Mortal Combats

[AndrewTS 0]

Stolen from: Kotaku who stole it from someone else.

 

http://kotaku.com/gaming/ed-boon/mortal-ko...ious-254181.php

 

In a new interview with Midway's Ed Boon, the Mortal Kombat creator speaks again on the next version of the long-running fighting game. Although the series has undergone a host of massive changes—from 2D to 3D, from hand-to-hand to weapons-based—Boon says we can expect even bigger changes for the successor to last year's Mortal Kombat Armageddon.

 

He tells CVG that Mortal Kombat VIII will be "a lot more realistic-looking... we're not going to joke around in this one." I guess that means no more chess, puzzle games, babalities or karting. Boon has previously mentioned his admiration for the look and feel of Epic's Gears of War. In addition to changing the aesthetics to something "grittier", Boon reveals that weapons-based combat and multiple fighting styles may be out the window. When will we see these changes? Not until 2008.

 

Look, all I care about is that the cheese factor is turned down. That means cool it with the goofy costumes, the robo-ninjas, and the sixty-four character roster. Michael McWhertor

 

Interview link: http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=162372

[Black Lushus 0]

it's like...the whole Mortal Kombat series could have been so much better than it's been...I can't quite pinpoint how, but SOMETHING could just be better, you know?

[AndrewTS 0]

Like, if Deception and Armageddon hadn't been done, dragging the creaky Deadly Alliance engine back?

 

And if instead of them a truely new game was made that was *at least* on par with DoA2's fighting engine?

 

Shaolin Monks was a good time, I think--nonsensical plotholes and all.

[Black Lushus 0]

you could be on to something...I just can't put my finger on it...the backstory, the characters, Boon and Tobias created a pretty interesting world, but after I would say 3, it all went to shit.

[razazteca 0]

What having Scorpion/Sub-Zero having clones that represented every color in the rainbow was a bad idea?

[Ripper 0]

I don't know video games. Has Ed boon done, I don't know, ANYTHING else for the last 15 year? I mean seriously, dude....expand your thinking. Mortal Kombat is never going to be as popular as it once was.

[Black Lushus 0]

I don't know video games. Has Ed boon done, I don't know, ANYTHING else for the last 15 year? I mean seriously, dude....expand your thinking. Mortal Kombat is never going to be as popular as it once was.

 

100% with my man Rip here...Mortal Kombat was an interesting concept, what, 15 years ago?

 

Again, so much potential, so little delivery

[Anya 0]

Ed and his team did The Grid since MK.....

 

As long as he is in charge the games will never have good gameplay. He doesn't understand fighting games. He has no clue about even the basics of good game design. MK is a situation where a casual player is supposed to be designing for a very complex genre.

 

As far as the story goes they're just making it up as they go along and it is all based on the gameplay. There's so many retcons and contradictions because they write the story around the game not the other way around. If Ed Boon wants a character, background or whatever in the game then Tobias or Vogel have to find a way to write it in. The story is one of the last things they deal with.

 

In a lot of ways the story was never that good to begin with. They had a pretty cool setting with good atmosphere and level design. They got real lucky with the movie. A great deal of the most beloved characterizations are from that and have made their way into the games afterwards.

[AndrewTS 0]

Wait, Tobias?

 

Are we talking past tense here? I thought Tobias was long gone from Midway?

[Anya 0]

I guess I should have said Tobias and Vogel. Both had to do it.

 

Like take Smoke. They decide in MK3 to get rid of the regular ninja palatte swaps and have robots. Ok fine. But then they decide they want Smoke back and to have him playable. Since they can't cheaply put him in as a ninja like in MK II they make up a plot twist where he's now a cyber ninja. Ok...but then in UMK3 they have ninjas back and fans demanded the regular Smoke so they put in a human Smoke too and Tobias writes up some lame ending about it. Then they decide to take it back and make it "non canon" for Trilogy. One small thing becomes insanely convoluted just because they wanted another palatte swap....

[AndrewTS 0]

I like how Cyber Smoke apparently still has his soul but the others did not.

 

Lin Kuei apparently didn't perfect their soul-removal technology and it slipped in to cyber-Smoke. Was it, like, hiding behind his kidney?

 

Plus they can apparently shoot whatever the hell they want out of their chest but chose not to always use it. Smoke has a bajillion bombs in there for his fatality but doesn't use it during battle while Cyrax does. And Smoke shot missiles out his chest in MK Annihilation, but he never does in the game.

[Anya 0]

You could say that about every Fatality though. How come Stryker doesn't just bomb them in round 1? How come Kung Lao's hat only cuts them in half at the end? Why doesn't Jax grow big and just step on Shao Kahn from the start? Why does Jax grow big in the first place?

 

Cyrax got his soul back too, somehow from a machine Sonya and Jax had. I'm not sure how that works. Maybe a gypse curse.

[AndrewTS 0]

I don't mean "why don't they do fatalities right away?", I mean "why does Smoke *only* use those bombs then?"

 

The answer if course is that they already set Cyrax's stuff and everything Smoke does uses existing animations (teleport uppercut, his chest hatch opening for the spear, etc.).

 

Although there are games where you can basically finish the match at any time with instant kill moves (Guilty Gear for instance, Killer Instince Gold is a bit lenient with its dead moves, and others).

 

Cyrax got his soul back too, somehow from a machine Sonya and Jax had. I'm not sure how that works. Maybe a gypse curse.

 

OMG Sonya is a witch!

 

Why does Jax grow big in the first place?

 

Mushrooms? Steroids?

 

Oh, I have it--the cyber-enhancements!

[Anya 0]

Oh, well I've ranted about that too. Maybe you could say something like Smoke's bombs are SO powerful they can only be used in that Fatality. Cyrax's just make you fly up in the air.

[Dobbs 3K 0]

The whole video capture animation thing got really old and really overused pretty quickly in the mid '90s.