Mortal Kombat 1 General Discussion Media Thread

Other FGs don't have much of a story lol.
You must be joking...

Street Fighter aside its bare minimum storytelling in the first games, has official comics running since 2003. Published by UDON. They are canon to the story. Hell all arcade endings in Street Fighter have been canon to their characters stories.
Tekken 1-8 Mishima saga of Vengeance and Devil Power.
Guilty Gear has been running one continuous story since 1998
Hell, at this point even Dead or Alive's story advanced further, than MK. (DOA is also part of Ninja Gaiden world)
No matter how average/simple the stories of some of the games are (Though Tekken 8 slams M1K "story" any day/any time) they are consistent, progressed further and at this point have expanded more, than MK.
MK on other hand... they are still retelling MK1.
 
That's because Dominic can't write worth a shit.
We finally had some new stuff for characters like Goro, Sheeva, Daegon, Havik and Reiko within the MKX comics that Kittelsen was helping get new storylines out for, but asshole Dominic considers the MKX comics to all be head canon. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Meanwhile, this same shit-head makes MK1 Kuai-Liang into Scorpion, makes Tarkat into a disease-ridden race / group of beings, gives Shao Kahn a childhood disease the equivalent of leukemia via Liu Kang, makes Kung Lao and Raiden into farmers, turns Kenshi into an ex-Yakuza, makes Mileena suffer from the same "disease" as Baraka and the Tarkatans via Shang Tsung who is now an alchemist / scientist and now supposedly Takeda is a cousin. :rolleyes:
Grade-A writing right there, Dom. /s
Worst of all, this is who Boon wants to eventually give the reigns to in the future. Goodness fucking gracious.
I think anyone with reading comprehension can see that Dominic not only can't write for shit, but he is no writer at all. The fact that dude fails at the FUNDEMENTAL BASICS of writing, say everything that needs to be said. He essentially wrote a third book, which contradicted the first two books and then needed for the universe to be rebooted, cause he can't write without using previous source material. And even then how long did take to get to Armageddon event... AGAIN. We literally had this MASSIVE BATTLE in MK11, now get same shit in MK1.

Also I don't see any future for MK after this. WB is cooked as it is. The graphics arms race collapsed the industry, as it was unsustainable, now remaining companies will pivot or are already pivoting back to stylized visuals and focus on spending less money. Like Square Enix (Nintendo just sitting there laughing). And MK has no style of its own, is expensive to make and MK1 just made enough money, that they don't have to shut down NRS, but not enough money to write anything about it.

The dumbasses could have had it all with MK.

Could have made one unified world with consistent story telling. Could have moved past just fighting games. Could have invested in making adventure games like Shaolin Monks, could have made MK themed chess game, where chess pieces commit fatalities on each other. Could have made a standalone Motor Kombat kart game. Diversified the content and increased their revenue. Could have been a true titan of a franchise. But naaah. Wasted all of that, cause they believed that Brand recognition alone will make them billions.

And now we are left with a dying game, which nobody wants to play even for money (tournament scene) and a sequel movie, that has its own lore with "Arcana" and shit. Great. Just great.
 
Could have made one unified world with consistent story telling. Could have moved past just fighting games. Could have invested in making adventure games like Shaolin Monks, could have made MK themed chess game, where chess pieces commit fatalities on each other. Could have made a standalone Motor Kombat kart game. Diversified the content and increased their revenue. Could have been a true titan of a franchise. But naaah. Wasted all of that, cause they believed that Brand recognition alone will make them billions.
And it's a shame because I actually like the kameo gameplay and the fact that Kenshi, Tanya, Quan Chi, Reiko, Havik, Ashrah, Li Mei and Nitara are all in on the roster, either main or via DLC.
Roster and gameplay overall (sure some more gameplay balance is needed), cool as hell (imo).
SP modes and general content, lackluster as fuck.....It's either that OR all of the cool shit comes at a cost with the finite currency of Dragon Krystals. 🖕
 
And it's a shame because I actually like the kameo gameplay and the fact that Kenshi, Tanya, Quan Chi, Reiko, Havik, Ashrah, Li Mei and Nitara are all in on the roster, either main or via DLC.
Roster and gameplay overall (sure some more gameplay balance is needed), cool as hell (imo).
SP modes and general content, lackluster as fuck.....It's either that OR all of the cool shit comes at a cost with the finite currency of Dragon Krystals. 🖕
Well dunno what to say. On one hand, glad you enjoy the mechanic, but... (gonna sound like Tarkatan_Trash here) Kameo system makes absolutely zero sense in MK world. It was always a martial arts Tournament of 1vs1.

