Actually, I believe it was Liu Kang who was mad at Kung Lao for abandoning the White Lotus, saying "You left the shaolin when they needed you most." which supports the Kung Lao wanting nothing to do with being champion thing.

Nevertheless, after MK3 Kung Lao still RETIRED to live in peace...which denotes, once again, no interest in being champion.


The idiocy that was Kung Lao's ending came only from Shaolin Monks, and it pains me that they had the gall to acknowledge that trainwreck of a storyline...even in a preposterous ending that will more than likely be non-canon.

Well, Midway seem to be acknowledging Scorpion vowing to protect Sub-Zero in MK2/MK3 what with that myspace page up, so I don't think MKSM is canon, though I do think it dances around concepts that the MK Team do consider canon.

As lame as it is I can totally see SM and MK II being canon now. Like they'll just pick from both depending on which parts they like best and what fits the story they're currently telling. I doubt they care how confusing and nonsensical that is to the fans. I don't think anyone should be surprised. It was niave to think we could all just declare SM non canon and be done with it. That isn't Midway's style. They weren't going to go through all those changes and additions and not use at least some of them. Nothing is ever that easy with following the MK story.

My thoughts exactly.

The idea of that is somewhat intriguing - there were SOME things about Shaolin Monks I liked. I liked the idea of Reptile being involved in the MK1 battle, or the Black Dragon looking for Kano, and Kabal mentions somebody betrayed them. I like the idea of them meeting Kabal in MK2. S'bout it. The more ya mention it, the more I dislike the MKSM story.

Ya but the only bad thing about them meeting Kabal in MK2, was didnt he get messed up real bad at the beginning of MK3 by Kahn;s extermination squads, then he found his respirator and stuff? thats what I always thought, but then he had it in MKSM didnt he? I cant remember its been forever since I rescued Kabal but I remember I did it on accident but I cant remember if he had his respirator and stuff, if he did, then that is the only part I dont like because MK3 is the explanation for why he has to have a respirator, and if he had it before the extermination squads ever came, then that leaves us wondering how he got it and why he needs it again.



Plus, to the guy that said MKA is a result of Midway wanting to release a game every year.....I disagree. It has been two years since the next chapter of MK, and they release the next chapter every two years, its been that way since 2002 with MKDA, then 2004 with MKD, and now 2006 with MKA. A different team worked on MKSM. So they have had just as much time as they have normally had, and technology and other fighting games have came along way since 2004, MKA could have too but it didnt. I blame it on them not wanting to be busy as hell all day long and just hurrying up and getting it done with a ton of side stuff but no actual story or depth. It probably didnt take them any time at all to make this game. Hell it probably took longer to take all the things out that are missing than it did to put in any of the new stuff. peace

Ok. First im glad to see that im not the only one hating on MKA's storyline LOL. anyhoo i remember back in the day when id read Mk2's manual 100 times cause the storyline was great. storyline of MK was so detailed in my opinion...especially for a fighting game! DA and Deception were great as well..i loved how at the end of Deception, there were so many cliffhangers...for instnace Shujinko and Onaga, scorpion meeting with the elder gods, undead earthrealm woarriros, noobsaibot-subzero,DaRk Raiden, and finaly the boraicho-kitana army about to face off against Barakas fearsome tarkatan hordes..Now.. i really really wanted to see how everyhting would be settled. I mean everything was leading up to some ultimate climax! But wtf LOL they did a fatality on the storyline. Armageddon has nothing to do with deception or anything before that..all the 'built up' cliffhangers disappeared and its as if none of the games before had ever happend. Man..i think they retconned the entire series (seriously) and this is the new canon storyline:D. idiots i swear..it doesnt take a genius to realise when u have a bad storyline. They did not answer a single thing and they apparently didnt feel like concluding anything since none of the endings seem canon or even possible. Like SMOKE takes over edenia........ when did smoke want edenia? (what happend to smoke and noob's alliance?) wasnt subzero connected to smoke somehow? sub was ruined ..he became an ice god and completely forgot about his brotherLOL wow..like i said, they retconned the entire thing. Finaly, the konquest...i enjoyed the story (partly cause i was hoping somehting cool happens in the end.and we all know how that turned out). But the ending was super-rushed..u meet the big bad guys of MK and u never see them again-Right. (and how did SHao kahn become emperor ???)
Disgraceful end to a great plot..RIP MK I guess we'll never know whether sonya kills Kano or not.

