DLC is often planned and set in stone before the game even releases. The plans for the future are already in place and the ball is rolling. It's not as simple as deciding on the fly.

Even if they could. We, as consumers, should judge a game on the initial complete product. If we have to pay more to feel fulfilled, its truly not a great game. MK9 felt great and DLC was just fun to experience. It was a great product by itself, without any DLC.

Anyways. My top 5:

Online Play
-----------------
Every time I play MK9 Online, I only stop playing because of the lag. I don't get bored, I don't get mad if/when I lose. I get mad that even with an amazing internet connection, I can't even land a simple BnB combo that I 100% get at tournaments and offline. Moves like Reptile's dash and Ermac's grab can hit you before it even shows on the screen.

This was MUCH better in Injustice. I rarely ever had a problem. The netcode for MK9 had truly let me down. As a true fan, I need to communicate that. Online play is crucial for replay value.

I think that there needs to be a tournament mode online, as well. After attending MLG, Toryuken and the T series, I have never had a rush like I did with the feeling of "do or die" in a tournament. I would really love to see an 8-player 3-fight tournament bracket.

I also feel that the characters in KOTH were just too much extra for netcode to handle. I feel as if Injustice's online system was just about perfect. Give us that, better netcode and maybe a tournament. I will be happy.


Competitive Balance
-----------------------------
This is short but a huge deal. If characters are going to have armor, give them all some form of armor. It, at its core, is unfair that some characters get safe wakeups and some don't. Every character should have the option to wake up safely at the cost of a bar. The field would be far more even, if this were the case.

I also believe that every character should have better mixups. Smoke wasn't a bad character by any means. But when you know you don't ever have to worry about blocking low, something is wrong.


Story
--------
I feel as though MK4 was the era of MK where some sweet atmospheric lore was completely overlooked. Shinnok's invasion was just perfect. A big mix up compared to Kahn or Onaga. I really would love for Fujin, Reiko, Jarek, Tanya, Shinnok and Kai to have some time in the sun. I would be very happy if the entire storymode too place within the Netherrealm's invasion. I hope they really focus on this part of overlooked lore.


Secrets
------------
MK has always been huge for secrets. We had 4 secret fights in MK9 and they all felt awesome. Sadly, to this day, I have only done or tried to do them all once. Noob was encountered a second time by mistake on a flawless.

I would love to see NRS really try to throw the community for a loop. There are a lot of possibilities with this "hot fix on the fly" tech they keep talking about in regards to balancing.If they really have this ability, they could keep suspicious names and plantings of code hidden and then suddenly "hot fix" the data into a secret.

I don't know how the technology works but I would love to see that. Even the disc-crackers wouldn't be able to find the secrets, hopefully. Infinite possibilities? another endless treasure hunt? Give us a secret Motaro boss fight. Give us a battle with Inferno Scorpion.

Real secrets. Lets make it happen.

Characters
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I won't really speak to characters from MK1-3 but I really just hope that this game is handled with the next game in mind. Between existing fan favorites, MK4 expected returns and MKDA/MKD additions, the roster is going to need some thinking on. Do they focus on MK4 characters now and do another "group kill" to make room for MKDA/MKD? Do they do a bit of both now and later?

It matters very little. I just don't want it to be another 10 years before we see a character as awesome as Havik or Hotaru. Even Dairou or Ashrah. BoRaiCho or Drahmin. All pretty unique.



Outside of my top5 but something I truly want to see is the return of Survival Mode. the MKSM 9-stage "Survival" was absolutely killer. The Survival in MK:Unchained was amazing. For people who have to focus on some offline aspects for replay value, I would love a survival mode with an extremely high ceiling limit. A survival score rank? I am THERE.


-Casselman

1. Gameplay

It's a fighting game, so gameplay should always be first and foremost. I'm hoping they follow MK9's lead and stay the course. They've really hit their stride, no need to fly off the handle with gimmicks. Keep Super meter and X-Rays and I'm happy.

