MKX roster vs. 3D era MK games (positivity thread)

goro15

New member
Move to this general discussion if you like, I just wanted to point out something and see how people feel about the following:
MK games and all fighting games for that matter, have had a lot of great fighters you immediately and repeatedly played with and fighters that you just didn't play with or rarely used for various reasons: fit, look, gameplay etc.

For me, the 2D era is just too far back and so different from the game standards today that you cannot really compare today's game to those. 10-12 characters with 6-8 arenas was fine back then, but if we go into that now, people's views might have changed because of what they know now. That's what I will start with the new era, the 3D era in MK4 which does not only makes sense because of the new generation, it also was the 1st after trilogy just like MKX is to MK9. They went in a new direction and so forth.

Some new characters entered the fray: Shinnok, Quan Chi, Tanya, Kai, Jarek, Reiko & Fujin. That is 7 new and 8 old ones out of the 15 characters. I am sure I played most of the old, but also plenty most of the new ones. The game was basic, designs were not over the top, but the new style of gameplay and typical MK feeling was just spot on (something that got last after MK2). Still, there were some old and new I never played with, but the feeling and gameplay was great. In hindsight, the game left out some classics that made MK: Gold which I would've liked seen in MK4 but still, MK4 is right up there in best MK games and it seemed a lot of fans on here and other fora liked and still love it actually.

Then comes DA, which they did try to make great and new in terms of gameplay, but just didn't have that MK feeling for me. Mostly because of 3D which was not like it was in MK4, but also because some of the old characters just looked like their worst (Reptile, Raiden, Johnny Cage & Jax), just had way too much going on. There were 21 characters: 13 old, 8 new where a few of them played great and had potential. Some classics, besides an uglier look, did not have that many great moves and some new fighters were downright awful. Regardless of all of that, I enjoyed it because it was MK, it was exciting and innovating and had some good characters. Of the whole roster, I think I did not even use 10 out of the 21 on a regular basis (not counting Blaze & Mokap).

Deception, now there was a title I was very excited about because of the return of my favourite Baraka. 24 characters , again 8 new ones and some bold moves with dark Raiden, zombie Liu Kang, Noob/Smoke and also looks wise with shredder Sub and mummified Ermac. I have to say while it had potential, this game failed miserably, especially the new comers. I did not use a single one of them! I tried to give Hotaru and Havik a shot, but just played awful. In fact, not a lot of characters were that great, even Baraka was kind of a dud for me. The potential was there, just never materialised. Many looks were just too much for me, had so much going on that it distracted from gameplay. I only really played with 6-8 regular ones, even less than in DA despite a bigger roster. Still enjoyed the game because of the old classics, despite their gameplay and or look. Just having a few to play with was enough for me I guess :)

As you can see, while the roster got bigger, the MK feeling, character looks (make overs) and gameplay imo suffered heavily! Percentage and actual numbers wise, I started using less characters with each game since MK4. I'm not sure how others feel, but for me DA & Deception were nothing special, despite my enjoyment of playing them. 3D just never fully worked out and the game as a whole for me, just became like any other fighting game. Nostalgia brought me back to each game, not the game itself.

Now let's shift to MKX, which is totally going to revitalise the franchise, though I give credit to MK9 for laying the foundation. That game was just awesome in a lot of ways, the introduction of X-ray moves, back to 2D and bringing back the classics. To me, gameplay with the variations, next-gen graphics and the amount of detail in arenas and fatalities + the gore & dumbing down on blood splashing all over the place makes this already a classic. Bringing back brutalities in a cool way, some awesome new and old modes and of course the movie like story mode and you have all you can ask for.

That being said, this is more so about the roster, which stands at 25 characters, of which again 8 new. They brought back 17 old ones, though Shinnok kind of feels new as Armageddon was such a flop that I feel he's only been in MK4 + Goro has never been playable in a main game like this so that is 15 MK9 characters. Given NRS track record since MK4, bringing in 7/8 new ones has always the case, regardless of actual roster number. That was to be expected, though Ed Boon made it sound like it could maybe 9-10, but that's nitpicking. The amount of old or the whole roster in general should not be an issue, especially because it is almost the same amount as MK9 (Boon's exact words) which was a totally different game where they brought back all the classics.

There's been a lot of discussion about the dead needing to stay dead, why so many family members / special forces etc. I participated in it and while I still think there's too many of the main protagonists coming back, I feel it should not be an issue. If you look at DA & Deception, so many characters that I didn't use or even want to try out, while still enjoying the game, how do I even dare to about the roster of MKX? For me it helped to look back and see that the roster is actually not the most important and even if there's only 8 fighters I frequently use, it doesn't matter. This game is going to be off the hook regardless and I highly doubt I will only use 8.

Maybe this little story can help people get past the family members, slightly skewed presence of protagonists or whatever your reason is to feel the roster is underwhelming. I'm not implying you guys in general feel that way, I've actually seen many very happy with it and with the variations feel that almost every fighter is worth checking out. I feel the same way, I just get emotional and irrational when I see a bland Sonya in the stream and think of the potential a Baraka, Fujin or Havik has and get caught up in that. Now I've calmed down, tried to look at it rationally and feel this is the most excited I've felt about an MK game since MK4.

NRS has done a wonderful job with 90% of the returnees as far as look is concerned, many have the best look they've ever had. No more commando Jax with tons of weapons on his back or Raiden with a huge cape, weird looking hat and all of this nonsense going on in his costume. There's a good chance I might leave a lot of the old ones alone, but who cares. I felt that with every main MK game's roster, except for MK2 & MK4 for me, not even half of it was good.

I've not even played the game but I can guarantee you that everybody will have fun with more than half of the roster. For me, that has been a long time coming so MKX is just going to rock. With the DLC people can add, you can have a roster of 29 with 2 more returnees of which at least 1 everybody will be happy with, for sure! The only thing I maybe fear is that with the futuristic look of some new ones, bringing in a cowboy and what not, this game might be too story focused and the classic MK feel will be less, but looking at the arenas and everything else, I don't think that's the case.

For me, this is the feeling of MK4 coming out after Trilogy all over again and back then I was so excited, did not even know the new characters and a lot of classics did not make the cut, but it still ranks as 2nd all time behind MK2 for me :)

Thoughts? :)
 
Last edited:
Hey man that was a gd read, I do agree with most things you said.
No nonesense in MKX just straight up delivering what it needs to do! Screw batman capes and hand 2 hand fighters with bazooka's etc etc.
 
hey, whats up

obviously you know where I sit on the whole subject lmao

I'm pretty hype for MKX though. As much as I like Deception, I like it more in theory than in practice. I much prefer the 2D fighting in MK9 and Injustice over the old MK's, its just so much more fluid and intuitive. The real reasons why I really like MKD I think are for the lore and art (but I'm not all that nitpicky about the fighting either).
 
I have no problem with the number of new characters and the number of returning characters, I think 8 new of 25 characters is nicely balanced.

However, that there's only 4 3D era characters (Shinnok, Quan Chi, Kenshi and Tanya) out of the returning characters is kinda disappointing to me. Now that Tanya is in as DLC, there's still 26 characters who debuted in MK4-MKA who aren't in MKX, but instead most of the roster are MK1-MK3 characters.

Hopefully more DLC character packs will be made with characters from the 3D era.
 
Top