I've always been a fan of the KAK modes in fighting games, but while I kinda liked MKA's, I think that it needs to be greatly expanded. I hate to compare MK to other games, but Soul Calibur 3's create a fighter mode blows MK's out of the water. But I blame that more on MK's fighting system than anything else.
If the KAK mode is going to get better, than MK's fighting system has to grow up and actually become a 3D fighting game's system and not the 2D fighting mechanics on a 3D plane that MK has used since Deadly Alliance came out. What I mean by that is simple. Virtua Fighter, Soul Calibur, Dead or Alive and Tekken were all built from the ground up as 3D fighters. Each character has page after page of moves that almost completely unique to that character. Virtua Fighter and Soul Calibur are especially good at this. Those games utilize a unique style for each character and all of their moves come from that style. So the way that Wolf in VF fights is completely different than the way that Shun Di, Kage, or Aoi fight.
In MKA, it was easy to create a fighter with their own moves (as opposed to setting a style like Soul Calibur 3) becuase all of the punching and kicking animations are so limited since every character in the game has a very similar low kick or sweep move for example. Sure every character has a unique stance, but outside of a few moves, every fighter's basic moves are interchangeable. No one would be upset if Johnny Cage started using the same roundhouse animation that Bo Rai Cho used in the previous game because most likely no one would even notice. In fact, no one would really care if weapons were switched between combatants in MK since with very few exceptions, they're not a signature for that character. Obviously, this would not be the same case if say Taki and Nightmare switched weapons.
I guess what I'm getting at is the fact that MK needs to develop a more complex fighting system where every character's moves are unique, that way the choices in creating a character become that much more abundant. Instead of having ten different low kicks, you could have 200 options, and you could use more of those options based on different button presses because your character wouldn't just have about 30 or 40 total basic moves anymore, but somewhere around four or five times that amount (which is almost becoming standard in the more advanced fighting games).
On the idea of options, as I said before, there needs to be more of everything. Not just fighting moves, but there should be a TON of special moves that all have varying effects. How about a move that doesn't allow the opponent to harm you for five seconds? Sure they can hit you, but it wouldn't take power off. How about a move that makes the other player's controls all wonky for a few seconds? Or perhaps a move where a large snake comes up from the ground and wraps itself around the opponents legs? Or a move that works similar to a tazer where a wire is shot at the opponent and the player jams on the A button to send wats of electricity at the opponent? I'm not really saying anything that's new or revolutionary, but just having a bunch of different fireballs and kick or punch type moves shouldn't cut it. There need to be at least 500 to 1000 special moves that come from EVERY character of EVERY MK game as well as a large number that the MK 8 roster does not have.
As far as the apperances go, as I said, Soul Calibur 3 blew MK out of the water. MK needs to have so many options that players are really allowed to let their imaginations run wild. Yes, it's really cool that I can create a tarkatan or a vampire. But what if I wanted to create my own MK race? Not alot of options there unless I want to create some silly looking hodge podge character. There has to be more of everything from hair styles to boots. A LOT more. If the MK team needs ideas, they should look no further than Soul Calibur 3. After they see what's out there, they need to find ways to make SC3 look like last generation garbage. Because SC4 is coming out next year and they've already stated that the create a fighter mode will be greatly expanded.
Lastly, I think that MK needs to utilize their best asset: The fact that it's MK. Allow players to really involve their created character in the story by making intros and endings. No, not a FMV's or anything like that, but story panels like what MK1 and 2 had. Allow players to take still images of their characters during a paused game and put them in the story panels, or focus on the character's face and use that for the character select screen. The select screen doesn't need question marks or anything, but there should be space so that the player can have somewhere around 15 spots to put their own creations. Or, allow the player to choose from a set of premade select screens so that players can put the created characters there, write their own intro story for their own tournament and basically create their own version of an MK game.
I know that some people might hate that last idea, but think about it. How many people on this board have complained about characters storylines or how moves are transferred between characters etc. Now, the player can create their own game from scratch using premade templates and text (like the intro to MK2 for example) and have their own characters competing in a storyline that's written by the player. This could be the big extra mode instead of motor kombat or chess etc. Take all of those teams that focused on the extra stuff and pool them together to really come up with a great create mode that gives the player full control over creating their own MK tournament. Becuause lets face it, alot of the hardcore MK fans keep coming back becuase of the story, and because they love the dark, somewhat sinister MK style.
Anyways, those are my ideas. What do you think?
