I voted for Smoke of course but this was the hardest one for me so far. I really like Ermac, he's always been a very cool character to me. This appearance, his abilities, his moveset, his fatalities & story have always been awesome, especially in Deception when he helped Spirit Liu Kang free Kitana, Kung Lao, Johnny Cage, Sonya & Jax from Onaga's control. I expect him to do the same in the next game but Smoke is my favorite male character, he will always have my vote.

If this is so, I seriously hope none of them are playable.

And if they are, I hope it takes shit loads of hell to unlock them.

I am 99.9% sure I watched that. Because a huge sigh of relief came over me. So many people have such high hopes that they will breathe life into so many characters like they did stryker.

While I do think stryker got a huge revamp in MK9, I don't think it was great enough to say he has sooo much huger of a fanbase now. He's still stryker, just with a lot more who are accepting of him now. I wouldn't say he has a hugely larger fanbase now though. He's definitely cool, but look at it this way.

They are going to have to demote that much time that they did to strker to about 15 different characters, and No I don't think they can pull it off to kill off their most popular characters. I'm sorry if anyone disagrees with me.

They can hugely improve them like they did stryker, but people are still going to ask where are Sub-Zero, Kitana, Smoke, Jade, and Kung Lao? The others they might be able to skip on, but I think at least those five have considerable fanbases. Killing them to replace them with good characters just ain't gonna cut it. These characters have to be GREAT to replace them, and I'm sorry I just don't think NRS can pull it off.

I guess I just think from a business or casual standpoint there though instead of a hardcore fan. Hardcore fans say keep them dead, and when I see that I just think my god that is suicide from a business standpoint. Those characters have huge fanbases and are the most recognizeable. A lot of people stopped playing after MK3 so getting fans to stay for a new batch of characters is already going to be hellacious as it is. I just think NRS jumped the gun killing all of those characters like they did. They need those characters. You can't just put Scorpion in a game and have it sh*t success. That's just my opinion please feel free to enlighten me otherwise.

I'm not asking for them to stay dead out of devotion to Mortal Kombat.

And I am not asking them to stay dead forever, but for at least one game.

I ask for them to stay dead because for a once I'd like some consistency in a series known for rarely having any. Quite frankly, I am tired of characters dying every single game, and coming back every single game, with either a bullshit explaination or no explanation at all.

The only game where characters who died had remained absent from the roster was Mortal Kombat Deception, and I adulate the game for that. It gave other characters the chance to shine, most notably Ermac.

MK2011 has such a strong story to it. I just want that story to last beyond one damn game. Is that really too much to ask for?

Smoke is nothing compared to Ermac.

Granted, Smoke is a great character. But he's currently in an identity crisis. There's nothing defining about him in his human form. He has a very good moveset now, but that's it.

Ermac's potential is fucking boundless. He keeps getting better, moveset, appearance, story. Can you imagine if the spirit of King Jerrod takes more influence in him? He could become the next champion for the good team.

Who is one in a million and a million in one? Answer: Ermac!

HERE COMES A NEW CHALLENGER!
Yeah, Smoke will always rise from the ashes.

Speaking of dead characters and their possible return, I remember seeing a tweet from Boon saying "With Shao Kahn dead, things change" in a reply to a tweet asking about all those killed warriors.

So who knows, maybe they'll be all normal in the next game. I wouldn't mind. I certainly hope they don't pull off Soul Calibur V bullshit and replace these characters with new ones using the same abilities/powers. LAME!




Noooooooooooooooo! Leave Noob alone, he is better off without Smoke.

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Smoke is ahead now?!

Again I see people talking about Stryker's mythical alleged "revamp"...they TURNED HIS HAT AROUND people! Jeez.

But anyhow, removing all the characters that were killed for the next game, or even making them all unlockables, would be a huge mistake. People play MK to play with their favorite characters. And, there are people who play the game other for only one-player mode and to see their story, believe it or not. For people organizing and participating in tournaments, for example, having to unlock a dozen characters or so is a huge pain in the ass. It's also a completely shallow way to "extend" the longetivity of the game; unlockable costumes and fatalities are a great idea, but characters themselves? No.

With MK9 I thought NRS was finally learning. And I'm all for adding more characters, but keep the ones we have too. If they're planning on going the Deception route for the next game I can gurantee you MK10 won't be nearly as popular or nearly as good. It'll be a step forward and two steps back.

If you argue that maybe they shouldn't have written themselves into a corner and killed most of the cast in the first place and character deaths are cheapened...then I won't necessarily disagree with you. But now that there's proper segregation between story mode and arcade/vs mode, there's no reason to boot the dead characters out completely. Just leave 'em out of story mode if you want, and *boom* everybody's happy.

I completely agree with ShadowPreacher about leaving the dead characters playable and not in the story.

It makes sense from a gameplay standpoint. Tekken and DOA do a pretty good job of retaining their rosters. Why shouldn't MK? There's no reason to not have these characters playable.

Agree completely with regard to booting old characters. Sub-Zero is my favorite, has always been my favorite, and will always be my favorite. I've been playing as him since I was a kid with MK 1. If he weren't in the next game, I'd seriously consider not buying it. And if I were to buy it, it would be way after the price came down and possibly used.

Like you alluded to, people buy a game in a franchise because they're expecting a certain amount of things (fighting styles, specials, characters, etc.) to remain the same. You go the extreme route and introduce a whole new cast, or use a cast of characters who aren't well known and you alienate the fanbase.

