Oh, that's easy. He'd be a spy just like Jade and Noob were in 2. He's watching the tournament for Kahn so that if Shang fails, he can know exactly who's fault it was and which Earthrealmers are the most dangerous.

Yeah good point about Raiden. But what made Reptile a hard character in MK1? The fact that he was two of the most powerful characters in the game, combined, plus increased speed. If they were to make the same stipulations in order to fight him, just for him to be in his MK2 version/moveset, then he wouldn't really be a challenge at all. I understand that a remake should better suit what has been re-written, but I just don't think that Reptile would be worth working towards fighting if he didn't at least have the moves he did that made him challenging before.

Wow, I was expecting something else, but oh well. You've answered all my questions and now I'm done. Case close.

I think you can make Reptile a hard fight with the acid spit and force ball. The speed alone is most of what does it. As long as he's faster than the regular characters, that's all you need to make the fight challenging.

Alternatively...we all know Reptile is there now, so the mystery of finding him has lost it's impact. A remake could add a little more pizazz to the hunt for the hidden character by making him an unlockable playable this time, not just a secret fight (Y'know, like Smoke in MK3). And if he's playable, then he has to be balanced.

Or you could do both. Have the playable version move at regular speed but the fight against him be super hard by jacking it up for the AI.

I'm sorry, but I disagree with you on the points about remakes not having new characters. Part of the going back and exploring the earlier tournament scene would allow you to go and put in the characters that were meant to be there. Why wouldn't you have Reptile playable? Ermac pretty much came from a glitch in MK1, and his story in MK Trilogy explained that he was hanging around MK1. Chameleon was also hanging around, and through an MK1 remake, they could actually give him a fucking story for a change.

They could even add a few new characters. Giving life to rumoured characters like "Nimbus Terrafaux," "Hornbuckle" and "Skarlet" would be interesting, indeed. Hopefully with completely new names.

EDIT: After reading more of this thread, I can't believe how many people don't get the concept of a remake. It's not EXACTLY the same as the original. That would be pointless. Gus Van Sant got so much shit for remaking Psycho shot-by-shot. A lot of people criticised the remake of The Omen because it was too similar to the first one.
That's the risk you run with remakes -- sometimes you can't win either way because either you are "too faithful" and the remake is pointless, or you stray too much and people are like "what the fuck, that is a classic and you went and stole its ideas and changed it -- way to ruin the fucking magic, holmes." Video games are slightly different, though. Technology advances, and allows more of the idea to be shown. It allows more depth to the gameplay and better quality to the graphics. It can take nostalgia and completely flood it through a dimension you never thought possible.
Fuck, I'm just trying to think of some video game remakes. I don't think I can come up with any. Something like that for Mortal Kombat would be HUGE. Especially seeing as they're moving away from a lot of their trademarked characters. Ermac, for example, is not someone I would bring back for the next chronological game. I think they should be streamlined, and while Ermac was awesome and everything, he doesn't need to be there. Having Ermac in Mortal Kombat: First Blood (just throwing out a random name for the remake...why not?) would be very cool, because it allows for graphical and gameplay updates on the character, while expanding on his story somewhat.
You don't only have Ermac to work in. Chameleon, Smoke and Jade would all logically be in there somewhere -- and yes, with updated stories, new moves and new Fatalities.
Just thinking about the advertising for it is giving me goosebumps. Can you imagine some sort of viral marketing campaign with the phrase "ERror MACro" being used. Something like that would have actually been a great spacing game between Armageddon and MK8 instead of MK vs. DC Universe (no offense to anyone who enjoyed that game). It'd still be a great project, but the idea of a remade MK1 being released just before the new era game is appealing to me. Not a big deal, I just think it would have been special.

Resident Evil 1 for the Gamecube is quite different from the original.

Also, Tomb Raider: Legend...but I'm not sure if it was a remake or if it was a reboot like Batman Begins.

