The One Being and Onaga were lame. Dark Raiden and Zombie Liu are also things I'm not a fan of. Kamidogu? No thanks

Love the trailer. Looks like the are restarting the MK storyline from MK or MK2 and giving it a modern look. So far looks good.

*Still doing the happy Raiden fan-girl dance due to 'Light' Raiden being in trailer"

finally, MK game that we all needed! Good stuff

I thought Onaga was pretty cool really. With the One Being thing it's very hard to judge. I like the backstory, but since in Armageddon we virtually learned nothing of it... yeah, it ended up being a gigantic dead end. While I'll always prefer Light Raiden, Dark Raiden was a change and development of his character after many games. With someone using Liu Kang's body, again this is another place where I would have went a different route in explaining it. The idea of using a multiple MK champion's body to fight Onaga (in a crazed way) made sense.

Deception had a lot of ideas and there was good in there...but I think what hindered it was overcrowding and execution.

The biggest offenders were the various ways they undermined MK:DA's story....the burial of Kung Lao & Mavado; bringing Liu Kang back; wiping out the Dragon King's army like they were never there to begin with; etc.
The plot was also all over the place...to the point where the sub-plots completely overshadowed the main. There were things that could've used more focus and thought.

I would say things started getting out of hand with Deception...but could've been salvaged. Then Armageddon just threw it all into the fan.

Agree with Predator on this, this would've been great if it was a sequel to MKA, unfortunately with Warner Bros. acquisition of the MK franchise, expect them to want to introduce MK to a new generation of gamers (mostly from the Massive Multi-Player RPG and Farmville generation) and rake in a lot of cash. MK is a cash cow and it will be milked for all its worth. The hard reality is that such re-introduction to a new audience means a re-boot.

Watching the teaser obviously got me stoked about buying a PS3, plus seeing Mileena in all her 3d glory truly made my day. But after seeing a recycled character like that cocksucker Shao Kahn earlier, it kinda doused the excitement a bit. We need a fucking sequel for god's sake not MK2 rendered in polygon models

I very much enjoyed Deception's story. It felt like a direct sequel and continuation from the story threads started in Deadly Alliance.

Armageddon upturned all that and ground the momentum Deadly Alliance and Deception's stories had to a jolting halt. I'm still vastly confused how events from Deception spiraled out of control into the events of Armageddon. Of course, the utter lack of bios for 90% of the cast only clouded the matter... but the bios they did release? I LOVED them. Johnny Cage was made very heroic for once. Sareena was emotionally and morally fleshed out. The story almost started to make sense as an epic final confrontation....

... which, of course, just stopped mid-run.

My hesitance with a MK3-era story is we don't really have any real burning questions lingering from that era left to explore, do we? We had moved beyond the tournaments into an world of warfare, political intrigue, cross-dimensional battles for supremacy, and large scale stakes of life, death, and rebirth. Characters had matured; Sub-Zero was no longer just a member of the Lin Kuei and a shadow of his brother, but he was the Grand Master leader of the organization that once hunted him down. Kitana wasn't just the misguided adopted daughter of Shao Kahn, she was a revolutionary princess fighting against her upbringing to reclaim her lost heritage alongside her estrange mother and friends. Kung Lao wasn't just "that guy with the hat", he was a close friend of Liu Kang, whose untimely death thrust a burden of responsibility on his shoulders as he stepped into a leadership role he neither expected nor wanted, but accepted regardless.

It would just be a shame to not follow through on these developments and instead retell their stories again.

Unless they give everyone "MK: Mythologies" level backgrounds and depth. I'm okay if it would take that approach, but that might be too daunting a task.

I wouldn't say Deception expanded on the story of MKDA. The Deadly Alliance won, but for what? They lose control right away. Kung Lao and his band of merry men died during this confrontation for what? To build up the power of a duo that died right away.

Same thing goes with subplots. Mavado kills Kano, and then what? Kabal kills him and ends that whole story arc. Nitara? k thx for showing up. Bo Rai Cho failed as a teacher and what happens to him? He becomes a general in some army fighting some thing.

While Deception's plot wasn't terrible, it did not do justice for MKDA.

Not every plot thread was a good one. A lot of Deadly Alliances positives were ignored in Deception's adherence to more old school characters.

But Kenshi, Sub-Zero, Li Mei, Scorpion, Raiden, and many others' stories directly continued where MK: DA's stories left off. Were they all good? Not all of them. But at least they DID continue where they left off. Which, again, Armageddon totally screwed the pooch on.

I can agree with most of your complaints this time. I agree that the Deadly Alliance should not have been killed. Killing all the Earth heroes was a bit overkill for me as well. Mavado treated us to a change in the boring Special Forces/Black Dragon crap in MKDA, but then it's right back to the boring crap quickly.

