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Old 04-27-2021, 02:11 AM   #1
Andrew NDB
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Mortal Kombat 11

Does anyone else play this? It's no secret I'm not a fan of them regressing the series back into 2D (though this is a gripe for 2 MK games ago, really)... but this is a really beautiful game. And it really shines on PS5.

For kicks, I also have Mortal Kombat XL downloading, too. Using the Alien and Predator is just too tempting not to check out.
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Old 04-27-2021, 03:32 AM   #2
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I'm actually dying to, but I'm a couple of games behind on that series, on account of I'm not "allowed" to play them before my wife does, and all she's played is Red Dead 2 for two years. If I play "her" games before she gets a chance to she makes a whole big thing about it. She even bought herself a fighting stick when MK11 came out and hasn't even used it yet, which I keep teasing her about.

I was figuring when I get done with "Oblivion" soon I'd pick up from the reboot game, then finally play XL and 11. I saw most of her Story Mode playthrough on the reboot and really dug it, but I only really messed with the Arcade Mode a little bit, then got distracted by other games. Hard to believe that game was so long ago, already.

On the subject of 2D vs 3D fighting games, I wish that SoulCalibur wasn't pretty much dead. Those games were for the most part amazing. And I think they worked a lot better in 3D than some of the other fighting game series did.
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Old 04-27-2021, 10:24 AM   #3
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The new movie has me sniffing out Youtube videos from games I've missed. I left Mortal Kombat behind back around number 4, and I've never been a fan of playing fighting games with a traditional controller.

I'd say at this point, although I'm curious I'm leaving the fighting games in the past. I don't even know that I'd have the patience, capacity or interest to even learn a fighter's moves anymore....
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Old 04-27-2021, 12:43 PM   #4
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MK4 underwhelmed me as well, but I was a big fan of "Deadly Alliance", "Deception" and "Armageddon". That brought me back. The reboot game was really, really good. "Injustice 2" might be my favorite fighting game ever. Technically not MK, but same company. I generally suck at fighting games but they've become infinitely more easy to pick up and play than the "classic" ones of yore. So anyone who's been "out of the loop" needn't feel intimidated, they're arguably easier to play now than ever before.

I think most people are in agreement that MK4 was the nadir of the main series. Everything after that was a pretty strong return to form, though.
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Old 04-27-2021, 08:10 PM   #5
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Leo656 View Post
I'm actually dying to, but I'm a couple of games behind on that series, on account of I'm not "allowed" to play them before my wife does, and all she's played is Red Dead 2 for two years. If I play "her" games before she gets a chance to she makes a whole big thing about it. She even bought herself a fighting stick when MK11 came out and hasn't even used it yet, which I keep teasing her about.

I was figuring when I get done with "Oblivion" soon I'd pick up from the reboot game, then finally play XL and 11. I saw most of her Story Mode playthrough on the reboot and really dug it, but I only really messed with the Arcade Mode a little bit, then got distracted by other games. Hard to believe that game was so long ago, already.

On the subject of 2D vs 3D fighting games, I wish that SoulCalibur wasn't pretty much dead. Those games were for the most part amazing. And I think they worked a lot better in 3D than some of the other fighting game series did.
Are you talking about SoulCalibur, as in part 1? Cause people are all up on part 6 nowadays. They actually added Haohmaru was DLC, finally the star of SoulCalibur VS The star of Haohmaru.
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Old 04-27-2021, 08:14 PM   #6
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MK4 underwhelmed me as well, but I was a big fan of "Deadly Alliance", "Deception" and "Armageddon". That brought me back. The reboot game was really, really good. "Injustice 2" might be my favorite fighting game ever. Technically not MK, but same company. I generally suck at fighting games but they've become infinitely more easy to pick up and play than the "classic" ones of yore. So anyone who's been "out of the loop" needn't feel intimidated, they're arguably easier to play now than ever before.

I think most people are in agreement that MK4 was the nadir of the main series. Everything after that was a pretty strong return to form, though.
I wonder how much of that was MK going to polygons instead of digitized actors. As a kid that made MK4 way less cool, and I heard that a lot.
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Old 04-27-2021, 08:21 PM   #7
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nobody cared about 2D in the 3D era, had MK4 been digitized actors it would've failed even more. Fighting games in general were a dead genre by the time MK4 came out so that also didn't help things. It was just a bad transition time for MK. It didn't help that it didn't have many iconic characters from the previous games, just the main characters. That's why Deadly Alliance was mostly promoted as a "new" mortal kombat despite being a sequel, they kill Liu Kang, the main character and Shao Kahn, the main villain in the opening cutscene.

