I was just getting ready to post something very similar. Many of the 3d characters had moves that could have just been given to one of the 2d characters who had the same powers.

I love some of the 3d characters and I had a lot of fun with mk6 and 7 save for the stupid forced practice mode in 6. But I can understand some of the disregard for many of the 3d characters. So many of the 3d characters just seem...there. It's not about hating 3d by default. Havik, Tanya, and Fujin seem well recieved by the fan base. Just like Erron and Cassie was recieved well. A month or two ago everyone was creaming their pants over Kotal, and that's because he was being developed so well storywise. While people have become quiet about him, the effect still lingers.

I think that's why Jackie gets a lot of hate. So far she just seems like a tag along with another military design imo, nrs hasn't really given any kind of special focus or given us any real reason to like her.

It's all about the development, story, and design. The 2d characters were first, so naturally they get the most attention by fans and developers, resulting in more fleshed out designs and better stories.

I think it's also important to keep in mind that not all trilogy kharacters are that beloved to the same extent as their fellow 2d friends for the same reason that people didn't like some 3d kharacters. How often do you see Jax and Reptile fans? They are there, but not to the same extent as somebody like Kitana or Ermac. Some people argue that Reptile's design and story during the 3d era just seemed like something of an after thought, while Jax just seemed like another tag along. Even Kano's fanbase doesn't seem that strong and he was in the very first mk game.

That's why I hate it when people say, it's just nostalgia. I think it's a factor with a lot of people, but it takes more than that.

One more thing, if you want to see some 3d hate, go to the mkx gamefaqs forums.

You fans are the majority of the ones who bitched and complained about the 3D era characters minus a few. And now you guys miss them? I don't get it.

The thing is, many MK fans seem to agree on which 3D-era characters sucked and which didn't. Like, damn near everybody loves Kenshi. Bo' Rai Cho is, at worst, considered a fun idea done wrong thanks to all the puking. On the other hand, you'd be hard-pressed to find Taven/Daegon fanboys. It's not even about nostalgia. Some characters in the 3D era just weren't designed well.
Kobra? Introduced in Mortal Kombat 2? I doubt it'd change much.

He was compared to Ken Masters in 2004, so imagine what it'd be like in 1992-93 when arcades were still running strong and Street Fighter was Mortal Kombat's opposite number. I can almost hear gamers and reviewers everywhere saying "Wow, what a ripoff."

The only way I could see him working out is if he absolutely sucked in-game (a la Dan Hibiki) as a diss towards the SF franchise. So he'd have to be retooled.

I disagree, i genuinely believe Li Mei was one of the characters they handled the best during the Ps2 days. She actually got character development, she really wasn't lacking in the storyline department, what happened to her during MKDA was a set up for her role in Deception, which made her a lot more interesting. Gameplay wise, she was the character with the biggest amount of moves in MKDA, her moveset was generic, but at least it was cohesive which couldn't be said about most other characters, and her moves being generic and not memorable enough can be blamed on the team and the 3D plane which messed up a lot of classic characters' movesets. What hurts her is that nothing about her desing stands out, and on top of that they gave her some slutty costumes which made her a joke. But i feel like NRS really put some effort into Li Mei.

Jade was originally like kitana yet she is liked.

Ermac's fanbase isn't anywhere near as big as Reptile's though.

Is it not? I feel like I see way more Ermac love than Reptile, perhaps that's just my experience, but my point was that not everyone loves 2d characters simply for being 2d characters.

lol Ermac has a huge fanbase. Come talk to me when Reptile wins a voting tournament.

Lol at you believing an online voting competition means shit. There's a reason why companies don't listen to online petitions and shit like that anymore, like "add x character to the game" since although they get thousands of signatures, the character ends up with no players. The internet base is a very vocal minority.

Come talk to me when Ermac's reveal is a worldwide trend on Twitter.

Both Reptile and Ermac are valued MK vets to play a fair devil's advocate.

God, yes. It's as if they're paid by the pound for their invective towards them.

(grr, double post)

The reason people like the new generation over the 3D era characters could simply be because their concepts were sold better, thanks to the new engine, thanks to the resources and money NRS has, thanks to the time they are able to put into each character.

I think that being to step from MK and visit a different franchise like the DC universe kind of revitalized the guys over at NRS.

The question I have for the fans is, what do you want them to do with the 3D era characters (counting MK4 and Mythologies in here)? The way NRS does story in their games now, certainly opens up the gates for having more characters in the game than ever before without them being on the roster but still appear relevant and important.

MK has a 70+ characters now, so what do you want out of the 3D characters that would be a reasonable compromise.

Realistically speaking for me, I wouldn't mind seeing maybe 2 to 4 on the roster with others appearing in story as NPCs just to see that they are still around and are relevant and have something to do. I think that's the best NRS can offer with such a bloated back roster.

This is how i veiw the 3D characters

The coolest looking ones

Hotaru
Havik
Mavado
Kenshi
Frost
Li Mei


The best storylines
Kenshi
Quan Chi
Shinnok
Fujin
Li Mei
Bo'Rai'Cho
Reiko

Awful all around

Kobra
Diarou
Darrius
Hsu Hao
Kira
Ashura
Drahmin

Obviously we would like for them to make the more popular ones. The ones people feel have potential to be better and have them shine.

Why does everyone seem to prefer the new characters in this game to new characters in previous games?

I agree with SmokeNc-017 too.

