Will the next Mortal Kombat suck? - Shoutbox Sunday
Feb 17th, 2008 by Kali
Ed Boon has this to say about the next installment of Mortal Kombat:
The only thing I can say at the moment is we are going to do a reset, we’re going to throw everything from the previous Mortal Kombats, we’re going to start from scratch and try to introduce as many new characters as possible, new features, new stuff like that and take advantage of the amazing presentation, graphics that all of a sudden you can do, things that are a lot more real. 1
There are several things in this small quote that I have serious issues with. First off, the plot is something that is very important to Mortal Kombat fans, maybe they should rethink having a cast mostly full of new characters. Secondly, the fighting system in the last few installments has been seriously broken; before they add new features, they should fix the old ones. And finally, would this amazing presentation mean that us Wii-tards won’t get a port?
We have had a few decent new characters in Mortal Kombat Deadly Alliance and Mortal Kombat Deception, but the overwhelming portion of them have been utter crap. Dairou, Darrius, Kira, Kobra, Ashrah, Nitara… even my beloved Frost wasn’t exactly a new concept. Half these new character’s storylines end up unfinished and uninteresting. Nitara and Frost were serious victims of this, as were Hotaru and Fujin. A lot of fans would like some closure (and perhaps the rest of the Armageddon bios) before we’re force fed new characters that we’re predisposed not to like.
Hopefully, we’ll end up with a good mix of old and new. The MK team wouldn’t be stupid enough to totally get rid of the classics like Sub-Zero and Scorpion, as the fans would riot. Hopefully fan pressure can keep the team sane and have them create a compromise rather than “a complete reset.”
Also, I’m sure I’m not the only fan who would like to be reassured that the new fighting system is nearly perfect before the team starts worrying about mini-games no one will play and gameplay gimmicks. Destructable environments are fun, but they can’t make up for awful air combat.
Finally, I couldn’t care less about graphics. I know this probably marks me as an old-school gamer, but I’m just as happy playing a game with amazing gameplay and mediocre graphics. I’ll take an intriguing storyline with intuitive controls over pretty graphics any day. I’m not saying I want to go back the Mortal Kombat I style graphics, but I’d rather have function over style, especially if it means the difference between the game can be ported.
I’m sure I’m not the only idiot with an opinion on the matter, so feel free to tell me your hopes or fears for what could be the last game of the Mortal Kombat franchaise.
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I know I’m a weird person, and I’m not oblivious to the fact that I am practically the only person screaming full support for the clean slate, but there’s a good reason why I trust Midway in the face of so much change.
I know I change my mind. When MK3 came out, I wasn’t having conniptions about my favorite character, Scorpion, not there. I was psyched about finally having a playable Shokan, and a little confused about why robots were suddenly in the game. Midway essentially did three things: something I didn’t want, something I did want, and something I never expected and felt very neutral about.
I used to really hate the likes of Kabal, Nightwolf, and Stryker. But what’s the harm in having someone you hate available to kill? It’s not like I was ever forced to play as those guys.
The one thing - the ONE thing I love about fighting games is the variety of characters that you can choose from. I don’t like the actual fighting. I don’t like multiplayer games period. But Mortal Kombat was able to win me over in spite of those things.
I’ve learned that characters I really like in one game lose my interest in the sequels. And I’ve learned that characters that really peeve me can actually grow on me down the line. So I’ve stopped basing my opinion of the games on the roster. Give me one character that I can love, and we’re good.
I really wish other people felt the same, but to each their own.
To me, with a clean slate, it’s not Mortal Kombat. It’s another fighting game that’s trying to make money off of an established name.
The story is what’s important to me. I don’t mind new characters (obviously, or I wouldn’t like Frost) but you have to finish the story you start. The new characters from Deadly Alliance and Deception just got left in the dust story wise and now we’re going to get a new batch that will be introduced and forgotten about.
If they wanted to dump the roster, they should have given all “true” endings in Armageddon and give us some closure. Then, I probably would be happier about having few to no returning characters.