Why not? What's wrong with injecting a little humor into this spandex punching people game? What's wrong with fun?



Animalities were awesome. Sub-Zero + Polar Bear = fun for the whole family. Also, don't diss Annihilation. Good movie or best ever?



How does beating someone in a fighting game shatter their dreams of playing said fighting game? Anyone but the lowest level players knows that losses are inevitable. Also, why wouldn't I want to make peace? Remember John Lennon? Give peace a chance.




Blind people can't see video games.



So basically, you just hate variety.



What the fuck does that even mean?



Because lasers are pretty much the best thing.

Thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule to fight back with your opinions. I appreciate your hard work and time to read everything I had to say, despite you not understanding half the things I wrote, but still. Thank you, and no sir, this is no sarcasm either.

I can agree with most of those. I personally like Death traps, but when you put it in the way you said, I can see why you wouldn't like them. I've just been a fan of them, since I like arenas a lot. But you're right about Friendships and KAK (I don't know, maybe it's cooler than I think, I just never got into it).

I understood everything you said, I just thought it was poorly thought out.

Meh, I could have wrote that better, but, I didn't. I should re-write that, but... I stated my opinions and, hopefully you could share what you want out of MK for good. If you want, that is.

I agree with you almost 100%.

However, KAF & Konquest would not be so bad if the team took some effort into putting together a character better. If the team did as you suggested with Konquest mode and make it a seperate adventure game, they should make it a completely new character that you define for yourself. From there you select your gender, appearance and movelist. Who knows, maybe even load the character in the title after.

It's funny you ask. After giving the topic some thought, the only feature I could think of that I would want banished from the series forever was the run button. It just seems unnecessary to have an entire button dedicated to running when in most fighting games you can simply press forward twice to run toward an opponent.

Other than that, nothing really jumped out at me. Granted, I haven't loved every gameplay mechanic or extra feature the series has implemented over the years, but none of them seem so heinous as to require their expulsion.

Also, you never answered my question regarding which characters you spent 'countless matches' trying to unlock.

Beating Konquest with all characters to unlock Blaze and Mokap... But after realizing how completely useless they were and not realizing in the "strategy guide" that they had no fatalities, did I really needed to waste moments of my precious life to unlock them?

Absolutely not... But, during Winter Break when everyone but yourself works at an ice cream shop and you have nothing else to do on your spare time, anything and I mean anything sounds interesting when you say it to yourself, "I'm gonna unlock Blaze."

*Death Traps should only be in the last round of every fight so the battle stays longer.

*Brutalties should return.

*Create a character and create a fatality should have more better varieties.

friendships- they were fun to look at to me personally, but i cant c them working in future mk games unless the game was 2d.

Brutalities- (Just an idea) maybe brutalites should be able to be executed during an actual match where there would be a button combination for each character to master. Once the combo is performed and connects, it cant be blocked resulting in a savage beating literally leading to the opponents death. And no they wouldnt suddenly explode because thats just silly. They would just die from this vicious combo that was unleashed upon them.

Babalities- amused me at first but never was really a fan of them.

Animalities- unless they can find an animal fitting for each character and makes sense (unlike scorpions penguin), this could be left out.

KAK- I actually have a blast doing this. Just needs work and a lot more added to it.

KAF- WTF were they thinking? this feature was soooo bad, i didnt even bother to use it only ending my battles with a KO. This should NEVER return EVER again.

Okay? But I'm not asking that, I'm asking what 5 things you DON'T want to see returning to MK.

5. i totally agree about mini games...stick with the classic test your might and add more actual fighting game modes like survival or tournaments that is it.

4. certain alities like the babalities and friendships i could see being totally erased but animalities and brutalities can be re-imagined and done better...they don't even need to have them for every character in the game they could just have them for speciffic characters or even make them arena based fatalities.

3. i also agree about konquest...keep it off the mk9 disc and make it its own adventure game.it would have more potential to be a big hit game on its own rather than just a mode to unlock stuff in the fighting genre.

2. cheasy unlockables...in any game that i play i hate unlocking worthless stuff like staff pics,art and jokes. i can deal with videos,bios,secret or boss characters,cheat codes and so on but save that other stuff for the credits or make a "making of the game" video and put it all in there.

1. create a fatality was an epic fail imo...i think if this where to ever make an appearance again it should be only for created characters (if create a character is ever to return that is).

Yes Yes Yes. modes like survival and tournament can most definitely be added. Im glad u mentioned those.

