MK used to have 2 light and 2 heavy attacks (punch/kick) and a block button. Bring it back to that., keep it simple, didge weapons and all that crap.
Make it 2D again.
In the first and 2nd game, they were using actors. That, for me, is an important part of MK's identity. Make it that again. Or use 3D that makes us believe it's real (not shiny, no over the edge anatomy except for monsters).
Make fatalities hard to perform and hard to remember.
Make it fun to play again!

Poison

Hopefully more quality will be included in there too. Something that's been lacking in almost all of the MK games.

t0yrobo

I've pretty much given up on MK v DC as a concept.
True, if it turns out to be face meltingly awesome then, sure I'll make my apologies and play the damned game but as it stands I'm just unimpressed with everything I've seen.

On he concept of a "Grim n' Gritty" Mortal Kombat...I'm of two minds on the whole idea.

The thing is that the MK games have always had an interesting balance of serious and bloody supernatural action and over the top cartoonish kung-fu silliness.

Tipping the scale one way or the other may not be the best idea in the world.

But then again if it means I don't have to put up with characters who's entire move set is based on farts and vomit then I guess I can take a more serious edge.

Lastly, if I might make a suggestion for any future MK game?
Stop with the Dial-A-Combo gameplay, it's tedious and lacking in skill.

Diddy_Mao

Mortal Kombat has been a dead, lifeless franchise for ever. Bury horse, she's dead.

DwindleFlip

@SynKade:
I think in this case you're not exactly understanding the fighting game community. Consider a fighting game sequel to be an evolution of a ruleset for say, a sport and you're getting there. When I play, Guilty Gear X3, as a hypothetical example, I don't want a 3D Tekken style fighter with an all-new cast and aesthetic and everything else, I want an evolution of the game with balance issues smoothed out, a few characters added to the roster to round out gameplay and maybe a few new perks. If I wanted to play an all-new ground-breaking fighting game... I'd try.. you know, a new fighting game. That's just kind of the way it works with fighters, and you know, even to an extent sequels of any real compareable MP game. If you want originality, why are you looking to a sequel for it?

Evdor

@marmidukestank: It honestly hasn't, but I don't see what the babalities have to do with anything. Having a silly sense of humour doesn't preclude being mature (see: Hideo Kojima)

frostcircus

Since when has MK been mature?

I mean... babalities?

marmidukestank

I don't understand why people are complaining.

People bitch when a game evolves (Burnout Paradise being an obvious choice) and people bitch when a game remains the same (too many to name). Everyone says they want the industry to advance but they stiffle any opportunity to advance when everyone is constantly upset. It is nigh impossible to find a balance between keeping the game the same while adding something meaningful.

I look at Gears of War 2 and I see what people are saying about it. "New weapons! New Characters! New Executions!" But not a single one of those things changes the game, it's merely add-on content they could have easily put out as a download for the first game. "It has better graphics!" That doesn't change a thing unless the game is jumping from a 2-D environment to a 3-D environment.

For the past several iterations the Mortal Kombat games have tried to find a balance. They had 3 fighting styles, then two, then fatalities were changed into a chain system and with every change people bitched.

Do we really want the games we love to be stiffled? Do we really want the games we had form the 90s? If you love the games from 'Back In the Day' then go play them, don't ask the game developers to continue to rehash the same game over and over again.

SynKade

1) scrap that 3D shit

2) rewind like 13 years back to around mkIII days

3) keep it old school

then you will have an MK game worth developing

willz0rz

Being an MK fan for the last 15 years I was extremely disappointed when I first heard of this. But the more I see, the more it seems like it might actually not be that bad. Fatalities are still in, blood is still there, classic MK characters are still there, and the best part is that apparently the dial-a-combos are gone as well in favor of a different combo set. I hope it's more fluid, and so far that's how it looks, but I guess we'll have to wait and see. Not on my must have list, but definitely something to keep my eye on.

Nutlink

So they're actually considering MK vs DCU to be a core entry into the series?

munkah

@BelmontHeir: Maybe the fans of that time but remember, fan bases fluctuate, new fans are always comming in and old ones are always leaving. Hopefully MKvsDC will bring in more fans so when MK9 rolls out they will sell more.

