t3kwytch3r
Stone-Kold-Zoner
This will be a long post, so bear with me.
As most of you know (or could safely assume), i am a huge MK fan. Been playing it since i was 4. The Komedy, violence and secrets, as well as the ability to progress in skill, have always appealed to me deeply. More so for nostalgia in recent years, but still relevant.
Killer Instinct has always very much been a B-Tier thing for me that i barely knew existed. My next door neighbour in childhood had the game, and a SNES, but despite it looking interesting i couldnt figure it out. And since i didn't own it, i didnt' care to learn.
Fast forward many years, past the MK3D era and now both these franchises have rebooted. KI in particular was a surprise, as it had way less exposure over the years and thus, the characters all went through interesting modernisations and overhauls of their design. As for MK9, you know i bought and ate that shit up. It literally threw me back to my childhood bedroom. Suddenly i'm playing MK Trilogy again, but i'm better at it. And the game is better! Nostalgic yet new. Perfect, as long as you're not SO good that the balance issues are obvious (i sucked, so they weren't).
Alas, i didn't own an Xbox One, so i never got to try Killer Instinct. No one i knew played it either, excluding one friend of mine who much preferred shooters, so the game was relegated to obscure status for me again.
Fast forward again, to the present. Maximillian Dood starts this hashtag about bringing KI back. This piques my interest, so i decide to look at the games systems and characters after watching Maxs video. Nearly melted my brain reading about the combo system, but i vaguely understand it now. I also immediately notice how "Ultra Combos" are essentially PG UMK3 Brutalities. Interesting. I watch a few tournament matches, can't understand a thing happening, but the characters look awesome, the gameplay is fast and looks fun and each character looks like they wouldn't be out of place in MK.
So i decide to check out retro KI. The OG. I watch a couple youtube videos And what do i discover?
1: It was also made by Midway
2: There were finishing moves! Not as well defined or violent as MK fatalities, but they were there, and they definitively confirmed your opponent was DEAD. Ultra Combos were like brutalities, but then there was also some moves that were essentially fatalities, but it wasn't obvious how those moves were activated.
3: Stage. Fatalities. I saw at least 2, there was definitely room for more. Almost identical to any OG mk stage fatality, essentially knocking the opponent off a high building for them to fall to their death.
This really surprised me, as i'm fairly sure there's no moves in the latest KI that imply the death of your opponent. But there could be! I can easily picture Brutality like slicings and explosions, and i can certainly picture some adaptation of the Ultra Combo where you stop the combo and have a brief moment to input the secret command for a more cinematic finishing move... a Fatality.
Similarly, i've thought about how KI's fluid combo system could fit MK. MK has ALWAYS been among the more rigid, less fluid fighting games, regardless of which era you look at. Implementing a combo system like KI would allow more creative uses of our favourite MK characters, and give that fast-paced, high octane split-frame decision making that defines fighting games. The health meter of KI is also more similar to Injustice than MK, but fits the concept of A FIGHT TO THE DEATH much better.
That concept is what i feel makes KI and MK so similar thematically. It does seem like the fight isn't so much a tournament for a cash prize. It seems like you are fighting for survival. This grim approach is leagues from Tekken or Street fighter, which always feels like a 'Friendly' fight.
There are also many characters in each franchise that would have a perfect thematic counter, either through abilities, playstyle, lore or simple appearance. Tj Combo and Jax. Fulgore and Sektor. Orchid and Sonya. Glacius and Sub Zero. Eyedol and Shao Kahn. Jago could counter either Liu Kang, Kung Lao or Kenshi, take your pic. Sadira and Skarlet, one being a highly mobile, aerial combo beast, the other being a slippery, teleporting, blood spurting space control monster. Aganos against Goro for that beefy heavy hitter MU. I could go on, but i want to leave room for suggestions from you guys!
So, call me easily susceptible to hype, but i'd simply argue that i have an overactive imagination. But i feel that an MKvsKI game would be amazing if done right. If a die hard fan of just 1 of those franchises can picture all this in 1 day, imagine what well developed companies and game designers with decades of experience could do.
I'll stop now, but if you have anything to add please do! Especially if you have any experience with any of the KI games, i wanna know about those finishing moves i referred to earlier and your experience with that franchise, either retro or modern.
I actually bought the new KI definitive edition yesterday, even though i have no Xbox. The damn Soundtrack CD alone was worth the 10 euros, so if the crossover is literally just MK with KI music, thats good enough for me.
