Ah yes, you’re correct.
I honestly didn’t play the 3D era games simply because they were not that good. I ended up playing Mortal Kombat: Unchained several years later, mostly just to kill time in transit. It was alright, but nothing to write home about.
I’m sure it will. I think the whole revenant thing is done with. I’ll be curious to see where they go from here. Part of me wonders if MK12 will be a story of the original Kung Lao vs Shang Tsung, with Liu Kang trying to shape the future. There are several characters that could return from Outworld and Edenia in order to fill out the roster with familiar characters. They could have ancestors of Scorpion and Sub Zero since lord knows those two need to be in the game in some capacity. Maybe we even get a fast forward from those events to see how Liu Kang’s new timeline effected everything as it stands in the present.
I just hope… I mean REALLY hope, that it’s not just another retelling of the trilogy events. We’ve had that twice now between MK1-3 as well as MK9. We don’t need another excuse to revisit that again, and if they do feel compelled to go there, it should be in the form of some sort of video montage that relays the way the events happened differently this time, leading to something entirely different than what came after in the 3D era and MKX and MK11. That’s my 2 cents anyways.
Like Baraka and the more unique look they took at the Tarkatans in MK11, I think it’s definitely time for Reptile to step out of his previous roles and in to something new, and I think this would be a great way to develop him as a character in the new era. Give him something to personally fight for, not just another leader to be duped by or to be subservient to. I don’t mind the whole good vs evil battle and sure, each side has their own lackeys or whatever, but when that’s all a character has been for a series that has been around THIS long… It might be time to do something new and fresh.
I agree. MKX just had too much in the way of characters doing dumb things for reasons passing understanding. MK9 was nice in that it took the trilogy era and changed up a few things, even if things like Cyber Sub Zero didn’t exactly stick. I personally prefer MK11s since it gave us a new villain and brought in the different eras, which I thought was a fun way to play character of character and what not. That’s just me though.
Agreed. Seeing Liu Kang go from being the good guy that always won to a dead bad guy was really cool. Honestly wish they’d done this the first time around instead of turning him in to a zombie. That would’ve made him a lot more interesting in Deception IMO.
Maybe. I think the focus went a little too heavily in the direction of the special forces, with even Sub Zero and Scorpion kinda playing second fiddle, but I agree that they did a really good job with Johnny in particular. Of course, it would’ve been nice if they’d also spent a bit more time on other characters that could use some development, particularly from the 3D era, but I suppose that’s just a ship that’s not coming in and I need to get used to it lol.
I always thought it was weird that the good guys were the only focus in terms of the story. I mean sure we got to see a little bit from the bad guys here and there, but in terms of chapters and character development, the pendulum definitely swung in the favor of the heroes. Villains never really seemed to have missions that required a chapter’s worth of battles and plot development. I see why the revenants were a way to pull some characters away from the spotlight to let other shine, but it also would’ve been nice to have given some of the bad guys stuff to do beyond getting their tails kicked by the good guys.
Yeah, I remember Ed saying in magazine interviews that this was more or less the end of MK as we knew it, and I think at the time I was kind of relieved. I figured they’d keep Sub Zero, Scorpion and maybe Raiden, but otherwise it felt like it was kinda time to move on. I knew they weren’t going back to 3D era character designs and they couldn’t just keep doing trilogy crap right… Right?? Well… lol.
Yeah I think this is a bit of a problem for MKX because they included both the characters as well as the characters that were sort of meant to replace them. It kinda made certain characters feel redundant, especially if they were barely in the story or just there to sort of help or advise or whatever. Now, had they moved on from those helper/adviser types in MK11, it would’ve made sense, they didn’t. A few were taken out, but not enough IMO.
There were some positives and negatives to these games. The gameplay is, to me, not great. Not bad, but still very much in the dial-a-combo mode that promoted a lot of similar combos. Plus, there just wasn’t much in the way of special moves. I remember some characters in MKDA had like two, which seems just ridiculous now.
But MK:DA, to me, had a very nice art style, especially with the backgrounds. House of Pekara remains my all time favorite MK stage, with Lung Hai Temple not far behind. Also, at the time, it felt like a substantial step forward from MK4 which gave me enough hope for the future of the franchise. Also, the story and the lore elements were second to none at the time. The intro movie was as well.
