I woudn't like every character to be a darker color. I think it really depends on the characters alignment, motives, etc. I would rather have Sub Zero stay the blue color he's always been. And I think Reptile should be a darker green, while Scorpion should have a pale yellow color, to show how he is a spectre.

I never really thought about color that much with characters, but after reading this I think that color in characters adds a layer of iconicness and association to that character. To me it doesn't seem like the colors are that bright in the recent games. Scorpion has seemed rather dark to me in recent games, and it seems like they add so many belts, sashes, bands, and scarfs to him that it takes a lot away from the simplicity of the costume, and the apeal of the color. So as far as I'm concerned I simply don't see color as a big issue with character design these days, but rather the clothing and accessories they add to them are my biggest complaint. Looking at how they remodeled certain characters kind of pisses me off.

Look at Baraka in MKD and MKvsDC. His outfit is so different from his original. Both designs just look odd to me. The armor and the kilt just seems out of place and are a strange design overall. I also think the MK team goes overboard on armbands. Scorpion, Sub-Zero, Kano, and even Flash all have armbands. It's like they look at the character, and notice that their clothes are sleeveless so lets add some cloth to their arm so it's not so bare. (To clarify I am talking about the thin bands on their biceps not the gaunlets). To me they have gone a little overboard with the amount of clothing, and the little details they have been adding to characters. I feel as if they finaly got the technology to make any costume they want so they go completely out of control instead of finding something aestetically pleasing.

Sorry for getting off topic, but to me the colors have never been an issue, but rather the overall design decisions.

Colour is an interesting subject in the MK world. On one hand, characters are heavily associated with a colour, and that has led people to become attached. Can you imagine wearing green? Of course not -- then he would be Reptile. But then you have to realise that colour was one of the easiest ways to differenciate characters back in the day. When you look at many of the characters associated with a colour -- most of them were part of a palette family.

In my opinion, colour is not nearly as neccessary anymore. Now, don't get me wrong -- I'm not saying that all the characters associated with colours should suddenly lose that association. I think it's a case-by-case basis. For example, I think it is much more risky to put Sub-Zero in red than it is to put Kitana in a different colour (red or black would be the ones I'd lean towards).

Rain is another character that I don't think needs his colour scheme. It started off as a joke. If you bring that character back, give him an entirely new get-up.

The idea that a character has to be a certain color because of the past is really played out. The designers should be able to dress them in whatever color they want to.

I remember how insane it was when DA was coming out how everybody pre-emptively disliked Li Mei because she was wearing purple, that somehow Mileena was the only female character allowed to wear the color. You know how stupid that is? That's beyond moronic. Like Mileena is the only girl to ever have purple clothes in the entire universe.

If a certain costume on Jade for example looks good in red than why not have it be red? She doesn't have to wear green ALL THE TIME.

I would prefer it if Jade moved away from green, actually. Maybe give her an alt that is green, sure -- but I'd like to see her in something else.

Nice topic btw. I actually didn't see this one the first time around, so thanks for bringin it back.

I think that color was a larger part of the past due to memory restrictions, but now I think that they stick to those colors too much. I mean, Cage wore black and red in MK1, but since then it seems like a rule that he MUST wear black and blue for his main outfit.

Why could they change it back then and not now?

I think that it's time to put characters in outfits that fit them, their backstory and their style a bit more now and stop worrying about color so much. Sure, if you have a returning character, feel free to make one of their alt costumes a classic update, but their main look shouldn't be restricted by the past.

There are subtle ways that you could nod to the past, like maybe Kitana wears a black ninja outfit, but she has a blue ankle band or something. But even that isn't necessary to me.

I also don't think that characters should be restricted to one, two or three colors. It shouldn't be, black and red for Ermac, black, gold and green for Reptile etc. Use whatever colors it takes to get the look across.

While I agree to an extent, that the designers should dress returning characters in whatever color/s they want, at the same time I'm kind of against it and feel that it sort of defeats the purpose of bringing back a character, since a color palette of attire is usually synonymous with a character. I mean if a returning character is going to use all new colors, then why not just make that a new character instead.

I think more than anything that it just depends. Since the attires design also has a great impact on the way a character looks. For example the type of patterns used on armor. I think if you look at the ninjas from MK, where they almost always have been dressed in black and then another color to define them, such as Sub Zero. Where his predominant color is blue. Then to me it would be rather odd if they brought him back with a similar design like how we are used to seeing him, i.e. MK: Armageddon, but instead of black and blue, he would be black and red. This automatically makes you think of Ermac, which is I believe something the devs do not want. So yeah, it all depends.

Yep, I think a few things could change here and there with colours towards characters. I agree that MK might have been getting maybe to shiny? ha, and bright-ish. They should turn that down a bit with the characters themselves..I mean imagine darker looking costumes/tones with bright red blood contrasted against it, sick. ha but anyway..

Well I think for the next game the characters should have splashes of the colour they usually wear. What I mean is, say Sub-Zero, make it obvious its him, but if there going for a much darker look, then he should have highlights of a dark blue colour throughout his attire, the rest black/grey with some silver maybe...

