that Hector Sanchez was part of MK9’s success also communication wise? And the addition of Stephanie is kinda the opposite?
New sub great video !!! Very informative and impressive knowledge of the FGC ! I grew up with the original trilogy and was a mk fanatic in the sega era I always liked mk9 better than xl 11 & 1. Great perspective on all of it bro looking forward to fighting you in Tekken on day. Tekken and SF will always be 1A. & 1B. of the fighting game world 🤷🏾♂️
They need to go to a legacy system, a base to work on and progress, I’ve not played MK1 since the end of the first season at the point of realisation the game is not even half baked and it just a dull game with no heart
I think I was around 11 years old when I saw a cool dragon logo cover on a SNES game while out shopping with my parents, in 1993 or something, and it had ninjas on the back, and a guy that looked like Lightning from Big Trouble in Little China, and a guy that looked like Bruce Lee, and there's Jean-Claude Van Damme, and Cynthia Rothrock, and so after some begging and whining, my parents purchased the game. I was immediately hooked. Not long thereafter, when MK2 came out; the hype surrounding that game was tremendous. To this day, I can still look at Mortal Kombat 2 and remember how impactful that game was. See, that was the instant appeal of Mortal Kombat. It was drawing inspiration from all of these external sources that we were familiar with, growing up as kids in the 90s. The realistic, dark presentation of it all, along with the Fatalities, was something special and unique. John Tobias created a fighting game that captured certain elements from a variety of movies and pop culture phenomena, that resonated with kids and teenagers around the world, exactly because it was rooted in beloved material. Let me list SOME of those inspirational sources. Big Trouble in Little China. Conan & Barsoom. Ray Harryhausen flicks. Revenge of the Ninja. Ninja in the Dragon's Den. American Ninja. Enter the Dragon. Bloodsport. We used to watch this stuff as kids. Mortal Kombat took all of that, threw it in a blender and let you play as these fighters in a Kumitee setting, while building a mysterious and eerie world around it. We 'understood' that world, because we were already familiar with the foundation. And this is something that isn't often mentioned in regards to why the current MK games don't really feel like MK games anymore. You can talk about microtransaction shenanigans, and gameplay mechanics, and the competitive scene, and the lack of communication, etc., and those things need to be discussed, but there's also the perversion of legacy. Now this wouldn't mean very much to younger players/fans, because they wouldn't have experienced the 90s, and so that original Mortal Kombat 'feel' that I think older fans are often hoping gets recreated in current projects; that's an unknown to many. To them, their MK experience started with Deception or MKX, for example. And the wider cultural background surrounding that is very different from what existed in the 90s. They grew up watching Marvel and DCU super hero movies. There's a generational gap there. There exists a hypothetical magnum opus Mortal Kombat game in the creative and nostalgic minds of older fans that younger fans wouldn't really have access to. When you look at someone like that Australian CZcamsr, what's his name? The bald guy who is always criticizing everybody.. he doesn't really know how to express the problem I'm mentioning here, and so it remains this kind of vague complaint: "This game is crap, it doesn't feel like a Mortal Kombat game", but he lacks the insight to pinpoint his actual gripe. And younger fans just look at that and dismiss him as an old head who isn't good at playing the game. But that sentiment derives from positive past experiences clashing with a negative modern-day expression of the thing you used to love. Today's MK games do not capture the essence of the MK world and atmosphere that Tobias provided. It's like Shang Tsung sucked the very soul out of it and cast it into the Netherrealm. The foundation is gone. Thematically, it's infected by modern-day neoliberalist, politically correct wokeism. 'Blood and gore' is not what made MK feel dark, ominous and intriguing. That whole eerie atmosphere is communicated through visuals, style, music, ambient music, sound effects, character design, settings, world-building, storyline, stakes, mystery, etc. I mean, Outworld was originally inspired by Robert E. Howard and Edgar Rice Burroughs' literature. Just look at MK2 Kitana's Ending screen. Google it. That Outworld castle in the background is directly taken from a shot in Conan the Destroyer. Look it up, do a Google image search for "Conan the Destroyer castle". Shao Kahn was a Hyborian age Warlord; swords and sorcery. Outworld was based on a fictional, antediluvian version of Earth (i.e. an Other World), where folkloric monsters and demons roamed, with dragons flying through purple mauve skies. In Mortal Kombat 1, Outworld looks more like a pre-industrial revolution Asian country. The Shokan are cheerfully walking around, beating drums during a festival, as opposed to lurking in a subterranean lair, like a terrifying Harryhausen creature. Mileena is gay for Tanya. How relevant. The Tarkatans aren't the ancient mutant offspring of invading demons from the Netherrealm; they're victims, suffering from a disease; they're not evil, just misunderstood. 'General Shao' is just Steppenwolf now. He feels out of place, because the character needs to exist in the proper world, to have meaning and to come to fruition. Edenia's retconned. Zaterra's retconned. Chaosrealm is retconned. Quan Chi's backstory; retconned. Shang Tsung, Scorpion, Raiden.. all retconned. And it isn't like they improved anything. It no longer feels like the MK universe that Tobias created, and which still had tons of potential in terms of story telling and world-building, because it's not that MK universe anymore. It's something else now. Perhaps too many young writers in the room that want to inject their own political and social commentary into the game. There are designers over at NRS that still know where to look, because I can see it in some of the game's subtle details. Shang Tsung's Laboratory has some Lovecraftian input. Someone over at NRS has read "At the Mountains of Madness". If you know what I'm talking about, then you're a man/woman of culture. The stages aren't bad. The visuals aren't bad. Some of the choices for some of the character models and costumes are bad. The music sucks. The story is garbage. The Kameo system is trash. I mean, this is all fairly obvious. Everything needs to change here; from top to bottom. Just my two cents. If it's too long to read for ya, then don't read it.
That is exactly the issue they should be addressing, no more doubling down on the worldbuilding errors in NRS times, and time reset to the beginning of MK1 felt unnecessary. They should have continued with MK8 and be done with it, not reset continuity after continuity, it is not compelling.