But like was stated above, I felt MKD was "not that bad" and definitely at least didn't completely destroy everything. It was still salvageable.

It was especially jarring after MKDA put forward such a cohesive story, with endings that could've plausibly been stitched together the way they were for MK4. Somewhere out there exists a possible reality where everyone's Liu Kano dreams came true like some horrific cautionary monkey paw's tale of doom.

No points for execution, but MKD gave us a lot of material to sift through.
I don't think you could call any of it outright offensive. Heroes got the usual moron treatment and material built up in MKDA kinda fell flat, but I don't think you can really fault the game for doing things that weren't expected. They switched perspectives on us, but they didn't brutally undermine anything we were supposed to take for granted.

It seems a bit like accusing them of manhandling when they were the ones in control the entire time. Just a little off.

You just described exactly what I was hoping to see in the next MK as far as story is concerned. Thanks Pred!

I was really hoping that this is the way they were going to go. Who knows, maybe it still might be. Of course, it doesn't seem that way, but again, who knows...

We all got carried away with the announcement trailer etc.. and forgot about tonight's gttv e3 episode, there's a good chance mk9 is going to be in it. How many hours from now till it's aired?

Y'see, that's something I can understand. Them wanting to milk the thing is cool as long as the quality is still really good. That's why I like that it looks like a solid MK game first.

On the former point, that's where I kinda disagree. I don't think that just because they're trying to capitalize on how juicy the cow looks right now, that the story can't progress from the last game. You just explain recent past adequately enough for a relevant few, include the mainstay characters (there's less than 15 of them, and people around here generally want a roster of roughly, 25-30 characters), and massage the thing on forward from there.

Easier said than done BUT.....they have the time, money, and resources to get the thing done right. The worst they'd probably suffer is reading through XiahouDun84's story thread. lol But really that's about the posture we'd like them to start from....all in one thread.

So, I guess I don't believe it has to mean a reboot. I think that was an alternative that seemed appealing when it was time to make the decision.

Why re-write Sub-Zero, Scorpion, Kitana, Raiden and a couple others? That seems like more work than correcting some things here or there, and moving them forward from the last big event to me.

idk...

Every MK has a bunch of ridiculous endings, from Smoke copying the ninjas abilities to Tanya killing the Dragon King.

Deception's story was just 'meh' to me. I just feel like Onaga was forced on us, the whole Kamidogu plot was weak and almost all the major characters in MKDA dying was like a big middle finger to fans.

I loved Deception's story. There are certain plot elements I wouldn't have done, like punking out Mavado to bring back Kabal or killing/rezzing/enslaving Kung Lao, Johnny, Sonya, Jax, and Kitana all at once like that. But I actually really love Onaga and the One Being/Kamidogu "how the Elder Gods created the MK universe" backstory, I love Dark Raiden and Zombie Liu, and I think that the returning characters who were in both MKDA and MKD all got extremely excellent stories. Becoming Champion of the Elder Gods and finding out about his Cryomancer heritage, respectively, are my favorite things Scorpion and Sub-Zero have ever done in the whole series.

But that's why I want this retelling. The way MKDA and MKD's plots were explored was so much more sophisticated than the past games's stories were that I want to see that treatment given to make MK1 thru 3 (and hopefully 4 some day in the future too) richer so it all matches up.

Call me a fool (or whatever shit you guys can make up when you disagree with others), but I have always loved the plot in MK. From the beginning to the end.

Why? Because MK is one of those fighting games who actually has a long and good story to tell! Street Fighter has always been about the same tournament, Tekken's storyline is kinda flat and boring... But Mortal Kombat is like this incredible fantasy world which could be measured along with those you see in RPG's.

MK evolved from being a tournament into an actual storyline where you followed the good vs evil until it reached the ultimate battle in Armageddon. No other fighting game has such an epic tale in them.

Re-telling the story with new and better graphics and gameplay sounds like a great idea to me. And no, I am not saying I dislike the originals, not at all. I just think the story is good enough to be told again with today's technology.

2011 can't come fast enough.

And yet, Street Fighter and Tekken have both sold much more than Mortal Kombat as of late, and they are much better FIGHTING GAMES. I want Mortal Kombat to be the best, and that's why I come here and not on Street Fighter and Tekken forums. Mortal Kombat has the most memorable characters to me, but yet when it comes to fighting, it falls dead last. I hope this MK can change that.

I am NOT a Raiden or Johnny fan in ANY WAY AT ALL!!!!!!!

BUT NOW!!!! Look at them!!!
Raiden looks pissed and angry and ready to do damage.
Johnny looks like himself, but something is new and more TODAY!!
I like the new Johnny! The tat doesn't hurt either.

