Best NRS game of the Decade?

[Gamer68]

Subsequently, people like you are hiding under the umbrella of subjectivity and "fun" so you avoid having to address the 13,000 LBS elephant in the room, which is Mortal Kombat 9's utterly broken top tier characters and the glitches and bugs that plague the game.

Maybe because having fun is what matters most to them? And it's already been said that some of these users are playing on a modded MK9 which is less broken and buggy.

That "13,000 LBS elephant" only matters if it's actually a problem, which in this case it really isn't.

 

[REO]

@M2Dave No one said they loved MK9 because of the broken top tiers, armor launchers, 100% death combos, bugs, and etc. Many people have explained to you some of the reasons they found MK9 very fun were because of things such as:

• The fluid movement
• The combo system
• The fast-paced and engaging neutral game
• The variety of different play styles and character arch types
• The unique meta
• The poke system
• The emphasis on the meter system
• The well balanced ratio between jumping and anti-airs
• The D+2s being true highs and not hitting crouch blockers
• The Throws being used specifically against blocking opponents and not eating pokes / randomly becoming Mids
• Fun modes like Tag Team, Challenge Tower, and mini-games

I don't understand why everything has to be black and white with you. Everyone on this planet understands MK9 wasn't this perfectly balanced game like MK11. But because the game wasn't balanced, it means we can't enjoy other aspects of the game that we found to be fun and well designed? This extremist train of thought makes absolutely no sense. And it's becoming increasingly aggravating having to explain the same points over and over to you because you some how can not see between the gray area. It's possible for a game to exist where you enjoy certain aspects and dislike other aspects. MK9 just happened to be that game that had a lot of foundation and mechanical designs that many players enjoyed enough to put up through the faults the game had for over 4+ years.

 

[MKF30]

These threads are great. With no direction on how anyone defines best. Pure pointless debate. Enjoy folks!

KI, MKXL, MK11 have ruined my appreciation for older games by actually having reasonable netplay.

Thanks for posting! Though I think some people make a better case than others.

i respect everyone who said mk9 but serrously i think people forgot how fucking cancerous it was. Cyrax 160 % resets , Jax infinite, Smoke 120% resets, Kabal Borderline block inifinite, Sonya safe armored launcher. Awful online

I respect your views and you're cool, I just want to say I NEVER once got caught in that Cyrax infinite and played quite a few annoying Cyrax's on Xbox, I actually prefered fighting him over Sonya or Kenshi or KL tbh lol. I handled Cyrax with Sektor all the time, Sektor was dangerous but vastly underrated in MK 9 honestly.

I've gotten caught in the resets but never THAT much damage lol. I never got the Jax infinite attempt, for whatever reason nobody picked him against me. This is from MK 9 against a friend of mine who had one of the best Cyrax's on Xbox at the time, so I had lots of practice vs him maybe that's one reason why I never saw Cyrax as THAT big of a deal compared to some other characters.

I understand that people love MK9, and if someone finds it fun I'm not going to doubt them. Fun can be subjective.

What I don't always understand though is that a lot of the things people complain about in MK11 also exist in MK9. Sometimes to an even worse degree. That's where the "blinders" comments come from.

I'm more curious why people love MK9 so much. Is it the actual game itself or is it that for a lot of people MK9 was their gateway game into the FGC, and came out at the right time when they were just in the right mood to fall in love with a fighting game?

Yes and no. I mean sure there's broken stuff in MK 9, there's broken stuff in MK 11. I think the difference is though, MK 9 it's character oriented that can be fixed with a patch or two where as MK 11 it's part of the gameplay mechanics itself that make certain things busted like KB's, FB's some being way better than others and relevant or some characters having way more KB's than others who have barely any and if they do the requirements are lame, nearly impossible to land in a serious match. That and the stuff in MK 11 feels very inconsistent and weird like the hitboxes imo are way worse in MK 11 than MK 9, I jump kicked a dude the other day flat out and somehow he winded up behind me. This has never ever happened in any previous MK game lol just saying. The wake ups imho are far better in MK 9 than MK 11. MK 11 you have options yes but most of them suck, rolls get punished way too easily or simply thrown. The point of a roll in most games is to get away or get in.