I mean even in MK12 "story" fight between Raiden and Shao Kahn, you can tell how awkward entire thing feels like. Shao Kahn has no Kameo, while Raiden can't use other characters, cause it would look stupid, so he has "Elemental assist"

Mechanics like this can be allocated to a tag game mode or spin off party game.

Overall entire IP has lost its identity completely. Story is just another story, vomited out by Hollywood wannabes. No unique art style, but just this idiotic pursuit of realistic visuals, which stripped MK of any recognizable look. And gameplay... that has no set foundations and isn't allowed to grow.

Only brand remains.

Sometimes I think that there is probably another universe, that has MK as this massive franchise, with unified lore, professional lore masters, while fighting game is complimented with multiple adventure games, puzzle games, party games and numerous books about key events in MK history or origin stories of MK fighters.

I get envious of that universe.
 
The whole Kameo system is just NRS chasing Marvel vs Capcom 2 mechanics but failing to realize how to implement it correctly IMO. Tag assist fighting games are obviously nothing new but outside of MK9. Where it was a casual mode. NRS has never tried to tackle this feature competitively until MK1. Again it's just typical NRS trying to solve a ''problem'' in MK that never existed in the first place. MK has always been 1 vs 1 tournament style game. Tekken Tag for example was never considered cannon to Tekken's mainline series but more of a ''What if?'' alternative universe. Injustice was supposed to fill that role for MK's alternative universe spin off but for whatever the reason NRS could never win people over like Capcom did with Marvel. I think NRS/WB have been salty about Injustice not breaking away from MK vs DC's shadow. This could explain why they keep shoehorning these mechanics into every new MK game. In a weird way it's just history repeating itself in regards to NRS chasing trends. I think we all agree this game was supposed to be Injustice 3 but it ended up being a watered down Injustice concept wearing MK's skin.
 
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You must be joking...

Street Fighter aside its bare minimum storytelling in the first games, has official comics running since 2003. Published by UDON. They are canon to the story. Hell all arcade endings in Street Fighter have been canon to their characters stories.
Tekken 1-8 Mishima saga of Vengeance and Devil Power.
Guilty Gear has been running one continuous story since 1998
Hell, at this point even Dead or Alive's story advanced further, than MK. (DOA is also part of Ninja Gaiden world)
No matter how average/simple the stories of some of the games are (Though Tekken 8 slams M1K "story" any day/any time) they are consistent, progressed further and at this point have expanded more, than MK.
MK on other hand... they are still retelling MK1.
Are they cinematic like MK?
 
Are they cinematic like MK?
No they are not cinematic like MK.

MK "story mode" is 4 hours of cutscenes with little to no interactivity from the player.

Street Fighter has short cutscenes as it focuses on.... gameplay. You know like a video game is supposed to be. Interactive media after all.

Tekken 8 is cinematography mixed with gameplay, creating jaw dropping set pieces and almost seamless transitions between cutscenes and gameplay.

So no. They aren't like MK. They are better.
 
