Secret Characters have really meant completely different things in different games...

In MK1 and MKII they were all hidden fights with unique characters. Palette swaps, but unique characters, none of which were playable. Reptile in MK1. Noob, Smoke and Jade in MKII.

MK3 was the first to break the mold in that, it had a secret fight with Noob (who was again, not playable) but also had the series' first unlockable secret character in Smoke. This is where the future grows fuzzy...

UMK3 for arcades introduced 3 more secret unlockables in Mileena, Classic Sub-Zero and Ermac. In many ways however, not much really felt secret about them, as once they were unlocked, they seemed akin to regular ol' characters. Noob remained a secret fight in arcades, but was just part of the default roster on consoles. However, the bosses, Motaro and Shao Kahn were unlockables on console versions. Making bosses playable for the first time.

MKT had Chameleon as a secret fight on PS1, and he was also playable via a button input. But he was never really a fully fleshed out character, and featured no story/ending, and didn't get permanently added to the select screen roster. Khameleon however, was a more proper finished unlockable on the N64 version.

MK4 had Noob as a secret hidden character, Goro as a secret playable boss, and Meat as a hidden skin swap for other characters, but much like Chameleon, none of them were fully fleshed out, nor did they get added to the default select screen like MK3's Smoke or UMK3's characters. Gold then added Sektor as an additional secret character, who was more fleshed out, and had an ending, but still not on the select screen.

Deadly Alliance had Mokap and Blaze, which were a little more fleshed out in that they had bios and endings, but didn't have fatalities, super moves or weapons, and in many ways felt incomplete compared to the default roster of characters. Once again, they also weren't added to the select screen.

MKD... kind of broke the mold in that all the unlockables did get added to the select screen... BUT... pretty much half the roster was unlockables, which kind of ruined the mystique of the idea they were a "Secret" ... most of them weren't. They were just... well, unlockables.

MKA, in much the same faction, only had a handful of locked characters, one of which was the final boss Blaze, but none of them felt particularly special or secret.

And finally MK9 had Cyber Sub-Zero and Quan Chi. Cyber Sub did feel like he was meant to be a surprise... but it was leaked to most of us, and fell a bit flat as he was just an alternate version of a character already on the default roster. Quan Chi we'd seen all along, so he didn't feel very special, just like a gated character. Many of us held out hope the bosses would be unlockable, like in the MK3-MK4 days... but sadly they never proved to be. As evidently the developers wanted to maintain their boss mystique. (I personally don't think it worked, as if their mystique wasn't lost long ago, it surely is after whooping them around a few dozen times in story mode and the challenge tower. So might as well have just let us play them, imo) MK9 also however, for the first time in a long time, had secret fights, which were recreations of the MK1 and MK2 battles with Reptile, Jade, Smoke and Noob. Which was a welcome bit of nostalgia.

Anyway... my point is just... what a secret is has changed a lot over the years with MK.

I personally disliked the ones like the PS1 MKT, MK4 and MKDA where the unlockables were invisible and unfinished, and left off the select screen. I like them to be fully fleshed out characters, who join the main roster. Still however, I feel it's overkill, and something gets lost when half the select screen is unlockables, like in Deception.

I think games like MK3, UMK3 or MK9 did it best. Gives us a few ?'s on the default screen that we have to fill in the gaps with. But try to make them GOOD. Cyber-Smoke and Ermac were good, as we'd never gotten to play them before in their debuts as secrets. Mileena and Quan Chi fell flat, as we were completely familiar with them. They shouldn't have been unlockables, just default characters. Above all else, try to keep their identities hidden before we unlock them, so there's at least a bit of mystery to discover.

And a few secret fights never hurt anyone either. I loved the throwback fights in MK9. But would prefer they not be new and unfinished, unfleshed out characters like Chameleon in Trilogy. Because the last thing we need is another guy we know next to nothing about hanging out in the MK universe for the next decade. Best to stick to faces we know for these, even if more secretive and powerful versions.

That's my opinion anwayz.

I like your opinion and am impressed by your knowledge of secret MK characters! What I mean for this game is have unlockable characters the days of unplayable secret characters from MK1 and 2 are gone everyone wants unlockable fleshed out story driven characters like you said but maybe they could be unlocked via a secret fight if you know what I mean!

So for instance make Noob a secret character for example; have him appear in the story mode and reserve a spot on the character select screen either blacked out or marked with a ? Then make it so you have to access a secret fight with him like the last game (double flawless wins/ win without blocking etc) and upon winning that fight he then becomes an unlocked playable character with an ending and three variations!

This I reckon would be good because you add the secret fights that added to the mystique of the game back in the day of MK1 and 2 plus you get a couple of cool unlockable characters like in more recent games!!