one more thing................ ya know what would be cool........ a game like Spider-man, in an open world New york or something, except your scorpion or subzero..........

yeah i kind of agree with u about fighting games. someone needs to reinvent the wheel like skate did tony hawk and make it fresh again!!

That's a shame.

actually MK offers the best "second round option",in other fighting games if you win the first round your characters manifestate,jumps gadly and oher horrible things.
In MK when you finished the first round the oppnent just stand up and keep on fighting.
It's good the way it is.
about the fighting genre..it isn't dying.
Street Fighter 4 is the proof.
And all the latest Fighting games(mk vs DCU,Virtua Fighter 5,DoA4,etc) sold pretty well.so man i don't get your point.

about reinventing the franchise.totally disagree.
look how good and succesfull was SF4 which is a jump in the past.
So actually "reinventing" is the only thing that Fighting genre doesn't need

You know that round counter. Yeah you can switch that to 1 round if you want.

This is some of the worst advice I've ever heard for the future of Mortal Kombat. An open world MK would be god awful. MK can't even be a successful fighter, so what makes you think they would make a sandbox game better than GTA?

Secondly that 1 round system would be really dumb, because you know there are alot of assholes who spam, and use cheap tricks to win the first round. So by having rounds 2 and 3 you have a chance to find flaws in their cheapness and kick their ass.

It may seem like I'm starting a fight, but I actually agree with you about the photo realistic graphics. I think MK team should fire the guy who renders the characters, because their faces look unrealistic, and the hair looks like plastic.

My point is the only changes MK should make are little changes in the combat, and more content. That should be the future of MK, not Grand Theft Mortal Kombat.

Firstly, about the rounds: I agree they should get rid of them. I DO put the number of rounds to one but the fights are too short. If they get rid of rounds, they should give you health that's 3 times biggger (to make the fights last longer).

Maybe replace the option for "number of rounds" with "amount of health" (adjusting how big the health bars are).

As for the open world, YES, but only in story mode (Konquest). Deceptions Konquest was the best, even if the storyline was the worst.
What they could do is have a unique story for each character, in an open world (like Deception, not GTA), and have each story last about an hour.

But, that's not to say they should get rid of Arcade mode. In fact they should add more modes, such as:
- Arcade/VS
- Tournament (this mode would include rounds and timers and ring outs).
- Tag Team
- Survival (one character, one health bar, taking on the rest of the cast)
- Team Survival (win by defeating all opponents characters).

I have so many more ideas but I don't want to be giving them all away as I hope to be making games one day, and I'm currently at university studying game development (hopefully get a job in the industry at the end of the course, providing the economy is stable by then).

You made somewhat the same arguments in another thread... so I'm going to write about what I feel in this one...

I already said that they should stick with the rounds. Why should it be one long round, that's boring. You don't have that much freedom in the game if you just have one round because that's just boring. So you want to beat the crap out of this one guy but you can only do it within one round and he's better than you... There's no way that you can see his tricks or anything becuase there was only one chance and you failed to take the opportunity to have two rounds to where you study the guy's move and take advantage on that if for some reason you died during the first round.

The rounds should stay... and they are anyways, why would you suddenly ditch that after 8 games that were produced that has the round system?

Also, Mortal Kombat does not need to suddenly change into a RPG. Role-Playing and Mortal Kombat doesn't mix, and I know a lot about role-playing because I play one of the biggest RPG games that exists which I mentioned in the other thread... WoW... If you wonder around everywhere in the game, you lose interest in why you bought the game in the first place. You should not wonder around unless you are specifically playing conquest, which even then I say throw that part out of the game. Mortal Kombat is a fighting game, not an RPG, and we don't need them to suddenly change the genre for this game either.

I'm pretty sure that they're going to make the next MK, if any, more realistic. With the games making everyone look like real humans in the games now, I'm pretty sure it will not be that hard to make everything look more realisitic.