MK:D kinda took what made MK:DA interesting and doubled down in some ways, while abandoning other aspects. The art style was, to me, worse than MK:DA. If the themes in MK:DA were a bit more eastern and mystical, the themes in MK:D were very much dark, torture chamber-esque. Wasn’t really a big fan. They still had some cool ideas though, like the Falling Cliffs stage, and the roster was full of more favorite returning characters, even if the new additions were extremely forgettable.
That was my one big issue with MK:D, aside form the Konquest mode’s endless running around and time changing, the new characters were exceedingly under developed and poorly designed. They had some interesting moments, but in terms of their overall packaging, they were terrible even next to the MK:DA newbies.
MK:A was what it was. A lot of what worked in MK:D with every character thrown in. It was cool to see some characters like Jerek and Kai get redesigns and some characters get extra moves and what not. The gameplay, with the mid-air combos, was actually pretty fun, even if it looked ridiculous.
There’s some value to be had here, especially from a story standpoint. But if you haven’t played them and you’ve played the new trilogy, well… I think these will look pretty rudimentary in comparison. For me though, they were the precursors to the current games and they did so much more, especially in terms of story and gameplay options, than the original trilogy and MK4 ever did. So for that stuff alone, they kinda have a special place in my heart. 
I know it won’t happen. But I would very much like MK12 to be another Armageddon scenario. Very little plot. Very little customization. Just every character coming back (even the guests if possible). With the premise being that Time God Liu Kang and Time Goddess Kitana are just testing out what-if scenarios, trying to nail down their possible timeline.
I honestly doubt NRS has a plan for MK12 at this point. I think their support for MK11 is going to extend a bit further into the future than their recent history with fighting games suggests. Then the big question becomes will there be an Injustice 3? Although the conceit is getting a bit tired to me, the game sells well enough that a sequel seems likely and probably geared for next gen consoles. So assuming that happens we are looking at maybe 5 years at least until MK 12.
I’d say considering that they missed that shot with mk11 I think they’ll just retell mortal kombat with some new twists.
If there is an Injustice 3, I honestly wish they’d drop the a-hole Superman plot. It was an interesting concept to start with, but Superman is a dull block of wood no matter if he’s good or bad. The only thing they can really do with him as a bad guy is have you go “Wait…is he gonna be one of the good guys again? Holy cow I think he’s going to be a good guy again! It’s about friggin’ time! I thought for sure…aaaaaaand he’s still an a-hole. Should have seen it coming.”
I basically ignore the Injustice plot. I think it was a tired concept before they started, but at least it explains why everyone is fighting.
As far as being boring, People always say this about Superman. But that’s what Clark Kent was for - to provide interesting and relatable stories for Superman and to allow him to have a personality. As we have raced to make comics and their stories ever more tailored to adults in a modern world, we have lost some of that. Secret identities are hokey, and trying to keep your identity secret from your girlfriend is apparently too lame for modern writers. Instead it’s either dystopian/dysfunctional relationships or else a focus on just fighting every more powerful enemies until everything devolves into dragon ball z…
Keep in mind he originally fought bank robbers. I think Superman vs Lex Luthor trying to steal the gold from Ft. Knox is just an inherently different type of storytelling than Superman vs. Doomsday.
Yeah, It’s like somewhere down the line writers decided that cynicism was shorthand for mature.
And you’re right about Clark. In fact, now that I think about it, having Superman juggling pretending to be a bumbling nobody and manage to keep it up as well as he did, while at the same still managing to sneak in a save every now and then under everyone’s noses was one of the best things about the Christopher Reeve Superman movies.
…I need to go watch those again…
And I guess to bring it back to MK, I really appreciate how they ended the current trilogy’s story, what with the fire god Liu Kang and the good guys coming out on top & all. Kinda in the same vein, there seemed to be less of a cynical edge to the story…maybe because they were able to play both angles on a lot of characters with their time doubles and all.
It really makes me curious as to what direction the story will go in in MK 12.