The whole Kameo system is just NRS chasing Marvel vs Capcom 2 mechanics but failing to realize how to implement it correctly IMO. Tag assist fighting games are obviously nothing new but outside of MK9. Where it was a casual mode. NRS has never tried to tackle this feature competitively until MK1. Again it's just typical NRS trying to solve a ''problem'' in MK that never existed in the first place. MK has always been 1 vs 1 tournament style game. Tekken Tag for example was never considered cannon to Tekken's mainline series but more of a ''What if?'' alternative universe. Injustice was supposed to fill that role for MK's alternative universe spin off but for whatever the reason NRS could never win people over like Capcom did with Marvel. I think NRS/WB have been salty about Injustice not breaking away from MK vs DC's shadow. This could explain why they keep shoehorning these mechanics into every new MK game. In a weird way it's just history repeating itself in regards to NRS chasing trends. I think we all agree this game was supposed to be Injustice 3 but it ended up being a watered down Injustice concept wearing MK's skin.
The other side of that double-edged sword is that the kameo system mainly feels like NRS' / WB's lazy way of saying "_________ character is in, so shut up about it" and that part sucks.
People have been wanting Cyrax, Sektor and Sareena to be playable since MKX and what a coincidence that those are kameos.
People have also been wanting a playable Motaro and for Goro to be on the main roster.........Shut up and like it, they're in........as kameos. -__-

THAT in itself feels like shit because it's arbitrarily bringing up the roster size while technically not actually doing so.

I'll bet just about anything that NRS considers kameos like Sareena, Motaro, Goro, Stryker, Kano, Sonya, Jax, Cyrax, Sektor, Frost, Darrius and Shujinko to be characters on the launch roster so that they can pat themselves on the back and be like "See, we launched the game with 38 characters (23 main characters + 15 kameos)," when the case is that they actually launched with 23 main and 12 non-repeater variations / kameos + 3 kameos that are already roster characters.
"Hey look, we're getting an Armageddon sized roster once DLC is done."
Yeah, but plenty of those like Mavado, Ferra, Khameleon and Tremor are just fucking kameos, so that doesn't count.
They can not-so-kindly fuck off with that shit.
 
No they are not cinematic like MK.

MK "story mode" is 4 hours of cutscenes with little to no interactivity from the player.

Street Fighter has short cutscenes as it focuses on.... gameplay. You know like a video game is supposed to be. Interactive media after all.

Tekken 8 is cinematography mixed with gameplay, creating jaw dropping set pieces and almost seamless transitions between cutscenes and gameplay.

So no. They aren't like MK. They are better.
You mean their story is better not their cinematics.
 
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You mean their story is better not their cinematics.
Both. Good cinematography is as important. MK calls itself "cinematic" but aside two black bars, it as cinematic as your high school film project. It never uses interesting angles to emphasize character's when they speak or character's viewpoint, nor has any good shots, that would enhance the environment. A lot of their shots are zoomed in on the faces of the characters and they only do that to emphasize their facial animations.

And don't get me started on their boring set pieces.

MK11 Netherrealm environment legitimately made me laugh on how lazy it was. Plane cheap Cathedral asset in the middle of empty flat surface with rock texture and surrounded by generated mountain assets.

In MK1 you have to be told, that you're looking at Outworld, cause it could be easily confused with any location in Thailand.

MK doesn't have good cinematics. It did have them in MK 3D Era, or with Shaolin Monks but now it is nowhere close to the epicness that the old ones had generated.

The only thing MK can show off is facial animations, but the rest? Just cause you call your story "cinematic" doesn't mean it is actually cinematic or good.

Both MK story and cinematics are lazy, bare minimum effort, that depend on cheap theatrics, flashy FX and constant reboots with retcons on the side. That's it.
 
The other side of that double-edged sword is that the kameo system mainly feels like NRS' / WB's lazy way of saying "_________ character is in, so shut up about it" and that part sucks.
People have been wanting Cyrax, Sektor and Sareena to be playable since MKX and what a coincidence that those are kameos.
People have also been wanting a playable Motaro and for Goro to be on the main roster.........Shut up and like it, they're in........as kameos. -__-

THAT in itself feels like shit because it's arbitrarily bringing up the roster size while technically not actually doing so.

