Great idea, man. I was always for this idea.

To tell the truth, it was supposed to be like Tomb Raider....and I think it could've worked like that. So.....that's what the gameplay should be like.

For story purposes, I say we have the original MK1 team in (Sparky and Jake and such). It's not important, really, cause the entire time you'd be playing as Sonya or Jax. But for gameplay - on SOME missions, you could have them be pawns running around helping you.

Kano, Jarek, and Kabal should return, of course. AND in my opinion - No Face, Tasia, and Tremor should come back. They were all supposed to be in the original game anyway. As were other Black Dragons that were intended to be bosses but showed up in the final game as just bad guys to beat up - Quin, Xian, No Neck, Jonas. go to the Annals of Mortal Kombat to see what they look like. They should all be bosses, fleshed out more as you say.
As for what the Black Dragon's goal is exactly, Mortal Kombat portrays them as just a worldwide criminal organization. But in real life, the Black Dragon were a group of "freedom fighters" originating in Japan - they were trying to eliminate any foreign influence (namely Russia) trying to perpetrate Asia. They did assassination, espionage - China and Korea paid for their services. Soon they began to spread out and offer their services to anyone trying to force a foreign power out of their nation. But they were disbanded after World War II, since they had a big hand in motivating Japan.
Mortal Kombat would probably try to take a creative liberty and say that although the Black Dragon started off with good intentions - power started to go to their heads and eventually they began to REVEL in illegal operations until their entire purpose was forgotten and they just became a gang of pirates. So......that would be it. The reason why Special Forces would chase them is simply how evil they are. Remember, the bigger scope here is analyzing Sonya, Kano, and Jax.

Well, the original game ALSO had an Outworld level - so it was intended to be in the game - as were Raiden, Goro, and shang Tsung apparently (really, dude, check out the Annals of Mortal Kombat - they have a HUGE page on what Special Forces was originally going to be). But however they may get there is up to them. The game for the most part should be them traveling the world. Go gritty too - have clubs, streets as well as deserts and valleys - I think they should use the real world aspect to the fullest. It makes Mortal Kombat that much more diverse.

Yeah, the game itself never mentioned why exactly Sonya's after Kano. The TV series and movies tell us......but the game never ever gave an official canon reason.

What's the gameplay like?
The gameplay once and for all should be Tomb Raider-esque. Move around a 3D world. Have weapons and tools too. Hand-to-hand combat is good too. Have Sonya and Jax have their signature moves as well.

In the MK universe, the Black Dragon was formed by renegade Red Dragon members who were sick of the strict rules and discipline of the clan. Revealed in Mavado's MK:DA bio:
"The Red Dragon had existed for centuries as a secretive criminal organization. Members such as Mavado were highly skilled and disciplined warriors. But in the last century, many of the more reckless members became dissatisfied with the restraints the code of the Red Dragon placed on them and broke away to form their own gang. Since then, it has been the Red Dragon's number one priority to completely eradicate the infidels known collectively as the Black Dragon."

Yeah, I know that, but at the same time Deadly Alliance Konquest says that Morihei Ueshiba started the Black Dragon in 1901.

That's actually not true - Ryohei Uchida started the Black Dragon. They got their facts wrong. And Morihei Ueshiba wasn't a Black Dragon at all. Although Ueshiba KNEW Uchida and rumor has it allowed Black Dragon meetings in his dojos. Anyway, the point is by bringing Morihei up the MK Team seemed to be acknowledging that the Black Dragon in MK is based on the real-life Black Dragon -all the way to their original historical origin.

It doesn't really contradict MK canon, though, if you think about it. The Red Dragon seem to be MK's own Illuminati - they control the world secretly and such. A particular faction didn't agree with how they handled a situation (Russia trying to spread their influence to Asia) and so they broke off to fight in their own right.

I think the main thing that needs to be fixed is the gameplay itself.

I think the game should just get dropped were fine without it

special forces is crap and will always be crap, its dead, let it rest, i think MK8 needs more preperation then a re-make of special forces

Never said anything about a remake. I was just wondering what it could've been.