Dial in strings needs to go. You can put so many of those animations from over the years on so many characters. It could be like the buttons that street fighter has and make counter hits matter that give you access to your best combos while giving characters more special moves that will make casuals go oh cool I got this this and this and not having to look at this long list of strings. Get rid of back forward inputs for special moves so you can play a better footsie game without a damn special move coming out 3 bars of meter for ex moves with a separate 2 bars for your super moves no fatal blow. Ex moves on counter hit cause a crushing blow that gets you your pop up or crumbled state to get your damage than finish off with a super move level 1 or two that gives you that cinematic attack. Tech roll for defense and a universal parry that is like street fighter third strike that actually is risky and unspammable
I've said this before and I'll say it again. One of the core issues about MK, even back in the arcade era, is that it's a fighting fame franchise created and developed by people who don't play/know much about fighting games. That explains almost everything about MK's gameplay: Having a block button in a 2D fighting game, eliminating crossups Nonsensical inputs for moves that sometimes change between games Inconsistent/nearly non-existent character archetypes Enhanced moves being called simply "meter-burn moves" instead of having a cool name like "ex specials" or "skill boost" Completely useless stance changing that only exists because the MK devs (by their own admission) don't know how to animate moves returning to the idle stance properly To add on to the above, sloppy animations and poor attack feedback in general Fatalities STILL being nothing but glorified victory animations instead of being incorporated into actual gameplay as insta-kill supers that you'd see in other fighters like classic Guilty Gear and Blazblue Kameos in MK1 being an assist system that you'd see in many fighters, yet functioning in a completely backwards way because the MK devs need to reinvent the wheel thanks to having no wider fighting game knowledge These are all off the top of my head. MK games need to be helmed by someone who is knowledgeable about fighting games, someone who will help the series establish an identity other than "casual fighter with gory finishers". Dead or Alive's identity is "booby fanservice fighter" but it manages to be a competent fighting game on top of having fanservice (DOA6 notwithstanding). There is hope for MK (and by extension Injustice) but they need someone with knowledge and vision.
I agree. I'd also fire incompetent writers and designers, and hire people who actually know and love MK lore and legacy, and can visually and narratively reflect that knowledge and passion.
The thing I hate about the new reboot Mortal Kombat games is that they kept including license characters in the game. Character like Freddy, Jason, Rambo, etc., and while those are cool those are only DLC characters but their inclusion means those newer MK games are likely to be delisted at some point once the license for those characters expired. This means games like MK9 Komplete Edition and MKXL could easily be delisted as those are definitive versions of the game so players who had never bought those games before won't be able to in the future. The worst part is that once NRS made definitive versions of those games, they removed the vanilla version (the one that doesn't include all the DLC stuff) thus by that point if you forgot to download the definitive version and it got delisted then there won't be any version for you to try. MK9 is already delisted on steam and the only way to get that game from Steam nowadays is to buy a Steam key off of third party online vendors, once those are gone then access to purchase the game would be gone with it as well.
They need to clean house. Where can I apply for creative director of character design at NRS? They're to focused on politics and trying to make things heavely accessible. That needs to go immediately.
It’s crazy because you can find so many videos of people on CZcams having better written stories that actually make sense, better characters designs and overall better suggestions than the people who actually get paid to design the game.
The game abandoned the fans So the fans abandoned the game.
I mean damn thats on point
Facts lmao I stopped playing 1 week into the desync issue
Sounds like ur mom abbandoned u so now u a hater. NRS gave us a polished game with support bro
I mean why don't we just run down the list here....
Terrible communication: They either ignore, troll (Ed mostly, even in his own Q&As, he can't even take it seriously), or get snarky/passive aggressive/short.
They knew better than to double DLC... Nah, they don't care, Rain and Shang DLC Again (or pre order again too, in Shang's case).
They knew NPCs irritated people (whether they said they wouldn't or not, I know for a fact Ed said, at the very least, "we saw people weren't too happy with NPCs". So even if they never said never, they still did something they knew wasn't liked, again), guess what? More NPCs AND we'll make it characters you liked AND this time we'll redesign them.
The list goes on, but this company just does not give af about the fans period.
Simple!!! 💯
I love how everyone that talks about MK has Tekken gameplay in the back lol
kinda speaks for itself in a way like tekken is just that much better
Not only is the gameplay better but visually it’s a much smoother and aesthetically appealing experience.
There trash this whole hate video is trash ... people like button mashers thats all this is about pressing buttons and good things happen no skill
@@darrellharrelson5687Not how that works bud.Press random buttons without intent or skill and you'll get demolished.
Knowing a little frame data in Tekken like the generics buttons goes a long way vs opponents who mash lol.
It's crazy how successful NRS has been, considering how incompetent the studio is.
Mk9 mkx inj2
@@hands-ongaming7180 Right those games built what NRS is today.
@@hands-ongaming7180I only enjoyed mk9. The story went to shit since then.
@@fixthesegames6303 fr, they destoryed themselves
@@rafaelguerra9608Nah fam.
They have been making blunders since day 1.
I just wish john tobias and ed boon work together again and lose the multiverse story telling bs
Mortal Kombat already had a kind of multiverse. The Realms don't exist in the same dimensional space. It's why a Realm can 'merge' with another Realm, if defeated in 10 consequetive death tournaments. The winning Realm canibalizes the essence and energy of the losing Realm. Their dimensions bleed over into one another, for the merger to take place. Meaning that both worlds exist in the same location, in the same universe, but in different layers of reality. So that's already a type of multiverse that existed in the old lore. But NRS writers started to ignore all of that; making the existence of the different Realms, as well as the Tournaments, irrelevant. Instead, they adopted the super hero movie version of what a multiverse entails, at the cost of what made MK unique, and at the same time ruining the potential of telling stories through that old format. Shit writers, shit decision making, a lack of vision, and a kind of middle finger to John Tobias.
@@XaeeDFr it's all wasted potential
Exactly right @XaeeD The original MK lore had enough complex characters and backstory to sustain itself...there were many character arcs, origins, and unfinished endings to play around with. And the tournament added a sense of desperate urgency for the Earthrealm heroes to triumph. There was NO NEED for the multiverse arc, and NO NEED to "reboot" or "retcon" any of the backstory. That would be like constantly restarting the Harry Potter franchise or even an anime like One Piece; both already had a complex and deep world to explore. This is one of MKs biggest disappointments
@@XaeeDthe multiverse stuff he's referring to is having multiples of any character. No one is Spiderman if everyone is Spiderman kind of thing.
Shang Tsung: You're probably thinking if there is way to save MK1, but the real question you should ask yourself is, why save MK1 at all?
Omg that was good I can’t lie lol 😭
As a lifelong MK fan since MK2 Mortal Kombat has truly lost its identity plain and simple.
Tekken and even Street Figther know who their audience is and most importantly are also are proud of their history you can feel that in both games with T8 and SF6.
MK1 feels like it can’t decide if it wants to be Mortal Kombat or Injustice.
MK has lost its identity? 😂 What about Tekken which was supposed to be a Virtua Fighter like, with combats close to the reality? Today, Tekken has lost all its identity and the characters have fireballs or special moves like in 2d fighting games! Just compare Tekken 2 or 3, with Tekken 8 to see that Tekken doesn't feel like Tekken anymore.
The only game which is faithful to its roots, is Street Fighter.
Lol, I guess you dont know what imrpovment and refinement mean huh? The core Tekken gameplay is spacing, small pokes, punishing and juggling. It has always been like this since Tekken 1 now up to Tekken 8. They only improved the game. In every sequel the game just got better and when they did try to change the core gameplay it flopped. They tried to change it in Tekken 4, no spacing, less punishing and more aggressive gameplay with very less juggling. You clearly do not know what your talking about. @davidolivier1983
@@davidolivier1983 Homie MK1 can't decide if it wants to be an actual Mortal Kombat game with some new or evolved mechinics like both Tekken 8 and SF6 added or if it just wants to be another Injustice.