Square has done remakes with more than just graphics improvements of some of the Final Fantasy games. Mainly the early ones though. A remake of 7's been rumored for a long time and if they did it, they'd definitely have to change a few things to make it fit better with the prequels and sequels.
And perhaps most telling of Midway's attitude towards remakes: Ultimate MK3 and MK Trilogy were technically remakes of MK3. As was Gold a remake of 4 and Unchained a remake of Deception. And in all of those, the only thing changed was more characters and story added. So they have a history of doing exactly what we're talking about here, adding new characters to old games.

You-Know-Who and RazorsEdge701 pretty much said everything I would've wanted to say. Agreed completely.

Thank God for that. The remake owned the original. This is a really good example of how remakes can add and not screw up anything, but make it better...much better.

I'm a huge Resident Evil fan and also a huge fan of game "firsts" and "originals", but this one changed my mind that a remake can in fact be better...It just dosen't happen all that often.

Haha, I obvious didn't think very hard, did I. I think Tomb Raider: Legend may be a reboot, but I was familiar with all those games. That being said, I still think that a remake of the earlier MK games would be hot stuff, if just because of the separation of eras. Gold, Ultimate and Trilogy may have technically been remakes, but they came right after the other, and didn't feature any real updates to the graphics or feel of the game (except for maybe UMK3 and MKT completely blowing open MK3's universe).

I would not want to see this at all. There was a time when I would have been eager for it, but now I say let the past rest, let's move on to the future.

I feel the future will be stronger if the canon that led up to it is as solid as possible. With a series of remakes, you can clear up inconsistencies and retcons, and decide what is and is not definitive once and for all. Y'know, like Shaolin Monks was SUPPOSED to fucking do until they screwed it up.
The most important reason, I think, to redo MK1 (and 2, 3, and 4, frankly) is so they can give each character in the game their own "Konquest", told in MKvsDC-style fully fleshed out cut scenes, with appearances by and battles against NPCs (For example, Kano's would probably have cameos from Kabal and Jarek and a fight with Jax, Liu's would have "training" against Bo' Rai Cho, etc.), so we can see their backstory before and leading up to the tournament, and get to know the characters' personalities and where they learned their "powers" and things like that as well as possible.
The one area where the MK universe's narrative is lacking is that we don't really know as much about how the characters think and feel and speak as we should by now. I mean, we can certainly intuit everything we need to know about them on our own, as in Xia's Storyline Analysis thread, but it's only the really devoted, scholarly fans who have been doing that. Most of the more casual fanbase is missing out on the richness and depth because right now, you have to look beneath the surface to see it. This is really an area that you have to go into their pasts, and in detail, to explore.

"With a series of remakes, you can clear up inconsistencies"

You COULD, but the MK Team are far more likely to create MORE inconsistencies.

In Vogel I trust.

It's always just a matter of whether or not Boon actually allows him to DO his job.

One thing that always distanced me from characters like Kira and Jarek is that I always have one question at the back of my mind when I'm trying to get into their character: "Where the fuck were you during MK3?"

In that story, Shao Kahn invaded Earthrealm, and took the souls of pretty much everyone accept those protected by Raiden, who, with the knowledge of a god, would have known which fighters were worth a crap. That just subconsciously distances me from characters who really should have been fighting for their lives, if they were good enough to do so.

It's not a big deal, I guess, but it's sort of like that problem on Lost, where the cast just keeps getting bigger, and it's like "Oh, they were in the plane crash, too."

Well for starters, Kira probably would've been a teenager during MK3. Except for DA and Deception, which were one continuous story, time passes between the games. In fact, we know canonically that MK Mythologies was two years before MK1, and ten years before MK4. (Side note: If MK1 is set in the year it was released, 1992, then that makes Shinnok's attack happen right on Y2K, which is sort of cool IMO.)

And why would Jarek be a chosen one? He's obviously an inferior fighter. The only reason he was even in MK4, according to his story, is he was being chased by Sonya when Shinnok's war happened, and she just up and dragged him into it.
Also, both of those characters are evil.
So I'm sure their souls got stolen, and put back when Kahn was defeated, right along with the rest of Earth's population, and that is where they were during MK3. They're simply not Chosen One material, or at least weren't at the time.