P.s. i think the intro movie was canon...the first 2 were..and blaze says all the fighters are fighting in the crator..so yeh, !

I'm going to try and not emphasize on what was already said, but the endings sounded like a three-year-old wrote them. "Baraka's blades grew to twice their normal length."... what the fuck? "Drahmin grew to three times his normal size?"...and? These kinds of things have been proven to not be the thing that wins one power. For instance, the smaller characters are the ones you play as in the games and you still beat the huge boss! There is no back story to these characters, and if there is, it's thrown together for shits and giggles.
The creators got us psyched up about the quantity of characters... "Holy shit, EVERY ONE?" Which should have had a huge, amazing storyline. Everyone here could have thought of something more creative. Even this one had so much potential. For instance, the Elder Gods could have brough back every fighter ever in existance so that they could find a new champion, Blaze being the test to find one. But when and where did Blaze become this huge, all-powerful being? And when was he a god to release a god's powers in the first place? Yeah, the Elder Gods gave him power, but for what? He's not a god, so how's he going to give character's god's power? They left a few storylines open, like Noob Saibot's, but other than that, there wasn't anything! Sareena became a Cryomancer... dubbya tee eff?! Why? There's not reason for it! We have two, that's enough. You can only do so much with ice for Christ's sake. And what's with these huge armies taking over the realms? The Shokan, Cryomancers, Scorpion's clan, etc. Why? I'm with everyone in saying that I hope to God this is a non-canon game. Just like Trilogy. Fun to play simply because of the multitude of characters. The gameplay is great, and the Konquest is awesome (minus the lame story), but I'm taking this as a filler, like a lame spin-off.

Unfortunately if you take it as a filler...it wouldnt work out. At least with triology, MK3 ended with Shao Kahn (a very cool villain) getting his ass kicked by liu kang. if you take this as a filler ure going to end up with a to-be-continued ending in deception.


For those who have played MUGEN...this game is exactly that; bunch of random characters fight eachother.

MKA reminds me a lot of MKT, lots of characters but lack of storyline. Except that MKT is an update, not the main series, but seriously dude, we're talking about the last chapter of the series here! and a lot of playable character is just not good enough! you have to think about an epic ending too!

Well sure the Konquest mode explain some of the events on MKA but there are many things that remain unexplained. For example, MKA doesn't tell us who saved Kitana, Kung Lao, Cage, Jax, and Sonya from Onaga's control, Shang Tsung and Quan Chi's return (how the heck do they survive the blast on Deception?) and most of the ending just focus about 'what if the kombatant defeat Blaze?' and there are no scene or anything to describe the endings, just Argus narrating and the character doing kata.

Overall, MKA has one of the most weakest story in MK history. 2 years ago after I completed Deception's arcade mode I'm really looking forward to the true canon of MKD ending, but I guess that's just my dream.

Note: Please forgive me if my grammars are incorrect, my English is a little limited. Peace bitches

The day they take any part of MKSM to be canon is a sad one indeed.

Vogel apparently wrote an e-mail going on about the story but now e have confirmation that no bios actually exist for MKA. This situation ridiculous. They really have destroyed the one thing MK had left going for it. It seems Armageddon really did hit us and pretty much KO'd the series with it.

Good job, Midway.

Okay. After a few days of lurking around the forum and reading every post in this thread, I felt it was finally time to join MKO and voice my opinion as well. My qualms with this game extend further than just the storyline, so I'll touch up on other components of the game as well.

I'm a game artist and have worked on a few projects in my time. When I was in art school, an 3D modelling instructor of mine said a quote that, accorcing to him, should be one of an artist's golden rules. It went something like this:

"You can't shine a turd."

In other words, a piece of shit is a piece of shit, no matter how much glitz and glam and bling you add to it. That is my opinion of this game. Harsh? Yes, but in my gut I feel it's true. Here's why.