This is probably as good a thread as any to bring this up. MK Special Forces has an interesting development history behind it. As many know, it was the last MK game that John Tobias was involved in before leaving Midway (for "personal rather than professional reasons" he's insisted in interviews over the years). Because of that, a lot of the blame for the game's colossal failure gets laid at his doorstep. However there's more to the story that many MK fans seem to be unaware of beyond "the game turned out horrible".

THE ROAD TO HELL IS PAVED WITH GOOD INTENTIONS

Much of the finished product is NOT what Tobias had in mind for this game. All that remains are a few scattered interviews; one semi-well known one in an old PSM and one VERY revealing one, from an interview Tobias did for an MK site that's sadly lost to the ages (I REALLY wish I saved it way back when). Tobias in fact had ambitious plans for this game.

In the finished product, the game contains barely any storyline (not to mention gameplay) whatsoever. Kano breaks out some Black Dragon hoods (Jarek among them). Jax tracks them down and captures or kills them. The end. Other than a brief trip to Outworld where Kano tries to get some lame artifact that has no explanation behind it, that's pretty much it. A disposable character named "Gemini" was concocted to string the game's "story" together via "mission briefings". Jax was the only selectable character, and the game was a straight up linear and clunky 3rd person actioner.

Tobias' vision for the game was far more epic in scope. It was apparently to start out very "real world" in the game's first block; just the U.S. Special Forces vs the Black Dragon crime syndicate. Your weapons would be your martial arts and guns; no ring toss or wave punch just yet. That brings me to one tidbit that most folks do apparently know; Sonya was to be a selectable character in this game, besides Jax.

The game would begin at a warehouse where a major sting operation against the Black Dragon was about to go down. The set up goes south quick, and Sonya and Jax's comrades are quickly slaughtered. Kano is seen briefly, however unlike the Special Forces we wound up with, he would be without his metal eyepiece. His face was still intact at this point.

Kano would be depicted throughout the game as especially cold, and sadistic, and always just one step beyond the players reach (as opposed to the finished game where he's only in it in a few seconds of the intro, and then as the last boss). At the start of the game Sonya would be just an average if outstanding Special Forces operative and the Black Dragon case no more personal to her than any other. But during the first level, she'd witness Kano do something so ghastly, and so evil, that it would start her off on his capture becoming an obsession.

Sonya and Jax were to have two separate games, depending on who you chose at the outset. The game's format would work very similar to Resident Evil 2 with its Lean/Claire A and Claire/Leon B games. In other words say you pick Sonya first. You play the game strictly from her POV, crossing paths with Jax on and off throughout. At several points in the game you would be given multiple routes or paths to choose from, that would greatly affect the course and outcome of the game (as well as the ending for which there would be several).

Presumably when you'd complete Sonya's game, it would save to your memory card, and from there you could play Jax's game and play the same scenario but from his POV, with all the choices you made in the Sonya game affecting his game. This would have GREATLY increased the game's replay value, and all by itself puts Tobias' Special Forces above the what was released in 2000.

Tobias revealed what a few of the endings would have been; there would be the "canon ending" in which the game would end with Sonya chasing Kano to Shang Tsung's island with her unit, with Jax getting left behind somehow and thus ending the game as a lead in to MK1. There'd be a "bad ending" with Kano killing Sonya and/or Jax and the Black Dragon winning. And there'd be a "too good to be true ending" where Sonya and Jax nab Kano and send him off to prison before living happily ever after, never getting involved in the MK tournament. Those three he listed, but he also stated that there'd have been a few more.

Some other neato flourishes; at some point in the game we'd see how Kano got his eye "shot out" (Tobias used the words "shot out", which was interesting), and as the game progresses, depending on the path you take, you get more and more involved in the weirdo MK mythos, and Sonya and Jax would "learn" their more "supernatural" moves (Sonya's ring toss, Jax's energy wave etc.). It’s worth mentioning because Tobias dwelled a bit on how the game was to start out “in the real world”, but the player would be treated to Sonya and Jax’s disbelieving reactions at all the weird supernatural stuff they’d be privy to as they get deeper into the MK scenario.

