Given the length of the following, I have split this into two posts for easier reading.

Time in a fighting game would prove to be something very influential. With both players possessing power over time, matches could be redefined in terms of how they are played and how they end. This thread is here to present this idea to you and to get you to think about it. It is by no means here as a suggestion to get rid of the normal gameplay and have this as a permanent and definite part of MK.

The inspiration for these ideas, are the Prince of Persia and Viewtiful Joe games. For those who have played these games, imagine those powers of time at your finger tips within MK. Imagine what they could lead to. Time itself would play apart with special moves, death-traps, combos and of course, would make the difference between life and death. I will now tell you of the uses of Time Manipulation in MK.


Time Manipulation in MK

The Power of Delay (Slow Motion):

Slowing down time would effectively allow you to power up attacks. Combo damage could be raised slightly as your slower attacks power up upon delivery to the opponent. Of course, slowing down time allows the opponent to see where your next attack is coming from a lot easier. They may be able to counter attack or evade effectively if they’re smart. The smarter player would make sure their chain combo connected first and slowed down mid combo to maximise damage.

In terms of specials, projectiles would be the ones greatly affected by slow down. Let’s take Sub-Zero and Raiden for example. You’re about to do the freeze. You’re at the opposite end of the screen and have a long way to travel if it does connect. You know that if it does, there is chance they’ll unfreeze before you can combo. To cure that, you slow down time, increasing the potency of the ice blast as it is released. Upon connection, its ability has been increased for a greater amount of time, so the enemy remains frozen for longer. In the case of Raiden, a paralysis effect could be added onto his lightning blast, or it could just do more damage. In the reverse, slow down time to evade a projectile coming at you. You move at normal speed and sidestep past it. Helpful if you don’t initially see it coming. Slow down could also allow you to increase the size of your projectile before release, thus stopping sidestepping opponents.

Slowing down time could also allow for increased jumping ability. Surprise your opponent by slowing down time, executing your jump, and then releasing the time delay and power launching yourself across the screen from a full screen length away and knock them in the face with a nicely done kick. If this were classic MK, you’d probably go in with a punch and combo off it.

In effect, slowing down time will be useful for offence and defence.

The Power of Haste (Speed Up):

Increasing the speed of time for yourself will allow you to do quite a lot of effective stuff if used correctly. We all remember Jades ridiculous running speed in UMK3/MKT. We could have that again with the speed up. You could run around the arena, evading projectiles, sidestep incoming attacks with ease. Your mix ups would come out faster allowing you to break your opponents block more easily. And your combos would appear so much faster, in a shadowy or fiery blur maybe.

However, to combat the cheapness of such tactics, hits would be less potent, decreasing in damage. So you’d be using the speed up to get in quick combos, but at the cost of less damage. It would be worth it in a tight spot sometimes.

Another effect here would be the ability to avoid interrupts. This would effectively allow for a better attacking ability and decrease those irritating lag times on certain attacks and specials. Speeding up mid combo could also eliminate this.