I disagree that characters shouldn't be hidden. Part of MK's magic was the hidden stuff. I would love to have characters hidden and hard to acquire. It almost certainly won't happen though and that's becasue of money. It's easier to make a character DLC and profit off of it than to hide them within the game. I mean the games anymore are "advertised" as $60, but we all know with DLC it'll be much more (as in MK's case more like $80). There hasn't been a really good hidden secret in a long time anyway.

I should clarify that I have no problems with secrets in MK in the style of the OLD games. The hidden boss fights where you fight *against* Reptile, Smoke, Jade and Noob were great and I'm glad they got a nostalgia shout-out in 9.

Unlocking the people you fight *with* is a pain in the ass and like I said, an unnatural to way to lenghten the replay value of a fighting game by making it seem longer than it really is. I mean, I guess unlocking only Quan Chi and Cyb-Zero isn't too bad, but if I played in tournaments and wanted to use them, even that would piss me off. But having half the cast locked (which is not the same as hidden) like in Deception? No. Bad, bad.

Having to unlock stuff that doesn't directly affect the gameplay, like costumes and fatalities? I'm totally on board with that. But playing a fighting game and not having certain characters to use is like buying a chess set and then having to send away to get bishops and rooks. SF4 tried the same bullshit at first, and I was glad to see the whole cast unlocked from the start for Super.

Imagine if when Mk2 came out, and we had to unlock 6 out of the 12?

Smoke! got to be, since a hidden fighter in MK2 on Genesis - Smoke has come along way and his human form in MK9 is awesome and his story has just got interesting, Vote Smoke!! =)

I respectfully disagree sir.

Lol Ermac was like Reptile he was a punching bag. All he did was rip off jax's arms. As for Smoke at least had playing time in the story.

Ermac as we all know probably going to get that King Jerod story again wich is so predictable.

At least I know Smoke can advance even if his story mode play was shitty. I hope Smoke becomes evil due to his demonic form. Smoke has a chance of being a different character and having a different agenda. Nothing changed for Ermac at all. In the timeline before I seen Smoke as a character trying to figure out who he is. They, left off from UMK3 where Smoke was deactivated. Then, comes back to be reactivated by noob. As, for Ermac he went from the bad ass bad guy to instantly good. They didn't even show how he became. Where was his continuity he had none whatsoever. I understand people like him because of his power. But, sadly he was a punching bag IMO.

Yeah, I mean I don't want 50% of the casst locked. That would be ridiculous and tedious for most people. But having 1 or 2 wouldn't be bad. I'd prefer they be a challenge to get though. Something like finding a hidden fight with them first and then maybe several other steps. I guess I just miss the nostalgic feel of the secrets and the rumors of the "super secret unlockables." Too hard to do in this day and age I guess.

This is true tbh but since he was no ones bitch in MKD people tend to look over this as opposed to Reptile.

This poll puts me in the mood for some SMOKED MACril.

I'l be in the corner crying.

Also I vote Mac, but really like both.

Lol Smoke actually had his reasons for being a bitch he was programmed by noob.

I'll ask you this, if Ermac is indeed the souls of dead warriors why didn't they turn on Shao immediately. They all died by his hands. Ermac was a bitch in this game too. Shao's bitch which doesn't make sense thousands of souls who are of Edenia. Knowing that Khan killed them all and stayed his bitch is pretty well defined in this game.

Ermac's biography in MK: Deception.

"We are Ermac. We are the fusion of the souls of dead warriors, created by Shao Kahn to obey him without question. We served as his enforcer for many years, until the Earthrealm warrior Kenshi released us from our bondage and awakened our perception of the worlds that surround us. We are now free to choose our own destiny. We encountered a fellow warrior spirit who, like Kenshi, understood our suffering. Eager to atone for the atrocities we had committed in Shao Kahn's name, we agreed to help this warrior, Liu Kang, to liberate his allies from the control of the Dragon King. Shao Kahn may be dead, but it seems his essence lives on in this new menace. It is as if they are both manipulated by the very fabric of the realms."

I wasn't talking about Smoke though. I was talking about Reptile. Smoke's canon enbitchment is well documented.

Obviously Ermac doesn't have freewill at this point. Usually the person that steals/manipulates a someones soul has complete control over it. Now with Shao Kahn dead Ermac might have some more self awareness in the next game.

A: we all know his bio and background and B: that's a terrible bio.

There's no good story-telling or character development here. Ermac turns good (like a light switch), and it's handwaved away as something Kenshi did, offscreen, in a game that Ermac wasn't even actually in. Wow, be still my beating heart.

I really think the legend of MK's "incredible story" came from MK fans being impressed by seemingly anything.

Also, specific MKDA Konquest blurb:

Kenshi sympathized with the plight of the enigmatic kombatant, Ermac. The Outworld warrior spirits that had manifested themselves in the form of a ninja had been violated by Shao Kahn in much the same way that Kenshi's ancestors had been enslaved by Shang Tsung.

The point of it is that Ermac is pretty clearly shown as being a slave who didn't know he was a slave until he was helped to realize it. However Kenshi did it, Ermac was plainly grateful. I view him as much of a victim as I do Smoke.

And for god's sake, It doesn't have to win a Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in order to be enjoyable. We like the story because it's fun. Let's not derail the thread into an argument over the quality of the overall plot again. It's good for what it is, and widely accepted that it's better than other fighting games out there. Let it alone.

Smoke's winning now. :D

I love Ermac. Or rather, I love what he's become these last few games he's been in. MKD and the new MK are definately his best appearances, and his alternate look in the new MK is the best one of them all. He is just badass everyway around, I love his revamped story, the way his telekinetic powers shows his origin of the many souls, his gameplay... It has indeed surprised me and I admit, I have completely fallen for him.

... But Smoke is just a bit better.

Smoke is garbage, Ermac is better.

high quality post right here