Which brings me to some of the other character's who were supposed to make appearances: old man Shang Tsung and Raiden were to figure into the plot, along with a pre-scarred Kabal as a boss. The Lin Kuei would also become involved in a sub-plot, which is where Tremor was to fit in (he was to actually be a member of the Lin Kuei as opposed to the Black Dragon).

Tobias also acknowledged that Jax was not supposed to have his cybernetic arms at that point in the series (it being pre MK1 nevermind MK3), but it would be explained in the game as him "field testing prototype models", and he even was considering the idea of having Jax start out without them, but having the player acquire them later in his game as an upgrade.

Gameplay wise there was to be swimming and underwater segments, and "stealth" ala MGS/Tenchu would play an optional role in certain segments. Sniping was also to be more prominent, with several levels designed with sniping points for the player to use. The gunplay was to be far gorier (blood would splatter on the walls and slowly ooze down) and Fatalities would also be possible on certain bosses (potentially altering the course of the story).

So thus far Tobias' description of his plans for the game sounds like it would have been a quantum leap over what was eventually released. So what happened?

Tobias left Midway early in the production of the game. Normally when the head developer leaves a project as early in its stages as Tobias had, the company would just shelve the game and move on. But the MK franchise was just coming down from its "nadir" at the time, and the franchise was far too valuable to Midway to let a potential new installment (read: profits) slip away. So they deemed that there was still enough of a game to work with, and "finished" it for release. By "finish" I of course mean "barely gloss up what Tobias' team had completed, slap together a haphazard 'story', crank out some voice work, and call it a day, cutting out Sonya and the underwater sequences to boot to cut corners and the gameplay barely ironed out. The result was the biggest stain on the MK franchise, and enough to send it into seclusion until Boon revived it with Deadly Alliance a few years later.

I figured this thread would be a good place to put this story, this being a "what might have been" kinda thread for Special Forces and all. I dunno about you guys but I'd have dug seeing Tobias' version of the game come to fruition. Hey worst case scenario; it couldn't possibly be as bad as the released game we wound up with right?

I knew about SOME of that stuff from the game's development, but you put in some new facts man. Thanks.

That explains a lot. I always knew it was John Tobias' last game, but I never knew that he had left so early into the development of it. It really shows. The final game looks like a very rough beta-version, like they literally took whatever they had at the moment Tobias left and just called it good.
Seriously, MKSF was in one of the last wave of games to come out on the PS1 and the graphics look WORSE than 1st generation PS1 games. Well.... *remembers Twisted Metal 1* Maybe not *that* bad, but still. Pretty bad!

I could imagine it being Sonya that shot out Kano's eye since he seems to have an obsession with bringing her down too.
The cybernetic arms really needed to stay out of the game or, like they were thinking, introduced at a later level.

I still don't know about including all the supernatural elements in this thing. I was always under the impression that the really weird stuff didn't start happening until they got on board Shang Tsung's boat or to his island (in the Midway comic I think they flew their own helicopter to the island).
And aside from hearing rumors that the place was made of gold, I never thought Kano had any affiliation with the Mortal Kombat tournament or Shang Tsung prior to arriving. I could see how they might. It could be worked in if they really wanted to go that route. I just like to think of Kano as doing his own thing.

It's funny that you mention them wanting to make it similar to RE2. I always thought it was trying to be a MGS knock-off.
But hey, if you're going to steal ideas, steal from the best, right? The whole multiple paths, crossing paths thing a ma jig that they did with RE2 was always awesome and still is. Wouldn't mind seeing that one bit with Sonya and Jax.

I'll elaborate on this a bit more (cause lord knows in every interview on this game I could dig up, Tobias was really amped up about this aspect of the game).