I'll bet just about anything that NRS considers kameos like Sareena, Motaro, Goro, Stryker, Kano, Sonya, Jax, Cyrax, Sektor, Frost, Darrius and Shujinko to be characters on the launch roster so that they can pat themselves on the back and be like "See, we launched the game with 38 characters (23 main characters + 15 kameos)," when the case is that they actually launched with 23 main and 12 non-repeater variations / kameos + 3 kameos that are already roster characters.
"Hey look, we're getting an Armageddon sized roster once DLC is done."
Yeah, but plenty of those like Mavado, Ferra, Khameleon and Tremor are just fucking kameos, so that doesn't count.
They can not-so-kindly fuck off with that shit.
Well we all knew that there would be some sort of sacrifice anytime NRS gives the fans what they want. There's always a catch and that catch is the Kameo system IMO. The days of Armageddon and Trilogy size character select screens are long gone. It sucks for us old MK fans but it's probably for the best considering they can't balance what they have now. I'm not saying Armageddon or Trilogy where balanced but those games exsisted long before social media outrage took over. I get your're a single content only player but online gaming is where most of the focus is nowadays when it comes to the content we see in these games. Balancing/patching a game like Armageddon would be a nightmare. NRS is the only developer caught in rock and a hard place with the 3d fans vs the 2d fans. IMO MK9 and X where the only games that tried to make both fan bases happy with mixed results. They're been stuck in a endless limbo ever since.
 
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Well we all knew that there would be some sort of sacrifice anytime NRS gives the fans what they want. There's always a catch and that catch is the Kameo system IMO. The days of Armageddon and Trilogy size character select screens are long gone. It sucks for us old MK fans but it's probably for the best considering they can't balance what they have now. I'm not saying Armageddon or Trilogy where balanced but those games exsisted long before social media outrage took over. I get your're a single content only player but online gaming is where most of the focus is nowadays when it comes to the content we see in these games. Balancing/patching a game like Armageddon would be a nightmare. NRS is the only developer caught in rock and a hard place with the 3d fans vs the 2d fans. IMO MK9 and X where the only games that tried to make both fan bases happy with mixed results. They're been stuck in a endless limbo ever since.
I'm not asking for Armageddon sized rosters, and I like the balance in MK1 somewhat.
MK9 wasn't a good mix of 2D era and 3D era, imo.
It was pure MK1 through UMK3 / Trilogy nostalgia.
You had Quan Chi and Kenshi from the 3D era and the majority of rest of the MK9 roster was a pure MK1 through UMK3 / Trilogy era fap-fest, and a good portion of the stages were from that era too, and Babalities.

MKX was okay in the 2D & 3D mix, but (imo) some of that was sacrificed (understandably so) for the new era characters.

MK1 is (imo) the better mix of the 2D and 3D eras and the first game where we have:
- 7 of the post-MK3 / 3D era characters on a launch roster of 23 (with only Geras being from MKX, so far), and then another one via DLC (Quan Chi).
- 11 of the 14 MK1 / MKII roster characters
- a majority of the male ninjas in it
- all of the MK1 through UMK3 bosses in some shape or form

My whole point with the last part of my post is that some of those characters that could otherwise be playable get relegated to "kameo" status in a way where it seems like NRS is trying to arbitrarily inflate the roster size.
I'm fine with characters like Tremor, Frost, Jax, Sonya & Kano being kameos because they were just in MKX or MK11 or both, but then you have characters like Sareena, Mavado and Shujinko that haven't been playable in 18 goddamn years also as kameos.
Yeah, I also know it sounds selfish / greedy, but we FINALLY got a game where more of the 3D era is being given recognition and then given some of them via gimped / half-ass assists instead of full playable characters and essentially being told to "just enjoy that." That's where some of my frustration with the kameo system as a whole lies.
Like, I'd have 0 issues if Nightwolf, Sheeva, Kabal, Skarlet, Erron Black, D'Vorah or Kotal were kameos...since all were in the last game.
 
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Once again like a I previously said It's NRS giving and taking away with every new game they make. MK1 is a perfect example of this. It always half of what the fans want but not the whole. No one wanted the Kameo system. Deep down we want a massive select screen of complete characters but It's the sacrifice you have to make to play the characters you want to play. Otherwise it will just be the MK1-UMK3 era again.
 
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I get that and I can't speak for anyone else, but I didn't mind the kameo system itself.
The kameo system itself isn't the issue for me, but rather some of the character choices that got put onto it, imo, though.
That's where the double-edged sword lies for me.