There are slim pickin's for female characters so far. I'm hoping for at LEAST one more:
Kitana
Sindel
Jade
Ashrah (was pretty damn cool)

I agree that from Deadly Alliance on there was a LOT of great story.
The story was my main reason for coming back again and again.
I really enjoy most of the characters, even the new ones (except most every character introduced in Deception, they all blew)

So to kinda kill it all off and start again......eh not happy, BUT.....there is the idea that THIS game could be 1 of 2 things:

A MK 1-3 all in ONE which will probably be followed by a 4-6 game....etc....this would speed up the story to allow NEW gamers to catch up while allowing us OLD TIMERS to be happy and not wait 15+ years to get back there again.

OR

I think this ISN'T MK reborn, I think it is going to be (the story will tell) the results of MK:A finale.

I think with whatever happened in MK Armageddon...THIS is the result.
the background characters suggest NOT a complete reboot.

The story will tell......which is always my favorite part.

BUT GIVE ME BIOS DANG IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

True, the Japanese knows how to make good fighting game gameplay, but I must say that there is a certain charm about MK gameplay. It's the same with MMO's. The Japanese have made SO many MMO's, mostly based on good gameplay and graphics, but the stories in them are very trivial...
The Americans have made a few MMO's, namingly World of Warcraft... The gameplay is basically the same as the Japanese ones, the graphics are kinda bleh to today's standards, but there is SO much lore in it which makes the game so fantastic (says I who is a roleplayer and makes full use of that lore).

And just so there will be no misunderstandings, this was not to critisize people, races, cultures etc. so I apologize if anyone feels offended.

Most fighting games today are all about Online Gaming and then the storylines of the games fades into the background, and I find that so sad, because it is important to me that the game has a good story to tell, just as important as gameplay and graphics, and sometimes a great story is better than the latter.

Gameplay wise, I have high hopes for this up-coming MK game. And from this one trailer we've seen yet, it looks like it is going in the right direction.

Bullshit.

First of all, Tekken and Street Fighter are games by Japanese companies so they have sales in both Japan AND North America. Mortal Kombat games, on the other hand, don't have Japanese sales.

So let's compare them FAIRLY and use only the US sales figures.

I'm gonna go by the most recent games except regular SF4 instead of Super SF4 because SSF4 hasn't been out long enough yet to have fair numbers. Here's the ACTUAL numbers from VGChartz, a site that tracks sales.

MK vs DCU sales in America:
PS3: 0.84 million
360: 0.94 million
Total: 1.78

Tekken 6 sales in America:
PS3: 0.62 million
360: 0.39 million
Total: 1.01

Street Fighter 4 sales in America:
PS3: 0.92 million
360: 0.94 million
Total: 1.86

Tekken's way behind and SF's only beating MKvsDCU by .08. "Sold much more" my ass.

Wow, good comparison. I honestly didn't know that.
And yes, you got a point, they have sales in Asia as well... I had no idea that MK didn't, but I guess it makes sense.

I thought Deception was fine as well, apart from it being a bloody waste to do away with the Deadly Alliance so quickly, and the new Black Dragon angle being shoddy. Orderrealm and Chaosrealm, and from them Havik and Hotaru, were in my humble opinion fine and worthy additions to the saga at large. It helped to further distinguish Smoke, Noob and Ermac from their old ninja brethren, especially in Ermac's case, brought Mileena to the forefront of events, and provided a new and interesting direction for Raiden. Its pros far outweighed its cons (gameplay, unfortunately, notwithstanding).

I too look forward to the coherency and streamlining that a new depiction of MK1-3 could offer. Whether it's out of a desire to go back to a highly regarded time of the MK saga and further flesh it out (or milk it, if you prefer), or out of an uncertainty as to how the handle the series post-MKA, I applaud the decision. After the last decade of games' worth of subpar 3D gameplay, MKSM's butchered plot (still a great game though), and MKA's butchered everything, I have to admit that a part of me was really trying to remind myself of why I liked this series at all in the first place. Heck, I bought Ultimate MK for the DS last month to pretty much do just that. As much as I'd like to see MKA resolved, I'm surprised by how often I've been asking myself lately if it's even worth the effort. The release of this trailer is a reminder of just how good the good ol' days were for me. I don't object to revisiting them at all.

The complaints surprise me, yet they don't. Had the game NOT been a retelling/reboot/whatever the hell it is/time will tell, and followed on from MKA, there'd doubtless be some folks bitching that they were continuing to waste their time on a story that was dead in the water, or that they weren't getting the reboot that they surely felt they were promised. Us MK fans, we're awesome like that. Heh.

Some of you people care a bit too much about story. That shit isnt important.