I agree with most of what the T.C. said.

Kreate a Fatality should never return. At least not in the incarnation that we saw in Armageddon. They could take a lesson from Smackdown vs Raw's create a finisher mode. Just have the player create the fatality with the options given, give the player the ability to create the button presses to perform said fatality when the time comes. This gives the option on expanding Fatalities without taking away the developer created fatalities that were ultimatly ten times better than what we were given in Armageddon.

Kreate a Fighter should return but with WAY more options than what was given in Armageddon. (This converstation is making me remember how rushed Armageddon felt.)

Death Traps are annoying, but can and should be utilized. My idea would be to not have them even activate/appear until round 3. This would help ease the "cheapness" of the mechanic as to not have an instant loss in round one. It would also make more sence to do it this way instead of getting chopped up in round 1 and then just making a miraculous appearence in round 2. It would also serve to up the tension that's already there by having another way to bite it.

I've always personally disliked the konquest modes in anything other than them being strictly training modes(ala Deadly Aliance) but they we're pretty popular, so I assume it's not out of the realm of possibility that they'll return.

I agree with everything except for Create A Character and Konquest.

That offers endless replay value and it gives players a chance to be creative, see and play with something that is not hardcoded into the game.

I absolutely loved making my characters: a gypsy, a golden queen, a female reptile ninja, a punk vampire, and a hunky cowboy.

The only problem with creating characters was the fatalities. We should be able to select from real fatalities. If not kak-exclusive fatalities, then fatalities borrowed from actual characters.

Anyway, very good points icebaby. But I like adding my own flavor to what I get to see and play with. Either way, I doubt this mode will ever return.

Also Konquest is the best way to flush out the story, which is very important to MK. Without an adventure mode, the game would be too short, like MKDC. A game series where story is always prominent needs some sort of interactive story mode. (Interactive, not like MKDC which was pure arcade-style fighting).

Yea I'm really going to have to disagree with the Create A Character. In the form it was in, in MK Armageddon YES, that sucked, but if they would go the Soul Caliber / Tekken route where you basically pick an existing character and recostume that character, I think it brings a lot more to the game especially with online modes.


To me the perfect Create A Character set up would be just like Create a Soul from Soul Caliber.

Start off by picking either an original Standard Move Set or an existing character's Standard move set.

Next, you pick your characters special attacks, which can either be from and existing character, or you can pick original specials, and mix and match them based on a point system. This way your character doesn't have 5 different projectiles and 2 trap moves.

You then "skin" the special moves themselves. Example make fire ball red or blue or green. Make a charging attack leave a shadow, or a blur or smoke behind you. Turn your freeze ball into black goo, or mud, or sticky hot lava. All cosmetic changes that leave the damage / range / frames in tact.

Pick from original and existing fatalities.

Now you customize the fighters appearance, name the fighter, and give him a bio and an ending. Now you take a profile snap shot, a bio snap shot, and an ending picture ( with props and different back grounds ).

Give us about 50 different slots so we could make our own roster, and allow people to trade characters online. Giving your characters Bio's and Endings would give players incentive to download and play through Arcade.

It creates a community , allows players to share fan fiction and makes everyone happy.

When is Ed Boon going to higher me as a producer already ?

I disagree about the minigames. They've always had them (some which might have been overlooked so far include Pong in MKII, Galaga in MK3, and "Invaders from Space" MKT). The MK team speculated back in the days of MKII that some day, games might be so advanced, that MKII itself might become a minigame - and lo and behold, that actually happened in MKSM.

By the way, ever tried "Test Your Sight" in Deadly Alliance for Game Boy Advance? It was a lot harder as the item would "skip" certain cups in a way that didn't happen in the big consoles.

What I'd like to see is a return to incorporating those mini-games into the gameplay ala MK1 and MKDA, and give people as many options as possible: a feature to turn them on/off as well as a feature to do nothing BUT the minigame. This way, everyone wins.

Death traps weren't bad... Bo rai cho's farts were annoying..

death traps should trigger a minigame.. and the more life they have, the easier it is to beat the minigame.. and the lower their health is, the harder.

Kinda like getting out of submissions on those Smackdown VS Raw games.


if you're HELLA good at the minigame.. you can always get out of the deathtrap.. but it's HARD.

I liked Chess even more than arcade mode because you could have a team instead of playing just one character.

