Thanks Baraka! Nice run down on arenas by the way.

Yeah, the grinder and and metal mouth in the Lower Mines didn't seem to serve a purpose, other than kill the MK cast...haha. Would you have liked the Lower Mines, and other factory type stages more, if they rigged the deathtraps up to serve another purpose? Like crushing, digging, melting, etc., various materials, for example? I think they tried to make the grinder in the LM arena look like it was grinding up rock, but it was poorly implemented and just looked like it was meant for killing. Also, what if the designers made environments that didn't look like factories (think outdoors even) but end up having DT's, where their sole purpose is to kill? Any thoughts on this?

I think in some instances, the level designers need to spend more time thinking/researching about how props in the environment serve more purpose, other than just killing. Unless of course that's what the stage is made for (but it needs to look creative in the process). Such as The Pit from MK1. But at the same time, they should set up props, so as not to interfere with player movement, which would usually mean setting up said props, around the environment, which I think the designers did an OK job of.

I think when you have the inclusion of DT's though, things can become a bit trickier to set up. Because then again, you have to think about the placement of where the DT prop will go, and make sure it doesn't interfere with player movement. Not unless of course you want it to. But then you have to think about how this ties into gameplay and gameplay balancing. It all depends really. Anyways, I hope you understand what I'm trying to tell you.

I wanted to mention, that I didn't play MKDA nor MKA, but I have seen videos. Mostly of MKA though. So I retract my statement about there not being any other good stages in later games. I think I just said this because, I'm always seeing a reinvention of an old stage (like Goro's Lair or the Living Forest) put into new installments of MK. Like if they ran out of ideas or are dwelling on the past, or something

Also, do you feel the same way about deaths needing to look more realistic? Like in the Belltower spikes example, I gave earlier?