Being a diehard fan is somewhat of a double edged sword. For one thing, anything new will never measure up to the rosey memories of the past. All I can think about with MK1 and 2 now is how much fun they were to play in the arcades and how many hours of my young life was spent kickin the crap out of my buddies at MK on home consoles.
MK:DA was a huge disappointment to me. For all of the great ideas they had, none of them seemed to be executed with the polish and overall enjoyment factor of the other, more modern fighters on the market at the time.
But even now, I look back to MK:DA and think that the arenas were really cool, the new characters were interesting and the story telling, while still relying on the lame pictures for the endings, seemed to be better and done with more care than in the past (that's probably my imagination). It felt like next gen MK.
But I don't know if I'll ever like MK vs DC. Yeah, the fighting system is decent, but it's not MK. It's just not. Slapping a T rating on, with lame fatalities, DC characters taking up half the roster, and one of the most godawful stories I've EVER seen in a video game...
Who knows though, like I said, as a fan, I'm almost always let down by what the series churns out initially.
I wonder things like:
"Why did they bring back THAT character back instead of that other character?"
"Why didn't they make the story deeper?"
"Ugh, these new characters are bland and boring."
"What's up with the combo system?"
"Why oh why do they keep putting these stupid, pointless minigames in my fighting game??"
Okay, so some gripes are legitimate from game to game. I still think that the folks at Midway REALLY need to step things up in the animation department, the fighting engine and the creativity when it comes to new characters, storytelling and the fatalities.
I still think that the MK team needs to concentrate on making more fun fighting modes or modes that relate to fighting (ie kreate a kharacter, kreate a tournament, etc) as opposed to the terrible idea of trying to make a one size fits all MK game that even fighting fans would like.
Sorry, but people that don't play fighting games aren't going to be drawn to a fighting game because of a lame tacked on mode like motor kombat. No, they'll just go play mario kart.
And there I go illustrating my own point. As a fan, it's easy to pick a game apart and dissect it to find every little flaw, mostly because as fans, we take the time to do that because we're enthusiastic about the brand or series or whatever.
Will I be disappointed in the next MK game? I'd be shocked, absolutely floored if Midway was capable of meeting half of my expectations much less my highest hopes for what I think a perfect MK game could or should be.
I try not to raise my expectations, like alot of people on this board, but eventually, as an MK games release draws nearer, I can't help but hope that the next one will be the best one. The one that fixes all of the past mistakes, tells a fantastic story, has outstanding gameplay and an overall experience that trumps my memories of the early days.
Yeah, probably won't happen. But what the heck, I'm a fan, so I guess it comes with the territory. As for the idea of a reboot of the series. Can Midway afford to take that chance right now? I'd have no problem with it so long as they can really flex their creative muscles and put together something special. I don't have much faith in that after MK vs DC, but we'll see.