@fl3tcher: There should be no doubt in anybodies mind that MKvsDC is simply a marketing ploy. But that hardly means it will be mediocre. Should the game be mediocre then the game won't sell well and that means the chances of MK9 being made will be a lot slimmer which also means there will be less money to be made. Having the people who are actually responsible for the entire MK series create the game instead of handing it off to someone else adds a bit of credibility to me. While the MK franchise hasn't exactly been astounding as of late it certainly hasn't be deplorable. Have a little faith. If the last entry or so in the series has put you off maybe this one will rope you back in, while blood has been toned down, it appears to be a bit of a return to form in my opinion. It looks, to me, as if they are trying to go back to the first two games in the franchise (don't ask me why, I think it has to do with the game being a bit slower this time around but I'm not entirely sure).

SynKade

I'm actually interested in both games now. When the original MK8 was announced, I cringed because "darker and edgier" needs desperately to bugger off. And when MKvDC was announced, I cringed because... MKvDC was announced.

But I have now made my peace with both. The videos of MKvDC look genuinely fun, and while I wish they'd make the DC characters look better, the ridiculously colourful graphic style is quite pleasing to look at.

But there's only so much of that you can take, so going in the exact opposite direction for the next game seems like the smart move.

My favourite gameplay for MK9 would be a blend of MK, Fight Night and Bushido Blade. So you've got the larger than life characters with special moves, a close-quarters fighting system based more on reaction and strategy than on 'learning a character,' and finally the ability for death to come out of nowhere. I'm talking mid-fight fatalities. Make them avoidable, but make them available. That'd give the game more grit than all the desaturation in the world.

frostcircus

@everybest:

Indeed, Soul Calibur 4, Street Fighter IV, they couldn't have picked a worse time.

AlbenoEpiX

Not to piss off any fans of the 3-D Mortal Kombat games, but didn't most MK fans kind of tune out after Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3? That's the last MK game I remember anybody giving a real hoot about. MK is synonymous for me with the booming arcade scene of the early 90's, the implementation of a video game ratings system, and motion-captured human actors digitized into the characters. Although MK vs. DC is a gimmick, it's not necessarily a bad one...Batman vs Scorpion may be a cool enough tussle to get many lapsed fans like me interested in the franchise again.

BelmontHeir

YAWN.

stranger

I can see it in my minds eye. There will be a grittier darker bloddier MK9. Most likely it will be justified to be made without the DC license since I heard that a MK remake movie is in the works.

JASONSPAZ

I still think MK vs DC is a giant cash in from both franchises, to make a mediocre fighter have a new gimmic (other than blood).

The blood thing MK had before (though it was a gimmick) was great though, as it gave the game a lot more personality (which made up for its lack of depth).

Them removing the over the top violence, and replacing it with Superheroes has me extremely worried.

fl3tcher

This is the only upcoming fighter I care nothing about.

everybest

I'm still curious about what kind of story mode attributes the MK vs. DC game will have

grifmasta

The gaming industry needs to impose fines on any spokesperson or figure who uses the phrase "dark" or "gritty".

What does that mean anymore?

TRT-X

@TRT-X: "We make videogames"

frostcircus

That'll be interesting.

KM91

Gee, I bet Itagaki's available to at least consult on a new MK. A decent fighting mechanic as in Dead or Alive combined with the fatalaties and blood of Ninja Gaiden.

Tyrannical

i remember back in 1995-96 when boon said that mk3( or 4 not to sure ), would be the last of the MK series becasue he wanted to go out on top. or something along those lines

@Poison:
how about 3d motion capture?

phatnacky

@TRT-X: The gaming industry needs to impose fines on any spokesperson or figure who uses the phrase "dark" or "gritty".

Not when the person saying it is the one behind a series that practically defined those terms in the fighting genre. They've earned the right to describe/make whatever they want.

I look forward to a return to form. MK vs. DC doesn't interest me in the least, but if they manage to fix/replace the flawed system they've been using since MK:DA with MK vs DC, then manage to apply that to a "true" MK game, count me in.