Same goes for characters like Scorpion, have a few higlights of golden/yellow colours, but don't over do it. Reptile I dont think has to be green, I mean if we saw him in something completely different but still had his reptilian features (MKSM) then that would be cool, same goes for many characters.

But maybe they could change things up a bit, I mean Mileena in red, could totally see that, also if they continue with the whole dark Raiden look, I think bits of dark red would look sweet on him, just a thought . Hmm who else, Characters like Kung Lao,Sonya, Johnny C, and Jax I think doesn't need colour really. Of course thats if any of these mentioned above even return.

Yeah I agree, they should just change things up a bit. Hopefully they will, can't bloody wait for some official pics :D

I think that characters should gradually change into other colors, and not just change color completely. Like they could still wear their signature color, but not as much and incorporate other colors into their costume design. A complete shift in color might shock a lot of people in a negative way, and I see a lot of complaints if this happens.

---------------------------

BTW, here's the color scheme, IMO, of the characters, besides the color swaps that were only metioned.


Red: Ermac, Sektor, Kai, Liu Kang, Shang Tsung, Sheeva, Meat(Duh), Kira, Nitara, Nightwolf, Shinnok, Kenshi, Fujin, Havik, Shao Kahn.


Blue: Sub-Zero, Frost, Mokap, Stryker, Kitana,


Yellow: Tanya, Scorpion, Cyrax


Green: Hotaru, Jade, Reptile, Sonya, Onaga, Moloch


Black: Johnny Cage, Noob Sabiot, Sareena, Quan Chi, Mavado, Kano, Taven, Raiden, Goro, Kung Lao,


Brown: Kabal, Jarek, Dairou, Shujinko, Bo Rai Cho, Drahmin, Motaro


Purple: Sindel, Reiko, Rain, Li Mei


Grey/Silver: Jax, Smoke, Hsu Hao, Khameleon, Chameleon,


Orange: Daegon, Blaze, Darrius, Kintaro


Pink: Mileena


White: Ashrah, Kobra, Baraka

Erm well I'm not sure, probably not actually now I think about it..Though just on a few certain characters it wouldn't bother me, like on Mileena, if she wore some red, then its not like she's taking any other of the MK girls iconic colour..so maybe for some? Just an idea..

the original thread and this thread deserves a bump so i am going to put in my 2 cents.

i think color plays a small role but a significant one. i think having alt costumes is the answer. i always thought MK should use good and evil alt costumes...as an example...say what if Sonya was evil? what would she wear? you know not just some military uniform. alternative should mean something different...especially the colors used.

also,i agree with a previous post about costume accessories but it still does not fully impact the color in general. one thing that could work though is using textures. this way the color would either look naturally darker or brighter in whichever lighting or area the fight is in. like if Scorpion's cowl was nylon or vinyl it would be flashy and shiny...it would gleam in lighting as apposed to if the cowl was cotton. the luster of the texture has factors on color quite a bit.

patterns are a good way to introduce new colors to a character without removing the original color...i will stick with scorpion as an example.in the yellow parts of the costume what if you added embroidery of his clan symbol or stitched images of scorpions? having such being in the yellow areas would distract the brightness of the color...the thing is making it look good and choosing the color of the embroidery to make it mingle with the current costume. this same idea goes for patches,symbols,clan signets and all that stuff.

Magical dynamic auras can help with this also...like with smoke,he does not need to be a gray ninja just because its representing smoke. in his case as long as his character has smoke billowing from him during his animations than you could put him in orange if you wanted and that wont change who he is. lol granted i would not use orange but it was only an example hahaha.

anyways,i would post a link to the original thread Icebaby but i am too lazy to look for it lol. but this is a good post.

I like the color associations. They can try out different stuff for alts....

But they shouldn't mess around with the colors too much. Can you seriously imagine Sub-Zero without blue? I do remember Scorpion having a grey/black color scheme in mk4. That was kinda decent.

I also like the idea of color association, but I think they could try something different with alts if they choose to do it like, dare I say, Street Fighter.

Otherwise, if it is just an original and one alt, keep the color scheme matching the character.

A great example is Soul Calibur... so many bright colors it gives it a childish atmosphere. I can't take that game's storyline serious when I play. I don't feel like I'm fighting to save much of anything from any kind of evil force. Just one big happy-go-lucky anime fight.
The weapon fighting is awesome, sure. But that's about it.

If MK9 is going to be what MK8 was supposed to be (darker, gritter, blah blah blah) then the artists have to pay attention to the color.

Look at MK2 and Deception. I'd say very dark, not just whem it comes to character costumes, but the overall design of everything.

MK1 and MKDA... I felt had similarities. It was a serious tournament, but not as serious as their successors. There was a more brighter atmosphere.

MK3 eh... no comment. MK4 had color, but was still semi "dark"

its not that its childish...just cartoony and unrealistic. Arena wise i think they were going in a good direction in MK:A...in MK vs DC they were a bit more vibrant in color but the fact of super heroes being in the game it kinda made sense. what they need to do is use more shadow and lighting effects on both the characters and the arenas. the darker the lighting is the duller the color looks. i just hope the characters don't look like plastic.

Yeah. A lot of games out there have plastic looking people. They do a hell of a job making the backgrounds look real, but not the characters - THE MOST IMPORTANT of all.