Stop it Mortal Kombat has lost its identity and its been that way since MK9, stop living in dental. MK1 is so bad you have MK pros jumping ship and streaming Tekken daliy over a game they get paid to play, idk about console numbers but steam numbers for MK11 are higher than MK1 who would've thought that was even possible?
I hope Mortal Kombat continues to burn because they deserve it for the mistakes they've been making for years.
@@sayedomairsiam6344 Thank you
@@davidolivier1983Devil/Angel had projectiles in Tekken 2, True Ogre did in Tekken 3 😏. Every boss since Tekken 2 has had projectile attacks.
The sooner NRS gets that violence alone doesnt sell their games anymore, the sooner we'll get good games out of them again. I dont care how realistic the grab animations are or how elaborate the Fatalities are if I'd rather watch paint dry than play a match.
One thing I think alot of people don't talk about is how NRS just completely butchered the MK aesthetic, the shaved off all the edge from MK1
Yeah....Both MK 11 & 1 to me personally feel more like something out of Injustice or Avengers rather than MK. Especially there costume designs and Marvel/DC sounding music. And the Soundtracks from the modern entries just don't hold a candle to the stuff from the 90s era and especially the tunes from the 2000 era 3D trilogy. (Deadly Alliance) & (Deception) & (Armageddon). Like I personally am not calling the NRS songs garbage per say and 11's composer is an award winning movie composer apparently. But his mostly super hero style of music honestly just doesn't feel like it fits in MK yah know?.
Oh, I'm so glad to read this comment! I insist on this point in my Steam reviews. While gameplay is a foundation of the game, art direction determines its appeal, identity and makes players return to a franchise to their own characters. But NRS has been destroying it systematically and now it has reached a new low. I dread it immensely.
not to mention the clunkiness, the microtransactions, the bad online experience, the bad/ugly characters designs, the terrible modes
Yeah and I don’t understand how Tanya looks completely different, it’s weird and honestly they should have made the new design of Tanya as a new character instead since she looks nothing like the old one. The only thing that can save MK1 now are the guest characters like homelander
Yeah, honestly at this point I just can't bring myself to play MK anymore, the character designs are so bad.
Even the deception costumes in the new game somehow look worse, despite being one of the coolest costumes these characters have had.
The character outfits all around are just shit, random colours, over patterned and over designed, and don't even get me started on the faces of characters
The character designs were shit. The story literally made the majority of the male characters look like complete morons. After I seen Sindel smack around Shao Khan without showing much struggle , or seeing Mileena struggle with her transformation & still was able to defeat Dark Raiden, It was a complete joke. The game itself did a good job of committing hara kiri in the face of games like SF and Tekken
Lame sterile story aswell besides the blood it's basically a marvel movie, the story should be fucked up & raw as hell, these games got the violent gameplay but not a violent story to match
Yeah and the terrible gameplay design with Invasions mode. Instead of trying to learn combos and getting good at the game, you're made to just use special relics which is the only way to win boss fights lmao. And the stupid levels with the projectiles that play worse than flash games i've played years ago (which were free to play, this game costed over 70 dollars.)
So NRS did bring back Hara Kiri after all.
Goddamn
Absolutely
I'm a lifelong MK fan. A casual who loves the characters, world and story and enjoy the fighting aspects enough to enjoy the package. Thank you for taking NRS to task in hopes the next game can right the ship in some way. They're killing one of the greatest IP's in gaming for hardcore and casual gamers alike.
Ngl I have no idea how anyone can like the story and world lol it keeps being retconned every game and is lame as hell.
You're fighting literal gods in MK and it's more lame and underwhelming than just Jin and Kazuya fighting each other
@BoOb-yd4dk I think they are both to blame. NRS seemed happy with a casual mainstream community and that's the thing. Mainstream casual are not real communities they just looking for the flavor of the month and will leave at the first mistake. Street fighter, Tekken, Guilty gear, Smash etc. Have die hard communities that love the mechanics of their respective games and aren't just there because it's popular and edgy.
So yeah I blame the "community" for not sticking together and also blame NRS for not bothering to build a real community instead of appealing to ultra casuals.
@@jag764 Seriously. Jobber gods and lame ass heroes. MK has lost everything appealing about its setting and lore.
@@yagamifire7861MK used to be dark. Deception was the perfect example of what MK should be as far the tone, story, and kontent. It still blows my mind current-gen MK1 doesn't have half the modes or features that game had. What's even crazier is Deception is Ed Boon's favorite MK game!
@BoOb-yd4dkoh boy do we smell 😅
Are we truly surprised? After what we delt with mk11 watching other AAA titles get update after update, DLC content etc (i dont give NRS the COVID excuse) MK1 should've been free to play. The fact that they showed off the 1st reveal trailer with upscale graphics forcing players to buy a ps5 just for mk1 is criminal. Not only that but sell us a slightly optimized closed beta version of the game with the full roster patched in. To release the game on the switch and not the previous gen was a slap in the face. This is the eulogy of MK1. No DLC no guest characters are going to save it. Rest in pisss NRS
Yeah exactly why I didn't buy M1K: I wasn't going to buy a PS5 just to be disappointed again (after MK11). And so I waited, for once, as opposed to preordering. Can't say I regret that decision. Eventually I'm upgrading my system anyway, but not for this game. I'll purchase a new console once Dragon's Dogma 2 is released, and then I'll buy Tekken 8.
@@XaeeD same here. I know so many of my friends that got a ps5 and waited for mk1. I unfortunately got it for PC and I regret it.
Shitty DLC characters too! The Superhero crap is so god damn lame. Sick of it. I can go my whole life without ever seeing another super hero and I’ll be fine.
Only way out now is developing a MK12 and pretend that the MK1 reboot never happened.
Also a remastered MK9 with rollback netcode would do well.
Funny thing is that MK1 in files called as MK12, lol
God damn, I miss MK9 so much. The amount of hours I spent on that game, insane. The whole time I'm thinking "MKX is gonna be a BETTER MK9...IT'S GONNA BE AMAZING". Just to get some mk-injustice hybrid with a fucking dumb variation system, a stanima bar, and no dash canceling...what a joke.
They dropped the ball with the story and it became very uninteresting. Mk9 had all the momentum in the comeback and they never followed up
MK9 looks so good at 4K, MKX did not age well.
Mkx was an amazing game...I absolutely loved it more than MK9.
The variation system was cool as hell, amazing.
I wish it became a mainstay in the series.... Having so many versions of my favourite character to play without it feeling overwhelming was so cool.
Only gripe I have with mkx is the shit story and the relative lack of classic characters in the roster
@@NoelNaggis 🤮
Will say the combo system in X feels a bit more fluid and dynamic and it plays a bit faster. But, yeah the look of X is not great and the story was absolutely garbage. Then there was 11….
Man I haven’t played this in months lol. I’ve lost all interest. With all the changes and no changes I could care less. Paid over 100 for an unfinished game
boring and slow game, I'm playing KoF XV now and I also lost interest in MK1.
