I still think a female boss would be really cool. I'm a little surprised they haven't tried that yet.

It could be a hermaphrodite for all I care. I just want them to step away from the "Monster" boss idea like they did in MK4 and MKDA (and I guess MK1).

They fixed Shao Kahn already, thank god... I hope they don't change him back into one of those "well I'm sorry you can't sweep or throw this guy because his right thigh alone weights half a ton" bosses.

Amen!




LOL!!!

I totally agree with everything you say. The arcade mode is also extra frustrating in that the same ladders keep appearing, there's no randomization at all. Armageddon is especially frustrating for me since my favorite character (Fujin) appears only at the bottom of the ladder so he's never challenging to beat.

I liked the arcade mode in Tekken 5 where you improve your rank against countless number of opponents that get tougher and tougher as you progress- there's no limit and you only fight against regular characters. Something like that would be nice in MK.
Or at least give us an option to play 1 on 1 against computer where you'd be able to set cpu difficulty before each match. Give us options and variety!!!

This is just my opinion, but I've never liked the use of "monsters" in MK. Even the Dragon King looked a bit silly. I don't mind them being 6'5 with hulking strength, but I don't want to fight half human dragons, centuars, onis, etc. I just don't.

I don't mind Goro and Kintaro as compared to the other sub bosses, but while I got used to the fact that these were the types of sub bosses (or bosses) that we'd get, Goro was actually my least favorite part of MK1.

You had this fantastic looking graphics engine at the time, with all of these characters that moved a certain way, then you had big, choppy, stunted animation, stop motion action figure Goro and all of a sudden, the regular strategies and moves simply didn't apply.

Now I don't mind varying my strategy, but with alot of these sub bosses, you don't have to be a genius to beat them. You just find some BS, cheap way to capitalize on their unusually dumb AI (whether it's jumpkick, jump back, jumpkick repeat, or... Well, don't even get me started on Moloch).

How is that at all rewarding or enjoyable? Then of course, there's the fact that most of these monsters just look stupid. Kintaro looked pretty cool, but other than that, you had a centaur with a metal tail, a big evil smurf, a dude who looked like a rip off of True Ogre from Tekken (the Dragon King) etc.

I'd LOVE to see a sub boss that's a human, or a god like Rayden/Fujin etc that's human, that's just tough to fight against. Maybe they counter a lot, maybe they try to box you in, maybe they're agressive etc. But at no point should you feel like you're fighting with one hand tied behind your back because this sub boss "can't be swept" or "repels projectiles" etc.

Should this Sub Boss be playable? ABSOLUTELY NOT.

Make them playable in the next game if you want. I'd actually like that, much like how Shang Tsung was the boss of MK and then we actually got to USE him in MK2 (that was so cool to me back then, same goes for the hidden fighter Reptile. My dumb little kid mind thought that I was somehow accessing part of the game that I shouldn't when I saw Reptile available to play in the arcade for MK2).

But make this character human or a character that can make themselves look human and awsome and unselectable so that people will love using them that much more in the next game.

That's just my 2 cents.

I totally agree. MK needs to go back to its roots.
No more "everyone is selectable" from the beginning
No more "you can select the bosses/subosses" - that was only cool in MKT
No more "NO SECRETS" - I want to work my ass off for secrets. That includes giving away all the secrets in some stupid Brady Games magazine just so someone can type it up on gamefaqs. FORCE US to look for it and don't tell anyone. Make the MK Fan Community be the ones who have to share it with one another!!

One of the most exciting things I can remember of MK was riding on the school bus and listening to the two boys that sat infront of me talk about the secrets they found and the rumors they heard how to get those secrets. That gave me more motivation to try it out and it was 10000000000x more satisfying that way. Especially when I got to fight Jade in MK2!!

And I guess that brings me to my next point. SECRET characters can get away with most of the things I complained about above (Jade's ability to repel special moves, and all the super fast movement the secret characters had in MK2). Just as long as they don't become color swaps again.

^
THIS!

MK really needs to give us a 1v1 option vs the computer. This is like, essential at this point in gaming. EVERY OTHER FIGHTING GAME HAS THIS OPTION. Why not MK? I don't want to play arcade in hopes of fighting a certain character on a ladder that only has a few possible ladder choices. I want to select my opponent and the difficulty. It's not hard to implement, and it's already in every other fighting game.

A ghost mode like Tekken 5 or 6 would be pretty cool too, when you just want to fight endlessly through a bunch of customized characters. That is, if they allow customization. If anything, some of them might be in their alternate costumes instead of every CPU being in the primary costume, another gripe I've had with the previous MK's.

