It helps them feel unique and special.

Although Sindel is one of my faves, Shang bursting through her chest would be epic!

However, Shang never went into Sindel, just his power. He vanished into thin air, leaving us with a moment.

If NRS was to stick with the whole Shang thing, without his powers, he would become old again (for his main). Who knows, he could re-attain the boss position or just be playable on the main roster.

Because I don't like it if characters are overused and drooled over by all others.

And I hate nothing more (well maybe sonya) than characters that get extra attention all the time and which can NEVER be OUT of a game.

If my favorites become fanfavorites, i'll probably get tired off them over time, Ermac sure did loose some charms for me, but it took some games too for Scorp and Sub to become annoying for me, so they have some time, I won't hate them instantly.

Yeah I kind of get that. It would be kind of dumb to not include (arguably) the most recognizable characters in the series though. That would be like a Dragon Ball movie with no Goku, a Street Fighter with no Ryu and Ken, A Halloween movie without Michael Myers (We all know how beloved Halloween 3 is lol) but yeah I can see where you're coming from in a way, thanks for sharing

I seriously doubt it.

That would be fucking stupid if it was true.

MK1 has the best and most iconic characters, so i'm assuming all of them will be back in MKX and future games.

Iconic maybe, but best? I don't agree on that.

Not "maybe", Scorpion, Sub-Zero or Raiden individually stomp on any other MK character when it comes to popularity, iconicness, and recognizability by miles.

You may dissagree with them being the best, but MK1 effectively introduced the most iconic characters and all of them will keep coming back too.

Love MK1. I thought that the characters were awesome back then, and I personally don't change my opinion based on what other people like or dislike. The original, along with MK2, MK:DA and MK9 are my favorites. But to each his own.

All that said, I really hope that the rumors about Cage, Sonya, Liu Kang, Reptile and Quan Chi don't come to fruition because those characters (minus Liu Kang) along with the confirmed would make for a similar group of returnees to MKDA, minus some names, of course. I like all of these characters, but I'd rather see them mix of up some more.

"Being the best" is more about how they play than how they are percieved though. So iconicness, popularity and recognizability have nothing to do with being the best.

The top pro players have used characters like Kung Lao, Kitana, and one even played as Rain and went pretty far with that. None of those are from the first game.

I am not denying how much people love the original characters. I am not saying that they shouldn't be in MKX, I am not saying that you cannot worship them as if they all were parts of Allah himself... as creepy that may be.

What I am saying is that who is "the best" does not equal who is the most popular.

I know, I was refuting the claim that they weren't important in the old timeline.

I know, I know, I wasn't trying to argue with you about that... it was more just a personal rant about how Quan Chi is doing all the important parts of the storyline, because NRS has a boner for him. XD

?

I already agreed with you that the MK1 charcaters aren't the best to everyone, that was just my opinion. What i stated as a fact, is that "You may dissagree with them being the best, but MK1 effectively introduced the most iconic characters and all of them will keep coming back too."

Oh... I thought that was you disagreeing with me, because, well, that's what you do.

The mk1 characters are suuuuuuch a bore!

It is annoying to no end how they appear in every game despite not evolving as characters much.

This. Scorpion, Johnny, Sonya, Liu Kang and Kano barely evolved into later games. Bi-Han did become Noob Saibot so I'll give him that. MK1 is far from the best game or the game with the best/most well rounded characters.

MK2 introduced Kuai Liang, Kung Lao, Jax, Kitana, Mileena, Smoke, Reptile which if you ask me have made a far greater impact.

Yeah, I feel pretty much the same. None of the MK1 characters interest me very much.

Same here, except Liu and Subby.

Scorpion could be cool if he wasn't Boon's little money-baby.

Sub-Twenty could be cool if it was just Sub-One and not an entire legacy/family. Noob and Sub would be enough.

Liu Kang is the main hero, that is not something you must be if you want to be a favorite of mine, I really hate such plots + only his dragon form interest me really.

Johnny Cage, a human that wears glasses and is pretty, boring + I really dislike him being vain but goodguy, that doesn't make sense to me. Only thing I like is his ending in MK9 (his NON canon ending)

Sonya Bland, well you know how much I hate her right?

Raiden, in MKx he makes a cool return, and I liked him in MK1, but overal I don't like him that much.

Goro, he was fun back then, but just a bland design for a shokan, after more shokan were shown, you see no different between Goro and a normal shokan, so please give me Kintaro and Sheeva instead.

Shang Tsung, really like this shapeshifter and its story, but he isn't playable in mk1.

Reptile, still love him, but he wasn't really in MK1, he made his cool debut in MK2 anyway.

Kano, this is the only character from MK1 that I really like together with the secret and the Boss.

Well, in one thread I made, I'm still feeling this will be majority of these guys' last appearance for quite some time. I don't have that much of a problem with them, even if I don't play a lot as most. But still, we should really look passed the whole original cast returning and focus on who else might return. Eh?