2. Characters

The characters in MK10 should be unique and varied. Shouldn't be a problem for NRS since they do a good job with that already.

3. Online Play

For the love of god get a better net code. MK9 had a pretty shitty net code that made online play painfully laggy. They should follow Injustice's cue with all the Playercards, Icons, Statistics, and Daily Challenges. Stuff like that really adds to the Online so it doesn't feel so barebones.

4. Next Gen Engine

MK needs to go Next Gen and upgrade to the Unreal Engine 4. Better graphics, smoother animations, and more fluid gameplay. A definite priority.

5. Story

Make it as cinematic as MK9 and I'm on board. It doesn't take much for me to be happy in this area. As long as the presentation is great I'm fine with it.

1. I HATE DLC, since it is decided before hand. Why not just include those characters and skins in from the start? Push back a release date and release a FULL game. But no, it won't happen that way. The same thing that happened before will come to pass again; they'll make & release the game, then the DLC, then the "komplete" edition (only to be usurped by the Vita port that'll be completely complete). It's crass and it's bullshitty consumerist tactics at large.

2. Storytelling: While the storytelling method in MKvsDC, MK9 and Injustice is superb, the sequential chapter per character has drawbacks. Most notably not every character gets a chapter, and some are reduced to punching bags. Cinematically there's no fault whatsoever and the mini-battle parts in Injustice really did work. Maybe Test your skills would be a great inclusion here, since seperated from the battles they lack replay value.

3. Character roster: This links into the story, because that depends on who gets included. However it needs to reflect the characters still around, and the ones who would have been around at the time of Shinnok's invasion from original canon. Mainly though, I want as many characters as is feasibly possible.

4. Special moves/Fatalities: Some of these definitely need an overhaul, while others require only minor tweaks. Character powers (like in Injustice) would be nice, Super-brutal-X-ray style moves are also great but require balance, keep transitions and interactibles in but with MUCH less damage, and as unpopular as this might be, weapons for all. Since it's a re-invented MK4 it would make sense.

5. Playing field: Since it will be heading into the remake of the 3D era, i believe the playing field should be 3D. MKvsDC control style. The 2D plane was nice to revisit, but it risks being overdone. Especially when considering all the OTHER fighting franchises that utilize a 2D plane.

(6. - This is in brackets because it goes without saying) Graphics. It's obvious the graphics will be top-notch, but i'd be happy with the same quality as the current games (but perhaps an improvement to hair movement mechanics wouldn't go amiss).

MK should stay 2D. That's where it does it's best. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. There's a reason lots of fighters are 2D, because it works. MK is not a good 3D fighter. We do not need to reinvent the wheel here.

NRS need to work on the fatalities to make them OMG! or WTF?! awesome.

The timeline will be from MK4-MKD along with the "survivors" from MK9. Some on the main roster and some as DLC.

Make everything 2D!

Have the game on both engines. Not everyone will have a PS4 or other next-gen system.

I hope MK never goes back to 3D. Ed trying to make a Tekken/Soul Calibur clone is the reason most of the DA/Deception cast had shitty, boring moves.
Also, I hate when companies start on the DLC before the game's even out. Properly executed DLC does what Expansion Packs used to do for PC games in the old days, add more content to something that's already out to revive it, not cut parts of the base game off so they can be sold as "extras" to scam people.

Ugh, this.

1. Story.
Make it interesting, with a lot of interactions between characters, fighting sequences in cutscenes and make logical transition between chapters more smooth. There were problems with it in MK9. And of course less of the wall decisions.

2. Gameplay.
Keep it as good as the past game. As much as I am fan of the MKDA I want new MK to be succesfull and MK9 worked just right. Of couse there should be changes here and there, but nothing radical.

3. Online.
Make it better.

4. DLC.
All DLC should not be present on disk. And of course, no permanent exclusive DLCs for different consoles and the like. Though, sooner or later there definitely will be "Komplete Edition" or something like that.

