jagro Wrote:
hmm, interesting. hopefully nobody takes any offence at my comments, they're just my opinion:

i think these entries have really highlighted to me how difficult it is to design a character who is both unique and different, but at the same time suitable for the mortal kombat universe.

some of these are just not suited to mk, whilst others (orange scorpion - there was always gonna be at least one wasnt there?) are just too similar to other characters (komodo is also a bit too similar to reptile).

there's also quite a bit of move-borrowing (i immediately thouht of smoke when i saw the name "shade" and, although he's admittedly pretty different in most respects, he does have a carbon copy of smoke's vanishing move). would we accept it if a character in this game had that exact move as well as smoke? no, we wouldnt. so we have to pretty harsh on this i feel. some moves are fairly generic, projectiles, rush moves, etc, but that move is extremely personal to smoke, so taking it in this competition was a mistake i feel.

i dont think that "x looks kinda like y" is a particularly good description either. just highlights to us that the character is strongly based on somebody else. same goes for special moves: describing it as similar to another in the game just says point blanc that it is copied. another big mistake.

i've also realized while looking through these just how important an image is. it's difficult to really like a character if there's no visual representation of that character. the ones without pictures are going to really struggle, imo.

again, dont take these comments the wrong way, just my personal humble opinion. i just dont think any of these entries are going to be a real threat in this competition.

if i were to vote for the best? tricky, most of these are very evenly matched.

whilst i was reading psionic's bio, i thought it was really promising (apart from the "ninja" part). unfortunately, it has no description of special moves whatsoever, making it absolutely clear that they are ALL borrowed, which is a shame.

kimya, again was extremely promising, but it just didnt go far enough. summoning animals and whatever, that's a really good, interesting and UNIQUE trait. he should have gone further with it, used a variety of animals or whatever in specials and fatalities. but instead, his move list is full of generic kicks and teleports. another missed opportunity, but a good entry nonetheless.

onyx is pretty cool all round (mainly because he uses a very similar ability to my own character ¬_¬). a few too many generic moves, but a solid story, a good ending and an interesting fighting style make this a good entry.

overall, my vote would have to go onyx. but yeah, far too many generic and borrowed moves/bios here, am a little disappointed tbh. hopefully the standard rises as the competition goes on.

ICEgrenade Wrote:


i agree with you completely with the exception of "x looks kinda like y"
if you really want to get a sense of certain "brand new" character the best way is to make references to old veteran characters.
and also moves are borrowed A LOT. example, sub zero/ reptiles slide.

jagro Wrote:


sure, if you're talking about specifics, i.e. "he has hair like smoke". but when you're whole character's description or special moves are "similar to scorpion" or "kinda like shang tsung's ground skulls", then there's just no attempt at originality.

and yes, the slide move is very popular, but justified in a way as 4 or 5 characters actually DO share that move in the game already (reptile, sub-zero, cyber-sub-zero, skarlet (i believe?)). the smoke example that i picked out is, however, totally unacceptable.

ICEgrenade Wrote:


i agree with you completely with the exception of "x looks kinda like y"
if you really want to get a sense of certain "brand new" character the best way is to make references to old veteran characters.
and also moves are borrowed A LOT. example, sub zero/ reptiles slide.