MK11 character designs are awful, SJW at its worst, and isn't the story that they go back in time? MK needs to explore the world after the original trilogy. That's what I loved the most about the PS2 trilogy of games, it was fresh new story of the MK world and not a rehash like it's been the last 3 games.
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Old 04-27-2021, 08:22 PM   #8
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I wonder how much of that was MK going to polygons instead of digitized actors. As a kid that made MK4 way less cool, and I heard that a lot.
At the time, I remember it's launch in arcades - it looked good at the time. IT hasn't aged well... like N64.

But it was on fire for a while in arcades and the 3-D play mechanics were interesting - not quite Tekken, but added a dimension to the fighting just as much as the run button did in MK 3.
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Old 04-27-2021, 09:52 PM   #9
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With MK4, I think it was just overall a clunky attempt. It's been a while since I've played it; I don't remember it being "bad" but it felt slower, more clunky and less fluid than the first three. It looked okay but graphically lacked polish, and other fighting games had been doing 3D (or 2.5D) for a while already and MK was sort of a day late and a dollar short in finally jumping into that side of the pool. They tried some new things with it but they didn't quite land, like adding weapons. Not a bad idea but they were usually more trouble than they were worth.

Basically, at the time it came out it didn't feel like it did anything poorly, but it also didn't feel like it did anything "better" than most of the other contemporary fighting games were doing.

Taking a long break between MK4 and Deadly Alliance was smart, as Deadly Alliance really did feel more like a reinvention than "just" a sequel, and I think by that point it was necessary.

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Are you talking about SoulCalibur, as in part 1? Cause people are all up on part 6 nowadays. They actually added Haohmaru was DLC, finally the star of SoulCalibur VS The star of Haohmaru.
I mean that whole series. It's dead. The good thing about Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat coming back is that their reboots were good, but the bad thing is that the market can only sustain so many fighting games and pretty much everything that WASN'T SF or MK (or Injustice) had to go away.

Too bad. The SoulCalibur series was great, overall.
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Old 04-27-2021, 10:34 PM   #10
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MK11 character designs are awful, SJW at its worst, and isn't the story that they go back in time? MK needs to explore the world after the original trilogy. That's what I loved the most about the PS2 trilogy of games, it was fresh new story of the MK world and not a rehash like it's been the last 3 games.
Maybe at launch the character designs were...but there are plenty of non-SJW skins and costumes now. Skimpy ones for the chicks, even Sonya's MK3 outfit and so on.

MK11 is mostly about a new bad guy plucking MK characters from various times and places. In the story mode, a lot of older versions of characters meet their younger selves.

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Old 04-27-2021, 10:48 PM   #11
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MK11 along with the DLC is amazing. There's a few missing classic characters that didn't return that are still stuck in X though like Reptile, Goro, Ermac, Sektor/Cyborg, etc. I'm hoping MK11 gets more DLC and becomes an evergreen game instead of making MK12.
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Old 04-27-2021, 11:14 PM   #12
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I mean that whole series. It's dead. The good thing about Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat coming back is that their reboots were good, but the bad thing is that the market can only sustain so many fighting games and pretty much everything that WASN'T SF or MK (or Injustice) had to go away.

Too bad. The SoulCalibur series was great, overall.
I'm not sure I follow. Soul Calibur 6 only came out a couple of years ago and 7 may or may not be far behind at this point.
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Old 04-28-2021, 04:48 AM   #13
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Wow, I hadn't even heard that they were doing any more of them. I know that the last few didn't make much of an impact and I hadn't heard anything at all since the last one. Huh.

Well, that's a spot of good news.
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Old 04-28-2021, 05:22 AM   #14
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Yeah. Like, Soul Calibur's last game came out after Tekken 7... and Tekken 7 is still roaring. But the business model is changing. Rather than new #s every couple of years, now it's just more and more DLC for the last one. Apparently Soul Calibur 6 (like Tekken 7) will get another "season" of content soon.

I've been playing more of MK 11. Sheesh. Again, I always feel like I should preface any compliment of modern day MK with "It sucks they reverted from 3D to 2D gameplay!" (because it does -- there is no reason I shouldn't be able to dodge Scorpion's "get over here!!!" by just sidestepping, particularly in 2021 and particularly when something like Mortal Kombat vs. DCU got this so right years ago in 3D) but... this game is awesome. I was really worried it would feel like when I bought Deadly Alliance, or Deception ages ago... as in, I'd just quickly play the arcade/tower endings of all the characters and that's that, time to move on. Not so! The "Story Mode" of MK 11 alone is like a full on movie experience, with a good amount of interactivity. And it's good! And the tower stuff is fun, too. And the customization. Dabbing a bit into MK XL as well and it's pretty similar in these ways. I feel like this was money well spent.

Like, I just played Terminator vs. Rambo... and for my Fatality, Terminator got on a motorcycle and shotgunned Rambo to death. With the voices of both Stallone and Schwarzenegger at play. This is gold.

