It takes more than just playing the game on your own, but also competing against others and I don't mean CPU. One big problem MKDA and MKD has is the lack of good balance. In MKDA, there's no real point in trying to face someone who knows how to use Scorpion at his very best unless you're using Scorpion at his very best yourself. What makes him the best in the game is mainly the Shove and Hellfire since both are unblockable, unduckable and doing the shove guarantees a free Hellfire. The shove can be used both offensively and defensively.

Try sidestepping to avoid it and I don't think that would work though I may be wrong about that. Although, if you want to guarantee the tracking, there is the whole universal tracking thing by pressing up. So bottom line, Scorpion was just too good in that game to the point where it's I guess you could say impossible to really beat him. Again, I may be a bit off there, but given the way he is in that game, I'm more so right on that.

Scorpion wasn't the only character who was very good, but of course there weren't any characters as cheap as he was. In MKD, we have Bo' Rai Cho with the whole F + 3 and throw thing in which F + 3 guarantees a free throw while Noob-Smoke has various infinite combos and there's Smoke's throw. Then we have Dairou with all of his special moves plus his Autumn Dao. Kobra's Shorin Ryu and Kali Sticks are very very good as well as some of his specials like that fire punch. Shujinko has some infinites and can do a shitload of damage.

What I'm getting at overall is that if MK's fighting system had the needed things like a wake up game, throw breakers, etc., there wouldn't be so many problems. I'm by no means saying that it should be complex or super deep or any of that stuff. What I am saying is that it should be solid, balanced, and logical.

The engine itself doesn't need much of a change only how its being used. A few hints:

1. Dump the pre-made combos. They are no where near as fun as creating you own and the way the games are set up now thats almost impossible.

2. Better balance between characters. Someone already mentioned this once but it bears repeating. Every character should be weak in some areas and strong in others, but none should be overly powerful...except for the boss and/or sub-boss(Which I personally believe should NOT be playable) or overly weak.

3. Cut down on the damn special moves. Much as I like having almost all of Raiden's old moves, I much perfer only having a choice of three or four at the most for each character. Nor should the special moves be much more powerful than normal ones but if used correctly can mean winning or losing the fight. Example: If struck by lighting, be stunned for a few seconds allowing an additional hit without the worry of being blocked.

4. Stop the action figure/comic book look. Now MK:DA and MK:D are both beautiful games graphics wise. The backgrounds almost perfect...so why the hell does most of the characters look like cheap action figures. Just look at Raiden's victory pose....he looks like a Cobra action figure that someone burnt and then held too tightly.

You have some good points and I agree with almost all of them. I think it's fine if a character has like 5 special moves. Just as long as its balanced and has usefulness to it, it'd be fine by me. To me, the engine does need a lot added to it (e.g. ground game, throw breakers) and a lot taken out (e.g. universal tracking, that weird super fast sidestepping stuff) for great improvement.

When i play deception noone plays like me if you really play deception there are a lot of diffrent combo to throw people off with. I like the combo system but if they overhaul it as long as its good what the hell. Ninpo returns to the shadows.