Honestly, the blinders comments can be said about MK 11 people as well or that of which has already been pointed out how there are some elitists on here who bash those who prefer MK 9 because they may prefer another game. That's not blinders? lol I'm not saying you, just some others on here whom made themselves obvious in here for example. MK 9 for one paved the way for MK X and MK 11, this is important. It was NRS's first big game which was a gamble because when you reboot something it's hit or miss and clearly MK 9 was a big hit breaking MK 2's records of sales at the time it was the most. Of course MK X broke MK 9's records and not sure about MK 11 but from what I understand MK X had a better sales % the first few months than MK 11, however overall sales will probably be more for MK 11 due to being on every platform. But sales aside, I think it's safe to say MK will sell well regardless for brand alone. But honestly, back to MK 9 most feel it was just a better, more fun experience than MK 11. I personally feel the bs in MK 9 was more consistent and could be dealt with far better than the bs in MK 11 which is rather unpredictable and unbalanced in terms of KB's, FB's etc which bothers me a lot. There are other gameplay elements I also don't like in MK 11 compared to MK 9 but you get the point.

Aside from those aspects, the story, tag modes, krypt, KOTH and roster IMHO were MUCH better than MK 11. I just feel MK 9 was an overall much more enjoyable and better experience than MK X or MK 11. I won't hate you if you prefer one of the others or Injustice, this is just how I feel personally.

 

[haketh]

My only beef with people saying MK9 is where y’all at when we got setups at tournaments & trying to get people for side tournaments. Sign up! We trying to throw hands.

 

[MKF30]

Interesting response, always fun to read.

 

[Arqwart]

100% MK11 for me. I had a lot of fun with MK9 in its heyday as my cousin and I played with each other and online a TON; but the better we got, the more the game infuriated me. Also, I'm a contrarian weirdo who doesnt really give a fuck about quite a few of the traditional UMK3 cast that everyone worships like Jesus.

MK11 has by far my favorite roster, my favorite combination of fun playstyles (Kabal/Jade/D'Vorah/Sindel), and the best technical quality (graphics, online connection, animations, etc.).

 

[Law Hero]

To elaborate on my earlier post, the reason I think MK9 is simply the best is because it is by far the most complete package of a game that NRS has put out, and is filled to the brim with fan service. Popping in MK9 was like having Boon get on his knees and giving you and eyebrowjob.

Despite its shortcomings, the game had:
-a great, large roster full of fan favorites with only 1.5 guest characters
-the best single player tower to date (with funny dialogue, references, and a variety of unique challenges that don't revolve around items)
-Test Your Might, Test Your Sight, Test Your Luck, etc
-excellent array of finishers including two fatals, babalities, and stage fatalities
-serviceable krypt without any RNG
-lots of great secrets like the Toasty Boost
-despite the bad netcode, it had a great online room system with the characters, emotes (even hidden emotes), etc
-modest DLC that didn't rely on devious season pass schemes

 

[MKF30]

Yeah, not sure about the whole "worshiping UMK3 characters like Jesus" but just that MK 9 had an actual nostalgic, epic roster. I think the roster in that game and even MK X was just better than MK 11's which imo seems dull in comparison to mK 9 especially. The newer characters in the past few MK's are ok at best, I think the best received is no doubt Erron Black. The rest are blah compared to the newer characters way back that MK 2, UMK3 etc introduced.

 

[Hebrew Negro]

Undecided between mk9 and inj2...

 

[CY MasterHavik]

I have yet to see any person on TYM dictating which games people should or should not play. I have also yet to see any person on TYM berating others for playing older NRS fighting games. What I do is see a small minority of individuals like me who are indicating Mortal Kombat 9's conspicuous flaws as well as the enormous hypocrisy with respect to Mortal Kombat 11. Subsequently, people like you are hiding under the umbrella of subjectivity and "fun" so you avoid having to address the 13,000 LBS elephant in the room, which is Mortal Kombat 9's utterly broken top tier characters and the glitches and bugs that plague the game.