Or they were chosen warriors, they just weren't seen or playable. Kind of like in MK1, where there were obviously other warriors in the tournament, but we only saw ten and played with seven.

Eh, that doesn't seem very likely to me...I can think of one case where that explanation would fit, though: Kenshi
He's the ONLY Earthrealm character from 4, DA, and Deception who was old enough, skilled enough, and of a good alignment, to be a chosen one in MK3. (Except for Shujinko, who I believe would have been locked away in a Seidan prison at the time)

IF I WERE IN CHARGE OF DOING THE REMAKE...

The Cast would be indentical. No Noob Saibot. No Ermac. No Jade. No Smoke.

Raiden, Liu Kang, Sonya Blade, Johnny Cage, Kano, Sub-Zero, Scorpion, Reptile, Goro, and Shang Tsung.

AND THAT'S IT. Because that's how I would do it.

The graphics would be 3D and completely digital; no actors in front of green-screens. However, the gameplay would still be 100% 2 Dimensional just like it was originally. Besides, everyone at Midway has said there's no way they'd ever go back to using the green-screen again.

I would make Reptile playable but only after you find, fight and beat him.

The biggest change I would make is the inclusion of a story-mode similar to what they did with MK vs. DC. You could now roam Shang Tsung's island between matches and explore the place. I have no idea what would actually go on during these intermissions of down-time, because I can't see random fights breaking out all over the island. It is supposed to be a structured tournament afterall. But I like the idea of seeing how all the various levels are connected. If I did put Ermac anywhere in the game (because he IS a MK1 glitch), it would be in hiding somewhere in the background during these exploration segments. Maybe there would be some secret way to fight him here, but THAT'S IT.

Story mode features the real, fully animated ending.

All characters have fully animated intros, cut-scenes and endings to help flesh out their stories.

Test Your Might stays.

Mirror Match stays. I imagine a cut-scene to introduce this fight going something like this; your character enters the empty arena and waits for his/her opponent to show up. They walk by a mirror and their reflection steps right out of the glass. Kind of like how Tim Curry (as the Lord of Darkness) came out of the mirror in Legend.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=616PgQCUcp0

Endurance Matches stay. If you fight Reptile in the bottom of the Pit during the endurance match, his partner would be a random person poisoned by his neurotoxic venom. For anyone that's ever seen this crazy match in MK1, it was usually Sonya that was all screwed up, but for the remake I say give him someone new entirely. Check it out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XNT36qKZczU

and screwed up Raiden.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDQE9eAdSFI&feature;=related

Aaaaaand... that's pretty much all the ideas off the top of my head.

I feel like the story mode for an MK1 remake should feel like Deadly Alliance's Konquest mode did, in that it followed each character on their own specific path where they had a LOT of story and many fights to get through...but it should be more like Deception/Armageddon/MKvsDC in that there's actual cut scenes and interactivity between the fights. And it shouldn't be a practice mode that teaches you the moves, it should be regular gameplay in the fights.

And like in Deception, there should be lots of NPCs. For instance, when you play through Sub-Zero's story, you get to relive Mythologies, since that's his backstory. That means fighting against characters like Fujin, Sareena, and Quan Chi.

None of those characters would be playable or even appear in Arcade mode, so it's not like the canon has changed and people who weren't at the tournament are being added. The story mode is what happened before the tournament, to explain how and why they got there.

The only playable characters would be the original 7 with Reptile and Shang Tsung unlockable. (But not Goro. Shang plays like a regular character, there's no reason to not let the player use him. Goro, though, should have unbalanced boss strength and be too overpowered to put in the player's hands)

And of course Mirror Matches, Test Your Might, and Endurance Rounds would all be in. Those are classic parts of the game and even kinda make storyline sense being there.

That's my idea for the game anyway.