5. Fatalities.
I don't understand what kind of problems some people can have with cruelty of the Fatalities in MK9. They were gory and bloody and much better, than they were in the PS2 trilogy. And saying that finishers were better in 2D games...hah. Anyway. I hope NRS will bring more different Fatalities, please. Most of the finishers in MK9 weere about cutting someone in several pieces and was very boring and repetitve.


Those "properly executed DLCs" were product of their time, because there was no way to patch the game with new content with low speed internet connection or lack of thereof. And I agree about everything else - no "on disk DLCs" and no cutting content from the game just to sell it later.

1. Human Sub

2. Story (mode)... Not only step up the game with the story but also makes the villians more than being just punching bags and give them a own story mode

3. Outfits... Really some outits were just ugly

4. Animation... Some animation still looked very stiff

5. New hidden stuff.

I'll break this down the best I can.

1. Gameplay

There's a lot that can be said here. For one thing, NRS should mainly stick to the 2D playing field, at least for the main fighting games. I would like to see a Shaolin Monks-style game for some kind of spin-off, but for the main games, I'm content with the more side-scrolling style of gameplay.

I'm glad that NRS has put a lot of focus on gameplay since MK9, and I think they've made improvements when making Injustice. They should keep character traits and 4 bars of super meter like in Injustice. It would be great if they could lengthen the shelf-life of their games through patches. If NRS is going to continue with having "complete editions" of their games, they should be released much later and come with an overhaul of changes, especially in terms of character balance.

I can imagine that balancing out characters is tough, but it's something that should be tweaked as more things are discovered after the game's release. This still seems to be a problem in their games, and it'd be nice if it can be fixed. A big factor in this issue is how the special attacks were done with certain characters.

For example, Jade's projectiles had a slow start-up, so she's not great at zoning. Sub-Zero has some good tools, but he feels really limited, because his ground ice (and ex version) are very risky, and his Ice Statue (ex Ice Clone) is practically useless. If real functions were given to all of the moves, it would

Another issue that can be addressed is the overall design leading to a bit of a lack of fluidity in how the game feels. This was definitely a huge problem in the 3D MK games, and I still get that feeling in the newer games, not as much in Injustice but definitely a bit more so in MK9. I've been playing some of the 6-button fighters here and there, and they just feel more fluid and responsive.

When I played around with MK9's practice mode, I noticed some very strange things about move properties, mainly with the hit heights of attacks. NRS did improve with Injustice by going more in the 6-button fighter route.

But speaking mainly of MK9, there were a lot of attacks that are classified as hitting "high" when they actually hit crouching opponents, especially up close. Great examples would be Kung Lao's Hat Throw and Sheeva's fireball, both of which actually hit ex_mid (mid attacks that can be stand blocked AND crouch blocked).

In my opinion, NRS should take a page off of Virtua Fighter 5 by classifying attacks as being high, mid, low, ex_high, ex_mid, and ex_low to make things a bit less confusing but to also mix up the variety of attacks a character can have. This also gets into stuff about mix-ups. The 3D MK games had characters who, for example, did not have any reliable (or just any) mid-hitting attacks, degenerating into a high/low game that really messes them up. Things like that should never happen.

2. Characters and Story

I'm grouping these two together, because they go hand-in-hand. I've been a fan of the mythology for a very long time, and I'm still a fan despite my issues with how things are being done these days. Like I've said before, the storytelling needs to be done in a different way. What I mean is, I'd like to see the story NOT being revolved around an Idiot Plot. It doesn't help that two games have done with this with Raiden as the protagonist of the story, because Raiden is a character I like.

This series has been around for so long, and it has an air about it that allows for the possibility of multiple interpretations. There actually is a lot of content to draw from in order to tell a damn good story. It just seems as if the mentality behind the storytelling is what is messing things up. I don't like to see too much emphasis on "Forces of Light vs. Forces of Darkness", which is really just "Team Good" vs. "Team Evil". That's what the last two MK games felt like instead of having more of those shades of grey and telling the story in more of an ensemble format.