I am not suggesting that you cannot have fun with a game despite its flaws. You most definitely can, but many people who are praising Mortal Kombat 9 in this thread are the same people who constantly post or make status updates about how broken Mortal Kombat 11's top tier characters are and how unbalanced the game is. This phenomenon is called hypocrisy, especially when the top tier characters in Mortal Kombat 9 are ten times superior to the top tier characters in Mortal Kombat 11.

I do believe that there is a certain number of individuals who genuinely appreciate Mortal Kombat 9 for what it was, but most people are nostalgics, blind fanatics, and followers who repeat what other people say on social media in a desperate attempt to discredit Mortal Kombat 11.

Your post reminds me of Sonic fans who crap on games like Sonic 06 but then years later they want to tell you Sonic 06 was good games like Unleashed and Colors are bad.

 

[CY MasterHavik]

I'm well aware of the bullshit in MK9, and I'd still prefer to play it over MK11. I don't know how many times I need to repeat myself. If you like MK11, that's great. Enjoy yourself with the game. I think it's a boring piece of shit. It looks beautiful, but I dislike just about every aspect of the gameplay.

Tekken 7 online is littered with braindead Leroys right now, but it's still not stopping me from having fun with the game whatsoever. Tekken 7 is alive and well and was released in 2015. MK11 feels like it's nearly dead already because MANY people feel the same way as I do.

I don't get why there are so many people on here basically telling me I should like MK11. I have been playing MK since literally day 1 in the arcades as a kid. I fucking LOVE MORTAL KOMBAT. I want to like MK11 and I just don't.

Also, according to your status, didn't you JUST BUY MK11? I loved it at first, too. Let's see how you feel about the game in a month or so.

If you're aware don't turn a blind eye it and crap on MK11 when, I'm sorry, it's a much more put together game. I'm not telling you to like MK11. I'm telling you to stop being blind and hypocritical. This community is fill to brim of people being open hypocrites and not being called out on it. Even the top players have a history of hyposcisy. Very few in this community like to tell you the truth.

Also, I just got MK11, but this isn't my first rodeo. I'm a mega fan of the series and was pissed when I missed out on Injustice 2 and MKX. You say give it a month but from the times I played MK11 at cons and at my school's gaming lab it just felt better. I like MK9, but the people kissing its butt are turning a blind eye to its flaws. You can like MK9 but acknowledge the fucking flaws and not try to say it's better than MK11 when MK11 is just a more polished product. This is like saying Sonic 06 is better than Sonic Colors. You can have your opinion but let's stop being hypocritical.

 

[Arqwart]

Yeah, not sure about the whole "worshiping UMK3 characters like Jesus" but just that MK 9 had an actual nostalgic, epic roster. I think the roster in that game and even MK X was just better than MK 11's which imo seems dull in comparison to mK 9 especially. The newer characters in the past few MK's are ok at best, I think the best received is no doubt Erron Black. The rest are blah compared to the newer characters way back that MK 2, UMK3 etc introduced.

We're gunna have to agree to disagree about the quality of characters. As I said, weirdo contrarian here. Note that everything below is just my opinion.

Over MK9: No skin off my back to never see the likes of Quan Chi or Stryker ever again. Reptile the Turbo Jobber With No Purpose is pointless with the likes of D'Vorah, an actually effective side villian, around. Baraka and Sheeva used to be auto-excludes for me, but MK11 has done them justice. Cetrion and Geras are fantastic newcomers, especially over something like Cyber Sub-Zero. Frost is a great nod to the 3D era and was thankfully made unique enough to not be Female Sub-Zero or Female Cyber Sub-Zero. I'm down with the Cyborgs taking a break since they already had two instances in a row of representation. Same goes for all ninjas aside from the core duo (Sub and Scorp).

