Well they don’t have to go back to MK-1 and retell it. They could just do some things in the new timeline. For example.
Reptile’s race is endangered but not extinct. But are forced to work for shao khan to avoid it. This can also leave room for new characters from that race, or bring back Khameleon and have her try to fight with earth realm to free her people. She could also discover the raptors that were underground and try to get them to her side. She could even challenge the matriarch for the position if she had to.
Sure. I definitely do. But these kinds of “everyone is here” type games tend to skimp on the plot. Just look at Tekken Tag a Tournament 2. I’m not saying I want to see them ditch the story completely for the rest of time. But for one game with every character in it (there’s like, 80 right) I think it would be fine.
And as a huge fan of the wider DC universe, I’d be sad to see Injustice go.
Although TBH, I always thought that they should have dropped the regime plot line after game 1 and do another story in the next game focusing on a completely different universe. I kind of thought that was why the first game had characters from the “normal” dc universe in it as well.
Well, to be fair, Armageddon did have a story mode along the lines of Konquest in MK:D. I don’t honestly remember how good it was. I remember you played as Taven. So I’d have to think that several years later, it could be done, even with a massive roster. Granted, they’d likely have to reduce a substantial portion of the cast to bit roles and perhaps one-off appearances, but if you start with a foundation of Liu Kang and Kitana trying to test out timelines, as you suggested, I think that allows for both all of the characters to return as well as having a story where characters realize they’re being manipulated, who’s a good guy, who’s a bad guy, how do they free themselves from these experiments, etc.
I mean, I’m not sure they can really do that if the time holding thingy Kronika had was destroyed, as I believe it was at the end of MK11, but I’m sure it wouldn’t be too difficult to find some story reason for why it would be restored or whatever. I think that could allow for a fun story and some unlikely allies.
I mean, if you’re picking Shao Kahn, I dont kow that it really counts as a counterpick? He’s better now, but it’s not like picking Cetrion against Kotal or anything :-p
@Iago407 For what it’s worth, I think Scorpion and Sub-Zero lend themselves pretty easily to stories in either the far-flung past or future. Blue and yellow ninjas have been a thing in the world of MK for hundreds if not thousands of years, so a new (or old) Scorpion or Sub makes sense in any timeline or iteration. Various folks at NRS have mentioned that they like to touch on the Great Kung Lao era before, and I could see them doing that pretty easily. If they really needed to include some more modern characters to pad the roster, they can always just hand wave away any shenanigans with Fire God Liu Kang magic
Pretty sure they just took control of it - Liu and Kitana were going to use to reshape a new destiny or whatever for the world.
If they’re gonna do that, Past Sub-Zero needs to be an actual Cryomancer from Outworld before they went extinct. Maybe he then goes on to found the Lin Kuei or something.
Not sure how to do an old scorpion because his abilities and techniques are so story specific. But I suppose they could make it work.
And hey. You’ve still got Raiden, and pretty much any Outworlder is fair game because they live so long. Even newbies like D’Vorah and Kotal. Although it would mean Mileena would be absent again unless the reboot timeline has her and Kitana function more like Mortal Kombat Legacy. Great Kung Lao fills the Liu Kang archetype nicely, I imagine him playing like a mix of Kang and Kung since he doesn’t have the hat. And then the new time period gives the opportunity to include plenty of newcomers we might never see again.
Yep you’re 100% right. I was probably just thinking of the standard win screen where the hourglass blows up and kills Kronika with it. My bad!
As for Sindel, I absolutely love what they’ve done with her gameplay! I’m assuming she’ll have a throw-heavy loadout involving her hair, a flying loadout, and perhaps a more combo-based or hand to hand loadout. We’ll see. Are they doing a kombat kast today?
If a character’s name is Sub-Zero, he’ll be a cryo ninja of some sort. Whether he’s from Outworld or an early Lin Kuei or the abominable snowman’s 3rd cousin, he’d be someone who fights with ice. They’ve gone less ninja (MK:DA) and more ninja, but so long as the ice is there I don’t think most people care too much.
I think Scorpion’s spear and teleport (and his swordplay) can be pretty effortlessly grafted onto another yellow ninja without much issue. His fire skills are more lore-specific, but as Andy likes to point out, there isn’t really anything stopping them from just giving the same (or similar) skills to Joe Shirai Ryu along with the spear. I think it’d be a bit of a missed opportunity to do a wholesale grafting, but it’s imminently doable from both a design and lore standpoint if that’s what they wanted to do.