Like many long-time Mortal Kombat fans I was anticipating this game not in an "OMG I have to have it now, it's gonna be the shiznit" kind of way, but in a "hey, this should be a great way to end it's run on the current consoles and I'm excited to see how they handle a game that has enormous potential", kind of way. I didn't read up about every detail as they were released nor did I scour game sites looking for the newest screenshots. As a fan who has been pleased with the more recent installments of MK, I had faith that the MK team would do this franchise justice. And again, the story of my life, my faith in something has bit me in the ass yet again.

So I bought the game and popped it in my PS2...my mind was boggled...and not in a good way. They reused DA and D models? Seriously, some of those models are almost 5 years old. Now, being in game development, I fully understand the importance in recycling art assets, as it saves time and space to reuse a few things here and there...but we're talking about main character models here, the 'jewels' of the game. (Oh, and btw, the majority of the select screen icons are all reused as well, and all the mocap from the previous games was ported over as well with not a lot of new stuff added.) Not one to dwell too long on things, I immediately felt that this was a result of time constraints (even though I know a few people that can create a high-quality model in just a few days...MKA=a 2 year project...really?). Fine, whatever, as long as the gameplay makes up for it.

Now I'm also a very big fighting game fan and there is no fighting game I haven't tried at least once. While the gameplay isn't as deep as 'true' fighting games like Soul Calibur 2/3 or Virtua Fighter 4, this current engine did offer some fun, albeit sometimes awkward, mechanics. The Armageddon installment however left me unimpressed. The air combat was stiff (although I know full well it's stiff because you can't mocap aerial combat as easily...can't rely totally on mocap, you know), and awkward to perform (as well as to watch). It was uninspired which was so frustrating because I knew this game had so much more potential gameplay and especially presentation-wise. Again, I accepted it, maybe this is really was the best this engine was capable of doing. Yeah, great, as long as the story is involved as the last two, and that the 'culmination of all Mortal Kombats', delivers on the promise of answering many unanswered questions and tying up loose ends.

Now, whoever said story isn't important to a fighting game should be bitch slapped. There has to be some other motivation for a player to choose a character other than because they 'look kick-ass'. MK has been doing a very good job in keeping fans interested in this epic story, especially in the last two games...Characters were starting to get fleshed out more than before, and truths behind their involvement in the MK universe were starting to unravel. We were promised closure and a proper final chapter to the current MK saga. What did I get? I got Kitana, one of the most revered, beloved and classy characters in MK history becoming the leader of the battling Pussycat Dolls. What happened to the epic storyline? Where did it go? The fast storyline build-up from previous games leads absolutely nowhere and left us hanging...kinda like sex without the orgasm. Disappointed I turned off my PS2 and went online to see if there were alternate 'true' endings because the one I just saw HAD to be a joke. Sadly, these endings are apparently what we got and I don't have faith that there are secret unlockable ones, cuz I've learned my lesson with faith.

Now let's bring back that line from before: "You can't shine a turd."

The turd in itself is the game, of course, remnants of what used to be something great. The glitter are the extras like Konquest, KAK, and Motor Kombat. They're distractions that try to...well, distract you from the crap beneath it all. Now, many can be blinded by the shiny bits and quickly embrace it as is, but many more can see right through it. No matter what extras you pile on or crazy effects you may add, if the base components aren't to the upmost quality, then all you'll end up with is: a shiny turd.

I've come to the sad realization that MKA is one of those half-assed quick-buck projects, and that's all I accept it as. Now I don't feel angry, nor bitter about the result of this game. I'm just disappointed with the turd I was presented.

So, my suggestions to the MK team: remember that Mortal Kombat is first and foremost a FIGHTING game. (Not an adventure game, not a chess game, not a puzzle game, and not a racing game). All resources should be put into this FIGHTING game. You had a reputation of actually having a great storyline to go with this FIGHTING game. Don't mess it up again.
In the end, I think y'all know you're much more capable than this. It's time to take your franchise a little more seriously. I have faith in you guys. Don't make me regret my faith again, lol.

Thanks for reading my ultra dramatic rant, us women are just like that.

Laters, TasteMyWasabi

Im right with ya on this one.... I think the games decent, but for 40 bucks this was a waste of money..... and I tell you the real problem with all this... they alienated their fans with this one to a degree and honestly if I wasn't a fan of the sereis I would be outright pissed off that i wasted 40 bucks on this game, it's deception with a few more people.... Leaving the story out was a mistake.