Beavis and Butt-Head as possible new guest characters in Mortal Kombat 12, Injustice 3, or both even? And how would Ed Boon feel about having them as guest characters in those games too?
I think Sub-Zero and Scorpion are inherently limiting characters narratively, since they come in with a fair amount of lore baggage and necessarily view the world through the yellow ninja/blue ninja lens. Accordingly, I think using the kombat kids (or the spec-ops, if you prefer) as the narrative juice for MKX was definitely the right call. Framing the story around them just allows so much more creative freedom than simply going back through another tale of the Lin Kuei and Shirai Ryu. By all means give Scorpion and Sub-Zero their due (the way MK11 gave them side chapters), but I’m perfectly fine letting the more untapped/untested SF take the lead in story mode.
NRS’ story modes are already a massive undertaking, and already have complaints (like yours above) that series mainstays like the ninjas aren’t getting enough screentime. I just don’t see how you could take a good look at the villain side of things without introducing even more plot holes or bloating the script or both. I think it’s better that the team simply focus their efforts.
I’d be pretty surprised if they tried to return the story to any form of original trilogy status quo, but at the same time I imagine we’ll wind up in roughly the same time window. Move too far in either direction and you run into the risk of launch SF3’s or SCV’s problem of “where are all my series favorites!?”, and you similarly waste a bunch of new and interesting characters if you jump into a story about even the not-too-distant past. NRS put a lot of love into Cassie and Jacqui and the other kombat kids, and I doubt that they’ll just want to toss all of that aside (though to Andy’s point, MK12 is so far away that maybe people will feel differently then).
I think the kombat kids are about the best you’re going to be able to do though in terms of bringing in a whole new generation of characters without provoking a backlash. Moving the story entirely over to them will never go over well I don’t think - they got sniped at in MKX even when their forebears were still around after all. But the connections they had to past kombatants was useful in grounding them in the existing series lore in a way that lots of the MK:D and MK:A new folks didn’t have, and I think that kind of connection is useful if you’re adding a bunch of cast members. Sure you can bring in a Geras or Kollector or D’Vorah in a one-off capacity, but I don’t think NRS will have a ton of leeway to simply wipe the character slate clean and go nuts.
He really isn’t, but that’s definitely a discussion for another time. One of my huge comic pet peeves is the mischaracterization of Supes as boring and dull. He has a ton of creative potential when written well…it’s incredibly annoying to me that so often people just write him (or write him off) as a dumb flying brick >.<
Interestingly, we don’t now how Mortal Kombat 11 ends, as there’s multiple endings and of the three, we have yet to learn which is canon.
Did Fire God Liu Kang defeat Kronika and bring Kitana back to shape time with him? Did Fire God Liu Kang defeat Kronika and mortal Raiden remained for the rest of his life helping Liu shape the sands of time? Or, did Kronika defeat Fire God Liu Kang, and she simply restarted time yet again?
And of these three could be canon, and all allow for completely random story evolution. Basically, the writers are now free to do anything they want.
I think it’s often overlooked that this is ALWAYS true. They can toss out, retcon or reboot any of their previous work any time they feel like it and as long as there’s a thread of familiarity people are still going to roll with it for the most part. Not to minimize all the impressive progress they have made in storytelling or to infuriate those of you who are really into the lore. But they could just stick Patrick Duffy in the shower and say it was all a dream, decide Rey’s parents were nobody, tell everyone that Peter Parker is Spider-Man… hell they could even start calling it Mortal Combat. Nothing is really stopping them beyond their own interest in the story they have created so far. Just walk through the plots they have used so far and you will see that this has always been true.
I think there is some elegance in how they ended things in the story mode for MK11 because of how OBVIIOUS it is that they can do whatever they want going forward. But really, they are never all that limited.
Yeah, that’s what I probably should have said…that good or bad they wrote him as a dull block of wood.
Oh absolutely, your last paragraph better expresses what I was trying to say. The obvious nature that they can now do whatever they want, when normally a title ends and there’s usually a “logical” continuation that you’d expect, which oft doesn’t happen.
To anybody that hides their cursors…please don’t. I had to teach this guy that picked Shao Kahn how embarrassing that actually is. 