I just wish it had been in Armageddon and that alt costumes had been selectable. I always wanted my teams to have themes like "Kahn's army" or "the good guys" but there was no Shang, no Johnny, Sonya, or Kung Lao, only Zombie Liu and Dark Raiden...you could never really re-enact older games like I wanted to do.

I dont mind the mini games really, I'd prefer if they kept them simple though: Test your Might/Sight should be the limit. Puzzle Kombat was good. Didn't like Chess and Motor Kombat though.

Deathtraps should just be reduced to just a posh way of ringing someone out Virtua Fighter style. None of these deathtraps that can be activated by a pop up attack from a good distance away from the deathtrap!

Yeah, get rid of the other "Alities". I do believe Friendships could work in MK. But none of the jokey crap. Manly handshake, sinister smiles etc. It'll be a nice way of making friends online!

Dont mind one way or the other for the Krypt. Alt Costumes should be already unlocked though.

Konquest is odd for me. I want them to expand upon the universe but: Deadly Alliance's and Deception's were god awful and Armageddon's was a poor man's Shaolin Monks. So, I dont know there.

Create a Fighter could work in Mortal Kombat. But it would have to be majorly upgraded from Armageddon's. Maybe SCIV style cloned moveset with unique special moves.

Ice Baby, I agree with you on almost everything you said. I wouldn't get rid of Kreate a Fighter becuase I really do believe that this mode has potential IF the MK team can do it well.

I've said it a million times on these boards, but I think the best way to do it is to give the player the option of every special move and clothing item that's already in the game, plus all of the past characters AND another couple hundred special moves and a couple thousand clothing options.

The key is to have so much variety that players can get to the point where if they can dream it up, they can create it. That's where alot of the fun comes from and that's why MK:A's KAF mode failed so miserably. No imagination whatsoever.

But I also think that this mode should be liked to large portions of the rest of the game. Getting money for winning matches (and betting on matches in 2 player mode online or offline), finding items etc. I'd love to see a large, dark town where you can go to rickety shops and buy things, while also traveling through the town and other places on the island where the tournament is held to find items while on the way to your next match.

But after that, we're in complete agreement. So on that note, rather than just dissecting your post without offering any suggestions of my own, here is my top 5:

5. Humor: You know what? I don't want to see silly moves like farting or slipping and sliding on vomit. I don't want to see a guy called mokap with mocap balls on him. I don't want to see a guy on fire and I don't want to see a bloody skeleton. I don't want friendships, babalities, or any other stuff that's barely funny the first time and just a flat out waste after each additional viewing.

MK should be dark, with characters that seem realistic, having deep backgrounds and a stellar story. I want drama, mystery and intrigue, I want an epic battle of good versus evil. I want blood and guts and gore and tears and secrets and surprises around every corner. No where in that statement should anyone even WANT to have Liu Kang dancing or an autograph of Cage.

You want funny? Put in a blooper video that can be unlocked. But leave the meat of the game alone.

4. Konquest: Oh man is this mode horrible. It was mediocre in MK:DA, it was unbearable in MK:D and I don't even remember it in MK:A if that tells you what I think of it.

As Ice Baby said... Leave this type of adventure mode to an adventure game. You can tell a great story through cut scenes in between a fights. Maybe some characters get more or less depending on how far they make it in the tournament. MK vs DC came relatively close to this idea, even if they reused alot of cut scenes.

3. Gimmicks: By this, I mean the tacked on crap. The "oh look! We did something new and unique!" garbage that each game seems to have since MK3. "Oh look! A RUN button!! Now you can RUN at people!" "Oh look! You can fight in mid air!"

Yeah, ditch that junk. How about making a great, polished, all around fun to play fighting game before you try tacking on little modes or ideas that never seem to amount to anything more than an annoying distraction?

By the way, but gimmicks, I also mean every mode that does NOT relate to fighting. Yes, a kreate a fighter mode allows you to create fighters to fight with, so I'm cool with that. But which would I rather have: Chess Kombat or a freakin SURVIVAL mode? You know, that basic thing that most fighting games have had since the mid 90's?

Give me more modes to fight in and less extemporanous junk (ok, none at all) because no offense, but most of the time, this gimmick stuff isn't even good to begin with. As countless fans have said millions of times over:

STOP CONCENTRATING ON THE PERIPHERAL GARBAGE AND WORK ON MAKING A GREAT FIGHTING GAME.

Sorry to shout, but I really wish that someone on the MK team would actually ask the fans what they want once in a while. When I've heard Ed Boon say things like "we want to give gamers a 'complete' experience" as justification for motor kombat, test your sight and those godawful konquest modes, it makes me want to scream until I can't talk.

