NRS knows which characters are more popular. They left Sonya and Kano out of MK2 for that very reason. They know who is played the most. It's the reason that Kung Lao, Kitana (and more) are resurrected.
There are certain characters that will always have a very high chance of returning, which makes it difficult for new characters to really get a foothold in the fanbase.
Many of those fans will be disappointed when they go to play MK11 and only 1 or 2 of those new characters is playable, since MK11 will have those classic characters, plus new characters, and just won't have the room for the recent character's whose popularity just can't match the MK2 roster.

Kitana, Mileena are widely popular characters, but even they were left out of the initial MK3 release. With Jax and Kung Lao the only MK2 new comers to carry over to MK3.

The MK3 new comers have it even worse, none of them appeared in base MK4.

Deadly Alliance only had 1 new comer from MK4, and most of the rest of MKDA's returning characters is made of up of the MK1/2 roster.

Deception saw 3 of MKDA's new characters carry over and it's no surprise that Kenshi, Bo Rai Cho, and Li Mei are still the most popular characters from the 3D MKs.

Everyone was in Armageddon, and I'm not even going to count it because they were ripped directly from their old game and then had a moveset removed.
Taven, Daegon have not appeared since Armageddon and Skarlet looks to be a no-show for MKX.

I'm all for new characters, I just don't expect them to gain in popularity enough to top the MK1/2 cast to become a semi-permanent roster spot the way Quan Chi has.

I dont think there should be more than 8. Look what happened with Soul Calibur V.....

The more new characters the better. It's time to move on. At the very least have new characters use some older characters moves within story reasons and for people who liked certain characters play style.

As much as I love the old characters, I don't want too many returning from MK9 -- 'cause to me it'd just feel like I'm playing MK9 (essentially).

More revamped MK4+ characters and new1s 4me soznotsoz

I agree with this 100% Chrome. Well said. MK3 had a fantastic premise, probably my favorite storyline of an MK game. But the new characters were just plain silly. In fact, I personally believe that MK9 was a chance for NRS to get MK3 right. Let's be honest, MK Annihilation didn't do it justice either. LoL.

I Loved MK4 and totally understood "getting back to the basics" but they definitely messed up with Jarek.

Becuz of this track record, ppl are skeptical of newbs in an MK. KotaL Kahn and Dvorah have impressed me, but I'm very "meh" about Cassie and FerraTorr. So I'm definitely on the side who thinks 8 newbs is enuff. 8 newbs "on disc" at least. Becuz I also think we'll have 8 DLC. 3 klassics, 2 newbs, 2 guests, 1 console exclusive. So that would really make 10 newbs altogether.

New characters are needed to convince potential buyers this isn't MK9 with better graphics, I believe we're going to have too many returning favs for my taste, I don't understand what's the appeal of having the same roster over and over again, ad nauseum. If NRS doesn't take risks we will never have a chance to grow familiar and get to like the new characters.

Without new characters, we would only have 7(10 if you count Reptile,goro, shang tsung) characters......

...cant have returning favorites without first having new characters

Chrome said it all.

Not to forget they were supposed to ship a new MK every year in the 3D era. They were unable to really bring fresh new blood. Most of them were one time throw aways (leaving out Armageddon that is). I really did not like many of them became fire based characters. It was bland.

And now look at what they gave us so far. An Aztec based character, an insect lady and a tag team which is way different then that Noob-Smoke deal. I'm all for it. Let them do their thing with the other ones. They should be given the chance.

I'm kind've indifferent honestly. If they are develop correctly, then I'm all for it. They've had more duds than studs, but I think all the new characters will do really well.

Lets look at it MK4 -MK9

MK4:

Fujin-Fan favorite. People want him and I think he deserves another chance to be fleshed out.
Jarek-Meh
Kai- Replaceable
Reiko- Was only popular for his ending
Quan Chi- I mean, he's still around. Formidable foe. I personally like Quan-Chi
Shinnok-If he isn't playable, should at least play a major part in some of the story.
Tanya-Fan favorite. I think she will be in.

Deadly Alliance:

Blaze-Nah
Bo' Rai Cho-Replaceable. I think will make an appearance in the story.
Drahmin- Nah
Frost- In the komic, but we only need one "Ice' character
Hsu Hao-Dead in Komics
Kenshi- Still around.
Li Mei- Possible. I think the game should have at least one character from each game. Would make sense from a story standpoint.
Mavado-Nah
Mokap-nope
Moloch- Ferra-Tor takes his place.
Nitara-Interesting concept, poor execution

Deception:

Ashrah – Another interesting concept, but poor execution.
Darrius - I liked him, but doubtful
Havik – Fan favorite-ish. could work well with the new 'theme'
Hotaru – Nah
Kira – Replaced by Skarlett essentially
Kobra –C'mon man
Onaga – Liked him as a Big Boss. Shouldn't be playable, but should be mentioned in the story.
Shujinko- I think plays a roll in the story, but not playable.

Armageddon:

Taven-Nah
Daegon-Nope
Khameleon- The white ninja in the komics could be her or Chameleon.

MK9:

Skarlet- Would like to see her more, but I think is doubtful.

We should have nothing but new characters by now. We can always go back and play MK9.

We dont need MK9 part 2. People are afraid to let go for once. The new characters we have so far look pretty tough!

Have you ever heard of a game called Street Fighter? Lmao. Apparently reskinning the same game 17 times DOES work.

It totally does, and that's what I don't understand, refreshing changes and a evolving "story" are the reason why I like MK over other fighting games, so why transform it into something like SF, specially after a game that paid homage to the classics composed entirely by fan favourites.

As of now, i'm starting to think we will get next to no new characters

Only 1/3 of the roster is revealed, settle down lol

they wont reveal new characters before old ones, they also like to not reveal too much before the game is out.

I'm actually not worried about it. I might have been a few years ago, but after seeing the new characters we already have, I am pretty comfortable with the idea of having a lot of new characters. Of course there are a few classic characters I want to see in (Ermac, Reptile, Baraka, Noob, Kabal, Mileena) but I understand not everybody can make the cut this time around and after seeing Kotal, Ferra, and Cassie, im pretty pumped to see what else NRS has cooked up for us.

Id say that its already apparent that MK is beyond its "New Characters Suck" phase. Kotal Kahn is fucking BAWS, Dvorah has a great design, Cassie fits well and feels fresh, and FerraTorr is expanding the idea of what a MK character can be.

We're off to a fantastic start, and I personally hope Takeda makes the cut. Especially if he uses that whip, yo! NRS have great talents working for them now and plenty of time for polish. Im up for anything they throw out.

You mean fully permanent, right? Quan has appeared in every game since his debut, albeit not always playable.


If that were true, we'd all be over on the SF forums instead of here.

I've been replaying the 3D era games again recently and i find the new characters are nowhere near as bad as i or anyone else remember. (MKD did go a bit overboard with the amount, but not all of them sucked.)

Thank you, it blows my mind when this forum freaks out about not getting more new characters.

I think over the course of the series fuck yeah they over did it when introducing new characters. I wish they had gone at it less aggressively like most other fighting games did adding maybe 3 per game so that they didn't have to cherry pick the roster because there were just to damn many by time we got to...well this point.

I love new characters so there is never too much new blood on Mortal Kombat.

You forgot Dairou.