Over MKX: Ferra/Tor may as well not have existed for me. Shinnok is Saturday morning cartoon villain levels of lame. Same as above for Quan Chi yet again. I never want to see the likes of Goro or Kintaro playable as they are much more boss-like (same goes for Shao in MK11). The MKX guests are the worst the series has seen. Tremor and Tanya are sorely missed; but we also got the return of Sindel and, if KP2 leak is real, the return of Fujin and Sheeva. Bo Rai Cho is a shitty joke and always will be. Reptile got upgraded to call-out-Mileena plot point and the ability to actually fucking speak, but D'Vorah is still better.

My only complaints about the MK11 roster are seeing Cassie AND Sonya/Johnny as well as Jax AND Jacqui yet again when we already had to deal with that in MKX which was handled as a "passing of the torch" yet the torch was never actually passed on, Kollector not being nearly fleshed out or interesting enough to warrant his inclusion, and Shao Kahn being playable.

 

[M2Dave]

...they nerf the top 3...

Even if Kabal, Cyrax, and Kenshi were nerfed, the game would still be broken. Freddy, Johnny, Smoke, and Sonya would also need changes.

That "13,000 LBS elephant" only matters if it's actually a problem, which in this case it really isn't.

I would confidently claim that death combos, block infinite combos, infinite armor, unapproachable zoning, player 1 advantage, meter drain glitch, etc. are major problems. If you choose to ignore these problems, you are admitting to being a fanboy whose opinions carry no value.

• The fluid movement
• The combo system
• The fast-paced and engaging neutral game
• The variety of different play styles and character arch types
• The unique meta
• The poke system
• The emphasis on the meter system
• The well balanced ratio between jumping and anti-airs
• The D+2s being true highs and not hitting crouch blockers
• The Throws being used specifically against blocking opponents and not eating pokes / randomly becoming Mids
• Fun modes like Tag Team, Challenge Tower, and mini-games

I want to agree with you, but unfortunately none of those aspects can be enjoyed because of the broken top tier characters. Fluid movement? Most characters can never approach Kabal, Kenshi, and Freddy. The combo system? Cyrax and Smoke destroy the combo system. The engaging neutral game? Sonya could not careless about your neutral game. The poke system? Johnny Cage punishes almost all d+1s with f+3. The unique meta? What is unique about death combos, block infinite combos, infinite armor, etc.? Stop.

Look, I am not going to go on and lecture you about the obvious. You were one of the best, if not the best, Mortal Kombat 9 players. You understand the game better than I do and you privately admitted to me that the game is "unplayable" at a high level.

Stop lying to the people of this website.

And most importantly stop lying to yourself.

The game sucks, which is why people stopped playing. It just took them four years to discover and master all the bull shit.

 

[MKF30]

We're gunna have to agree to disagree about the quality of characters. As I said, weirdo contrarian here. Note that everything below is just my opinion.

Over MK9: No skin off my back to never see the likes of Quan Chi or Stryker ever again. Reptile the Turbo Jobber With No Purpose is pointless with the likes of D'Vorah, an actually effective side villian, around. Baraka and Sheeva used to be auto-excludes for me, but MK11 has done them justice. Cetrion and Geras are fantastic newcomers, especially over something like Cyber Sub-Zero. Frost is a great nod to the 3D era and was thankfully made unique enough to not be Female Sub-Zero or Female Cyber Sub-Zero. I'm down with the Cyborgs taking a break since they already had two instances in a row of representation. Same goes for all ninjas aside from the core duo (Sub and Scorp).

Over MKX: Ferra/Tor may as well not have existed for me. Shinnok is Saturday morning cartoon villain levels of lame. Same as above for Quan Chi yet again. I never want to see the likes of Goro or Kintaro playable as they are much more boss-like (same goes for Shao in MK11). The MKX guests are the worst the series has seen. Tremor and Tanya are sorely missed; but we also got the return of Sindel and, if KP2 leak is real, the return of Fujin and Sheeva. Bo Rai Cho is a shitty joke and always will be. Reptile got upgraded to call-out-Mileena plot point and the ability to actually fucking speak, but D'Vorah is still better.

My only complaints about the MK11 roster are seeing Cassie AND Sonya/Johnny as well as Jax AND Jacqui yet again when we already had to deal with that in MKX which was handled as a "passing of the torch" yet the torch was never actually passed on, Kollector not being nearly fleshed out or interesting enough to warrant his inclusion, and Shao Kahn being playable.