That could be interesting if each character had their own particular story mode that followed them through the tournament. The big question then is- would their story-mode follow them through to a non-canon win against Shang Tsung or would it attempt to tell the true story of MK1?

For example; if you were playing through Story Mode with Sub-Zero, would the last match be against Scorpion? You'd win the match, but the cut-scene following the match would depict how Scorpion kills Sub-Zero.

I figure for story mode, that's how it would work. Everyone would have their own role to play in the story, but only one person (Liu Kang) would actually fight against Shang Tsung.

Of course, in Arcade mode everyone would have an ending showing what would happen if they actually lived through the tournament and won. Call them non-canon endings. These would pretty much be what we already have in the original MK1.

Yeah, so that's what I'd do. Yeah!
Story Mode = actual events
Arcade Mode = "What If" events

I wouldn't bring in anything from MK Mythologies even for a Story-Mode mission. I'm sure Sub-Zero has enough to do on the island during the tournament to create a decent sized chapter out of, that he doesn't require his old adventures to be dug up again. Much as I like Sareena and Quan Chi, I just wouldn't do it.

I mentioned being able to roam around the island between matches. To add to that- you should be able to skip right to the next match if you don't want to roam around at all.
If you do choose to roam, then the next match begins the moment you enter the pre-determined arena, and there'd be a map with an icon telling you where to go. I'm really just a sucker for all the scenic shots of Shang Tsung's island in the first movie. I can never get enough of that island. There's something new to see every time.

See, in my idea, Konquest Mode isn't the tournament, none of it is on Shang's Island, it's all backstory.

The tournament itself would be a seperate Story Mode where the game picks your character for you just like in MK vs DC, and you see the way events played out canonically, what order the bracket was in and everything.
There's just way more to explore BEFORE MK1 than DURING MK1. Sub-Zero's life before the tournament is the only one we've seen, which is why his Konquest would have to retell Mythologies. But every other character is completely fertile ground. How did Kano rise the ranks of the criminal underworld? Why is Sonya so devoted to hunting him down? How did Liu Kang get involved with the White Lotus and meet Bo' Rai Cho? Where did Johnny Cage learn to fight so well that he got invited to the tournament?
Backstory is exactly what my remake is meant for. Nobody needs a new MK1 that only tells what happened during the tournament, we already KNOW that part, we can just play the old MK1 over again or read the official MK1 and 2 comics to see that.

It's a good idea going into their backstories like that. I just don't know if that's how I'd do it.

In a way, DURING the tournament, no one really did much of anything from my view. Not that its ever been stated that way, but it was a tournament, and everyone in it, including the main characters from the first game, apparently had to follow the same rules. They all had to compete in order to get to challenge Goro in the end for the title. So to me, theres not much story there other than they are fighting numerous opponents, all trying to reach their ultimate goal. Sure, most characters had a different goal in mind other than being Champion. Like Scorpion out to kill Sub-Zero, and Sonya out to kill Kano, but other than that most of the characters wanted the grand prize. Each person's backstory, leading up to the tournament, would have more to it and be much more flexible in terms of creation and gameplay.

Few things:

1. No, I would not like to see a remake at this point. I want something new right now. A remake would've been cool to roll with in place of MkvsDc.

2. I dig the idea of fleshing the characters out and all that, but I pretty much agree with Reppy and IceBaby about hidden characters making the playable roster.
I also do not, and have never liked the idea of playable boss characters. yuk. I feel it takes away a certain prestige from them when they are able to be clumped in with the rest of the characters.

I think they did it right with Shang Tsung in MK2 and on though. He was trumped by Shao Kahn, and was enough of a "normal" character" to pull it off from then on out. I think playable bosses fail in all the other games though. Playable bosses //sub-bosses should be saved for a Trilogy-type game.
--

Anyway,

Reppy & Razor, I like both perspectives you have on the ways to handle the story mode, and more importantly, how you'd handle fleshing out the characters in one way or another. BUT even though I think it'd take too much to do right (disc space mainly) I don't see why both couldn't work together. Here's my idea after reading this whole thread.