Same bought it for 70 dollars on a whim and played a total of 2-3 hours same with mk11. I loved mk9 and X but this game was the last of my blind loyalty
I think the shills are one of the worst problems of the community. As long as you have certain dawgs and poets that are constantly jumping to the defense of NRS, NRS will never change what they're doing.
Yeah but how much influence does a shill have? They only influence those who take them seriously. It's not so much the shills, but everybody listening to the shills.
@@XaeeD look at their amount of followers
@@TheJatonEffect I'm sure they have a huge following. But that's my point. It's that 'community' that watches their videos and views these clowns as representative of the Mortal Kombat fanbase. So the shills' influence depends on how many people from the community pay them attention. I haven't clicked on any of those CZcamsrs' videos for many years now. I hated those guys back when they first started, because they simply didn't resonate with me. Their opinions are meaningless to me. That also says something about all of those who do follow them. The problem here is that there's a huge community of fans out there, who love MK without really understanding the franchise's original sense of direction. They hopped on the bandwagon after Injustice or during MK11, and so of course thát generation of players listens to your dawgs, poets and uncages; because that's the target audience. I mean, those CZcamsrs belong in the same category. In that sense, the shills are overly excited ignorami, easily entertained and extremely reactionary, emotionally, and at the same time, their whole audience could be described as shills just the same. So to me, there's not much of a difference between those shills and their fanbase. I view them as third generation fans; kind of pseudo fans. Like how you could be a huge fan of Michael Crichton's literature, and then there's a kid who really loves the Jurassic World movies, and when the former criticizes those movies, the latter defends them, because the kid lacks the substance, nuance and insight to understand why the older fan hates those movies so much... if that makes any sense.
Or maybe the shills like the game🙄🙄🙄🙄 I don’t but I get there are some that do. Duh
can you tell me who are the shills?
I challenge you to not buy the next MK. doesn’t matter how nice the trailers look, until you don’t buy the next one y’all ain’t changing 💩
Learned my mistake with 11. Fuck that game and everything it stood for.
@@doomkrieg3817 Yep. Mk11 was a great mortal kombat movie, that's all.
At this rate, Mugen and Soul Calibur character creations are the best substitute for an MK fix.
Least with those two, it actually lets you change the pallete colors freely, instead of having 4-5 ugly presets. (Sold separately.)
I think if NRS didn’t keep trying to reinvent the wheel with their games, then there would be more stability and not as much issues in their games.
I’m a big MK fan, but NRS definitely needs to reevaluate their creative process and hopefully they don’t run into similar problems in the future.
The weirdest part is how they could've done it well. Look at Street Fighter and how everytime they "reinvented" was just adding a new feature to the game. To SF3 Parries, SFA and their counters or style selects, SF4 and focus attacks, SFV with V-System, and now SF6 with the Drive System. The gameplay was always samey yet the things around it made it shine.
If only MK saw that and went with it. Imagine a MK9 or MKX style with MK11 Moves and Krushing Blows and the freedom of air combat like MK1. Would have been a good evolution and still familiar to old fans
@@darksigma0282that certainly is one of their worst things is that every game restarts the whole way you learn to play it and that nothing carries over from the previous games.
I would like to see a game with the heaviness of the strikes and attacks from MK11 and the Krushing Blows (do away with literally everything else), the speed of MKX and overall movement and combo system, the look and brutality of MK9, and the potential tactics from M1K and I think it’d be decent. But, NRS is not going to do that.
@@doomkrieg3817 yeah was saying something similar to that, just have what was good in previous games and carry it over. That's what made SF and Tekken shine, because each new title just improved on the basics.
It's sad how MK has pretty much devolved as time went on. If you told me during the MKX/SFV days that "Street Fighter is faster than Mortal Kombat", I wouldn't believe you
@@darksigma0282 you know it’s weird. Real weird cause I’ve been noticing a lot of games that are a series or I suppose franchise are going backwards in development. So this’ll get mighty weird cause I’m going to compare apples to oranges potentially here, but stick with me here.
MK9 to MK11 is what Crash Bandicoot 3 is to Crash Bandicoot 4. If you’d like me to elaborate further I am willing to do so. But that might turn into a small essay.
@@doomkrieg3817 go ahead. Honestly didn't know Crash 3 went backwards. Thought it went forwards by friends account. Only issue was item collection, THAT was the real downside
32:37 “When you have a great idea that works, that sells, you build on it.”
THANK YOU SO FUCKING MUCH TOM!!!!!
I genuinely think thats one of their BIGGEST issues. They don’t keep whats good and scrap whats bad like SF and Tekken. They are so stuck on drastically reinventing the wheel every game regardless of the good or bad features that comes with that design philosophy.
I genuinely don’t understand why tf would they get rid of mechanics/features that your players ACTUALLY LIKE?!?!?
They're trying to reinvent the wheel when they can barely draw a circle
@@yagamifire7861 i was just about to sleep but now your comment is keeping me up for being so funny
@@yagamifire7861 nice one
sega needs to hear this with sonic
Exactly. I'm a casual player of MK, and as such I would happily just play that one game only because I liked it back in the old days. But this constant habit of reinventing it not only from a gameplay point of view, but even art direction and storylines has wore me down.
NRS has no grasp of its own product, it's pretty evident by now.
Every day a video of Tom Brady talking trues about MK1, it becomes my lunch time
SAME
Why NRS is dying
"It all started 60 Million years ago.."
Historical context does matter sometimes lol.
That's like asking why did Rome fall, and your answer is "the barbarians took it over"
It's true, but it's not really an answer
Mortal Kombat X was the last good MK game 😔
Mortal Kombat: you killed us you bastard.
Tekken 8: I just shown up.
SF6: don't worry tekken you get use to it
@@somerandomguyfromthebeyond1821 dragonball fighter drinking soda in the corner: Sup.
@@theHedgex1Guilty gear: Aye what's up Homie.
As problematic as mk1 is i doubt tekken has much to do with the situation. 3d and 2d fighters are too different to compare, idk why so many ppl do that. I for one never played 3d bc i just dont like em, im sure im not alone
@@pastorofmuppets9346 The reason people compare is because that's just in the nature of the fighting game scene.
MK has an uncanny valley feel to it. The more REALISTIC the animation looks, the LESS believable it IS. It doesn’t look like a fun video game, but like a slice of life people are trying to ESCAPE. It’s too “real looking.”
Also, so much violence doesn’t make SENSE. You kill somebody at least 20 times BEFORE you can do a FATALITY … it makes the waiting for the opportunity to do a FATALITY a worthless affair. It’s supposed to be a FIGHTING GAME (with fighting styles), not a murder fest. LESS IS MORE.
Now you just nitpicking lol.
>not a murder fest
Are you actually stupid?
I agree!! You forward to the fatalities now they’re a that big of a deal. Also I think the addition of the non MK guess characters is corny. Get back to the original MK.