KaneRobot

If MK vs DC does well? So lots and lots of people have to buy that crap if we want to see an MK game worth buying?

This is like the videogame equivalent of taking a "pretty shit", but only if your "ugly shit" goes over well after you forget to flush it.

Annex1

What Mortal Kombat needs is a faster combat pace. It feels like punch - stop - kick - stop - fireball.

Since the jump to 3D none of the games have had fluid combat - it feels like a bunch of people who are exhausted are fighting. They should maybe take that fighting engine and make a game where elderly people fight to the death.

Kanik

Mortal Kombat in 3D = dead to me. That is all.

Ctsephy

@fl3tcher: I'm not convinced that making it "more M" is what this franchise needs. Mortal Kombat is over the top. It has always been over the top. In this sense, its maturity was never based in grit or realism, but just how much laughable gore they could fit onto a screen. If they are looking to make the series respectable (in figures other than sales, or popularity with 13 year old boys), I think they should actually cut back on how much blood gushes out of your opponents spine when you double slice their arms off, rip a leg off and triple kick their face, perfectly puncturing both eyes and breaking the nose, before ripping the other leg off and decapitating them.

Yeah, they have a lot of re-imagining to do.

Krytha

how can mk get any "darker"? it seemed pretty dark to me.. So are they gonna allow you to perform a fatality then go to the other fighters home and tell his family hes dead then laugh in their face?

toneboat923

@fl3tcher: Remember, and no fatalities.

How can you have Kool-Aid without water?

PsycheE

I would like to see a classic MK game where you can put in your own character model like mk 1,2,3 style... sighs... A man can dream cant he

Moopman133

@Shiryu: Yeah, I quit playing around 3, because it didn't really live up to 2. It seem like three turned into a lot of infinite juggling, run-spamming, and cheese for the most part, and I think it went downhill from there.

Ampillion, Dayman. Fighter of the Nightman.

GOOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

MK needs to take a cue from SF4 & get back to it's old roots.

string_theory

I don't understand how come they never manage to beat Mortal Kombat II...

Shiryu

@toneboat923:

I think they mean specifically in terms of the way it'll compare to the more recent release featuring the DC superheroes.

Werrick

I'd love to see them do Mortal Kombat IX, bring back the roman numerals, based the character roster on MKII, make it grittier, design something new for fatalities, but keep them in there, as well as improving the combat system.

ShadowFFVI

I've always been a big Mortal Kombat fan, though I admit I was a little skeptic about this whole MKvDC thing. But after watching it in action at E3 and reading about impressions on it, I feel a lot more confident this'll be a game worth getting. Sure it's not in the same league as Soul Calibur or Street Fighter, but that doesn't mean it's not a damn good fighting game.

Also, if Marvel vs. Capcom can work, then surely Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe can too. From what I've seen so far, it's shaping up to be a great crossover fighter.

MeleeKirby

HEY BOON! This is what you need to do...
1) Dig up all production videos/photos/props from Mortal Kombat II

2) Remake Mortal Kombat II, but with HD graphics using the original production photos

3) Release it in arcades, PSN, and Xbox live arcade.

4) Feel the earth shake when millions of fans jump up for joy

Ed_209

That's the kind of Mortal Kombat I've been waiting for since Mortal Kombat 4 came out, specially after everything that came out after that one, I hope they do a story change, better modeling of the characters, like a bit more realistic to real people to homage the old MKs with photorealistic sprites, and ,of course, get rid of characters like Borraicho which have pun names which are not serious at all. I hope they pull it right this time. But I want them to try and capture the feeling of old games like MK2, though I think getting that into a 3D game would be kind of impossible.

4ny0n3

@PsycheE: But that's not entirely true. All the MK characters and any "evil" DC characters do have Fatalities. Only goodie-goodies like Superman and Batman are stripped of the ability to kill in visually awesome ways.