I'm sorry, but this is just something I can't see happening ever to Mortal Kombat. Yes, they're your opinions and I appreciate that you speak out your mind, I have mine too, and I just feel like saying that your ideas will most likely, never happen ever in a Mortal kombat game.

Hello?

About the rounds that everyone seems to be talking about...I do think they should stick around, but I also believe that they need to deal with the rounds differently.
A couple of ideas:

Change the voice: The current is old news. We're desensitized to it, and the inference in the beginning was, that the boss was the one who was in control of the matches that took place. Hasn't that changed with each game for the most part? And therefor, so should it change with a new boss, so long as it fit the theme of the game and the boss who was holding the contest.

"Menacing" can sound alot of ways and so, I simply propose that they experiment with it going forward.

Stop announcing them so obviously: I mean, what about some sort of referee sometimes? Like a little monster or something that only steps in to break up the fight, and pick up the looser of a round or something? Would have to mean that they figured out interactive background characters, but it's an idea. Bad or Good.

The indicator that you lost around in this case, doesn't necessarily have to be your power bar either then. It could be when the little monster ref steps in and stops the fight. I wonder what would happen if you hit the ref?

Stop announcing them at all: Drop a flag or something, yea? Give a sound effect, hu? idk.

:: Utilize the time within a round so that it is more fulfilling to play, and justifies a break: Keep the announcer, change his voice, but make the game so exciting that by the time someone does loose a match, we feel that a break is necessary.

This might make the fights longer, but at least we'd feel like a 2nd round should happen.

OR,

Make the rounds shorter again like they were back in the day. Part of the adrenaline rush of playing a MK1-2-3 match, was that you only had so much time to beat the other guy. If they made the rounds shorter again, justification for the 2nd-5th rounds would be way more evident.

==

Just some thoughts on it.

==

On the RPG thing, I'm intrigued by it. MKShaolin Monks worked well and that was Action, Open World, and a Role Playing Game. However, I don't think they need to be going full on WoWarcraft on us. I don't think fighting game followers, or fans of MK in general would support a PC based game like that.

I do think however, that they should continue exploring a mix. Gimme something like GTA when it comes to Sonya and Jax (or a FPS like CoDuty), gimme something like Prototype when it comes to Sub-Zero and Scorpion, gimme something like Fable 2 when it comes to Kitana or Jade on Edenia. Gimme something like World of Warcraft when it comes to....Kreated Fighters and their story modes (only in the sense though, of player creativity, and possibility of upgrades and all that).

Anyway, it's a very good idea I think, but only in moderation, and only if these things play right into the mythos and allure of a true M rated Mortal Kombat game.

Mortal Kombat as already shown us that they are this sort of all encompassing type of franchise. Willing to take risk, and try new things. So, I simply propose that they experiment....in moderation.

Also, Mortal Kombat does not need to suddenly change into a RPG. Role-Playing and Mortal Kombat doesn't mix, and I know a lot about role-playing because I play one of the biggest RPG games that exists which I mentioned in the other thread... WoW... If you wonder around everywhere in the game, you lose interest in why you bought the game in the first place. You should not wonder around unless you are specifically playing conquest, which even then I say throw that part out of the game. Mortal Kombat is a fighting game, not an RPG, and we don't need them to suddenly change the genre for this game either.

Finally, somebody understands that Mortal Kombat should not change genre's, because that's not what MK is about. Secondly, midway has tried to make open world games, and they suck, so it's pointless to even try.

Only the original MK game was based on a tournament, they rest are meant to be just battles between good and evil (and some neutral guys thrown in for good meassure). So no, the aanouncer isn't meant to be an announcer of the tournament as there is no tournament any more.
This also means no stupid referees and stuff... I don't want to be mean or anything but I really don't like that idea.

To quote someone else in this topic: "This is not a boxing game" and it shouldn't even be similar in any way (except for the fact you are fighting).

As for the time limits - personally I HATE time limits with a passion. I should be able to take my time to beat someone. Again, the time limits would be acceptable in a tournament mode as it fits, but not in other modes.