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Old 04-28-2021, 07:47 AM   #15
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I wish that SoulCalibur wasn't pretty much dead.
SoulCalibur 6 is active right now and there are some people online, which is also pretty good.

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Fighting games in general were a dead genre by the time MK4 came out so that also didn't help things.
Sorry, but this is completely wrong: at the time of MK4 release there were multiple popular fighting games around, which were huge at the time: Tekken, Dead or Alive, Virtua Fighter. Heck, there were bunch of 3D fightings on PlayStation 1 and Sega Saturn. Genre was from dead.

One of the reasons why MK4 ended up with a bad reputation it got, was that there were much better fighting games around. So much for "dead" genre.

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I mean that whole series.
New characters for SC6 was released just few months ago, but its dead. What.

Something like Virtua Fighter is dead - no new game in 10 years. SC is alive. Not in the best condition and its certainly Namco treats it like an unfavorite child, but its here and breathing.

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Old 04-28-2021, 07:58 AM   #16
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In my own defense, I don't ever play games online so I wouldn't have been aware of such things. Please take that into consideration before judging me too harshly. Thanks.

Given that I hadn't heard anything of SoulCalibur in a very long time, I'd assumed that it was dead. Clearly, that was an error. I appreciate that I was mistaken and also grateful to know that. I look forward to future games in the series. SoulCalibur II was the game that enticed me into giving fighting games another chance when it first came out, so I have great affection for the series as a whole.
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Old 04-28-2021, 08:21 AM   #17
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Honestly, my least favorite thing about the Mk games are the mechanics, sometimes. Compared to many other fighters, it feels stiff in a way that is stifling.

Not that I hate the gameplay. I just prefer Street Fighter.
That said, I've always played and loved Mk way more because of the characters and aesthetics.

MK11 might be one the best playing Mortal Kombat games though. It feels like the games keep getting better as of the last decade or so, which is great.
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Old 04-28-2021, 10:40 AM   #18
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Yeah. Like, Soul Calibur's last game came out after Tekken 7... and Tekken 7 is still roaring. But the business model is changing. Rather than new #s every couple of years, now it's just more and more DLC for the last one. Apparently Soul Calibur 6 (like Tekken 7) will get another "season" of content soon.

I've been playing more of MK 11. Sheesh. Again, I always feel like I should preface any compliment of modern day MK with "It sucks they reverted from 3D to 2D gameplay!" (because it does -- there is no reason I shouldn't be able to dodge Scorpion's "get over here!!!" by just sidestepping, particularly in 2021 and particularly when something like Mortal Kombat vs. DCU got this so right years ago in 3D) but... this game is awesome. I was really worried it would feel like when I bought Deadly Alliance, or Deception ages ago... as in, I'd just quickly play the arcade/tower endings of all the characters and that's that, time to move on. Not so! The "Story Mode" of MK 11 alone is like a full on movie experience, with a good amount of interactivity. And it's good! And the tower stuff is fun, too. And the customization. Dabbing a bit into MK XL as well and it's pretty similar in these ways. I feel like this was money well spent.

Like, I just played Terminator vs. Rambo... and for my Fatality, Terminator got on a motorcycle and shotgunned Rambo to death. With the voices of both Stallone and Schwarzenegger at play. This is gold.
That sounds awesome. But I'm stuck in the past with fighting games. I got into Street Fighter II in the arcade in, I think it was like 7th or 8th grade. Followed those for years. But even with that history of gameplay, there are only a few that I'd want to dabble in again for fun.

Maybe Tekken 3, which was an amazing game at the time. I might've had Tekken Tag Tournament on PS2 but after that, nothing. I'm curious as to how far along that series has come now. I just remember that Tekken's "counter and reversal" function was amazing and added so much depth to a fighter.

I was really excited when they added a version of that to Street Fighter IV as well - I wouldn't mind playing that one again too....

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Old 04-28-2021, 10:56 AM   #19
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This damn conversation makes me want to find a Tekken game, SF IV. And then I saw this:



Now that's something I could see having that would really draw me in to these again. Ugh.

Does anyone know if there is any kind of Tekken Compilation that houses maybe Tekken 1 - 3? Not that Tag Tournament games, but a legit comp.
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Old 04-28-2021, 11:00 AM   #20
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Andrew, now that you mention it, I'm totally ready for MK to go three-dimensional again. I think the 2D style was a fantastic choice for the "rebirth" of the series in MK9, and I'm glad they built upon that formula, but I think it's time for them to freshen it up again and take us back to 3D.

The latest rumor is that Netherrealm is working on a Marvel game...and it's a pretty strong rumor, so that's probably what we are looking at next.
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