I dont think you're weird for thinking differently, you may be in the minority but not weird. I mean I prefer mk 9 over mk 11 and like mk 4 alot to some that's weird so lol. Its whatever.

I agree on ferra torr being a rather dull, generic character. Dvorah is better, eron black though imo the best new character being takeda got the short end in mk 11 for jacqui, cassie etc again....king jin I get he was ok, I feel like nrs tries to force jacqui in there. I'd much rather see ermac, smoke, reptile etc or even mileena.

I dont mind erron black or dvorah as much but they could be fleshed out more, dvorah is literally the new quan chi who betrays everyone so at this point shes predictable. Erron black I feel is the coolest in terms of looks but could he more developed, why did he join the fight, self profit why did he leave earthrealm exactly. It's not like he has a place of power but whatever. He comes off as one of henchman in mk 11.

I think the ninjas are all cool and unique now, they've evolved much since the 90s and are now their own character. Rep is pretty cool even if he comes off as a jobbers at times or tool. I mean lots of characters jobbers even raiden at times. Geras character wise is ok, hed be better imo if he wasnt just a puppet of kronika similar to ermac while under shao kahns magic though ermac is far cooler imo. Cetrion I liked at first when she was first announced but I hate her character as shes just a female shinnok literally just more powerful but just as treacherous. Kronika ino felt unnecessarily.

I hope they stop with the titans after years of having us all believe the elder gods were at the top of the food chain.

Quan chi and Stryker fans will get over eventually as long as you have a sorcerer there. Stryker though I admit was cool in mk 9 vs the old traffic cop of the 90s.

Two thing I disagree with though is frost not comi g off as a female subby, to me she seemed like a female sub that's power hungry like bi han but not nearly as bright u grateful brat to kuai Liang as far as I'm concerned ed so perhaps not a female subby exactly but def a sub zero wanna be that happens to be female.

And mk x I felt the dlc was imo the best thing about the game with tremor,tanya's, bo, and especially the guests hard to knock alien and predator when they did them perfectly. I do agree however that mk 11s doc seems better than mk x in terms of just mk characters, guests that may be debatable. But I know some people hate guests all together. I still prefer the 90s era of characters vs the past few games overall of newcomers. To each his own though.

 

[MKF30]

These threads are great. With no direction on how anyone defines best. Pure pointless debate. Enjoy folks!

KI, MKXL, MK11 have ruined my appreciation for older games by actually having reasonable netplay.

For something like this I'd say "best" is rather subjective. The only difference is some users have an elitist mentality while others dont.

 

[Nephrite]

MK9 - it was just the most fun! Played the shit out of it and watched a ton of streams. Best characters, stages, special moves...

MKX was colorless, had the annoying run button and the roster was cluttered with boring Special Forces characters and guest characters. It had the best costumes though. Stopped playing fairly early and just continued watching streams, mostly involving Kitana play.

MK11 continued with bad roster choices (Special Forces crowd, more guest characters incoming and all the new characters are weak additions). And while MK9 female costumes were ridiculous, MK11's male and female costumes are boring and seriously lacking in variatey. All those Kronika-derivative costumes are boring as f**k. I also really got tired of revnant designs. Also, Sub-Zero without the ice clone and Sonya without leg grab, WTF?! I can't even force myself to watch the streams anymore, not even Kitana matches, which mosly involve the insulting Highborn variation. MK11 did a really good job of making me fall out of love with some of the characters. And while a minor thing, the combo damage being displayed as pts rather than percentage, also made it feel less MK-ish. MK11 is just boring to me...

 

[FiresOfHades]

MK9.

Great roster, beautiful stages and hype AF to watch. I do however love the aggression of X and the presentation of 11.

Few tweaks and additions 11 could be way up there for me in the coming months post patches. We shall see.

 

[MKF30]

MK9 - it was just the most fun! Played the shit out of it and watched a ton of streams. Best characters, stages, special moves...