2. "What if" endings: This is one of the worst, laziest storytelling devices I've ever seen in videogames and it stems from the early 90's when the most complex a fighting game story could get usually involved a dude who was out for revenge because some other dude kidnapped his girl... Or something.

Well, video games have evolved since then, but DOA, Soul Calibur and of course, MK, have all been living in the past, having either stupid, pointless endings or in MK's case, that awful "what if" ending.

"what if Scorpion won? Well, he'd be dragged back to hell because Quan Chi had the amulet." Then you find out in the next game that 99% of those endings were POINTLESS. None of it happened. Is Noob really Sub Zero's brother? Who knows! It's never been confirmed in a game following MK:D that I know of.

It's time for this series to embrace modern video game storytelling and craft a tale where you have definite winners and losers. Yes, you can absolutely plant the seeds for the next game, heck, doing it this way might make people WANT to buy the next game in order to find out what happens next!

But maybe in the story mode, a character gets kidnapped, a character dies, a character gets injured and has to pull out, a character gets involved in a conspiracy, a character pulls out of the tournament because they've completed their secret mission etc etc etc. There are a million reasons why a character might not win. So you can set up a final match. You can set up each individual character's background, goings on at the tournament and ending while having it all ACTUALLY happen.

See, this is called story telling. A 5th grader can do it. A team of grown ups shouldn't have too much of a problem with it.

1. Recycling: This drives me up a wall. Oh look! Kira has Kano and Sonya's moves! Why? Who knows. Did she train with Sonya before joining the Black Dragon? Who knows. Are the programmers lazy? You betcha.

Special moves, weapons, outfits, winning poses, heck... voices, REGULAR moves... ALL of this stuff should be UNIQUE to each character!

Back when MK was 2D, no one expected each character to have their own set of unique regular moves because that's not how it was done. No way did they have enough memory to give Liu Kang his own unique set of regular moves versus Jax or Kitana or Sonya. Everyone had a round house, a sweep, an uppercut etc.

Okay, that's fine, but this isn't 1992 anymore. Video game systems now have the power to show characters with completely unique move sets (both in basic moves and special moves), and finishers that aren't from the 1990's and many other aspects that would make each character even more unique.

Why does a set of punches look exactly the same in two different styles? Why are the combos in one style so similar to other styles? Where are simple things like double jump kicks? Joint locks? Dodges? Escapes? Real parries? Holds and multi-part holds? Air catches?

Why is it that Jax and Liu Kang still fight almost the exact same way? Each character should have at least 10 special moves (if not 20). Each character should have tons of fun regular moves and combos that should fit their own unique style and attitude. Each character should have several "signature" things about them that are unique to that character alone, whether it's Sub Zero putting his arm up in victory, Jax saying "gotcha!" etc. They've done these things in the past, but now they have the ability to take everything to the next level, literally.

The fact that they failed so miserably to do so, and the fact that they seemingly cut so many corners in the past tells me that the MK team either doesn't care all that much, their too lazy or they don't actually know what their fans want.

Either way, they're wrong, and I really hope that they're working hard to make some or all of these things better for the next game.

Bullshit. I made an Iron Fist / Kamen Rider pastiche. KAF was a good time rolled in a bagel.



Word. Fun is terrible.



So the series has been letting you down since 1992, then?



They already have that. Most folks call it Soul Calibur.



Because doing the same things is the best!



Watch out Ed! Look at this dude's capital letters, you can tell he means business!



Doesn't matter if it's been confirmed or not at this point. Most fans have accepted it as truth.



Yes, because watching my character of choice lose would be so awesome. "Woo! Look at Sub-Zero take those punches! I am having fun!"



Just don't make my mistake and read fanfic for potential answers.



Except, you know, Street Fighter.



The made MK vs DC, so they did know what I wanted.

Wow, I'm surprised people are still wrestling with this concept. Here's the skinny:

Any part of a character's ending that recaps someone's past (e.g. before that part of the story) is true, regardless of whether that character "won" or not and regardless of what the rest of their ending says. The past is the past, and their winning something now doesn't change that.

Therefore, the part of Noob-Smoke's MKD ending that says that five games earlier the original Sub-Zero died and became Noob Saibot, is canon - regardless of anything else.

Having said that, MKSM confirms that Sub-Zero's brother is Noob Saibot anyway. My point still remains about the past being the same regardless of who wins.