I will start by saying that I have been an overall fan of the series since MKOG1 in 1992. I have been playing it alongside Street Fighter since then. While I have always had issues with certain things in the series (beside MKvsDC), I was always overall positive about it. When it comes to MK1, yes the gameplay is an improvement over 11, but honestly my compliments stop here. This will be a rant and honestly feel free to skip it, I'm just sharing my current feelings about what used to be one of my favorite series ever.
I fucking hate MK1, and since I started in 1992 I honestly can't believe I'm actually saying this about a game in this series. I will also say that yes WB is dogshit, but we can't only blame them for this mess. NRS has been dogshit for a while, and Ed Boon has been a lying clown for a long time. Yes there are a lot of things that have definitely been affected by WB, but you can't sit here with a straight face and say NRS is innocent.
I'm tired of NRS constantly making garbage decisions with the direction of these games. Having already said that MK1 plays better than 11, I will also still say that the gameplay STILL feels sluggish and stiff compared to the competition. This has been the first experience in quite a long long time since I played MK and SF basically around the same time (since maybe the 90s really). Having experienced SF6 in June, and MK1 in September I honestly just can't do it anymore. Yes I do understand for many it's become part of the charm, but I personally can't do it anymore. It's just rough to look at in motion and to feel when playing. I'm not even talking about GG, KI, KoF, Tekken, I'm strictly comparing it to the other fighting game that just came out 3 months prior. Every time my buddy and I sat down to play MK1, after a few matches I would always think to myself: "Why am I wasting my time with this game? Honestly rather be playing SF6 right now".
NRS has gone fully moronic with the story too, what was promised to be back to basics with this game, more grounded etc... and the story having started with a lot of promise in MK1, we went back to the same garbage of time travel and multiverse that people have had enough of and have voiced their opinions.
I'm also tired of NRS' lack of consistency with character designs, the last few games I've been losing attachement to my favorite characters because every new game they look very different. I look back at Chun Li in say early 90s, and I see a picture of her today and I recognize her right away. I can't say the same about my favorite MK characters anymore.
Invasions mode is just terrible, absolutely awful. It's almost like they designed it purposefully to make us hate our lives, that's how I feel. The worst single player experience in any fighting game I have ever played. If the devs truly cared about the customer experience, you can't tell me with a straight face they thought this would be fun.
The lack of basic features in a fighting game in 2023 is also nuts man. How do you release a game 3 months after your biggest competitor that raised the bar, and still have basic issues like:
-No crossplay
-No filters
-No lobbies
-No online practice mode
-No training while matchmaking
-No public replays
-No friends lists
-No blacklists
-No social hub
-Worse netcode than only cared to that competitor, but to your own last game.
How about the consistent garbage PC releases? NRS and WB make so much fucking money but refuse to have NRS properly make a PC version? Why do they have to out source it and Capcom doesn't? On top of that, Ed Boon consistently lying before every launch how everything is better this time, everything is this and that, yet every single one of their games in the NRS has had a dogshit PC launch.
I can keep going but I will stop here. Yes we can blame WB for a lot of things, but NRS has been consistently making decisions with this series that to me make it become worse and worse. I'm honestly done with the series until NRS make massive changes to practically everything. They need to leave WB behind and find someone else, they need to get rid of Ed Boon, Tyler, and every other moron that green lit so many things with MK in the NRS era. It's a shame really, been overall a fun run since the 90s, but I can't waste my time any longer with this series that's consistently going out of its way to make a worse player experience with every launch.
$100 on an unfinished, shitty, beta version of a game. God damn.
Hopefully one day they can turn the series around for me, but they need to get rid of the rotten core team deep inside. Until then, I say good bye to what used to be my 2nd favorite fighting game series. This whole launch has been such a fucking embarrassment after seeing what SF6 and Capcom cooked up. To those who aren't sick of this direction more power to you honestly, I'm actually jealous. But it is what it is.