Having all the characters, and the KAF was a cool idea... but they also billed this game as the finale in the current generation.. if they wanted to kill the story they should have added many third or frouth alt costumes added more fatalies, and speical moves or do something....

That's what really bothers me... the fact that they didn't really spend time on the story, or give players an overwhelming array of moves and such... Again kreate a fighter is an awesome feature but they billed the game as so much more than just a create a fighter... and consequently did not deliver the intended product.

Midway has been in the red for the last few years. One of their biggest franchises that didnt entirely suck was Mortal Kombat.

Armageddon is a pile of crap in terms of storyline, the gameplay is marginally better, but then they ruin the Fatality system and also go back on their word for including all characters.

This is just another lie, another let down by Midway... and for me, this will be the last time I pay for another Midway product. I lived through Deadly Alliance, Deception, and now this. Mortal Kombat is the greatest example of how a franchise has not lived up to its potential. Too many corners were cut.

These are not small nags, there is something fundamentally wrong with this franchise, and every time they make little tweaks to fix things, they create more problems. Every MK game people expect Midway to offer a big surprise to make up for the last few flops of the franchise. I thought this was it, I thought it would make up for the last three games, but that never arrived.

It is better than the last two, but its too little too late. They also destroyed the storylines of the characters by not offering a reason for me to care anymore. For a game called Armageddon, supposedly being the end of many of the characters, nothing happens, there is no glorious tie in to all characters, its just pure crap.

Just off the top of my head from reading the forums today here is an example of how they fix things to create more problems: People did not like playing through Konquest a few times to get every item in Deception. This was because Konquest was boring as hell.

Now the new improved Konquest is fun, though short and easy. Collecting the items is a breeze, and there are four ways to get them this time. Buying with one type of coin, collecting all artifacts, unlocking them from chests, or that damn Question mark.

Now they made the unlocking process too easy, giving no replay value and destroyed the only element of mystery to the game.

Thanks.

Ok i don't want to be a fanboy but i love MK. MK1 was my first game. aside from the fact that the story in MKA is total shit the gameplay is to me atleat pretty good not perfect but pretty damn good. i like the air combat, the KAF, and the KAK, motor kombat is ok it's better then puzzle kombat. and i have to agree the sotry was total shit but this seems to much of a difference from MKD and MKDA. i have a feeling there going to redo the game like they did with MK3. ya know like maybe an Mortal Kombat Ultimate Armageddon or something with all the bios and the endings that would tell what we wanted and thought were going to happen. or maybe they'll just do a FMV or something or this just could be a really shitty way to end this gen of MK games. but even though the story sucks huge sweaty donkey balls doesn't mean you should give up on the game. I mean really why did you keep playing the MK games ya the story helped but when it came down to it, it was the senseless violence that got each and everyone of us to keep playing and that's what we need to remeber. shitty story or not getting to beat the shit out of each other with little 3D characters in all the ways we would want to in real life is what Mortal Kombat is really about.

I remember when MKD came out back in 2004. I would check this website once a day, and I remember how enthralled most people were with the story. For 2 years we have all speculated about how the next MK game would tie up the loose ends in MKD. Would Sonya kill Kano? What about Noob and Subby? Reptile was the dragon king! Would Raiden turn evil? Guess what folks.....it was all a waste of time. Every thread, all the speculation......a waste. We got no answers. Still can't believe it.

I've hated the Liu Kang/Kung Lao rivalry since I first witnessed it in Shaolin Monks. It wasn't even a GOOD rivalry, it was like big brother/little brother "nanny-nanny-boo-boo" bullshit. Shaolin Monks just needs to be dead and buried as far as I'm concerned storyline-wise. It bugs me that they still had Kung Lao being a little bastard in his ending.

Lol, now that the ? has been solved...there is absolutely no hope for a proper ending. I read someones theory..Havik resurrects everyone. That makes the most sense to me. Well either that, or armageddon takes place on an alternate timeline.

.....I understand what you mean kinda. When I waas younger me and my cousin loved Mk1 and couldnt wait for MK2, then it finally came, and we would play it all day trying to figure out fatalitys to kill each other with, that was so awesome.