Well, Shaolin Monks was great, and Deceptions Konquest was also good. One of the reasons to buy MK over other fighting games is because of the story - it certainly isn't because it's got a good fighting engine.

I agree with everyone that the game shouldn't be all in an open world, but that's not what I'm suggesting. I suggesting having a Konquest/Story mode that has an open world like Deception or Shaolin Monks.

I also stand strongly against rounds and time limits, unless they are in Arcade / VS / Tournament modes, and added as an option to turn them off.
I still think the size of the health bars needs to be an option too. As a person who turns off rounds and timers, the battles are just way too short.

Which brings me to another point. People are moaning they want to keep rounds so they have time to learn their opponents strategies. Well, if the fights lasted longer due to bigger health bars, there wouldn't be any need for rounds.

Having longer battles with bigger health bars would mean players will have to have skill, durability, edurance, and to incorperate some form of strategy/tactic (wear them down over time or do an all out attack, etc).

Either way, there should be options available for both types of fighting game (longer more intense battles, or the standard spam-fest with rounds and timers).

well i would love if they could make an adventure game for konquest mode that is bloody(good gameplay to) like ninja gaiden or god of war. they have a good enough story for it.

You misunderstood what I said so my fault, it was a rhetorical question. Simply put now, Shang Tsung & Shao Kahn are the personalities behind why the voice is even there. They are the initial masters of ceremony in Mortal Kombat. They were also the challengers to earth in this contest//tournament...Mortal Kombat. So? Yes they are indicators of a tournament. It just happens to be especially concerning the earlier games rather than the later ones.

What I was saying then, is that we've had a few bosses, so the voice should have been changing according to the boss. You see, regardless of whether there's a tournament happening or not, the insinuation is that the boss is the reason for the fighting. And since that is so, the cause of the fighting should be the one heard in whatever game it is. Y'know, if we're playing MKDeception, we shouldn't be hearing Shao Kahns voice to begin with. The only one we should be hearing at all is Onaga.

I know full well we've only had 2 official contests. So then, consider the fact that 8 of these games have had differing storylines, with at least 7 "bosses" total. (Shang Tsung, Shao Kahn, Shinnok, Shang Tsung+Quan Chi, Onaga, Blaze, and now Dark Kahn)

Since we've had rounds, the announcer, and the bosses as sorts of traditional aspects of the games, the missing logistical piece to the puzzle is the contest//tournament. So, it doesn't make sense to completely change the whole game around, based on the fact that there hasn't been an official contest in a while. That'd be like destroying all your dishes just because one cup had a spot on it. Just write a contest back into the game = just wash the cup.

To reiterate, you don't take out rounds just because there hasn't been a contest in a while, you write a contest back into the game, and in one fail swoop, justify the bosses, rounds, and the announcer. K?

So what I simply propose, is different ways to deal with those elements since they are traditional aspects of the game, that are not being capitalized on as small forms of entertainment within the overall games lately. I'm saying that we don't need the same vocal indicator for rounds, it could be someone elses voice altogether. Or, we don't necessarily need a vocal indicator at all, we could have a semi interactive drone in a couple of the arenas, and for the sake of argument, I called it....a referee. We could also have a simple visual aesthetic like dropping a flag, or even a audio aesthetic, like a simple sound effect.

I simply propose plausible remedies to how irrelevant the boss, announcer, and having rounds have become in the games lately.

Now to clarify, I don't mean a literal referee, look in the background of this picture of Samurai Shodown. See the black ninja with the flags? Well, turn that arena in to the Netherrealm. Now turn that ninja into a hellspawn, and when you loose a "regular" round (all rounds except the last one, where they'd need to leave that space for a fatality to happen), the hellspawn eats your flesh or something until you get back to your feet....see what I mean now?

There is no rule as to its appearance, it could look like anything. Its only real function though, would be indicating that you lost a round. Which can happen is a plethora of ways as well.

They could do it with any monster type in MK really...brotherhood of the shadow, tarkatans, dead people from hell, dead Shirai Ryu or the Lin Kuei. Just apply it differently, and only make it interactive when one player looses a round.