Anyways, I think the series lost me after MK2 or when they started utilizing weaponry like big swords and crap. It's like they forgot what MK was about and tried to ape everything from Street Fighter to Soul Calibur. I've started to hear some positive things about MK vs. DC though, like an attempt to recapture the "feel" of MK2. If nothing else, I might at least try a rental...

AngryEddy

All they need to do is remake MKII with maybe a few additional features but keeping the gameplay intact and releasing it on PSN/XBLA. MKII on PSN is an excellent addition but it's still the arcade port which IMO wasn't really the best version of that game. The SNES version is the best version and they should build upon that. They should also get rid of the button mashes and useless combos. No special move should be more complicated than ->->-> X.

gencid

The success of MK vs DC has been decided, it's going to at least do well enough to merit another MK game =P

Absent Blue

Why couldn't they release this first and then worked on the shitty DC one later on ?

CalAnubis

@Monsieur Fap★Fap!: I've felt this way about the last few games too. The only 3D game with the speedy pace of the 2D games is Mortal Kombat 4, anyone remember that?

MeleeKirby

Mortal Kombat's biggest problem to me is how slow and weighty it plays. For a game that is so over the top, in terms of violence and stuff, you have to wonder why the Hell the keep making the physics and character weight more on the realistic side than not.
Sure the MK games have never been as zippy as Street Fighter, but the last few MK games have felt like moving around a bag of bricks.
Speed the game up and stop worrying about realistic fighting patterns (and then combining that with dial-a-combos of all things) and I think MK would be a lot more fun again.

Monsieur Fap★Fap!

If they just made another MK like MK 2 then we'd be in business!

TheGunnz

It's a welcome transition, but it won't be done right -- they'll have the exact same art style, but with a darker color palette. A true return to form would mean making the character models photorealistic and doing away with poorly executed animations. Imagine Mortal Kombat with the art style of Uncharted: Drake's Fortune. It would also have to tone down the cheesiness already inherent with the first MK game. Best of luck, MK team.

ChiChi_BBQ

I support MK all the way! It's the funny guys' fighting franchise. The games have never been super complex or simple, but it's always fun and the violence just makes me laugh out loud. I hope that MK9 doesn't completely due away with the bright colors, but I would love to see the designs look less like 80's super hero costumes.

Ryodestined

I wouldn't mind if MK9 looks a bit like Gears of War.

The Question

Id rather not have it look like gears of war, and have it look more like MK2/3.

I dont get why they decided to make the characters so thick and bulky. Its just not cool.

It would be cool to see the characters as cheezy and photoreal as possible. BMX gear? CHECK! Cheesy poses? CHECK! Ridiculous amount of blood and gore? CHECK!
FRIENDSHIPS? DOUBLE CHECK!!!

Come on Midway!!!

Altima NEO

Good to hear.

Now make it like MK2.

Dekabreak

I just have no faith in this game. DC characters just look too...well, comical for MK. I'll consider playing the game if I hear good stuff about it.

It's just too weird-looking.

Lainface

@BelmontHeir: You make good points here. I agree with MK being synonymous with the arcade heyday, digitized graphics, and playing a major part in the advent of the rating system for games. The series did make a huge overhaul when they released Deadly Alliance, though. The game was really solid, and managed to maintain some fans. Sadly, you are right, though. The craze just isn't the same as it was in the early nineties. Especially with 1 and 2. A lot of that can also be attributed to the whole quick, twitch gameplay of the early nineties, and popularity of arcades. Now, gaming is much more involved, and fighting games, while still good, just aren't as popular a genre anymore. Even with that said, I really hope they do make a proper MK 9, and that it turns out well. Cut the cheesy crap out, make it dark and serious, and get some better animation for crying out loud!

HanJeSu

I love 2D Nazis.

Is it really that difficult to grasp 'sidestepping'? After all, its the only way in which 3D really changes the fight...

There is absolutely NO reason for 2D. 3D art can be made to look 2D. If you want to spend the entire fight jumping over your opponents head to get behind them, rather than sidestepping, do it. Contrary to popular believe, the fact that it is in 3D is not an excuse for the game's performance, or the fighting engine's shortcomings.

