Sorry if this is late, but I was bored and curious about what ppl thought lol...
Sorry also if I wrote a book! O_O
I pick my character based on many factors: personality, back story, and POWERS and/or cool-looking moves (cool-looking combos are a plus but not mandatory). I especially like NATURAL powers (not powers that characters get from accidents, e.g., or different kinds of technology).
I'm also kinda a goodie-two-shoes that tends to pick 'good' characters to play cos I want to relate to their values and game characters sometimes are the best role models for me in life (esp. when I was a kid!), but I like a powerful villain too, to challenge them...
I actually usually don't like playing human characters, either, but in MKX, most characters are humans and develop their powers through training anyway, so EARNED skills and powers can be as cool or cooler to me than superpowers
I used to be a HUGE Street Fighter fan. I'm OLDER than probably anyone on this freakin' site (maybe not Tom Brady, but otherwise lol...) so I grew up with the SF2 games and used ALL characters and almost all of them were my favorite at some point, and those games were about cool fighting skills and styles (martial arts, special forces and such), and super powers and tech rarely played a part (except for Bison's/Vega's psycho drive to steal opponents' powers or energy to defeat more opponents in the future).
Some posters might have guessed I was a HUGE Transformers cartoon fan cos Protectobots are a sub-group of Autobots from the original G1 TFs cartoon lol. I used to LOVE robots, but then I saw the Justice League cartoon and after watching a few gameplay vids of Injustice, I got back into NRS games cos I'm definitely a DC fan (Marvel to some extent but not as much). MK games these days have much more depth and better combos (I think...I haven't played all of them yet.).
My main was Raven for IJ, but I liked MMH, but so many ppl complained about him being OP and the undisputed best character so I didn't use him as much cos it felt like cheating lol, but I LOVE his combos and attacks/powers. Big surprise that I like Supes, and guess which character I'll being using most in IJ2 if Starfire from Teen Titans isn't in the game later, or Black Canary?
On the other hand, I'm a Batman fan like 99.9999% of the planet lol, cos I like characters without powers as well if they are badass fighting specialists, and I don't mean with WEAPONS almost exclusively, cos someone like Deathstroke might be fun to play against, but I feel kinda like Bats, coincidentally, cos I don't like guns (BORING!). Bats uses technology but he's a master martial artist, so I can forgive his need of tech to fight someone like Supes sometimes!
I mostly remembered playing MK2 and MK3 a little as a teen, and I liked mostly (in no set order), Jax, Kung Lao, Sub-Zero, and Liu Kang. I liked Jax's 'GOTCHA!' and ground pound and purple projectile with that 'WHOOSH!' sound; I liked KL's teleport that you could cancel into a tele-kick; Sub-Zero's freeze attacks were awesome; and Liu Kang had that SWEET Dragon fatality and got the low fireball and PAINFUL bicycle kick that did 25% damage each time lol and he was supposed to be the best fighter cos he won the first tournament back then (I think).
I HATED how Jax's arms got ripped off by Ermac (DAMN him), and I LOVE telekinesis so he was like the Raven of the MK games but I'm mad at him for what he did to Jax (I like the sound of Jax's metal arms connecting on opponents but I preferred human arms for his powers instead), and his powers and general existence weren't quite natural cos I like characters that seemed like they were guaranteed to exist at some point. (Powers received through accidents are based on 'what if?' scenarios and I like guaranteed or developed powers, although you could argue' what if Supergirl and Supes never left their homeworld and never had a way to trigger and discover their powers?)
...which brings me to god characters like Raiden, whom never caught my interest until MKX and MK9 to an extent, ironically, but Thunder God Raiden's lightning strings look AWESOME and I love teleports and teleport attacks but having to choose between Displacer and TG to get his lightning strings OR his teleport is frustrating for me
MOS doesn't seem viable to use, either...but otherwise an awesome gimmick lol
I only started playing the game recently so I didn't get to use pre-patch TG Raiden anyway.
I recently picked up Takeda cos I love his machine gun-esque punch and his teleport punch, but I'm yet ANOTHER Kung Jin main for now cos he's easier to use and still fun for me; despite relying heavily on weapons to fight, which I usually avoid when picking a character hehheh. It feels almost like cheating but I love how I have a hit-confirmable combo started from a fast jump-in with lots of range and priority!
Hopefully I'll be able to develop Takeda and even get BACK to Raiden cos I think Raiden's just a badass character in general but his playstyle is frustrating still for me atm...