==

On another point, the Boxing analogy is a bad one. Watch Karate Kid for gods sakes. Boss, Announcer, Rounds, Referee, and the Guy in the background with the flags in this video...lol.

Another, more modern fighting movie is Jet Li's Unleashed. Not really a contest right? Wrong. Not really rounds are there? Wrong. If ever there is a break in the fighting, he lays on the ground or willingly takes a breather, or if the guy in the white ever yells at him because he's not doing so well, the video game interpretation of that, would be "Round One, or Two,ect.. Fight!"

All I'm trying to do with this, is show you guys that there isn't only one way to handle these sorts of elements being in the game. They can be presented in a million differnt types of ways, and it still would be a good thing in the game.

To take them out though, would be to change the whole format of the game. No contest, so no rounds.....so no boss is needed, so no announcer. Then what?

I'd love to hear some ideas that oppose what's current though...good ideas.

--

Far as the time restraints, I think we've been being given enough time to have a fight. I don't see any reason to change that. Although I think, time limits in say, the Konquest mode should be event or mission sensitive. Meaning that they should only happen sometimes depending on what we're playing through.

Otherwise I agree with you here. There shouldn't really be a time limit in modes like Konquest, for instance.

I can agree with that. I would actually prefer to keep the announcer than to have a "referee" type thing. Or maybe even both - but the announcer is a part of MK and should stay.



The boxing example was presented by someone else, I just used it as an analogy of all types of fighting contests. The thing is, I see Mortal Kombat as a fight to the death (whether or not they are in the tournament or not). Where-as with modern competitions, they usually wear protective padding, have very short rounds, and will imediately stop the fight if someone gets hurt too badly.

As for your movie analogy: having rounds is basically forcing those breaks in a somewhat artificial way. An alternate way would be for the fighters just to move away from their opponent until they got their breath back (or what ever). This way the player remains in control of when they have a break or not to let their opponent to have a break. Also, the fact that health is fully restored for both fighters between the rounds, so all that hard work on wearing down the opponents health is ruined if they manage to get in a few lucky hits.




I'm not saying for they to be completely taken out, Like my earlier post suggested, have options to be able to choose whether or not to have rounds, time limits, how big the health bars are, etc etc etc. As well as have different modes that appeal to different styles. For example Arcade and Tournament modes would be the traditional timed rounds format, where-as other modes such as survival and team battles could just be an all out battle with 1 round, unlimited time, and bigger health bars.

As for VS, you can choose which format you wish to play. So we are still keeping the traditional elements of what Mortal Kombat is all about, but we have something fresh and new to keep things interesting and add replayability.

It's a better idea than having crappy mini-games such as a Mario Kart ripp-off.




This I also agree on, which I was going to mention earlier but wanted to keep my post as short as possible.

Another thing I would like to mention: death traps! It kind of bugs me we I knock someone into a death trap, they get blown up, squashed, disembowled, or dismembered in the first round, yet they magically appear alive and well for round 2. It kind of ruins immersion and take away from the danger and menace feeling you should get from being near them.



All in all, they should keep traditional MK intact, but add some spice and flavour to the game by adding new modes and more options. This way the player has a more control over their experience, the game offers more replayability, and the game would appeal to a wider audience.

Personally, I'd rather see the next MK function very much like a wrestling game, or the Def Jam Vendetta series (not Icon)

I liked the way that in these games, the playing field is totally 3D, not like in normal fighting games where basically it's 2d with a sidestep. Also, the way the tides can turn throughout the fight, you can go from losing to winning and vice-versa, there's no set number of hit points to be depleted, it feels much more natural and organic that way. Also, the system in place in those games for finishing moves would fit perfectly for MK's Fatalities, basically you build up a special meter and you would have to pull it off in-match, instead of it being for show after the opponent is already beaten. '

The games in question are THQ's titles, WWF Wrestlemania 2000, WWF No Mercy, Def Jam Vendetta, and Def Jam: Fight for NY. The development team that brought the magic to those games was known as AKI at the time, now I believe they're known as Syn Sophia. Google either name or check out those games yourself if you haven't played them. Even today, I personally prefer them to newer wrestling games, they're very solidly built and entertaining.

turning Mk into a wrestling-crap game?Or into a worse failed-rapper fighting game?
what a great idea,i'd almost rather another Vs DCU game!!!!