As most of you know (or could safely assume), i am a huge MK fan. Been playing it since i was 4. The Komedy, violence and secrets, as well as the ability to progress in skill, have always appealed to me deeply. More so for nostalgia in recent years, but still relevant.
Killer Instinct has always very much been a B-Tier thing for me that i barely knew existed. My next door neighbour in childhood had the game, and a SNES, but despite it looking interesting i couldnt figure it out. And since i didn't own it, i didnt' care to learn.
Fast forward many years, past the MK3D era and now both these franchises have rebooted. KI in particular was a surprise, as it had way less exposure over the years and thus, the characters all went through interesting modernisations and overhauls of their design. As for MK9, you know i bought and ate that shit up. It literally threw me back to my childhood bedroom. Suddenly i'm playing MK Trilogy again, but i'm better at it. And the game is better! Nostalgic yet new. Perfect, as long as you're not SO good that the balance issues are obvious (i sucked, so they weren't).
Alas, i didn't own an Xbox One, so i never got to try Killer Instinct. No one i knew played it either, excluding one friend of mine who much preferred shooters, so the game was relegated to obscure status for me again.
Fast forward again, to the present. Maximillian Dood starts this hashtag about bringing KI back. This piques my interest, so i decide to look at the games systems and characters after watching Maxs video. Nearly melted my brain reading about the combo system, but i vaguely understand it now. I also immediately notice how "Ultra Combos" are essentially PG UMK3 Brutalities. Interesting. I watch a few tournament matches, can't understand a thing happening, but the characters look awesome, the gameplay is fast and looks fun and each character looks like they wouldn't be out of place in MK.
So i decide to check out retro KI. The OG. I watch a couple youtube videos And what do i discover?
1: It was also made by Midway
2: There were finishing moves! Not as well defined or violent as MK fatalities, but they were there, and they definitively confirmed your opponent was DEAD. Ultra Combos were like brutalities, but then there was also some moves that were essentially fatalities, but it wasn't obvious how those moves were activated.
3: Stage. Fatalities. I saw at least 2, there was definitely room for more. Almost identical to any OG mk stage fatality, essentially knocking the opponent off a high building for them to fall to their death.
This really surprised me, as i'm fairly sure there's no moves in the latest KI that imply the death of your opponent. But there could be! I can easily picture Brutality like slicings and explosions, and i can certainly picture some adaptation of the Ultra Combo where you stop the combo and have a brief moment to input the secret command for a more cinematic finishing move... a Fatality.
Similarly, i've thought about how KI's fluid combo system could fit MK. MK has ALWAYS been among the more rigid, less fluid fighting games, regardless of which era you look at. Implementing a combo system like KI would allow more creative uses of our favourite MK characters, and give that fast-paced, high octane split-frame decision making that defines fighting games. The health meter of KI is also more similar to Injustice than MK, but fits the concept of A FIGHT TO THE DEATH much better.
That concept is what i feel makes KI and MK so similar thematically. It does seem like the fight isn't so much a tournament for a cash prize. It seems like you are fighting for survival. This grim approach is leagues from Tekken or Street fighter, which always feels like a 'Friendly' fight.
There are also many characters in each franchise that would have a perfect thematic counter, either through abilities, playstyle, lore or simple appearance. Tj Combo and Jax. Fulgore and Sektor. Orchid and Sonya. Glacius and Sub Zero. Eyedol and Shao Kahn. Jago could counter either Liu Kang, Kung Lao or Kenshi, take your pic. Sadira and Skarlet, one being a highly mobile, aerial combo beast, the other being a slippery, teleporting, blood spurting space control monster. Aganos against Goro for that beefy heavy hitter MU. I could go on, but i want to leave room for suggestions from you guys!
So, call me easily susceptible to hype, but i'd simply argue that i have an overactive imagination. But i feel that an MKvsKI game would be amazing if done right. If a die hard fan of just 1 of those franchises can picture all this in 1 day, imagine what well developed companies and game designers with decades of experience could do.
I'll stop now, but if you have anything to add please do! Especially if you have any experience with any of the KI games, i wanna know about those finishing moves i referred to earlier and your experience with that franchise, either retro or modern.
I actually bought the new KI definitive edition yesterday, even though i have no Xbox. The damn Soundtrack CD alone was worth the 10 euros, so if the crossover is literally just MK with KI music, thats good enough for me.