I mean seriously, 1P vs CPU has been around since like...Street Fighter 2?

Completely agree with the school bus thing haha, I also remember the joy when you'd press buttons randomly and acheive a fatality. I also remember the frustration of not knowing what you pressed to acheive it.
I want the bosses smart hard not psycho do moves that human players cant(talking bout mk3 motaro doing his triple fire ball dubble teleports kill me before i hit the floor routine)

Oh WOW, such a GOOD point about Motaro. I agree. Bosses doing bogus moves are a no-go!

But then again if they're not playable, we'd never know

Who are you ? Ahahah

A stronger version of Raiden as the final boss would be great. If they need ideas on more tricks he could do with electricity all they need to do is play InFamous.

I'm going to go play devil's advocate here and argue that the giant bosses were fun as all hell at first. Fighting Goro for the first time was one hell of an experience - you knew you were going to get your ass kicked if you weren't on top of your game.

Kintaro upped the ante. He's still considered one of the hardest bosses of the series - believe it or not, for those of who you who have never played earlier versions of MKII, they actually had to tone him down for the later releases because he was initially insanely difficult. But the atmosphere of the battle made it worthwhile - the crowd cheering every time he smacked you. And have you ever tried hitting him, having him block it, and just hearing him let out a low growl? Frustrating, yes, but damn if he wasn't fun.

Motaro was another kind of challenge, though more on the cheesy side. But once UMK3 came out and gave the cast the ability to link combos from a jumping punch or hop kick, he became a joke. Still, it was a nice change of pace from another Shokan.

Noob-Smoke was one hell of a fun boss fight for me. No one'll deny that it was a disservice to the characters to lump them together, but it was about time we saw a tag-team battle. Loved it. I too really wish is that they'd implemented that back in MKDA so that a Shang & Quan fight had been possible.

When it's a single selectable like Shang or Quan in MKDA, or especially Shinnok in MK4, I get bored. There's no payoff, it doesn't feel like I beat a "boss" character. I always wished that the demonic Shinnok form seen in MKM was that game's real ender.

But as mentioned, the final boss doesn't need to be gigantic to be a challenge - see Shang in MK1. He wasn't as tough as Goro was, but giving him the ability to turn into anyone he wanted was very inventive at the time, and it worked well. I believe two characteristics of a good boss are a noticeable spike in difficulty, and the retention of unique, unpredictable combat methods compared to the rest of the cast. Whether they're huge or not doesn't matter much to me.

I do have issues with Moloch, Blaze and (ugh) Dark Kahn, but for different reasons; They're all fought virtually the same way,: wait, sidestep, combo, wait, sidestep, combo. Boring. Onaga gave you the Kamidogu around the arena as a crutch to whip him with, too. He was pathetic.

It really boils down to what one considers a challenge and what one considers frustrating. No boss is unbeatable; patience perseveres. I remember how great it felt the first time I whooped Kintaro with Reptile. It's worth it.

By the way, if you guys think MK has hard bosses, I dare you to go back and play some of the earlier KOF games. Goenitz is a bastard.

I DONT want to paly as bosses. I feel it should be the parallel of Shao Kahn in MK3. a Load of moves, extremely powerful but still vulnerable to some moves like scorpions spear or subzero's ice.

MKT and MKA was awsome to paly as kintaro/motaro/kahn/goro etc but I want them to feel that powerful once again.

I love but HATE that boss characters are brought down to player-tier and then just another character. I was super stoked when Shang Tsung Killed Kang in MKDA because it put him right back up there. Even though he had help. I feel Tsung/Kahn/Shinnok/Onaga should be right up there for power.


-Casselman

I can't remember if you played MKvsDC, but they fixed a lot of the sub-boss problems. The sub-bosses in that game where like normal fighters. The final boss Dark Khan wasn't that cheap either. All of your moves worked on him except for throws. Also in MKD the sub-boss was Noob/Smoke who was a human character.

So really your only complaint could be that you can pick the sub-boss from the character select screen in the last 3 games, but they did fix the other problems you had.

Id like something completely new and unexpected. A female boss or sub-boss would be kool and different. I dont think bosses should ever be playable either. Id like MK9 to have secret characters that are hidden to fight like MK2 had, and make them unlockable only after you beat them or something. Make it fun with lots of hidden stuff.

What if Kung Lao became the new boss?!.. I know its a farfetched idea but what if he crosses over? based off his MK:SM personality it seems plausible! With Liu Kang gone.. Maybe Kung Lao steps up and becomes the ultimate fighter.. rules over the tournament with an iron fist

Problem lies not with the monster per se, but with the monster being predictably a heap of muscle and being a slow but steady glacier.

Try out a different monster.