MKX was colorless, had the annoying run button and the roster was cluttered with boring Special Forces characters and guest characters. It had the best costumes though. Stopped playing fairly early and just continued watching streams, mostly involving Kitana play.

MK11 continued with bad roster choices (Special Forces crowd, more guest characters incoming and all the new characters are weak additions). And while MK9 female costumes were ridiculous, MK11's male and female costumes are boring and seriously lacking in variatey. All those Kronika-derivative costumes are boring as f**k. I also really got tired of revnant designs. Also, Sub-Zero without the ice clone and Sonya without leg grab, WTF?! I can't even force myself to watch the streams anymore, not even Kitana matches, which mosly involve the insulting Highborn variation. MK11 did a really good job of making me fall out of love with some of the characters. And while a minor thing, the combo damage being displayed as pts rather than percentage, also made it feel less MK-ish. MK11 is just boring to me...

haha that's true, I mean MK X was the freaking Noir of MK games. I mean I love the dark tones as it fits MK but was too dark at times. Like filtered out the colors like that mode on your phone with pics lol.

 

[SaSSolino]

A predictable outcome.

 

[Gamer68]

I would confidently claim that death combos, block infinite combos, infinite armor, unapproachable zoning, player 1 advantage, meter drain glitch, etc. are major problems. If you choose to ignore these problems, you are admitting to being a fanboy whose opinions carry no value.

My point is that not every one cares about balance and if you do, you can play a modded version of the game that is less broken.

But I'm going to assume that you'll ignore that point again and continue to undercut those who are contesting you by claiming their opinions hold "no value" and they are simply a fanboy or some shit, because apparently something as simple as personal favorites holds no subjectivity but instead only objectivity. You can't just let people be like "yea MK9 was my fav", no, instead you have to try hard to butt in and discredit everyone you can for some reason. Delusions, hypocrisy, value, you're the one speaking of those things within a conversation that is about something subjective -- a conversation that is for fun. I've got to say, that is fucking annoying.

 

[MKF30]

Honestly, no game is perfectly balanced don't care what it is. I think some people emphasize wayy too much on balance.

 

[Under_The_Mayo]

Rose tinted glasses yield votes for MK9. It was fun but broken beyond belief. Cyrax vs Kabal was the only matchup that mattered in most high level games. As for characters, it was a really good selection. Too bad most were not viable at tournaments.

I will take frustrating balance over frustrating mechanics anyday!

 

[Iron Lungs]

I remember when mk9 was out and people hated it...how times change

• mk9 has the best roster
• injustice 2 has the best fluidity
• mk11 is the best because they added everything thats good about the other titles

 

[Gamer68]

To elaborate on my earlier post, the reason I think MK9 is simply the best is because it is by far the most complete package of a game that NRS has put out, and is filled to the brim with fan service. Popping in MK9 was like having Boon get on his knees and giving you and eyebrowjob.

Despite its shortcomings, the game had:
-a great, large roster full of fan favorites with only 1.5 guest characters
-the best single player tower to date (with funny dialogue, references, and a variety of unique challenges that don't revolve around items)
-Test Your Might, Test Your Sight, Test Your Luck, etc
-excellent array of finishers including two fatals, babalities, and stage fatalities
-serviceable krypt without any RNG
-lots of great secrets like the Toasty Boost
-despite the bad netcode, it had a great online room system with the characters, emotes (even hidden emotes), etc
-modest DLC that didn't rely on devious season pass schemes

Also, no microtransactions or character variations. Game was a super solid package.

To be honest, I personally don't think MK9 holds up today but I still appreciate what it was at the time and how it put the series back on track, enough to say it's the best NRS game of the decade.

However, if a remaster was done with updated graphics, better netcode, and a re-balance, I would 100% buy it and play it. Unfortunately, that will probably never happen. So I'm just hoping they make MK11 more interesting and fun, and whatever game they do next is closer to MK9 than MKX/MK11 (in it's current state).

 

[MKF30]

I remember when mk9 was out and people hated it...how times change

• mk9 has the best roster
• injustice 2 has the best fluidity
• mk11 is the best because they added everything thats good about the other titles

Except gameplay mechanics and roster choice lol