Sindel looks pretty cool. I think NRS has really done a fantastic job on almost all the characters aesthetically to be honest. Their design work has been pretty impeccable across the board.
Yeah I like @CausingThought6’s idea about making him an actual cryomancer from Outworld before they became extinct. I think they could use that origin and maybe even make him slightly less ninja and more, I dunno… Sorcerer, I guess? Like a mix of the two. I think that might give them a nice new way to present a familiar character. Maybe even give him more ice powers that we haven’t seen from Sub Zero before, like he’s more of a “master” of sorts on a higher level then the current Sub Zero.
But either way, I agree, it would be easy to have a Sub Zero in the distant past. Scorpion… Yeah, I agree grafting the fire moves on to him might be a bit of a stretch, but I don’t see why they couldn’t find some unique ways to give him some fire related abilities, even if they’re not what Scorpion has. He doesn’t have to be a hell-spawn, of course. They could just as easily make him a fire sorcerer and he and old sub are buddies who have a falling out and the rivalry between clans is created, or whatever.
Not the best writing, but if it gets the fire ninja and the ice ninja in the game, and explains their origins and the origins of their clans a bit, I think that alone would be enough to overcome any type of clumsiness that might come from a literary perspective.
Yeah, as much as some complain about how long it’s taking to get these characters, I’m fine with it, especially given the results thus far. Nightwolf has seen his best iteration BY FAR (imo) and Shang Tsung… I mean, c’mon… Getting Cary Tagawa back to do this? Just absolutely love it. You can tell they put a lot of effort and care in to these characters, including Sindel.
Before I get into my responses, I want to float something. I was talking to someone on Smashboards who is convinced that the reason Ash wasn’t in this pass because the deal fell through. I keep telling them that that’s not how licensing deals work but they still fought me on it and insist that Ash has been cancelled. They’re wrong right?
If he doesn’t have the whole skeleton thing, people are going to be mad. Maybe the Cryomancers went extinct because they were at war with Quan Chi and the general of his army is a Scorpion type ninja hellspawn?
Plus Terminator. Even if I’m the only one who actually likes playing as him. Every DLC character so far has been expertly crafted and I’m excited to see Joker and Spawn next year
Actually no, it’s her Guan Dao weapon from MK: Deception.
I found an old playthrough, she uses it at around 1:10 in the video:
With that said you did admit to not playing the old games, so I’ll understand if you weren’t aware of this (besides you missed nothing, the old games were not known for their gameplay). Honestly I was surprised they even bothered to bring the Guan Dao back, MK9 Sindel was more like her MK3 self in that she had no weapon.
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On the topic of MK11 Sindel, they finally fixed her IMO. All of the tools she lost to other characters have been either reworked or replaced with something far more meaningful, which is exactly what I hoped would be the case. Hopefully she has a variation that focuses more on the hair whip throws than the other stuff.
I’d be willing to play the old games if they were released in some sort of collection. Do it like Mega Man, with one collection having 1, 2, UM3, and Trilogy; and another having 4 Gold, Deadly Alliance, Unchained, and Armageddon (wii version because Khameleon). I just don’t want to have to track all of the old titles down. 4 hasn’t even had a home console release outside of the Saturn.
Actually MK4 had multiple ports on PS1, N64, PC, and the Dreamcast-exclusive Mortal Kombat Gold which had extra characters in it.
Real talk though, they should at least just re-release the old MK Arcade Kollection on Steam. They de-listed the old version because they couldn’t be bothered to remove the GFWL system, but they did put it again on GoG.
As for the others, Boon keeps talking about redoing Shaolin Monks, but knowing him it could just be talk for now.
I thought Atari kept the Primal Rage IP, then they went bankrupt and got bought by Infogrames, who then changed their own name to Atari…
But even if Midway kept the IP, I don’t know if WB bothered to acquire it. Either someone else took it, or it just fell to the wayside like every non-sports IP that EA took (real talk, who even owns The Suffering now?).
Honestly they could just make their own dinosaur fighting IP at this point, and as long as it was good I wouldn’t bat an eye. Better than chasing shadows in the legal realm at least.
He’s better now, but it’s not like picking Cetrion against Kotal or anything :-p