Also, the way characters are portrayed is a mixed bag. Some were done well, others, not so much...I think it really comes down to really knowing the established mythology, knowing the characters, and really making use of them by taking the next logical step. Exploring the individual characters would be nice. There's just so much that can be done with the mythology and its characters if it was properly planned out.

3. Music

I wasn't really impressed with how the music was done in MK9 and even less so in Injustice. I look back to the older games, even ones like Shaolin Monks and MK: Deception, and there are some good, memorable themes. I felt that especially in MK: Deception, there was a sense of innovation and experimentation that brought that nice ambiance to the game. In MK9 and Injustice, most of the tracks feel underwhelming, especially the fatality music. Also, that Rooftop theme is just plain annoying.

I honestly feel that NRS should take some notes from Mick Gordon, the composer for the new Killer Instinct tracks. There's something that really stands out with those tracks compared to the stuff in the last two Netherrealm games. Hell, even MK vs. DC had some pretty good tracks. I don't know if it's a Midway vs. NRS thing, but I definitely feel the music has been lacking.

4. Fatalities (And overall finishers)

The Fatalities have been a mixed bag. A number of them are kind of repetitive and don't feel creative. I wished that the fatalities had more of a psychological touch where the victim's pain is really emphasized, especially with good screaming. There's a certain lack of brutality in these fatalities that gives a sense of cheesiness and hokeyness (sp?) that makes things a little underwhelming when we should instead cringe in that uneasy way.

I noticed that they're trying to go for more of a cinematic touch. That can be great if done well. I'm actually for that. It doesn't help if a few of the fatalities start off with this awkward looking push to make the opponent face the character you're using before the fatality is enacted. I wish I had a better way of putting it.

Also, I wouldn't mind seeing the return of Brutalities and maybe even Friendships. To hell with Babalities though.

5. Online play

Yeah, I could have grouped this with the gameplay talk, but this is more of its own thing while the other stuff is largely about mechanics. I'm not really one to play games online, but having a good netcode and overall good online experience will help with keeping the game alive. It would be nice to have a system for punishing rage-quitters

What would be sweet, is if every character had their own storymode. I know it would be a lot of work for NRS, but it could make the game better overall. In MK9, replaying storymode is boring after you play it once. There is no change. Seeing the story from each characters point of view and different outcomes would be great, considering the storymode and character endings are always non-canon.
Just a thought of what they could do.

Gameplay and competitive play is the most important to me. Don't go back to 3D (although i doubt they'll be going back to 3D considering MK9 soldmore than any 3D MK game) and they NEED to keep tourney players and all that around, they truly are loyal and will give the game more life, the fact that MK9 was noob friendly + competitive at the same time played big part in MK9 success.

Characters + Stroyline + Game Modes come next.

Yes, I agree. That would be a great way of exploring the different characters, including the villains. Also, it would be nice if the endings were canon and actually built up to events for the next game's story.

This was more or less my point, i apologise if i didn't word it well.



Like in MKDA konquest mode? Sort of a how-to guide to using the character and getting oodles of backstory and character development. I am DEFINITELY in flavour of that.

What I envision is a mixture of elements from the three Konquest modes with some influences from MK: Shaolin Monks. It should explore each character's stories, motivations, etc. but also be dynamic. I would love to see the sort of stuff that Tobal 2 did. If only there were an English version of the game that I could get my hands on. I would love to play that game after watching a few videos of it. Like I said before, there is so much potential for MK's mythology and its characters.

In terms of teaching players how to use each character, it would be better to save that for a tutorial mode, but then again, it helps to get a bit of an idea of each character's gameplay style. So for example, with Sub-Zero, he's more of that "lockdown" style of play where he's setting up traps with his Ice Clone. Of course, it would be nice to have the characters' movesets designed in a way that gives players a bit more leeway into playing them in different styles despite having certain focuses.