Wanting 2D its pure nostalgia, nothing more. 2D is just kept around to be rekindled. If you want MK I-III so badly, play them.

Bergerac

@OnimousDante: Agreed. The animation needs some serious improvement, as well. It was always cheesy, blocky, and just never looked that good. I really hope they improve that.

HanJeSu

mortal kombat was always mature i remember playing deadly alliance the opening was friggen epic.The only thing that needs changing is their fighting engine. its too horrid.

OnimousDante

MK 2 was awesome the other MKs are absolute crap.
My issues with MK;
1) This is my mega issue the controls are so slow its unreal and it made me turn back the game.
2) too much blood, I don't know why its not a grossed out thing but all the blood puts me off it just seems so more implemented more than the fucking broken controls.
3) it fails in comparison to its other rivals. I still prefer soul calibre purely cus the smoother system controls and theres more fun to it.
4) the constant releases; what the hell is with all the releases just die already

SteveeVader

@Bergerac: Hmm..was someone saying they wanted it back to 2D? I was scanning through and didn't find that. Of course, I might have missed that. I was just agreeing that its most popular days were during that era, not that we should have another 2D MK. Keep it 3D, just fix some of the crap that needs fixing. From what I've seen so far, they've changed around the fighting engine some, and it looks fun. I just wish they would fix the animation, change the voices (I'm tired of them yelling out corny, steroid induced jibberish), and cut out the cheese factor. From the videos, it looks like that is still in there, though. Oh well...I'll live.

HanJeSu

I dont like how the new 3d Mortal Kombat's fighters are all jacked out crazy on steroids.. theyre all 6 foot 12 monsters.. need some variations..

dapoktan

@dapoktan: Let's round 6'12" to a nice "7 feet"...

AngryEddy

big letdowns for me in mk vs dc: 1: not that much, if at all, blood. 2: no fatalities. and i havnt baught a mk game in years, so i think i'll wait till mk9

soldier148

See , Kotaco had me worried when they posted mk8 was scrapped for mk vs dc. I'm not worried so much anymore. One more real MK to mess around with. Can't wait to try this one out...

CancerMan

During the big move to more eight way movement in fighters I think MK just got left behind. There is such a severe lack of fluidity in the movements of all of the characters. It bugs the shit out of me. I bought MK:DA and Armageddon and traded them both back in within a week.

Eville1

Wait, a dark and gritty Mortal Kombat? Somehow I don't remember early installments of Mortal Kombat being all smiles and sunshine.

ManekiNeko

@ManekiNeko: You mean with the exception of Friendships and Babalities I assume.

Eville1

@Bergerac:
Not entirely true. Collision detection, frames of animation, etc. would work differently in 2D than 3D. These definitely form part of any fighter's "feel".

RigorMortis

icommented earlyer it did not come up on the site that is why i said sorry

NAURTO101

hi

NAURTO101

sorry about that

NAURTO101

I never really thought of MK as dark. I always thought of it as videogame's equivalent of trashy 80's american kung-fu/action hits. If anything I'd like to see them try and make it more campy and playful. Violence and blood is overdone, and I really doubt they could stand out with increasing that.

raiseplease

can anybody type every time icomment nobody talks to me can you guys even type

NAURTO101

by the way im new here

NAURTO101

Since when did any game in the Mortal Kombat series have any sort of "form"?

Shakespeare

Less-buff, leaner and faster mechanics = auto-buy.

Fallible

@marmidukestank:

Hmmm....you know that ESRB has been created with the release of the original MK? That was so violent....pulling out spine or heart out of a digitalized human body was the goriest things ever seen in a video game at that time.

Babalities and Frienships were just a bit of humor added in MK2, a game that was gorier than its predecessor. And the best of the series, without a doubt. MK2, or nothing.

theblob

Mortal Kombat needs to give it a serious rest. They need something new with maybe a few cameo appearances to smooth the transition.

The whole fatality/blood thing needs to be modified into a feature, not a reason to buy the game.

shredmanifesto

I cant wait for a mortal kombat as we all know it. I couldnt care less about a "teen" mortal kombat

DawnOfAshes666