@@Jackhuncho well, I remember when in TONY HAWK UNDERGROUND you would 2 or 3 special characters that could unlock with a CHEAT CODE. Remember those?? In 1 TONY HAWK game you could unlock Ironman and in ProSkater 3 or THUG 1 I think you could unlock Wolverine.
The point is, if they are going to have special characters, they should make it SPECIAL (like the FATALITIES). They should just have 2 or 3. It should be a big deal to see Terminator or Ash from Evil Dead…. Not just 1 or 5 or 6 characters.
I remember when NRS banned/disqualify a player mid-tournament because he was using Sheeva custom variation & named it "WHYNRSDOTHIS"
I'm 41 years old and have been a fan of this franchise since the original game release in 1992. Fell in love with the MK lore, the characters, the gore, the cosmology, the humor and the wonderful community that shares the same love. I agree with all of your criticisms, all of which are fair and very well considered points that touch on every aspect of the franchise and technical details to do with gameplay.
It really does feel like MK has finally run out of steam. The magic is gone, and there's just a complete lack of creativity and innovation from the developers. Even worse than this, it seems that the developers have forgotten what used to make this such a fun game to play. The demise of the MK scene is sad to watch, but sadly inevitable I guess. Your channel is an excellent anthropology of MK history and evolution, and I'm glad newcomers will be able to learn about the cultural impact of MK by watching your content. Peace.
Whats your opinion on the 3D era?
I'll be 41 next month. I remember huddled around the Genesis with my friends and being blown away by the game. Played MK 1 for two weeks and was really disappointed. Hopefully they get back to their roots.
The developers don’t care about the hardcore fans. It’s just about the $$$ and dlc…greedy bastards just lost my business. I own every MK game released. That’s about to change for the best 😂
Agreed. I'm 42, but it's over for me. Sad to see MK go down this road like you said.
I'm at the point where unless they give it to Tobias, I'm out for good. Don't see that happening though.
I'm turning 41 this Thursday, lol. We're getting too old to still be this invested. I gave up on MK when MK11 came out. Haven't even bought M1K.
MK9 was a resurgence. They started squandering that goodwill immediately with MK 10, and to a lesser extent Injustice 2. The moment they started messing with character designs I knew it would only get worse. When developers are more worried about wagging their fingers at you for liking what you like, they're less focused on the (other) things that matter.
Even worse, it was pretty damn bad hearing that there was broken tech in MK 9 and one of the devs, at a goddamn tournament, said "just take the hit" when asked what to do.
I never in my life thought Id ever be hoping for MK to fail, but it needs to happen. They need to be reset. The woke element needs to be excised. People who care need to be brought into NRS. People who care about quality need to be brought into Warner Bros.
I will never go so far as to say Boon's own co-creation needs to taken from his hands, but he does need to be made aware of how he's dropped the ball.
I spent 2 weeks wondering why it felt like my combos would consistently drop whenever I was second player. I thought I was losing my mind and maybe I'm just trash...then we found out that NRS literally messed up the hit boxes for the second player......I haven't played since I found that out
Even though mk 11 was considered "garbage " I still enjoyed it way more than mk1.
MK11 considered garbage by sweaty asses, because they weren’t able to do those 80% damage combos… for me MK11 was great, full of content, good visuals that suits MK universe(better than MK1), ok story, ok soundtrack etc. The only thing I didn’t like about MK11 is the roster, too many special forces…. MK1 is the real garbage, the only good thing about MK1 is the roster and that’s it, everything else is trash…
@@V-95Kyou can’t be saying it’s garbage by sweats when you even had pros stating the same thing about mk11 is straight up fucking garbage, in relation to kbs, the stupid handling of custom moves, the balancing of certain characters and custom movesets etc., the story being the worst out of NRS, people were also complaining about customisation as well about how they were just paletteswaps as well as questionable choices in terms of making the grind unbearable and how much they were pricing for the actual editions of mk11.
Mk11 only has more content but it’s still just as shit as mk1 from what I am seeing (if not more) due to how the game was ridiculous catered towards people who never played fighting games their entire life
MK11 is “meh” and forgettable, but I wouldn’t call it garbage lol.
It’s not a good EVO type of game which is understandable with hardcore players. It’s an alright fighter 😄
They should just remaster mk 9 if they want to make big bank
Or even one of the older mk games
Bro the Tekken character select screen to start the vid. KLASSIC 😂
Honestly, the death of Mortal Kombat is chalked up to them playing it too safe with everything. They came on to the scene pushing the boundaries of censorship in gaming... paving their own lane and now they are trying to appeal to a certain audience that isn't even true to their core. I hate using the term "woke" but that's exactly what comes to mind. Too many of those type of developers/entities/people tampering with the essence of Mortal Kombat. This was the first time I loaded up an MK game and didn't feel the edgy/creepiness that MK is known for. I know they are going for the whole Liu kang perfect dream world story line but this game is just too clean/safe/polished in all the wrong areas. I want to play mortal kombat... not a fortnite fighter...
Also the community is horrible. They all hyped/praised this game during the beta... when I easily noticed it was horrible compared to playing the streetfighter beta. I'VE NEVER PLAYED SF in my life and instantly knew it was a better fighter.
Exactly MK is supposed to be dark. Supposedly tho the story expansion will turn the game into a modern Deception in some ways.
Fortnite fighter is such a great way to describe MK1
You’re absolutely right man, this is my very thought. MK equals edgy….and they have lost that edge regardless of their fatality and brutality.
@@demonlordkaiser920 facts! Just because you have fatalities in your game doesn’t mean it’s mortal Kombat.
Imagine if NRS kept building from MKX adding new features to the next installment . man it would have been crazy
The Knee vs Arlsan fight is mesmerizing
I hope this is a wake up call for those who have been blindly defending this franchise since MK11. I also wonder how many people will forget about this the next time a shiny new MK game comes along
I always liked the character and lore of Mortal Kombat more than playing the games.The most fun I've ever had playing a MK game was Shaolin Monks 2 player with my brother. The MK movie is one of my favorite Martial Arts movies also. With all the money and sales MK makes, I don't know how NRS constantly screws up their games instead of improve them.
I actually think they should pivot away from making subpar fighter games, and instead get into animated movies.....I mean, they are already apart of the WB. And I feel like the storytelling could really shine in a series of films vs. video games
MK1 IS ESG PUMP AND DUMP 😂
EStroGen 😀
How to fix MK in 2 simple steps: 1) Fire Boon, Paulo and Steve. 2) Bring back Tobias with full creative power.
Need to add in a first step Dominic Cianciolo, dizzyknee, Tyler lansdown, Derek kirtzic to fire.
F that. Just fire EVERYBODY disband the studio, WB included, Greedy clowns
I’ve been saying to my bro for a long time that Ed needs to leave, lol.
Tekken does have different hurt boxes based on type. You do drop combos on bears and small females if you don't know the right combo route.
Idk if that's a thing anymore. I've yet to drop a combo due to the wonky bear hit boxes
@@videogamerlexisI have mainly against the bears, had to use a different setup. Might be a character basis thing tho
@@videogamerlexis King df2 1 counter pickup doesn't have the same hitbox on females for sure.
