In the end it all comes down to one thing: people constantly whining about their most appealing characters being executed in a non-acceptable way. Which is especially subjective. And as such, there is absolutely no point in debating about it.

The only thing that can be valued and objectively criticised is the composition, narrative and diction of the characters storyline. An important matter, but none too important.

I am not going to argue wether you like Bumface or any other genetical reject from the Mk roster or not. Fine with me, thats why there is a roster.
I will however argue over specifical fallacies in MK, such as the shitfest that Scorpions story became in terms of composition.

On a personal note, my opinion is that most people are too static, stubborn and ultimately stupid to realize that clinging to something that became well obsolete or unacceptable is futile.
You cannot sell Scorpion as a plain ninja nowadays. You cannot sell a 60's Superman character nowadays because it would not work. And the MK roster is pretty much done.

As Queen Sindel mentions in her last post, that is exactly what I'm getting at. This is still my opinion, and many people may say "oh just let it go" or "let's move on", but can you really except that while MKA has all of the characters from classics to newbies it still manages to be the least popular in the series. You can play as any character you feel, yet due to not so great graphics, poor gameplay, and many other features being left out, (Fatalities, test your might, test your sight) Mortal Kombat Armageddon is one of the most unpopular MK's to exist. I know that you can create your fatalities and if you think that's better than watching them like they were watched since MK1, that's you and that's your opinion.

If you like the graphics and the gameplay for MKA that's also your opinion.
IMO the gameplay could use a lot of work, the fatalities NEED to be the way they were before, and I don't worry to much about the graphics for MK8 because of Boon's brilliant idea to use the Unreal Engine. I played MKA yesterday and it just felt like Mortal Kombat without fatalities because I simply did not want to do them. I knew how but I was so disgusted about the whole Kreate-A-Fatality thing that it just made me wanna vomit everytime I saw it done. (and I don't mean vomit because it was to grusome because that would be a good thing.) Fuck creating fatalities, what the MK team needs to do is put their demented minds together and come up with those twisted fatalities that we love like they use to. All that punching and kicking and ripping hearts, kidneys, bones and crap has to go! It's the same shit every time and I don't ever want to see that again.

My point is MKA should not be done over, but they should have another MK with each and every character in it so that we fans would have one Great game to go back to if we want to see and play as classics. Only then will I let them go. Till then will I be satisfied? Hell NO! Enough with the half-ass bullshit.

i agree with chrome that mk needs new personality

the way i look at it, mortal kombat had a realy good thing going when they introduced mk deadly alliance(because they cleaned the slate from mk4!)


i do however agree that armageddon did not do justice to the characters who are no longer with us

gameplay on armageddon sucked.....kreate a fatality? what the fuck were they thinking?

the only "improvements" from the former series: kreate a character,

konquest was good but i liked the freedom of movement allowed in mkd

Maybe you cannot sell a 1960's Superman today, but as far as I recall, Superman Returns did pretty well in the box office. Just because the writers have been huffing gas and coming up with lame-ass storylines is no reason to off a character. If anything, they need a clean slate as in free from all the bullshit that they've come up with in the past three games. I don't think making new characters is the answer. In my opinion, new characters have just gotten worse with every game.

Back on topic, I believe the answer is to perfect what they already have. Why throw away a legacy like Liu Kang or Rayden? That would be the final nail in the coffin. If the next game is going to be composed of forgettable and/or cheesy characters like Bo Rai Cho, Nitara, Havik and Kobra, MK will officially be dead to me. If they kill off the original cast, they kill MK.

There is however an exception. If they do truly produce an all original cast and make a game that truly kicks ass, then my hat will go off to them. But to let a shitfest like Armageddon be the final swan song of all the characters that I've grown to love would be a travesty.

IMO, the problem is not in the characters they have. The problem is in the MK team. These guys seriously need to get their act together.

Really? Well, I guess that's probably why you prefer wanting to keep the classics then. Imo, several of the newer characters are much better than the likes of Kano, Sheeva, Baraka, and Jax. You may find Bo' Rai Cho, Nitara, and Havik to be cheesy and forgettable, but they have more substance to them than the characters I mentioned, along with various others.

Why throw away a legacy like Liu Kang's or Raiden's? Well, in Raiden's case, he has great potential for returning. Liu Kang, on the other hand, has had his run. He's been stale, and his conflict with the zombie thing isn't good enough. His spirit isn't able to stay in the living world forever and will eventually ascend. Continuing his story only drags it out further, making it worse. It's not only that his story and character are pretty bland, but from his specials and designs, it's been extremely repetitive.

Exactly my point, they need better writers. But really, it could go either way. There has always been a plausible explanation for his returning to life. (Rayden reuniting his spirit and body in his ending) Besides if they off Liu Kang, they would have to replace him with a character that plays just like him. So I ask you, what is the point? While they're at it they can replace Subby with Frost, replace Scorp with his wife and or son, replace Kano and Sonya with Kira and replace Reptile with Khameleon. The bottom line is, if they keep the same production quality that they have ever since the Boon/Tobias split, it won't matter who they kill off or keep, the game is just going to suck.

I'm not sure I agree entirely.

Since the Tobias//Boon split, our depth for heros that are even on the big screen have gotten more complex. Means that, I do entirely agree with what you said about perfecting their craft. Better writers is a definite....or, they could just concentrate on only a few characters, that would work too. The games with less characters seem to be more success as a result.

So, while I think a character like Lui Kang should go, and that his void would need to be filled, I don't think finding an adequate "replacement" should be a problem. Because there's thousands of options in "todays hero's//heroines".

A good portion of the classics need to go. My angle on that consist mainly of the fact that some of them are getting too old, and some of them have died already. Mortal Kombat? or Undead Kombat?

nah, I'll leave my Raiden(all the "gods" in MK) points for later.