-shrug- Getting counter-picked is no fun. If I played MK11 I would always hide my cursor, just as a matter of course. Pick who you want to play…quit worrying about who I’m playing
I couldn’t care less if people hide their cursor. The one I hate is where they bop all over the screen pretending they are going to pick a character and then change it. Dude, I don’t give a ■■■■ who you’re picking - I already chose my guy in 1.5 seconds. Stop screwing around and let’s just play.
It was a terribly obvious counter pick. You can’t simply beat me with somebody I mained since Day 1.
To be honest, I “slowly” pick my character.
I’m curious. Don’t you prefer single player to going online? Wouldn’t you want more plot, or does that simply not interest you?
Yeah I think they more or less used MK11’s open ending to give them the room to do what they want in the next one, but I’d be surprised if anyone at NRS had a real grasp on the direction they wanted to take. My guess as far as their forward planning is the larger focus currently on MK11 DLC, a smaller focus down the line for Injustice 3, or perhaps they break the cycle and do something new.
I somewhat recall Boon showing a bit of interest in the idea of breaking the cycle and doing something different after MK11; something they’d never really done before. I dunno, maybe that was just him throwing the idea out there or thinking out loud, who knows.
As for Injustice 3… Eh. I kinda feel like they’ve bled that one dry. I know there are fans clamoring for this character or that, but I agree that the conceit is somewhat tired by now. The whole “Superman is a bad guy and some bad guys are good and vice versa” thing feels a bit overdone at this point, even in the comics by some accounts.
If they decide to do another fighting game and it has to be in DC’s world, I think the only thing that would really get me excited personally, and I’ve mentioned it here before, is if it’s an all-Gotham game. A Batman-centric plot featuring all of his allies and a ton of his enemies along with an engrossing story and perhaps even a new art style along with a new, or at least vastly reworked fighting engine; something that gives the game its own unique flavor so people don’t say it’s just Injustice: Batman Edition.
Beyond that? I wouldn’t mind seeing them go off in a new direction and away from DC, though that may not be an option. Maybe Shaolin Monks 2, or maybe a new MK vs DC game that’s nothing at all like the last one (ie no 3D era gameplay, no in-fight minigames, etc), but perhaps more along the lines of Marvel Vs Capcom, or perhaps they take a look at some of Midways older IPs like Mace: The Dark Age (if WB owns the rights, I honestly have no idea) or War Gods (same), or maybe a brand new fighting game with brand new characters that have nothing to do with MK or DC or Midway, or maybe something that’s not fighting-based at all.
Either way, I’m kinda done with Injustice. I played both of them, I liked both of them enough, but neither particularly stuck with me and I was usually on to the next thing after a few months.
As for NRS giving MK11 a longer trail of support, I’m all in favor of that. I love the game’s fighting mechanics, art style, etc, so if they want to keep adding more characters and stages, I’m all in favor of that. I might even try and keep my whining about guests down to a minimum lol.
You might be right, but I sincerely hope that’s not the way they go. They’ve done exactly that already; “retell mortal kombat with some new twists.” That was MK 2011 to a T. If they decide to do that again with MK12, I’ll be really disappointed. The trilogy cast is fine and I absolutely get the necessity for having a roster made up largely of familiar characters, but to have all of the trilogy cast again and essentially the same story, but with some changes… Nah. That’s just too much IMO.
I wouldn’t mind seeing them start off during the era of the great Kung Lao, Shang Tsung, Goro and the corruption of the tournament. Given how many Outworlders and Edenians and what not, they could easily fill a roster with a lot of familiar characters, while giving us a new, fresh take on MK, set in the distant past.
To me, that would be a nice starting point for a new trilogy. I mean, here’s a list of characters that are either thousands of years old due to being from other realms, or are gods and can fit in this game:
Liu Kang, Raiden, Reptile, Goro, Shang Tsung, Kitana, Baraka, Jade, Shao Khan, Khameleon, Rain, Sheeva, Sindel, Fujin, Quan Chi, Sareena, Shinnok, Reiko, Tanya, Blaze, Bo Rai Cho, Drahmin, Li Mei, Moloch, Nitara, Ashrah, Havik, Dairou, Hotaru, Darrius, Onaga, Shujinko, Taven, Daegon, D’vorah, Kotal Khan, Cetrion, Geras and Kollector.
