I highly agree, although most others dont like the originals, so youll get more negitive "votes"

I don't know if I'd call missing background characters the THING that the MK series has lost. On the list of the things that the MK series has lost since making the transition to 3D, I'd put this somewhat low on the list. But that said, I like where you're going with this idea, and I'll go you one better:

I think that the MK series has lost its sense of mystery and intrigue. When the MK team decided to streamline the secrets and create the krypt, they lost a major part of what made MK cool back in the 2D era. Now, unlocking a character or seeing anything special isn't a result of playing and actually finding secrets, it's a matter of playing through the arcade mode or whatever over and over and over again (or worse, playing through the awful konquest modes) to earn enough coins to unlock something. Plus, if you didn't use the layout of the krypt, chances are you got stuck with a lame picture or concept art, when what you really wanted was alt costumes or hidden characters.

In future MK games, I'm hoping that we'll see unlockable content and secrets unlocked in a more traditional (and logical) sort of way. How about unlocking a character when they come up in another, already unlocked character's storyline?

But I also agree that part of the whole mystery and intrigue factor is getting teased with hidden items, characters etc, and this is no longer being done in MK games. Personally, I really think it should be. I thought that it was very cool to see a question mark in arcade mode in MK2, or seeing Smoke's picture rotate in and out of the character select screen. Seeing those things immediately made me want to play more and figure out a way to get to that question mark or unlock smoke etc. Those little rewards, options, secrets etc add alot to MK and I really hope that they bring stuff like that back, and furthermore keep the krypt for bonus content like artwork and keep the real unlockable stuff in the realm of mystery and intrigue where it belongs.

On the backgrounds, I like some of the newer backgrounds. Though some of the classics seemd to have an edge the current ones don't, I think the new ones are good.

As for your thing about secret characters, you're absolutely right. I would like at least a few characters to be unlockable through nonlinear means.

I agree.

Also Mortal Kombat, although always a somewhat dark game, has also been losing some of it corny humor. The only thing that seems to be keeping it alive it poor Johnny. Anyone remember the 'Have a nice day ' from Raiden's first ending. The Friendships?

That was one of the things that made MK different when other games started being brave in regards to violence and kept the game from being too serious to be fun.