MK1 introduced Reptile. It also introduced the two ninjas that Reptile, Noob, Smoke, Ermac and Rain were all based off of design-wise. They had an electric god from Big Trouble in Little China, a Bruce Lee, a Van Damme, a badass military chick and a mercenary with a terminator eye and they all fought in a mysterious old man's mysterious fighting tournament on a secluded island.

The setting was awesome and the backgrounds had a nice variety that ran the gamut of dark and foreboding and cool Asian themes. As a kid, I felt like I was playing my own version of Enter the a Dragon.

The character profiles, the story, the endings... This all felt like new ground not just for MK, but for games in general. There was intrigue, hidden characters, glitches that could be characters, fatalities, blood and gore... This is where it all began. This is the game that became a sensation and prompted senate hearings.

The initial designs for MK1 were fantastic and looked awesome at the time they were released. The initial ideas behind the game were groundbreaking back in the early 90's. Yes, sequels improved on a lot of things, but there's only one origin and that origin was phenomenal when it first dropped.

However...

The MK1 cast, after so many games, have largely become stagnant or even a tad bit grating to some.

Raiden was this vengeful god in MK1 and he became somewhat of an idiot in MK9. Cage, over time, became the dopey comic relief and for several games, his story didn't really seem to go anywhere aside from dying. He was just sorta there. One of the good guys.

Kano and Sonya were interlocked plot wise for far too many games. Replacing Kano, who just became a lackey for the bad guys, with a clone and calling him Jarek made little difference. It just made their MK4 endings all the more obnoxious.

Scorpion seeking vengeance for all he lost and having him be a hellspawn spectre was a cool twist in MK1. But the vengeance theme eventually became all he was and nothing really came of it, because he never actually got revenge against the one that really wronged him.

So yeah, Sub Zero became Noob, and the new Sub Zero went on to have a good story that was then retconned. But at least he evolved over time.

For me, I blame Midway / NRS for this. They started off very well with these characters and laid a great foundation. But many of them never seemed to go anywhere substantial (at least in my opinion) with the one notable exception.

Blame the what-if endings, blame NRS for not taking more chances with their sacred cows, blame Midway's time crunch or just unimaginative writing. But they were cool designs initially and they had cool backgrounds and storylines initially and in the earlier games overall.

I'd imagine it's tough to keep characters fresh for 20+ years though. I don't envy NRS in that regard. But they never really did enough to keep them going in new and exciting directions (MK9 didn't overly help with this). Most of the time (whether it was actually the case or not), it just felt like they were repeating the same story over and over, which made new characters seem more exciting and made them feel all the more stale in comparison.

But again, at the core, I do think that they're great concepts. Hopefully NRS can use this clean slate and 25 year story to really take these characters to new places and give them some more depth and reinvigorate them story-wise the way they seem to be doing gameplay-wise. I mean, if they can make Kano look THAT fun to use... I definitely have some faith!

I am aware of that. I was talking about characters that were playable.

Reptile, Baraka, Shao Kahn, Kung Lao, Jade, Kintaro, and Mileena haven't evolved at all either, lol.

I don't remember mentioning Kintaro, Shao Kahn, Baraka or Jade. Out of all those you included I only mentioned Mileena, Kung Lao and Reptile.
And yeah I believe those 3 are way better and more interesting than Kano, Sonya and Johhny.

Yes Reptile has stayed a lackey throughout the series which I wasn't a fan of, but his tragic story in all the games is what he had going on for him. He was instructed to protect Shang Tsung in the first tournament staying hidden which made him the first ever secret character in any fighting game.He then pledged his loyalties to Shao Kahn who falsely promised to resurrect his race. He was instructed to hunt Kitana along with Jade who again betrayed him to help her friend. He was held prisoner and tried for genocide which was the exact same reason his race got extinct. Tragic irony. Then he kept falling victim of various situations and people like Shinnok and Nitara until he got the short end of the stick once again in MKD where his body became the vessel for Onaga.
So at first glance he hasn't been exactly successful throughout the tournaments but his tragic story makes him a lot more interesting than, say Liu Kang, who has won3 of them. He's just the same old hero that saves the day. Until he dies and becomes a zombie. How interesting.

Same goes for Mileena. Her anti-hero status and tragic story is what made people warm up to her. She was always in the shadow of her golden child sister craving for her father's love. She kept losing to her sister and was kept in prison until Baraka freed her and she gained control of the Edenian army in MKD, posing as Kitana.

I won't go into full detail about Kung Lao too since I guess my point here is clear. Let's just say I always thought of him as the most interesting version of Liu Kang.

All Sonya and Kano did was hunt each other. Liu Kang was the token hero of the franchise without having anything going on for him other than that story-wise. And Johnny was....Johnny. I fail to see how they were better or more interesting than most of the cast introduced in MK2.

TIL that tragic or "interesting" stories connected to a character = evolvement or development. :/