I just watched the first episode of the new Mortal Kombat web series, and I must ask… why? Why is this even being made? Why would half decent actors agree to take part in a project this bad? And most importantly, why in the world do people even like Mortal Kombat?
The last question there is the one that bugs me the most. The Mortal Kombat games have never, ever been good. That’s not even opinion, I’ll go on record and say it’s fact. The fighting system is about as deep and interesting as the cast of Jersey Shore. If you want depth in your fighting games, go play any number of the Street Fighter or Dead or Alive games. It’s not “depth” when the winner of any given MK match is determined by whoever memorized the longest preset combo.
Okay, so if the gameplay isn’t why Mortal Kombat became successful, it must be the story, right? Wrong. The only thing more boring and uninteresting than the gameplay are the characters. Don’t try to tell me that the Sub-Zero/Scorpion fued is good. I’ve seen the warring ninja clans storyline used a few dozen times before, and they were all better than MK’s. Is it the Sonya/Jax vs. Kano fued? Not a chance. Again, it’s a tired old cliché storyline that’s been done a million times before. Cops fighting foreign terrorist arms dealers? How original… Hell, John McClane could have taken care of Kano in 90 minutes and we’d all be saved MK’s tiresome attempts at storytelling.
Let’s be honest here, the only reason Mortal Kombat gained any kind of popularity was because of the fatalities. I remember crowds of people standing around the arcade cabinets pushing their way to the front to see these acts of violence. Don’t get me wrong, I’m certainly not against violence in videogames, as some of my favorite games are bloody as hell. The difference here though, is that throughout the entire run of MK games, there has been no other reason to play these games. Their popularity (and thusly sales) are entirely unjustified. If it weren’t for the fatalities, MK would be commonly lumped in with other fighting games of the time like Eternal Champions and that shitty Justice League fighter on the Genesis.
I cringed the entire 12 minutes of the Mortal Kombat web episode. The script was clearly written by a 12 year old, and the acting was atrocious. Jeri Ryan, Michael Jai White, and Tahmoh Penikett are all decent actors, but even they couldn’t make the lines coming from their mouths bearable. Okay, so MK is a fighting game, not a drama, so the action must be good at least, right? Wrong again. The fight choreography was lame, and the editing even worse.
So now we have a new Mortal Kombat game coming out next week. It’s a “return to the roots” of the franchise, according to the devs. Maybe they should “return to the drawing board” and come up with something original, creative, and fun to play, because this sure as hell won’t be. I’m not a bias gamer at all, just the opposite in fact. I will give any game a chance before criticizing it. I’ve played through the new MK demo a couple times now. Will I be buying it? Fuck no.
You seem like a really disgusting person.
Why do you say that? Because I expect innovation from games, and not just the same tired old formula? The whole “If it ain’t broke” mentality is ruining the game industry. How many truly innovative games came out in the last year? Now compare that to the number of sequels to popular franchises. I’d rather have something new and fresh than another generic Call of Duty clone. You can’t argue that MK has brought anything new, other than the fatalities, to the genre… and that was 19 years ago. What has MK done new since then? Absolutely nothing. I’m not trying to be confrontational or anything – I love games, and I truly want to see amazing products. There are a ton of extremely talented developers out there, but they’re bound to corporate BS and don’t have the freedom to make the games that they want to. I just don’t want people to feel like they need to “settle” for below average junk like MK. If the consumers demand more, we’ll get more. -Squirrel
Excellent constructive criticism, Phil.
…Yes, that’s sarcasm.
Squirrel, I think the “if it’s not break, don’t fix it” phrase doesn’t apply here. Mortal Kombat was a broken franchise and this “re-boot” helps bring it back to the original vibe and introduce a lot more as well. But something like Call of Duty….Not okay to just keep re-hashing the EXACT same thing and throw in a different nonsensical story each time, lol.
i agree with you, i think who ever owns the rights to mortal kombat is snorting to much cocaine cause he or she clearly doesn’t have any taste left in their head, nothing original has come from them in a long time, the game started to get worse after the third installment, and now i have to bear thru the episodes just to find out why they suck so much, honestly i have lost all respect for the entertainment, maybe they want to get a lot of meth heads hooked on the show, cause that’s the only crowd i could see liking this garbage, maybe this is ok for Europe standards,