But guess what, there are no more fatalities, i figured out a 7 hit fatality in about an hour man, lol, and you know what else sucks, its the same buttons for eeeeeeeeevverrryy sinngggggle chaaaaarrrrracter, lame man.

And you say we should remember why we started MK in the first place for the chance to beat the shit out of each other with little 3D characters, well, if thats what you want to do and thats what you really want, then go play Soul Caliber 2 or 3 buddy, b/c if you think the fighting is the best and only true aspect of MK, then you're missing out on a real great inspirational fighting game with Soul Caliber man, its way more advanced and would give you a much better time to "beat the shit out of each other with little 3D characters" trust me on that.

The fact is, MK Armageddon was promised to deliver and it didnt, and thats all there is to it. peace


-Shredder-

One good point for me stood above the rest:

MAKE IT A FIGHTING GAME DUMBASSES! YOU MAKE GIMMICKS "AFTER" THE STUFF IS GOOD! NOT BEFORE! Asses...

i hate to admit it, but i guess MK is really goin down the toilet now... im probably only gonna rent the next MK game, just keeping a little bit hope left for the series.. but if it turns out having a bad storyline too, i probably wont bother with MK anymore..

its sad to see MK's flame just fizzle out like this.. i've played MK since the first one, and i always had so much fun with it... but i have to say my first disappointment was in deadly alliance, mostly for the way fatalities were done, and konquest sounded fun but it just ended up being a hellish tutorial mode [its freakin hard with the tiny GC d-pad]..

but when deception rolled around, it was awesome to me, konquest mode was alot more fun than DA's, two fatalities were back, stage fatalities [deathtraps] made a comeback, hara kiris were awesome too.. the gameplay was more fun to me, and the boss was NOWHERE near as irritating as DA's, so i was able to get everyone's endings [damn moloch was pure hell to fight.. didnt get more than 2-3 endings in that game..]

i dunno, deception was the one i had the most fun with since mk4.. but now, armageddon.. i was excited about gettin it, the gameplay is fun, its not bad gameplay wise, but the storyline just seemed bad to me.. so many characters fighting who never even saw each other before.. the endings are horrible i have to admit.. i mean, its mostly due to how they hyped the game up to be the end of these characters' old storylines and everything, yet they push them on or make them complete BS..

scorpion finally gets his clan back, along with his FAMILY for god sakes, and then quan chi comes along, takes his kid, and drags him into hell, stretching on scorpion's story and torturing the poor guy further.. is boon sure scorpion is his FAVORITE character? i'd hate to see what he does to his least favorite...

i just felt like saying how i felt about the past few games, and also how i hate what boon is doing to some characters like scorpion.. he's my favorite character and i just see him getting tortured even more, his storyline has gone on long enough, his ending should have just had him kill off quan chi, and finally put his soul at peace.. meh i just keep rambling on, sorry.. just wanted to put my 2 cents in on this whole thing.. seeing MK all to pieces like this is heart breaking, honestly..

Come on. We are all disappointed, but I think that a thread on their #1 fan website that has enough negative comments to merge into a full-length novel is enough.

I wouldn't be surprised if the MK Team saw,or even heard about this thread, and completely lose all hope in ever satisfying its so-called "fans" ever again.

-sigh-

It sucks that I had to log back in to say that.

GBD.

Not to discount or disregard what you said or anything, but when they actually make a visible effort to satisy the fans again, they won't have to see a thread like this.

I agree with you. Myself I am happy with MK: A compared to MK: Deception. I didn't MK: Deception that much. MK: A is the sequel I hoped MK: Deception was going to be from MK: DA, a real improvement fighting wise. MK: A gives the player more fighting options than MK: DA.

MK: DA is still my fav MK game to date.I'm more of a solo player. MK: DA had a great story,the fighting was desent, the gameplay was fast(way faster than MK: Deception),good lenghtly ladder.MK:DA 's Konquest had a point and explained everything about the character past and allowed the player to get warmed up to the player.

After MK: DA , MK: Deception started taking MK downhill. I mean the MK team started doing these lame side games where they could have put more effort into the fighting aspect of the game. Also Konquest this long draw out adventure that had almost no impact on the storyline, not to mention that boring unlock system of the game.If MK: A is proof that the MK: team could add something to a fighting engine and improve it like they did in MK: A. Even with MK: A, with Motor Kombat, I have zero interest in that game. As a fighting game , like chess and puzzle kombat, motor kombat doesn't really fit with this game. As I said a long time ago, Midway should just release MK: Party game if they want to do a (puzzle fighter,chess, and motar kombat). The MK: team could have done more with the fighting.

