I would LOVE, LOVE, LOVE for MK8 to be in a certain quarantined location, such as MK1's "island" theme. A tournament in say... an African safari"esque" location. Here would be a couple arena possibilities.

Elephant Herd- In the farthest depth of the background there would be a massive elephant grave site with tusks galore, you get the picture. With FULLY detailed elephants of all sizes marching along the path to grieve. Possible death trap could be trampling by herd.

Spectator Sport- An arena worthy of the Gods. It would be a massive crowd chanting and taunting the fighters, offering weapons (if gameplay allows), with huts and market like appeal. No death trap, just awesome interaction by spectators.

The Pit VIII- Think ravine, with vines and all, the camera pans from the bottom, which shows a river swamped with crocs, snakes, you name it. The camera quickly zooms out to show four HUGE trees with climbing boards attached to their bark from trunk to the lowest brush, which happens to be about 100 feet in the air. This is where you are, on a stretched out zebra print mat. Glorious view of jungle in background. Fight ends, you knock opponent off into ravine, and the impact is different every single time! Some areas would allow for a croc to grab you, others would show the lifeless body drifting away in the river. Fatality.

I could go on for days.

Wow KI3, I dig all of those ideas. I'm not sure I'd put live elephants in the elephant grave yard, but the image you're conjuring for all three sound awesome! I also agree whole heartedly about the secluded location idea like an island fortress for example.

Here are some of my ideas:

The Waterfall: It would be at night, and the arena would be a large bridge over the edge of a waterfall. There would be water from the falls splashing up onto the arena, and it would be raining (lots of thunder and lightning lighting up the sky). The bridge would sound rickety and it would also sway. Yes, the ringout would be kicking, throwing, punching etc the person off the side of the bridge and over the waterfalls edge to their death.

The Catacombs: This would be deep underground, an area lit by crude torches. There would be bones everywhere, some chained to the walls. There would be small, unmarked graves. This would be a small in that you wouldn't be able to jump very high, but it would be a long area where hitting someone from one part of the catacombs could knock them into another part of the catacombs that looks different. Spirits would be flowing in and out of the background and foreground. Overall, there would be a very haunting vibe.

The Nethership Exterior: When I saw the ship in MK:D, my first thought was that I'd love to see it from the top deck. I pictured something like Shang Tsung's ship from the first Mortal Kombat movie. I would love to see something along those lines. Alot of wooden masts that could be destroyed in battle, and multiple parts of the ship (ie you could hit someone up onto a higher part of the ship or they could fall to a lower floor of the ship and then get knocked back up onto the deck. The ship would be sailing at the time, and it would be at night, and it would be raining and the wind would be howling. You notice a theme? No daylight battles.

Overall, I'd love to see alot of the styles of backgrounds from MK:DA and MK1. Asian in theme, with dark, pronounced colors and gold, and large statues that asian in design. I'm thinking of images along the lines of Shang Tsung's throne room, the Hall of Champions, The Courtyard, the Palace Grounds (at least I think that's what it was called) from MK1 and the House of Pekara, Wu Shi Academy, etc from Deadly Alliance. I definitely want a dark and gritty feel, but in the context of what I've already mentioned. In other words, no industrial backgrounds, no city backgrounds or portals or other worlds etc.

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE BRING BACK THE PIT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! it is the ultimate mk background i love it so much and with the power of next gen they could make it sooooooooooooooooooooooooo good

also id like to see backgrounds like the kombat tomb

Nice, man!

they should make a combination of the pits 1,2,and 3


you start on the pit 1, when you are knocked off the right side, you land in the spikes and die, if you are knocked off the left side you fall onto the pit 2

here,the right side leads to giant ice stilagmite where you die while the left side leads to the pit 3

here both sides leads to the classic spiked wheelsthat chop your opponent into little bity pieces

No.

Yeah I like these ideas about bringing back the classics It would be cool like KI3 was saying maybe an animal fatility like a pit where there fighting and while they are somebody gets thrown in a pit for example a lion or predator then the lions or whatever run n start ripping apart that guy and eating him stuff ike that but it would be nice to see a new type of stage fatility. Also for a stage I was thinking of a powerhouse for electricty that was old but still has power and while ur battling electicty would jump out of places and also there are 2 death traps one is where u hit a guy he gets stuck to the wall the wall flashes with electricty and he is fried all over while he/she is screaming then it does a close-up of his fried skeleton Then the other death-trap is electricty wires flying everywhere u knock the guy in the room with the wires and then he/she keeps getting their limbs and stuff cut off and while there screaming its also frying them at the same time then finally all the wires stick to the body and fry he/she so much they blow up with their guts bones blood flying everywhere. U know its just a thought comment on it f u wish I thought it was something nice u know and brutal.