This game was meant to be a DIRECT lead in to MK1. So in other words, the first half of the game starts out 100% real world. Nothing but guns and hand to hand fighting (no weirdo fireballs), and military vs crime syndicate. But throughout the game you're CHASING Kano. The plot of the game was to go something like this; the sting operation in the opening warehouse level (mentioned in my first post) was involving this big plan the Black Dragon had of getting their hands on a nuclear warhead. While the Special Forces is concerned with that, Kano is heading off across the globe somewhere, at first seemingly to just escape capture. But as Sonya and Jax tail him, they start to get involved in the weird supernatural MK stuff; it's because Kano's heading on a cross global trek for Shang Tusng's island (presumably as was established, to loot the joint). It's just that the closer they get, the more insane crap they're privy too.

I can't remember which interview Tobais said this in (it may very well have been the one from back in the day that I can no longer find), but I'm pretty sure he said the Lin Kuei were gonna be involved due to the whole "plot to assassinate Shang Tsung" thing from MK1. There were supposed to be a LOT of tie ins to the first game.

There's a vague hint of this in the "finished" game; Jax does go "globe trotting" after the Black Dragon in the released version, because most of what Tobias finished in the game was based on that concept. It's just that because the released game has hardly any story whatsoever, Jax appears to be traveling all over the world just for the sake of sightseeing. In Tobias' original design, it not only served a purpose, but it was a purpose closely tied to the first MK; your following Kano around the world, cause Kano's on his way to the first MK tournament. And it's only as you get closer that you GRADUALLY face some of the supernatural elements of MK (Tobias always emphasized that point as it was something he was "pretty happy with").

While I'm at it, here's some more cool plot stuff I've read on the game over the years;

We were supposed to meet a LOT more of the Black Dragon members, besides the already established Kabal, Jarek, and Kano. No Face and Tasia were two of them obviously (and again Temor was not a Black Dragon thug in Tobias' game, he was still supposed to be an official Lin Kuei ninja). Here are some more names of the other members, presumably all bosses:

Gensoo
Jagatai
Jonas
Mystman
No Neck (partner to No Face)
Quinn

Out of all the guys listed here, Quinn was to figure most prominently in the plot (at least early in the game). There was also mention of another character named Dr. Malcolm, but who he was affiliated with I have no idea.

I have pics of Kabal pre-scarring, and of Kano talking to Quinn (who looks pretty cool, unmistakably a Tobias character design). Unfortunately they're both watermarked and I know this site has rules against posting watermarked images. However I got these a long time ago, and I'm not sure if the site's even still around, so I dunno if there's a loop hole there or not.

Obviously finding info on the original version of MK Special Forces was an on again/off again hobby of mine over the years since its release. This was due to my having read that PSM issue that had this long, in depth interview with Tobias back when he was still working on the game before it was released. I remember being really excited for the game, only to be terribly disappointed by what we got instead. I knew right away that this game was markedly different from what Tobias was describing, so I just went online and did some digital legwork.

At first I just found the story on Tobias’ sudden departure, and the basic situation with “making the most” of what he completed with the game and figured that’s all I’d find. But over the years of surfing the web, once in awhile I’d find old obscure interviews, and scraps of information that shed even more light on Tobias’ original vision for the game. It became a bit of a treasure hunt for me after awhile.

I haven’t done any digging for more info in awhile, but I know there’s more out there and this thread kinda revived interest for me in finding it. I figure if I have any luck I could always post more for those who might be interested. It ain't gonna be easy though and I'm certainly not promising much (if anything), because info on this early version of Special Forces is VERY obscure, and extremely hard to come by; everything I posted was assembled from scraps of interviews dating as far back as seven or eight years ago.

Meantime if anyone wants to see either the in game images mentioned above, or scans of the PSM interview, let me know (and be sure it’s ok with the whole “watermark” rule, I don’t wanna piss off the mods). The PSM interview contains a LOT of info, as well as more images including gameplay shots of Sonya in action as well as the underwater areas. Again though, I just wanna make sure I'm not breaking any "copyrighted image" rules here at MKO first.

Here’s another tantalizing tidbit ; there was apparently an early demo of Tobais’ version of the game comprising of the whole opening warehouse level, with both Sonya and Jax playable, complete with cutscenes. I know this is true, cause the few images I have as well as some random bits of info are from it. If anyone has or can find any further info on it, by all means post it here! I’ll be sure to do the same if I get lucky.