- Repeater main roster MKII ones like Scorpion, Sub-Zero, Kung Lao, Janet (Johnny) and 3D era ones like Mavado, Shujinko and Sareena being relegated to kameo status instead of main roster is what I'm not wild about. The implementation of the kameos in gameplay itself is fine, though.

Again, I'd have less of an issue with the kameo if instead of those 7 kameos we got Nightwolf, Sheeva, Kabal, Skarlet, Erron Black, D'Vorah or Kotal in their place as kameos instead, all of which were JUST in the last game.
Some of us were really hoping more of these post-MK3 characters wouldn't be just kameos, and again, I know that it sounds greedy as hell given that there's more post-MK3 playable characters than in MKX.
 
I wouldn't say it's only the 3d era characters who get the shaft. Khameleon has been part of MK's universe since the late 90's Trilogy era yet NRS hasn't made that character playable since Armageddon. Like most of the 3d era cast in MK1 she's stuck as a Kameo. A very popular one but a Kameo none the less. Motaro a Kameo only character as well and Kintaro is strangely nowhere to be found (probally DLC but I'm not holding my breath). It's like NRS just pull names out of a hat and thats who they include in the next game.
 
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It's not only the post-MK3 / 3D era, but a good chunk....Frost, Mavado, Sareena, Darrius & Shujinko. If we count him as a post-MK3 character too (which he technically is) then Tremor too. That's 5~6 characters that got relegated to kameo roles instead, with 4 of those being not playable otherwise for the last 18 years or so.

To be fair, Khameleon is essentially the Triborg of kameos. She covers Kitana, Mileena and Jade as a kameo in 1 fell swoop.
So the repeater roster / kameos are technically Sub-Zero, Scorpion, Kung Lao, Janet (Johnny) and Khameleon (covering Mileena and Kitana).
Yes, I know that that was her shtick back in the day too, but it's also why I was never really a fan of hers or Chameleon (the male variant) back in the day, either. For that, you might as well have those ninjas instead. C/Khameleon were the Triborg of male and female ninjas back in the MK3 / UMK3 / Trilogy era.

Motaro actually makes sense to me as does Ferra, due to their body size when it comes to finishers, XRAYs / Fatal Blows and other moves (in general). It seems like it would be a nightmare to program different finishers and moves JUST for him, so I can understand why he was relegated to kameo status. Compromise? Make Motaro a kameo with his own moves, Fatality, Brutalities but in a scenario where special moves and finishers can't be done on him.
Like, I genuinely feel bad for Stryker fans because he's become the running joke / Hsu Hao of the Trilogy era even in this new NRS era, and that's even after he got an MK9 make-over.

Those who are fans of
Spoiler:
Cyrax

and
Spoiler:
Sektor

, though, will at least get those 2 back if leaks / rumors come true.
Maybe not back in the sense as people would want them, but back as playable, none-the-less.
 
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Spoiler:
I think the only reason NRS included Cyrax and Sektor as playable characters is because of ketchup and mustard being such a big part of the NRS scene. That and the dumb logic of not including them as playable in MK11. Again as I've mentioned before with NRS selling the same character DLC back to you game after game. Except this time no Cybor Smoke. It's so scummy the way NRS treats their fans like idiots with this shit. Yet the big influencers are too scared to call them out.
 
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Man this game has been a total trainwreck and a fart in the wind. I doubt NRS learned anything from this, and are already CoOkInG their next Injustice69 dressed as MK slop. The McDonalds of Fighting Games!
 
It's some of the most fun I've ever had in an MK game. Its a lab monster's dream, especially after MK11 where every character was fully discovered in 30 minutes.


The flexibility is so refreshing.
All the monetization and shit is wack of course tho.
 
All the monetization and shit is wack of course tho.
Invasions is wack too, which sucks.
Here I was hoping that we finally got a cool SP mode and it's the same rinse and repeat / recycled shit season after season.
At least with Towers of Time they gave us ways to earn some of the Krystals and gave me a reason to go back to it.

Whereas, in this game the Krystals are finite and I'm also here with 2 million gold koins that are as useless as tits on a bull.....except......the 1 time every season where you can empty out the Shrine with 78k of the koins. Woo hoo :rolleyes:
 
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