You actually articulated exactly why I faded from NRS MK after MKX. I never really thought about it, but I agree. It’s the constant restarts and lack of communication from devs. Great vid, Tom.
Mk1 was odd...the hits landing and doing combos feels good, but I dunno it feels limited I wish it had mkx or 9 gameplay but with assists and the invasion modes are boring as hell
MK9 was NRS in name only. Midway had 1000x more to do with the success of MK9.
NRS is the shitty half of the original crew
Coming from someone who played mortal Kombat in the arcades.. I loved mk9 it was my favorite. Mk1 I bought and stop playing it after a month.
For sure their best titles were MKX for MK and IJ2 for IJ…. A lot of ppl like mk 11 too but universally seems like MKX is like a bit more or respected, and then when you mention gameplay mechanics MKX is better, no auto meter, no break away Vs breakers, no unfair KB requirements, actual variations with a theme that goes with it, kept your base set it just changed the function/properties or enhanced your specials or stings that fit your variation theme, n add variation moves. Where in mk 11 it was more limiting like swap one move for another, more like loadouts tbh. And while I didn’t like IJ2 as a competive game cuz I did not like the zoning, it was certainly more fun casually and a good time than mk 11 for me. Mk9 just had the best roaster tbh. And ij1 is just inferior than ij2. MK1 is stale asf, same CZcams combos, lack of features like lobbies, connection issues, Johnny cage being too good for no reason, cameos tho cool, should’ve just gone for 1v1. Quan is so ass in mk1 bro compared to X. Idk maybe cuz X was hype and year 2 was hype with esl. Mk11 was like forced to carry 4 years, but they didn’t compare to mk x competitive scene tbh .
I’m 38 and have been playing since MK1 and I can say confidently that MKX was the most fun I ever had playing an MK.
NRS? you mean sweet baby inc?
Nrs said yes to everything so they are to blame
As a complete product, MK9 was the best thing that came out of NRS. Yeah it had its problems, but it's still their best game. I couldn't let go of mk11 bc I thought they could bring it back, but after playing SF6 I don't really feel like even trying mk1. There are better stuff out there nowadays.
What is going on inside NRS? This game was in development TWICE as long as their last several titles, yet it was launched in a bad/incomplete state, not to speak of how it comes up short on a competitive level, and how it looks worse than MK11..
Tom, I think you should really do a few of these history type videos. I still recall the DOA history videos you did way back that highlighted some behind the scenes details of the offline competitions and tournaments, and they were very interesting. You've been in the fighting game scene for such a long time you must have some entertaining and informative stories about the ebbs and flows of the different fighting game franchises over the years.
Where can I find his DOA videos? I love DOA
@@DatBoiRatchet he deleted the videos ages ago unfortunately and I don't know of any reuploads
they RUINED kung lao
I'm glad tekken is thriving such an improvement from 7
Bro I'll be honest I haven't played a MK game since MK9. I loved MK9 it was made for the fans. It was a game with loose mechanics and little rules that made it so fun to explore so much craziness as player. It really was a MK game like the ones before. NRS being obsessed with making it a tight mechanic game for the pro circuit is what ruined it imo.
I stopped playing MK1 one week into the desync issue, they didn’t care to fix it for over a month so it’s obvious they don’t care about us.
a serious issue with MK has been not sticking to one base, you don't have to relearn Tekken and SF, you need to pick up the upgrades.
Raiden is another person in each new game, and I've hated it
Yet I still know what to do with King from T5
I said it before and I'll say it again.... even with all the problems, MK9 is the best NRS game. It's such a shame that because of few morons, the game is no longer available to purchase "officially". People still play it online to this day.
Btw Tom, speaking of MK9 bugs.... nothing comes close to Reptile. One of the most buggiest characters ever made!
Imagine a rebalanced MK9 without critical bugs and stuff ... what a great game it would be today.
I'd buy/play it instantly
Incredible how ayer mk9 they just keep making games worse
Hopefully you guys making a vid on the sleazy way Namco added micro transaction? (They waited for the reviews to drop and gaining the goodwill of MK1 & SF6 fans, to announce the micro transaction)
Ah the Activision CTR way of doing things.
They haven't even fixed the robotic, unnatural animations for 30+ years lol. How about start with that.
All those graphics just to have animations on par with MK2.
They make it better, but still bad
Idk if you're talking about MK or Tekken lol
@@aledantih6524definitely MK.
@@aledantih6524Tekken animations are many things, but robotic?
Hell no
We at NRS have had a lot of meetings recently about the state of the game and we have decided to bring all of our effort to bear in winning back our beloved fans. In season 2 we are releasing the first black female lesbian character with a penis in Mortal Kombat history. When they/it releases we are also introducing the brand new microaggression system where your character gets buffs based on the systematic oppression that they have faced from the patriarchy.
Every player will have an opportunity at the end of a match to determine whether they identify as the winner and achieve immediate elder god status. Every elder god will have the ability to buy the season specific kombat league cosmetics for only $99.95. Rest assured, all connectivity issues will immediately be resolved within 6 months, because we care and we are listening.
Tried to play MK11 with a friend online and couldnt went to play MKX without a problem
Just by looking at the games, I had the thought that the people in NRS don't know how to make a fighting game, and some vids have broke down aspects of MK11 such as near instamt regenerating meter or the number of frames in characters' jumping compared to other games proved that thought. The most recent podcast you did, however, REALLY opened my eyes when you talked about Ed Boon's reaction to making a fireball motion a traditional qcf motion.
I wasn't a huge MK fan compared to KOF, SF, and Tekken, but back in arcade days, MK2 was the game that made me interested in the series. That, and the 90s movie. MK9 brought back that nostalgia I had, but unlike many, MKX didn't grab me the same way due to the change in aesthetics and the variation system. Never was a fan of that since it typically meant splitting movesets. And then, of course, MK11 happened. I am just disappointed that this is where we are today thanks to NRS being so bad at making these games.
I already saw this downfall a mile away after mk11 i knew this series was done
50:48 I was waiting the whole video for the aimed shot and the shot was indeed fired LMAO
Buried 50minutes inside lmfao
The funniest thing is, you guys have more comments about MK1 than Tekken 8. You can't even mention Tekken 8 without calling MK1 as reference.
MK1 is that hot. 🔥
Bros whole channel is talking about how bad the game is at this point 😂😂😂 love it
Never seen somebody cry so much over a game they play everyday😂
😂😂😂
This is a manifesto tom 😂
NRS brought back hara kiri except did it on the company
I never got into the Injustice series because the series has always felt like Mortal Kombat mechanics/gameplay with superhero/villain skins. NRS didn't differentiate the games enough from each other, so it felt very samey to me. You can tell the difference between Tekken and Soul Calibur, Street Fighter and Dark Stalkers, KoF and Samurai Showdown.
Bruh, your voice and cadence of your speech sounds so much like the guy from "The After Prison Show". ...another CZcams channel.
Good video. Nice job explaining the backstory.