John Vogel is pretty damn good, actually. He pulled off a lot better stuff than Tobias could, and it sucks that he doesn't have as much control over MK as he deserves, imo.

Even though there could possibly be a way for Liu Kang to return to life, what good does that really do for his story and character as well as MK's story itself? To me, it would basically ruin the great quality of the concept of Liu Kang's death, once again taking away consequence and significance of death in the MK storyline.

The other bits you're getting at are ridiculous.

If they off Liu Kang, why would they have to replace him with a character that plays just like him? That doesn't make any sense at all and would be a stupid idea. It would be better and more logical to create a new character that uses Jun Fan differently and more accurately while not being a Liu Kang derivative or copycat.

Sub-Zero has a lot going for him and like Raiden, he has potential for continuing on. Yeah, I know I'm sounding biased here since Sub-Zero is my favorite character. However, we're all biased as fuck anyway, even you.

Scorpion is a huge mess that needs a lot of fixing up in several areas. Replace him with his wife and/or son? It's not likely, especially since they are dead and should STAY dead.

Replace Kano and Sonya with Kira? This is where you're especially being ridiculous, making the implication that Kira is nothing more than a fused rip-off of Kano and Sonya, just because Kira shared some of the same special moves and fighting styles as them. Story-wise and character-wise, Kira is superior to both of them, and to me, she has better potential.

Sonya and Kano have had no real character development at all, and their rivalry is extremely shallow and underdeveloped. While I'm in favor of Kano finally dying, I wouldn't mind Sonya coming back given that she and Kira have a nicely developed rivalry, setting them up as each others' antithesis. Also, I would want Sonya to have actual character development to make her interesting.

As for replacing Reptile with Khameleon, that's not necessary. Both characters can just go. If they bring Khameleon, then they should do something interesting with her.

When you bring up the production quality, what are you referring to specifically, the gameplay, story, characters, something else? If you're talking about gameplay, you're both right and wrong. If you're talking about story and characters, I have to strongly disagree. If it's something else, please specify and explain thoroughly.

To Pred: lol! UNDEAD KOMBAT!! *plays the MK movie theme song*

Those replacement ideas were supposed to be ridiculous. And when I said replace Liu Kang with someone who plays just like him, that's pretty much what I meant. And everyone whining about Scorpion needing to be offed because he's such a mess makes no sense because the entire franchise is a mess. It's not the characters that are the problem, it's the creators. If they can't even do their prized characters justice, how can you expect them to make new characters that are any good. They don't even take their own franchise seriously. The whole Armageddon storyline reminded me of some really bad saturday morning cartoon. They can't even seem to agree on what's canon and what's not. With every game comes a retcon. If they got their act together and made halfway respectable storylines they wouldn't need to make all these retcons. And then when they do do retcons, the resulting story is even more ridiculous than it was to begin with.

It does make sense. Scorpion has become nothing more than a cheap, shallow gimmick. The depth that his character and story has potential for was put to waste.

As for the new characters, a lot of them have been good, but I know you don't think so.

The only thing I can really agree with you on is that the MK team does need to get their act together.

The point I want an ending to the larger amount of characters is because I like them, and do not wish to cheapen the figurative quality they have.

And others are plainly -no matter how zealously you disagree- replacable insubstantial minor characters.

opinions, opinions, OPINIONS. These are all just opinions. The point is everyone is gonna fight over which characters are better, new vs old, who has the better story, who should stay and who should go. This can go on forever because it is based on everybodys Point of View. You know, how they see things. You see Mortal Kombat one way, I see Mortal Kombat a different way. If we all were on the same page we wouldn't be debating about the situation. I have stated my opinions many times but once again here's MY POINT OF VIEW. I fell in love with Mortal Kombat at a very young age. Hell I had to be at least 4,5,6 years old the most at the time. You know how they say your first impressions are your last? Well when I was introduced to MK1 the ultimate reason I became obsessed with this game was because of the characters and the violence (blood and fatalities). I fucking loved it and still do till this day. The classics are called classics for a reason. Not until I got older I began to pay attention to it's story, because well obviously I did not care for it nor understood then. Fuck, I didn't even know there was a story behind it. It was just fun to play and just as much fun to watch. Yes I said watch. Since I already loved the franchise for what it was, naturally I fell in love with the MK story as well. At the end of the day, I look at Mortal Kombat as my favorite fighting game. Why? Because that's how I saw it from the get go. So I stress keeping the classics not because I want to fuck up the story mode, but because I love them and I just wanna be able to select them as playable charaters that's all. My favorite character in the game is scorpion but I have Shang Tsung for my sig. I did this on purpose to show you that I love them all. I will change my sig every few weeks just to show you that I love Mortal Kombat and without these charaters there is no Mortal Kombat for me. Like the other guy said, it would be their final nail in the casket.

One of my favourite MK characters is Sheeva (I know Sub Zero 7th... Sorry? )

I don't know why maybe it was appearance and moves clicked that I liked or it might be because I have a thing for four armed amazons. Who is to know? But I like Sheeva.

And seeing her return in Armageddon was great. Especially after her "appearance" in MK: D's Konquest.

But despite this, I would like to see the character either retired or killed off. There are too many characters in MK with interesting concepts but they are either limited or forgotten.

I want to see new Shokans, Tarkatans, Heroes, Villains and more. I want to see the MK universe expanded upon. Like Deception kinda did. I want to see characters and costumes that aren't limited by their Old Skool appearances (Kitana? I mean a masked blue costume or purple swimsuit). I want to see a story that uses new characters as protagonists.

Sadly, I'll imagine in about 6 years time we are going to be hyped up Mortal Kombat: Apocalypse. WITH MOAR DEATH