How they can turn mk1's image around and bring hype for their next gsme

[supahotbean]

I think there are alot people including me that feel like they have been oversold products from mk1. Mk1s general rough launch on top of mk1s terrible kp2. I think the taste of disgust from these two events have made people casual and competitive not want to return or play mk1 at all. This negativity will more than likely bleed into the next game they make if not stopped. Mj1 already sold poorly, but if people believe that either mk2 or ij3 will release and have the same pricing flaws as mk1 no one will buy it, not even casuals.

I think they can turn mk1's image around by doing 3 things. 1.) Release 2 or 3 characters for free. This can be just 2 random dlc characters. This could be a reused asset from another game who cares, but just releasing 2 or 3 characters for FREE would bring back alot of people who feel scammed from this game. In the same update add in 2 crowd funding skins to boost the competivty prize pool in a in game information tab. And one more thing just a better koth or lobby system.

2.) I'm not sure if this is currently in the game, but adding a information tab about the competitive scene in mk1. This will help bridge the gap between casual and competitive, and make people want to invest their time into the game.

3.) Lastly add multi-player to titan battles and call them super titan battles or something. Then let it be like a tag mode where you and your friends can play, and put some good rewards behind it. This will drastically bring back alot of casual fans if they want to drop a kp3.

 

[Jynks]

KP2 is terrible? News to me. Sketor and Cyrax and Noob all rock and Ghostface is massively popular.. and Conan is super exciting to me, I'm not a big guest fan but I think conan is the best guest idea they have had since the horror themed ones of mkx and 9. I'm keen to see what morphing time we might get with T100 as well. How is it terrible? It is one fo the best Kombat packs they have ever done. 3 massively popular characters, and 3 guests, 1 of which we already know is incredibly popular.

 

[Jynks]

As for how to make MK2 better? Well I would work on these things....

1) Better lobby system / match making / kombat league stuff. This has always been an issue with NRS games and really, imo, should be the main focus of the next big revision. The match making system need work. Something as simple as how in Street Fighter you can que while in training mode would be a huge step forward.

2) As much as it pains me to say this.... I think MK should include a pussy-whipped-censorsed option people can turn on for youtubers. As in a system in the game itself to turn off the gore, or colour the blood.. I dunno.. put up big black bars with censored on it ... w/e... but I think it would help the game if it was easier for all those sell out loosers on youtube to post videos without offending the utube gods. As much as I despise influences and all that noise, there is no doubt that a massive portion of the population are sheep without any ability to think for themselves and who really, honestly in their hearts take the opinions of tubers seriously. It would do nothing but help the game if tubers could record and upload without any editing by simply changing a gore option of some kind.

3) Try and get a good launch. The game industry is over saturated and people don't need no reason to load up a different title. As No Man's Sky or Cyberpunk can tell you, a bad launch haunts you. No mans Sky has only just, as in this week, finally gotten to overwhemingly positive after the terrible launch, almost 20 years latter. Despite it being one of the best games ever made, same goes for Cyberpunk, an astoundingly good game that is still deeply tarnished by the launch. MK need a great launch and this should be a massive focus of the development. Even releasing with less "stuff" but on time and well done would work.. they could then add any missing shit as free dlc and get love for it. Rather than releasing a huge game on day 1 and no one playing it.

4) No skins or collectables should be locked inside any mode, apart of Kombat League Rewards (this is still a competitive game and top players should get stuff people like me could never attain). I do not care how it works.. maybe a universal currency or something... but solo, kombat leauge, mini-games, towers or w/e the next Konquest Mode will be... should all be able to unlock the same gear so no one feels forced to play a mode they don't like.

5) This is a personal thing, not something I think they should do or even something realistic, but I am going to say it anyway. Fuck off with the guests. MK is a HUGE universe now. Instead of a Kombat Pack 1 MK Character and 3 Guests, do it the other way around. 1 Guest per kombat pack and the rest actual MK characters.

6) I think every single game should introduce at least 1 completely new playable character. Something like D'Vorah or Khan that is added to MK Lore. I'd like to see a more MKx approach with much of the roster being new, and then DLC adding in classic favourites that missed the launch cut.

If I think of more I'll post them.

 

[Eddy Wang]

We have this conversation every month
Last time i opened this thread, the answer was NRS was more interested in casual audience than actually making a good game.