MK2 was my childhood. RIP NRS.
Same. It’s a shame what it’s become now. Super disappointed and annoyed I paid $100 for this game.
Its mainly WB's fault, NRS is only partially to blame
I’m glad you brought up zoning in your last podcast it’s a huge reason why the fgc doesn’t respect mk they call us moron kombat lol it is probly the cheapest braindead meta in all of fighting games it’s a huge reason why sf & tekken players don’t play it because sf knows how to actually implement zoning where it’s still based on skill & no one wants to admit it because those same ppl advocating for it are the ones who message you after running away for an entire match throwing projectiles talking shit like they did something lol I’m telling you guys you have to experience other fighting games to know why people think the way they do I hope that the next mk is more like mkx where there is a higher skill gap & went back to the mk roots even if they brought back the original soundtrack would be good all we can do is wait & see
He’s right NRS can’t keep getting away with this type bs
As a true NRS player. I’ve gone back to the modern classic. MKXL and injustice 2 will forever be the current gen goats!
47 and been around when it started in the arcades of early 90s, home console ports, the 3D era and until now.
MK has definitely lost its path and the torch is no longer lit. For me MKX was the peak and since then it has been on life support ever since.
NRS need a new publisher, as WB are destroying the franchise with their greed and huge delays and radio silence because everything needs countless multiple approvals before anything is made public, no matter how small.
Eh, I would say SF4 console version and the advent of online play created the "modern" FGC. The MVC2/Golden era is different to me.
The MVC2 era created that though -its the roots of the entire FGC.
Mortal Kombat needs to become a legacy series like Tekken.
New to your channel. Great take on NRS and MK as a series overall.
I like how Mk1 came out between two MUCH better fighting games (Street Fighter 6 and Tekken 8) so it can just be really obvious that it's painfully mediocre.
Which is exactly what happened to MK4. By 99 when it came out, they had to contend with the murderer's row of Street Fighter Alpha 3, Marvel 2, KOF '98, Soulcalibur, Tekken 3, and Dead or Alive 2. They stood absolutely no chance especially when they did what they're doing now by changing the whole game from what it had been for 3 games to go 3D.
I can see you doing this rant on a bus while everyone's trying to avoid eye contact
It's true that the PS2 and Dreamcast were the first consoles to have arcade perfects ports that were affordable, but the Neo Geo did the same thing 10 years earlier. There were no tournaments held on it, because even a small collection of games plus a console cost about as much as a used car.
Yeah, that's something everyone overlooks. Those AES carts back in the day were literally just the arcade MVS carts in a nice-looking shell with a different connector.
31:55 this happens in tekken, characters have different hitbox and while a small character like xiaoyu restrein some of the juggles you can do to her bigger characters get combo'ed longer
This franchise died after MKX.
I hated Mk11 and gave NRS one more chance with Mk1 but I'm done. Will always have great memories of the past games but I hate the new direction and mechanics that they are going with in these new games.
MKX had shitty animations. And nobody called out NRS for lazy animations. MK was bounded to fail soon or later.
Mkx is widely regarded as trash graphics but the gameplay is great , the patch just came too late everyone had moved on all ready
Same, I don't see myself buying an NRS game again after this. If I do, it would have to be on a massive sale like mk11 is right now
@@frstack3006 yeah but the rush down combat in it was super fun. also loved how you could be creative with the combos. Mk1 has gorgeous graphics but the gameplay is so meh.
@@Troop- Same. I'm switching over to Tekken 8. Seems like a good jumping on point to the franchise.
I think we can see a direct correlational between the drop in quality and the propping up of 16bit as their Lead QA and mascot.
You people are so bigoted and stupid lol
You see it too AGREED
Grat video. I love your insight in the current state of MK.
It’s obvious that the developers of MK don’t actually play fighting games.
Babe wake up MK Tom Brady dropped another banger
This was so heartbreaking to listen to, but I'm not holding out hope. In Japan, when something doesn't sell, they improve the product. In the US, when something doesn't sell, they sell the IP.
@The Real MK Tom Brady, don’t you think that Hector Sanchez was part of MK9’s success also communication wise? And the addition of Stephanie is kinda the opposite?
New sub great video !!! Very informative and impressive knowledge of the FGC ! I grew up with the original trilogy and was a mk fanatic in the sega era I always liked mk9 better than xl 11 & 1. Great perspective on all of it bro looking forward to fighting you in Tekken on day. Tekken and SF will always be 1A. & 1B. of the fighting game world 🤷🏾♂️
MK9 online was broken for 6 months. NRS has always been lazy. But now they have competition...
dont forget sony online got shut down right after the MK release
Yes but not for 6 months ..
They need to go to a legacy system, a base to work on and progress, I’ve not played MK1 since the end of the first season at the point of realisation the game is not even half baked and it just a dull game with no heart
It even worse now with the superhero DLC. I’m so god damn sick of comic book characters.
I think I was around 11 years old when I saw a cool dragon logo cover on a SNES game while out shopping with my parents, in 1993 or something, and it had ninjas on the back, and a guy that looked like Lightning from Big Trouble in Little China, and a guy that looked like Bruce Lee, and there's Jean-Claude Van Damme, and Cynthia Rothrock, and so after some begging and whining, my parents purchased the game. I was immediately hooked.
Not long thereafter, when MK2 came out; the hype surrounding that game was tremendous. To this day, I can still look at Mortal Kombat 2 and remember how impactful that game was.
See, that was the instant appeal of Mortal Kombat. It was drawing inspiration from all of these external sources that we were familiar with, growing up as kids in the 90s. The realistic, dark presentation of it all, along with the Fatalities, was something special and unique. John Tobias created a fighting game that captured certain elements from a variety of movies and pop culture phenomena, that resonated with kids and teenagers around the world, exactly because it was rooted in beloved material. Let me list SOME of those inspirational sources.
Big Trouble in Little China. Conan & Barsoom. Ray Harryhausen flicks. Revenge of the Ninja. Ninja in the Dragon's Den. American Ninja. Enter the Dragon. Bloodsport.
We used to watch this stuff as kids. Mortal Kombat took all of that, threw it in a blender and let you play as these fighters in a Kumitee setting, while building a mysterious and eerie world around it. We 'understood' that world, because we were already familiar with the foundation. And this is something that isn't often mentioned in regards to why the current MK games don't really feel like MK games anymore. You can talk about microtransaction shenanigans, and gameplay mechanics, and the competitive scene, and the lack of communication, etc., and those things need to be discussed, but there's also the perversion of legacy. Now this wouldn't mean very much to younger players/fans, because they wouldn't have experienced the 90s, and so that original Mortal Kombat 'feel' that I think older fans are often hoping gets recreated in current projects; that's an unknown to many. To them, their MK experience started with Deception or MKX, for example. And the wider cultural background surrounding that is very different from what existed in the 90s. They grew up watching Marvel and DCU super hero movies. There's a generational gap there. There exists a hypothetical magnum opus Mortal Kombat game in the creative and nostalgic minds of older fans that younger fans wouldn't really have access to.