Till this day I feel that MK: Deception is a huge waste. MK: Deception is just a slowed down version of MK: DA , with breakers,flashly get up moves, and stage fatalities renamed "death traps", and new lame side games chess and puzzle. Not to mention MK: Deception weak arcade ladder. With MK: A the MK team added new stuff to mix things up a bit in MK: A. This is the kind of stuff that improves Mortal Kombat a fighting series.

Even though I am happy with MK: A( the more I play it the more I enjoy the new stuff to the fighting aspect). At the same time I can't help but feel like MK: Deception, in terms of if only the MK team had focused 95% on the fighting would could have more new aspects of the fighting engine. IT was good that they add as much as they did with the fighting part, but I know it could have been more if they had focused on it more.

I hope for Mortal Kombat 8 the MK team makes it more of a arcade game like MK1-MK4. MK1-MK4 and sort of MK: DA,the fighting was #1, not side games. One of the main things I dislike about MK: DA - MK: A , is the unlocking. Sure some of the concept art and behind the scene stuff is cool , but not to the point where I have to unlock characters, stages, and character alts. Even with MK A konquest, I still like MK: DA konquest better. Again not only do you get a chance to play with the character and learn about him or her you get the back story. MK: Deception and MK: A konquest to me is just too draw out. Just seemed like another mode that really didn't fill in the gaps or informed the player about the game.

The MK team can do it, they just keep on getting side tracked on this lame side games, I hope that will never appear again in a MK game. To me Mortal Kombat is a arcade experance were the single player gameplay important. That in turn , from when you do fight another person whether it be arcade back in the MK1-MK4 and now online with MK: Deception and MK:A players have something new to look foward to in the fighting, which improve on the last. In MK8 case bring something new and fun. I hope that more fighting modes like endurance mode like 1-2,2-2-4-4 kombat retures in the next MK game. Something to spice the typical 1 on 1 matches. There are so many modes to fighting games that MK: Doesn't have I wish it could have like suriveial mode. More fighitng modes are better than more side games.

Storywise when it comes to MK: A. Sure I am dissapointed. Konquest helped cleared a few things up, but not much.I'm huge on story when it comes to video games and MK. MK: A didn't promised what it did, but consider how much it improved somewhat where it counts. Again I think it all leads of what was going on. The MK team had so much to do in getting this game together. I think games like Motor kombat just got in the way of what was really important, the fighting.Not to spoil anything, but anyone else find it funny that Raiden is pretty much the same character in Mortal Kombat 1? Again for me the storyline, the lack of character bios , and for the most part lame endings is dissapointing, I forget that once I start playing the game. The direction is the story is a bit of the downer. I mean the storyline isn't really there. The endings for the most part are sort of corney. Not to spoil Kitana ending, but it is like Charle Angels. Jax ending is way out there. In the end I don't the team took the endings as serious as they could have. Looks like I have to wait 3-4 years to find out what realy happened. I hope MK8 marks MK return as a more of a arcade focused experiance fighter, in terms fighting engine is the focus.

Tgrant, do you think there is any chance we can put a little pressure on the MK team to create bios anyways and post them online? I agree with everything you said, but I think if we can get them to still create bios even if its not in the actual game, MKA's name can be saved. I mean the game is pretty much what I expected minus the storyline. I think if they have bios telling what every character's purpose in MK Armageddon is the story can still be saved.

Anyways if this is brought up again at a fight night MKO needs to do a better job in wording questions where the development team cant dodge the questions as easily. State it as a fact that the storyline is atrocious and that fans want to see biographies posted online and ask if the devlopment team will take the time to get them online. Dont accept anything that is not a yes or no, if they start going into how they want to but cant, do follow up questions like what would stop them from making bios... bring them to a yes or no answer.

this is a good idea. ofcourse we want to know what happens after armageddon. i think we should find a way to get them to post bios online and do something to finish the series for this gen like they said they were going to wehter it be a FMV or an expansion.