1. Minor Issues in Animation - As an animator myself, I know how frustrating it can be to look at something and thinking that it could look a whole lot better. I would definitely like to see Netherrealm Studios make character clothing not look weird.

Example:

When you beat your opponent for a second time with Sindel and you don't finish with a fatality, she'll spin into the air and float there. But the loincloth in the back will come sticking out around her legs and just stay there. It doesn't move, it's just there. Clothes don't act like that.

That's the kind of minor issues I would like to see get fixed for the next game.

2. Move Sets - Since a lot of people are trying to figure out what characters should make it into the next game, a lot of people don't want certain characters to be in the game due to conflicting movesets.

Example:

Frost and Sub-Zero. Who says that you can't have two fighters that wields ice and play completely different from each other? Male and females have always been like that, they play completely different from each other. You give Sub-Zero the stronger/slower set of moves and you give Frost a weaker/faster set of moves mainly because Sub-Zero has a better handling of his powers and Frost, seeing how she is/was a student, wouldn't have that much of a handling over hers.

You can have two characters that possess the same powers and they CAN play completely different from each other.

3. The Fans - This is mostly aimed at the fans more so than anything. I would like for them to realize that not everything is going to be perfect. I really don't want to see another thread that HAS to be made mainly for complaints because there's so many problems that are so silly to get upset over. I understand that there are some complaints that are going to be made whether it's they don't like the story or they don't like how certain things move in the game. But to make a thread based upon the appearances of characters and saying that Netherrealm Studios makes a mockery about the US military because they dress Sonya in a disgusting manner (Maybe not on here, but I saw this on a different fan site) then that's just taking things way too far.

4. Physics - Can we kinda start seeing some things that actually makes sense as to how they are? I find it laughable that Sub-Zero has the magic ability to freeze his opponents in mid air and they stay there. Can we... kinda actually make things make sense? Just in those cases?

5. End Boss - Can we not have a cheesy boss like Kahn? I get why they made him like that but honestly... that was annoying, it didn't remind me of the old times, I like to be more intimidated than frustrated.

I agree 100% with your post, especially this pont. It's stupid, and Cage's Head/Torso Rip + Sonya's Leg Split fatalites fall into this category as well. I really loved MK2011 and these are just minor details, but need to be improved on after everything elseis done so we can get a perfect game.

I don' t think that they will remove it - from gameplay standpoint it will make freeze special obsolete in many situations. It will harm gameplay and therefore removing it will be a bad idea.


Kahn was one of the easiest bosses in the series. I have more problems defeating Shang and Quan in MKDA rather than Kahn and shokans in MK9.
Those three are absolutely scripted and predictable to a "T" even on Very Hard. Observe them and you'll see how many holes in their tactic they have. It's especially goes for Kintaro and Goro.
I am on, contrary, all for making bosses a bit harder and less predictable. Kahn was created in image of typical boss of the 90s - powerfull, but extremely stupid and scripted. I think new MK needs a new generations of bosses, that will have fight like as if they were played by human opponent.

No duh they were predictable, and that's the frustrating part about them.

What, you thought I had a problem fighting them or something?

The boss battle against Shao Kahn in MK9 was atrocious. It really comes down to using spammable zoning tools, which characters like Noob Saibot are great at. I want to be challenged, not frustrated. I hate performing a combo on Shao Kahn only for his armor to come on and interrupt my combo before countering with a normal attack that leaves me in a big hit stun. That's just bullshit.

Yes. Exactly right.

My hope for MK10, is that Shinnok as a boss will play like a character not a boss. Shang Tsung in MK9 was by the far the toughest boss. Know why? Because he WASN'T a big, hulking brute. He was smarter, had mix-ups, zoning mind games, and a double damage if he got the Soul Steal. He was how a boss should be, challenging and fair. Not braindead easy like Khan, Goro, and Kintaro.