- They have a better writing team now or, the team of writers they had, is more efficient (either way). It allows them to create these characters on more solid, logical foundations from which these characters can perform sensibly, and be presented better to the public. We didn't have that as a focus in the earlier games, and was a part of the big gripe of old, I'm happy to finally be able to say. Mortal Kombat largely capitalized on lure in the beginning. Right now, things are better structured... and you can tell right away.

- Because there's better writing going on now, they can also market the characters better, and can meet the demand for a character with more than enough substantive content now. Again, in the old way, there was mainly alot of lure to a character, and that was it. Now, the "hook" into a character (and the game overall) is being met with information relative to that character alot better. I 'm happy about it.

My only ich right now is that as of late, Mortal Kombat has begun to feel alot more like a "robotic vaccum" sort of a product, by which "there's always something more to buy." Rather than it being a "tantalizing steak and potatoes" kind of product. The way they're pumping out the content makes it seem like a pressured "either you're in or you're out" buying experience, rather than like it used to be, which was more like a suggestive proposal "hey, you should buy this."

This is due to how they market the characters and the game as a whole. I feel like it's not totally bad right now, but if they keep doing it, fans will catch on and the effects will show up in the sales numbers later. Worst thing to have happen is that after all this time, they get with WB's might and muscle, and they screw it up trying to juice the cash cow too much. lol

- So now, the old characters kind of have to be figured back into the equation. Broken down, and built back up. And I think it's going to take them yet another game or two to work out what's existing. Right now it's alright because alot of the characters are pretty much dead. That's giving them alot of leverage to pick and chose who comes back , when, and how.

Some of the nuances aren't so nuanced if you're perceptive like I am, and have the opportunity to leave a real bad taste in your mouth about certain choices. To take Raiden (since that's my favorite character) and how they've chosen to dismiss a few of the elements and other characters from the MK4 story, I don't like it. I appreciate the structure, but I don't like how they've made Raiden seem weaker in story, while ramping up all the visuals. Similarly, but on the other end of that spectrum, I like how they've begun to focus back on the humans, but don't like how the fantasy element suffers a tad in doing so. So, it's a toss up, and at the end of the day, it still looks good...so as a fan I'll still play it.

New, better resources such as simple story-telling structure allow them to have some rules to base alot of the action on. This simplistic separation is what's contributing to the new fandoms of the new games, and characters.

Took that troll bait hook, line, and sinker.

Your original statement is still nonsensical, as Ermac's fanbase is comparable to Reptile's.

How are you even a mod? If you're going to just troll bait people?

I'm not. I haven't been a mod for 3 1/2 years. Some people are just too easy, and it is April Fool's, after all.

Because a lot of them sucked.

Jarek and Kira were both Kano clones. There is literally no reason for either to reappear.

Hsu Hao was an Asian guy with a Simpsons skin tone and dressed like a gay stereotype. His design is just plain offensive in more ways than one.

Kai was a Liu Kang clone with nothing special about him.

Meat and Mokap were joke fighters.

Drahmin lacked both personality and any type of combos.

Moloch was unbearably cheap.

Blaze was just a generic fire guy.

Kobra redefined the word generic. He literally had nothing interesting about his appearance or backstory.

Shujinko was such an idiot and a hero in name only.

Keep in mind that the Seidans (Darrius, Dairou and Hotaru) are redeemable in my eyes. There was nothing wrong with those characters but they were a distraction to the main story in Deception. I'd like to see them in MK11 provided that Seido is a core part of the main plot. I also feel like Kai and Kobra can be redeemed if NRS decided to put more work into them to make them cooler.

I don't think these characters should mess up the rep of the actually ok people from the 3d era.

It's not anywhere near close, but you can keep believing that lol

I forgot Mavado who'd need a rework to fit into a 2D game. Plus we'd need to see the Black Dragon/Red Dragon rivalry show up when it never got much attention in the Deadly Alliance story. Same goes for Daegon. The Red Dragon just took away from what made the Black Dragon special.

Taven was a flat character. His whole story is only trying to stop the end of the world which occurs the second he awakens. He's redeemable but the whole end of the world plot will need to be scrapped and he'd need to be developed as a character for me to care. For a starring protagonist he had no personality so I simply couldn't care about him.

For the record, I liked Tanya, Shinnok, Quan Chi, Fujin, Li Mei, Nitara, Kenshi, Bo Rai Cho, Frost, Ashrah and Havik.

Again, with a significant rework, most of my disliked characters can be redeemed. Nightwolf managed to be improved in Deception. Stryker was improved in MK9. Hsu Hao and Mokap probably can't be improved but the rest all can.

I was watching a video earlier that mentioned how capitalism is ruining mainstream games, and even if I don't agree completely, I did make me reflect on how pressured and limited by the publisher NRS must be in certain aspects. I mean, sure, they have more resources than ever, but that entails there's also more responsibility not to waste significant parts of the budget on risky decisions, like less popular characters for example. And I'm not even sure they feel comfortable with some of these business practices.

Which is understandable but I think they went a little too far with the safe approach, the popularity criteria is too obvious, less played MK9 characters were out from the start, even the DLC prioritized guests.

The problem is that the omissions for many expected characters are getting too noticeable. Fujin in the story mode is a good example, there was absolutely no reason not to make him playable.

Guys, nobody is saying the 3D had amazing characters, but we all know there are at least 3-5 decent characters in the 3D era most fans can agree on. Why aren't any of them returning as playable in the main roster after more than a decade?

If it's for story needs, we have a lot of missing ones, we don't even have a lot of decent villains just some good guys with evil skins.