Most hardcore MK fans who post on these boards have strong opinions on the characters and plotlines for MK games. Alot of us have ideas on what would make for a cool character or what we think MK should do plot-wise going forward. For me, I was really hoping for a kreate a fighter mode in an MK game, and I got my wish (sort of) in Armageddon. Then I realized that the mode, like any other create a fighter mode in fighting games, just wasn't enough.

I think that it would be really cool if the next MK game allowed you to design your own game with characters, pictures and text etc. Let me explain:

Characters: Built from the ground up, you pick everything for your characters much like in Armageddon's KAF mode, only it would be greatly expanded to include not only a vast majority of moves, weapons, combos, specials from the new MK game as well as previous MK's, but a TON of new content made specifically for this mode.

This would also flow into the look of your character, allowing you to create past characters or something completely new. MKA did a decent job with physical features options, but again, it could be greatly expanded upon. You should be able to create virutally anything from hooded assassin to a riot cop to a soldier, sorcerer, wrestler, pirate, etc etc. Again, MKA did an admirable job, but like any sequel, the options could stand to be greatly expanded upon. They need to really let players imaginations go wherever we want them to go.

Pictures: Since MK games have recently included a lot of concept art and renderings that basically serve no purpose, why not put in even more with the purpose of allowing players to use them?

The Select Screen: You could set how many character pictures you want on the select screen (up to 16, or something like that) and you can maybe use an outline box to snatch a view of each character's head and place it in one of the boxes on the select screen. You can even put minature pictures of the concept art in the background behind the character's head. You would also have pictures of select screen backgrounds to choose from.

Versus Pictures/Bio Pictures: You could also use the concept art to put behind a full picture of your character in their fighting stance and split the screen vertically so that in 1 on 1 battles, it looks like a real versus screen from MK2 (for example). As for bio pictures, the same thing would apply. You get a picture, put your character in it, and then there could be a space at the bottom 1/3rd of the screen for putting their plot. Their could be space in the picture to put things like Name, Age, Origin, Fighting Style, Weapon etc.

Endings: Then of course, you could use the pictures for the characters' ending. Obviously, there would need to be a LOT of pictures so that not everyone's endings etc look the same. But considering how much krypt space was used (or wasted if you prefer) on concept art and renderings, this would at least put them all to good use. Maybe they put in a tool that allows for a certain number of stock animations so you could make it look like your character is falling off of a cliff side or grabbing hold of another character by the neck or running away from an explosion. Of course, the bottom 1/3rd of the space would be used for words explaining what happened to the character in the tournament.

Now, in saying all of this, I mean this to be the only "extra" mode. No racing, no chess, no puzzle fighter or test your whatever and ESPECIALLY NO KONQUEST MODE!! Try as they might, this mode will feel like nothing more than bad dialog acted out poorly with extreeeeemely sub-par graphics and gameplay. The extra mode that I'm offering here actually pertains to fighting, and it gives you incentive to play the other regular fighting game type modes like survival mode, tournament mode, story mode, versus, etc to get money to buy everything. Now, I think alot of stuff should be unlocked from the get go, allowing players to at least get somewhere into the creation process. But playing the many fighting modes in the game would give you alot of money at a time to unlock things that you want to unlock (like MKA, when you knew that you were unlocking something that you wanted and not like MKD and MKDA when you just blindly opened things).

Of course, the main modes would have their own attractions and there would be good number of question marks in the krypt not pertaining to the kreate a game mode like alt outfits, money, maybe even hidden characters (though I think that hidden characters should be unlocked through the story mode in a logical way like beating story mode with a character unlocks another hidden character who's part of the story with the character you beat the game with for example).

Before people start yelling about how the MK team needs to fix the gameplay and not spend time on modes like this, again, I'm proposing this as the only extra mode. One that allows MK fans and fighting game fans to build their own small MK universe and take the whole thing online, allowing other people to play their "MK game." I completely agree with those that want to see a better fighting game from the MK team where the gameplay is modernized and not stuck in the 2D era with dial a combos etc. I want to see them clean up the glitches and everything else that alot of MK fans have complained about over the years. I'm with ya. Priority 1 should ABSOLUTELY be the gameplay. I'm just saying that IF they add an extra mode.... Instead of putting all of that time, effort and man-power into konquest or some other mode...

At least here, with what I'm proposing, players would be able to create a plot that they like with characters that they like because they've created the world. It's partial control over what many of us have been unhappy about with plot holes, characters not being well rounded, cheap or unbalanced in the last few games, characters switching styles, plots that don't make sense or are simply uninteresting or characters that are dull and uninspired.

To me, this seems like an awesome add on mode to supplement the main gameplay experience. I would personally prefer this a WHOLE lot more than any of the other extra modes that the MK team has put in recently. I mean honestly, do you remember slogging through the seemingly never ending konquest mode in MK:D?

What do you think?