Okay, everytime I rant on about fleshing out characters, a characters backstory is lumped in with the general canon information we have, or it is assumed that both are being considered. So, I don't see why, with the few ways they have to provide story in MK, that we couldn't have them start from a point before MK1 (bio).....fill in the blanks (play through Konquest and or provide profiles for the characters), and end the playable Konquest where whatever character ended their venture for that game.

This way, handling the story mode like MkvsDc could actually work out with the cut-scenes and all that, but not be overbearing. Because, you wouldn't need to create a cut-scene for everything.....only for when a confrontation is going to start.

However, I gotta tell ya I preferred walking through the MKD Konquest mode over the cut scenes of MKvsDc. Thing is, like the MkD & MkA Konquest mode, or in MkSm, there was a good compromise between the open world, cut-scenes, and the fight sequences already. I don't see a reason to jack with that formula besides changing it for the sake of changing it (no I'm not either "afraid of new things").

So, I figure that since this hypothetical remake would be majority taking place on Shang Tsungs Island, most of what we walk through would be (a.) a short pretense ( A "coming to Mortal Kombat" sequence, that really lets us walk through the world of that particular character), (b.) have a pretty "generic for all" cut-scene to get us on and or off the boat, (c.) a couple fights on the island....(d.) then you end with that character through where the canon suggests we should end with them.
*Final Cut scene here.*
~~~~~
For instance, take Sonya.

1. We should probably begin with Sonya "before she joined the army" in a good sized Bio.....Fill in the blanks up to the end of MK1//2 with a nice Profile....Start playing the story mode with her on a Military base where she'd eventually receive the "go" to go hunt down Kano. Then, we'd probably end her play-through, with a fight between her and Kano. That'd be her "boss" character, and after she's done, she walks away from the fight. ~{btw, this doesn't say that she can't fight him more than once during her mode either.}~

2. I figure 5-7 fights per character story mode, like in MkvsDc would make good use of the "actual fighting portion" of the play-through.

- 1 fight that is meant for training. Have it be with a Sargent or something...

- 3 street fights (maybe spar with N.p.C. Jax, and then a couple of small missions that see her fight 2 no named Black Dragon members)...

- then she finds her way on to the boat, fights Kano the first time once she's on the island, but he gets away for this 5th fight.

- Then she fights a random MK contestant by this point(she's in the contest by now),

- then at the end, she fights Kano for the final time in this game.

3. Now, her Cut-scenes would probably happen...

a.) before the 1st fight (shows what kind of person she is and how rare//impossible it is for a woman in the military. Show us her personality//thought processes, and maybe how she toughens up//is trained. Show how she takes orders...maybe a cameo of Jax before she knew him or something and a little hint of them possibly becoming friends in the future. ),

b.) before the 3rd fight ( she's aged since training, has ranked up quite a bit, and has now received orders from superiors to go get Kano. SHOULD definitely give a little flash back or something to show exactly how the situation between Sonya, her now dead partner, and Kano went down. Cameo Jax again),

c.) before the 5th fight (gets on the boat - the "generic-for all" cutscene),

d.) and then one after the final fight.. Or two little ones. 1 little one before she fights Kano, and one after.(she won, but by now, she has more issues to deal with)

4. Between fighting and cut scenes, we should be able to walk around with the character we're playing with. Not very expansive at all really, but it should give us a shot at picking a couple things up, maybe talking to a couple wanderers, "Test Your Might" mini game, or running into fights with characters like Reptile or Ermac. w/e
~~~~~

So yea, there's flexibility there for some synergy to happen with both ideas. I'd just be more afraid of the story modes of 7 characters taking up alot of space.

I'd figure that 2, maybe 3 secret characters (Reptile, Ermac, Jade) would be appropriate. And for those characters, they just get a good bio, a profile, and a latter ending. No story mode for them though.

idk. MkvsDc throws this Remake idea off for me. Be a nice series of side-games to reinforce "already released" new games that would've come out by the time these things hit shelves.