BTW maybe my post aren't rilevant or nobody cares about me,i can live with it,but i want you use your brain:why in the hell did Street Fighter 4 sold so well and gets high review rate?

Simply...it's a very very very traditional gameplay,with different rounds,static stages,fewer but more balanced moves.Look at DoA 4 or Virtua Fighter 5 both regarded as the best fighting games in this generation:if you get hitted in VF5 automatically your opponent starts a combo of 3-4 and keep you in mid air kicking your butt.Mk armageddon tried to do something similar to the juggles with aerial kombat and failed harshly.
It's something absolutely annoying especially if the cpu ALWAYS DO THAT.
and about Doa4..it's my favourite fighting game of all time(i prefer it to tekken 3) gameplay-wise(story-wise nobody defeats MK,sorry) and look
ALL THE F'N FREAKIN' NINJA GUYZ: Ruy hayabusa,hayate,kasumi and so on...they have also ten hit combos that continue in mid-air including also air-throws that decrease you life-gauge of 50%.
It's ridicoulus in my opinion.Instead characters like Bass,leon and others are absolutely unplayable,also with the balance-patch that tecmo released.

so the lesson of the day is:
MK problems aren't unbalanced gameplay(DoA4) or the need of deep gameplay(like Vf5 which fails in my opinion).Mk probelms are:
1)financial(more monny=better game)
2)aestethic
3)need to return to classic atmosphere(Mk1 and Mk3,didnt like Mk 2 stages even though Mk2 is my fav Mk game),characters,improved storyline
4)returning to the ol' good days when Mk was....controversial.I don't see an eviration or mammal amputation in a videogame.Try something sick like this,of course no nudity here,just a good knife in the groin.try to image the press that screams and yells to scandal,good advertising for Mk,like ol' days.If castration it's too much..well we have some different but still disturbing ideas.torture(never seen in MK games),self mutilation(Quan Chi had something similar in Mk DA,but it was poorly developed),explicit cannibalism and so on...ten years ago a pulsing heart,and a decapitation were enough to let the press whining about how videogames were diseducative.Now it's obsolete.

in my videogamer memory(15+ years,not too much,but also i'm not a noob-last-comer) every game THAT WAS CONTROVERSIAL had a cult following and GREAT financial succes
Look at Resident Evil 2,someone talk about removing it from shelves and ban it from market.The result?The faster RE selling game...fake new...infact as we know whoever planned to buy the platinum/greatest hits version of the game was forced to buy it immediatly.We found that RE2 was never ban from market and regularly sold all over the world.Someone still thinks that was a good manouver by capcom to increase sells.

or more explicit,think about the funniest fighting game i've ever played.THRILL KILL.Freely leaked online,EA didn't want to publish it because believed that game wouldn't sell well.I still beliebe they 're crying on that decision cause there are almost 3 million of copies downloaded of the game.

i can go on citing manhunt and manhunt 2(wich the uncensored version was sold dring the first months and is still avaible in netherlands,Romania and Russia):they were both mediocre games with terrible storyline but the scandal that grew up at the time was enough to be the best advertising for the game.


or another example is Rule fo the rose:abysmal game great emphasis on how controversial the game would be.That game sold also well.


again:
Leave the round option,like Street fighter 4;come back to a easier and less developed but more balanced gameplay,stay with the classic characters(cage,Goro,kano..even if tey're not loved by fanbase,they're known by old school Mk players and whoeever knows vaguely MK only due to movies,etc) and just hold the few new ones that are well received by Fans(for what i know only kenshi and havik,but somebody of you could name a pair) and especially come back to the '70's martial arts movie/big trouble in little china atmosphere.