God, no. They're going throught a natural progression, just like the other ninjas. We're long past that. If people need a ninja mask to like a character, they can move on to another game. They won't be missed.

It's probably because they are using a coalition for their own goals and are like Kotal Kahn's subordinates now.

I still love you, Ermac.

Reptile's never looked better. Their popularity is plummeting because they're doing fuckall in the story and only exist to get beaten up by anyone else. Hell, it was a running joke that in promos for MK9 Reptile was always the one getting his ass handed to him.

I mean, I know we love Reptile but for casuals, if you make a character look like a loser, they're gonna think he's a loser, as opposed to Erron Black who, despite being in the same role, still gets to seem threatening and get off some good lines, giving him a suave sense of cool.

To a point, yes even though they look the best they have. And mainly, because they are nobodies in story mode. Which is sad, because they have a lot of potential.

Also they don't get that much media exposure such as Cages, Shaolins,Sub0 and especially Scorpion. Reptile only had a half-assed reveal trailer and Ermac i'm not sure if he even had one other than a presentation during a stream.

I'd say no... The average gamer who plays Mortal Kombat probably does it for game play, and because its a popular fighting game..

People like us, who are on a MK Forum, are the ones who whine and nitpick the hell out of every little detail. And we represent a VERY SMALL margin of people who play MK.


Lets be honest, all the characters are very cool looking. Reptile looks cool, Ermac looks cool. Especially when compared to characters from other games. If some one picked up MKX, and had never played a Mortal Kombat game before, would probably think Ermac and Reptile look cool. Its the people who have very specific ideas about what they think or want a character to look like who are going to throw a fit if they don't like a character design in a game..


If their popularity is plummeting, my guess it just means people are probably getting tired of them, and that some of the new characters are taking peoples interest away from them... Ive said for a while now that Reptile should take a game off. And I'm a fan of Reptile.

I'm not saying they look bad (Ermac does look like trash though) but the more they get away from the masked ninja clone look, the less popular they become, while other characters that really aren't interesting or we know nothing about, like Tremor, are only popular because they resemble that look.

Horseshit.

If we're just talking within the MK fanbase, Ermac's popularity took off in Deception when he both started to look original and became a major part of the story. He's remained popular ever since and gets tons of use online.

And I don't think there has ever been a time when Reptile's popularity waned. A lot of folks didn't care for his Deadly Alliance lizardman look, but his Shaolin Monks look struck the right balance, and people seemed pretty receptive to his MK9 look. People still love him. His fanbase is rabid.

And what kind of 'popularity' are we talking about here? What, on MKO? Mk sites in general? Remember, the gaming world is much, much bigger than MKO and its constant masturbatory ninjas vs. non-ninjas arguments that people just need to let fucking drop. These are classic characters, and the whole gaming world loves 'em. Their popularity isn't an issue on the global stage of gaming. Fighting games' first secret character and one of gaming's most famous hoaxes made flesh. Who says they're 'unpopular'?

Popularity is not directly tied to physical appearance, but regressing anyone back to pallete-swap territory is a terrible, horrible idea at this stage. It's never going to happen. It isn't 1995 anymore.

Plummeting is a bit hyperbolic. Personally I think Ermac looks his absolute best, he's wearing his dope MK9 alt that everyone loved, I don't know why people suddenly thinks it looks bad.

Reptile is more obviously frustrating imo. I've been waiting for him to do something since MKDA which was his last interesting appearance to me. I think them trying to reconcile between human and reptile hurts his look. His retro look is great because its so human-y. He looked great in MKDA because he was so reptilian. They need to pick on because splitting the difference isn't working.
Story wise, he needs to do something outside of be a lackey.

Reptile to me is better than ever!

Ermac I think still looks great...if not better looks wise. However, he comes across far less threatening & strong than in the past. More sidekick/henchman than a stand alone threat.

This tbh.

These characters seem at least popular enough to generate a constant argument on new vs old looks. Which one is better is purely opinion based. I don't think anyone wants pallet swapped clones at this point in gaming, but having alternate costumes that remind us of the original games we fell in love with makes enough players happy that it's not a bad idea. The skins that fit the story do, and should remain the default look. If you prefer Reptile's lizard man look, more power to ya. I will always remember him as a mix between Scorpion and Sub Zero. Yellow and blue makes green. That is why he is a reptile.

^^^^^THIS

I guess the same could be said for tremor. Oh wait...

Detox likes this post.

I'm really shocked by all the hate...especially for Ermac's appearance. His primary is damn near identical to his MK9 secondary...and I thought that was pretty well liked across the board.

I like it. But them prune lips....

...yikes.

Shortened it, but Shadaloo nailed it.

I just miss my Kenshi/Ermac bromance.

His MK9 primary is well liked, its my favorite look for him to date, but MKX Ermac doesn't look the same, its the same base look, but now he looks like a withered old man with the physique of Taylor Swift who really needs some chap stick.

Are ppl not aware that its not just the costume? Lol, its the combination of costume and set of animations for that character. With that having said,

im more a fan of his human look. I liked the idea of a reptilian in disquise. i guess he was ment to be kinda stealthy, so i see why the ninja suite fitted him well.

The bigger problem i have with reptile, is his specials and animations. That in combination with his alt, is meh to me. And i was a real reptile fan back in the older games. I really loved his mk2 animations, lol. The force ball animation was boss, the spitting animation was fast and just good.

Now with the currennt technology they want to make every animation have million FPS. so i dont think its just looks

Didn't Ermac rank 12 on the most used characters stat list? He's not top 10 granted but that's still pretty impressive

Ermac has been one of my favourites since deception but in this game I've avoided him because of how limited his story is and that his face show in all his costumes,I don't mind a ninja showing their faces but he's so damn ugly here I'm probably pick him up when his klassic comes out but right now I ain't diggin the guy I like a character that looks cool to play as as well as being fun,hell its the same reason I don't play kan-ra in KI

And that is stupid if that's the case. This isn't the 90s anymore when palette swap clones were popular. At least NRS are giving all the male ninjas unique, different outfits. I mean Kitana, Mileena, and Jade all had different outfits over the years but they still had their masks on in one or two of their outfits so of course no fans complained. But the name Reptile, of course he is going to show some features that he is a reptile. Can't keep his human skin disguise on for long lol

Speaking of which, when does that patch with the Klassic Reptile costume come out?