When you look at someone like that Australian CZcamsr, what's his name? The bald guy who is always criticizing everybody.. he doesn't really know how to express the problem I'm mentioning here, and so it remains this kind of vague complaint: "This game is crap, it doesn't feel like a Mortal Kombat game", but he lacks the insight to pinpoint his actual gripe. And younger fans just look at that and dismiss him as an old head who isn't good at playing the game. But that sentiment derives from positive past experiences clashing with a negative modern-day expression of the thing you used to love. Today's MK games do not capture the essence of the MK world and atmosphere that Tobias provided. It's like Shang Tsung sucked the very soul out of it and cast it into the Netherrealm.
The foundation is gone. Thematically, it's infected by modern-day neoliberalist, politically correct wokeism. 'Blood and gore' is not what made MK feel dark, ominous and intriguing. That whole eerie atmosphere is communicated through visuals, style, music, ambient music, sound effects, character design, settings, world-building, storyline, stakes, mystery, etc. I mean, Outworld was originally inspired by Robert E. Howard and Edgar Rice Burroughs' literature. Just look at MK2 Kitana's Ending screen. Google it. That Outworld castle in the background is directly taken from a shot in Conan the Destroyer. Look it up, do a Google image search for "Conan the Destroyer castle". Shao Kahn was a Hyborian age Warlord; swords and sorcery. Outworld was based on a fictional, antediluvian version of Earth (i.e. an Other World), where folkloric monsters and demons roamed, with dragons flying through purple mauve skies.
In Mortal Kombat 1, Outworld looks more like a pre-industrial revolution Asian country. The Shokan are cheerfully walking around, beating drums during a festival, as opposed to lurking in a subterranean lair, like a terrifying Harryhausen creature. Mileena is gay for Tanya. How relevant. The Tarkatans aren't the ancient mutant offspring of invading demons from the Netherrealm; they're victims, suffering from a disease; they're not evil, just misunderstood. 'General Shao' is just Steppenwolf now. He feels out of place, because the character needs to exist in the proper world, to have meaning and to come to fruition. Edenia's retconned. Zaterra's retconned. Chaosrealm is retconned. Quan Chi's backstory; retconned. Shang Tsung, Scorpion, Raiden.. all retconned. And it isn't like they improved anything. It no longer feels like the MK universe that Tobias created, and which still had tons of potential in terms of story telling and world-building, because it's not that MK universe anymore. It's something else now. Perhaps too many young writers in the room that want to inject their own political and social commentary into the game. There are designers over at NRS that still know where to look, because I can see it in some of the game's subtle details. Shang Tsung's Laboratory has some Lovecraftian input. Someone over at NRS has read "At the Mountains of Madness". If you know what I'm talking about, then you're a man/woman of culture. The stages aren't bad. The visuals aren't bad. Some of the choices for some of the character models and costumes are bad. The music sucks. The story is garbage. The Kameo system is trash. I mean, this is all fairly obvious. Everything needs to change here; from top to bottom.
Just my two cents. If it's too long to read for ya, then don't read it.
That is exactly the issue they should be addressing, no more doubling down on the worldbuilding errors in NRS times, and time reset to the beginning of MK1 felt unnecessary. They should have continued with MK8 and be done with it, not reset continuity after continuity, it is not compelling.
Dial in strings needs to go. You can put so many of those animations from over the years on so many characters. It could be like the buttons that street fighter has and make counter hits matter that give you access to your best combos while giving characters more special moves that will make casuals go oh cool I got this this and this and not having to look at this long list of strings. Get rid of back forward inputs for special moves so you can play a better footsie game without a damn special move coming out 3 bars of meter for ex moves with a separate 2 bars for your super moves no fatal blow. Ex moves on counter hit cause a crushing blow that gets you your pop up or crumbled state to get your damage than finish off with a super move level 1 or two that gives you that cinematic attack. Tech roll for defense and a universal parry that is like street fighter third strike that actually is risky and unspammable
I've said this before and I'll say it again. One of the core issues about MK, even back in the arcade era, is that it's a fighting fame franchise created and developed by people who don't play/know much about fighting games. That explains almost everything about MK's gameplay:
Having a block button in a 2D fighting game, eliminating crossups
Nonsensical inputs for moves that sometimes change between games
Inconsistent/nearly non-existent character archetypes
Enhanced moves being called simply "meter-burn moves" instead of having a cool name like "ex specials" or "skill boost"
Completely useless stance changing that only exists because the MK devs (by their own admission) don't know how to animate moves returning to the idle stance properly
To add on to the above, sloppy animations and poor attack feedback in general
Fatalities STILL being nothing but glorified victory animations instead of being incorporated into actual gameplay as insta-kill supers that you'd see in other fighters like classic Guilty Gear and Blazblue
Kameos in MK1 being an assist system that you'd see in many fighters, yet functioning in a completely backwards way because the MK devs need to reinvent the wheel thanks to having no wider fighting game knowledge
These are all off the top of my head. MK games need to be helmed by someone who is knowledgeable about fighting games, someone who will help the series establish an identity other than "casual fighter with gory finishers". Dead or Alive's identity is "booby fanservice fighter" but it manages to be a competent fighting game on top of having fanservice (DOA6 notwithstanding). There is hope for MK (and by extension Injustice) but they need someone with knowledge and vision.
I agree.
I'd also fire incompetent writers and designers, and hire people who actually know and love MK lore and legacy, and can visually and narratively reflect that knowledge and passion.
Lol I like the underdawg reference. I have a feeling we all saw that cope video he made comparing T8 to MK1. I’m still perplexed by that video.
The thing I hate about the new reboot Mortal Kombat games is that they kept including license characters in the game. Character like Freddy, Jason, Rambo, etc., and while those are cool those are only DLC characters but their inclusion means those newer MK games are likely to be delisted at some point once the license for those characters expired. This means games like MK9 Komplete Edition and MKXL could easily be delisted as those are definitive versions of the game so players who had never bought those games before won't be able to in the future. The worst part is that once NRS made definitive versions of those games, they removed the vanilla version (the one that doesn't include all the DLC stuff) thus by that point if you forgot to download the definitive version and it got delisted then there won't be any version for you to try. MK9 is already delisted on steam and the only way to get that game from Steam nowadays is to buy a Steam key off of third party online vendors, once those are gone then access to purchase the game would be gone with it as well.
They need to clean house. Where can I apply for creative director of character design at NRS? They're to focused on politics and trying to make things heavely accessible. That needs to go immediately.
It’s crazy because you can find so many videos of people on CZcams having better written stories that actually make sense, better characters designs and overall better suggestions than the people who actually get paid to design the game.
It’s a cog of the corporate machine. You can’t change it
@charleshastings7260 Cope or stfu and don't reply these are your choices.
@@udontknowmeg7254 exactly 💯
@@hands-ongaming7180 you're right
TK Tom Brady now😂!
Love the history lesson, and the tag background music
Is victor the wrestler edge?