Sure, you’ll have to maybe stretch a bit to have ancestors of Scorpion and Sub Zero, but looking at that list, I’d think there’s a pretty nice group of returning characters you could cobble together to make that game happen without needing to resort to bringing back some of the less beloved characters like Dairou or whatever.
Plus, and I won’t keep going on this, but I think the best part here is that we’d get away from certain long-standing plotlines like the special forces, the black dragon, etc. You could set this game in a new timeline and have it be the genesis of the Lin Kuei / Shirai Ryu rivalry. You could have the great Kung Lao and Shang Tsung battle it out in the story, and the arrival of Goro, but because it’s all new, perhaps Edenia gets involved and then you can have these other aspects and new story threads begin and then you see where it sets things for the next game with a time jump to the present and a preview of things to come. I think that’d be a nice way to start things off and set the table for a bunch of new stuff in the following game where we maybe get Sonya and Kano and Cage and Kenshi and Takeda and characters like that returning.
I dunno. I think in the original timeline, they were certainly limited by their plotlines and what not. But in the new timeline, it would’ve been nice to have seen them go in some different directions beyond Scorpion’s mad at Quan Chi and Sub Zero and Frost have issues and Sub Zero versus the Tekunin. All of that was kinda done already. I mean, without getting too ridiculous, of course, they could’ve taken both of these characters in a wide variety of directions.
On the plus side, they had Scorpion not constantly being the rage monster he was through the first several games, with him training Takeda and having that subplot with him and Kenshi. I dunno, I think they could do more with them without having to relegate them to side plot, but I do agree with you that having the kombat kids take center stage was probably the right way to go, even if a lot of the more vocal MK fans seemed to detest them for whatever reason.
At the very least, it might’ve been a better idea to make Sonya, Cage, Jax and Kenshi NPCs and have the kids’ move lists a little less inspired by others. Takeda was pretty good in this regard, and so was Kung Jin, but Cassie and to a lesser extent Jaqui… not so much.
Maybe. But leaving out an entire side still kinda feels limiting, even if it creates a more focused narrative. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not asking for a chapter for every villain. But maybe find a way to work some of them in organically along with the heroes so that you can have a cohesive narrative that shows us both sides of the action. I think that can be done, and I think it would help develop some of the villains a bit more, which I think MK could maybe use a little of.
Not saying they’re all one note, mustache twirling bad guys or henchmen, but some of them aren’t very far off from that. If they can give the good guys a bit more complexity, why not do a bit more of the same for the bad guys too? If you think that would lead to a sloppy, plot-hole filled narrative though, I can respect that. I just think it can be done and it might make things more interesting. Not saying it’d be easy though.
I agree about the SF3 cautionary tale, no doubt. I think MK:DA is as close as they’ll go to wiping the slate clean with a new cast, and that one still had Sub Zero, Scorpion, Raiden, Kano, Sonya and Cage in it. MK:DA just also happened to have a bunch more new characters than I think they’d really introduced before, plus the addition of going to 3D made that game feel pretty new and fresh, but also VERY different than the trilogy era.
As for not going too far in to the past, I think it can be done, as I outlined above in a previous part of this (massive) post. I think it could work. You can have a lot of familiarity, a lot of trilogy favorites, and you could really give the game a different feel, a different art style, etc. I think it might be a slightly tough needle to thread, but I think it could be done and done quite well.
Yeah I honestly liked the kombat kids a lot in MKX, I just wish they hadn’t included the parents as well, as it made the kids seem a bit redundant. In retrospect though, I could see people being VERY angry if Cage, Sonya, etc were relegated to NPCs while players are stuck playing what might be perceived as knock-offs. People didn’t like characters like Jarek and Kira for that reason, though the kids are much more well developed in every sense of the word.
I suppose easing them in that way was a good way of establishing them to the point where they could probably stand on their own in a game and people wouldn’t think “oh it’s mini-Jax” or “it’s mini-Cage” or whatever. They certainly have their own identities.
True. I don’t think they’ll ever do that.