It seems these came to bite them in the ass, as Khaos Realm sold very poorly

 

[xenogorgeous]

We have this conversation every month
Last time i opened this thread, the answer was NRS was more interested in casual audience than actually making a good game.

It seems these came to bite them in the ass, as Khaos Realm sold very poorly

yep

since the reborn of MK , with MK9 , the games were doing well .... MKX won GOTY as best fighting game, Injustice 2 won too, and MK11 Aftermath won, so, there was a sucesful tracking record

MK1 was unable to win GOTY, because lost to SF6, that indeed is a superior product, and now, in 2024, the Khaos Reigns was not even indicated to dispute the title, so, of course something is very very wrong with the MK franchise

However, since WB new direction took place, this franchise took the wrong direction as well , and , as always, results speaks louder than words , and we see what happened

For the next game, they need to go "back to basics" and listen the fanbase more, instead of inflate their egos as developers and surrond themselves only with a bunch of "yes men" ..... otherwise, MK2 will too , in fact and indeed, be another flop , and the support will be even shorter than this one with MK1

Savage capitalism is cruel and does not forgive wrong decisions mistakes, so, time to suffer the consequences, WB and NRS ......

 

[Demon_0]

Give it the content of MK11 minus the grind while giving it a similar gameplay to MKX minus the broken stuff

 

[YagamiFire]

Last time i opened this thread, the answer was NRS was more interested in casual audience than actually making a good game.

But MK1 has been terrible for the casual audience

 

[Eddy Wang]

But MK1 has been terrible for the casual audience

my thread was not read either.

 

[Kal]

Personally speaking I don't think they can do anything at this point to bring me back. I started playing MK since the OG one in 1992, but after 11 and 1 I'm done. Just tired of their shit, fake promises, and many other things with the series.

I think the only way I'll get back into MK, if they release a game that's as good as SF6 in every single department, especially animations and gameplay. Really fucking tired of the NRS jank and clunkiness. The only way I see that happening is they rebuild the whole team, as it's pretty damn clear that they're all garbage now.

 

[ImpostorOak]

I posted this in another thread:


An actual reboot. Start at the 10th tournament. There can be retcons, but they should be either minor, or things that became canon later in the series, like Noob being Bi-Han being revealed earlier, getting Cyrax and Sektor as humans first, etc.

Rethink the story presentation. Something like Konquest is 100% the way to get the most people hyped, but I'd personally like Story Towers like was suggested on a post here.

Modes. Casuals and a lot of pro players too want things like Chess Kombat and Motor Kombat back. Krypt should be a mainstay.

Complete characters. No Kameos. Variations can work as add on moves, but don't remove classic moves to make them variation moves. Let characters have enough shit in their kit for player expression. I'd prefer no variations, nothing.

Movement and character animation fluidity needs to be a big focus. Mortal Kombat looks janky and frankly ugly to a lot of people due to stiff animations. We're seeing that aspect of the game lambasted after the Conan trailer.

Less Guests. I personally think that Mortal Kombats image of the "Facebook Dad fighting game," hurts it a lot in the FGC and shit like Rambo and Conan and all of this isn't making the game look very hip. As much as I hate the kids these days, we need relevant and fitting guests or to seriously dial back how many boomer darlings were getting.

I don't think their plan of putting the fan favorite characters as DLC was a long term success. I think its better suited for the highly popular secondary characters, Fujin, Rain, Tremor, etc. It felt shitty paying for Ermac and Quan when they were in the story, and a lot of people were not happy with Cyrax and Sektor, and apparently even more people just didn't buy the content. I think that DLC prices and contents need to be reevaluated before the next game.

People like to play dress up in fighting games. No clue why they went backwards with that.

Fast gameplay is fun gameplay.

I personally think from strictly a balance perspective, MK1 is heading in a good direction, but NRS shows incompetence too often for me to praise that. MK1 won't ever become something I consider good, because I would prefer to not have Kameos and for gameplay to feel fast and much smoother. I think what I want will take a new game.

I think that Mortal Kombat will have to be separated from WB. I can't think of WBs last good game free from controversy. Probably Hogwarts Legacy. WB is handling Multiversus pretty shitty also, after buying its Dev.

I want complete characters, large move lists, run button, flawless block reversals, mid combo throws, fluid animations that really make you feel like Spider-Man, a counter hit crushing blow system. Basically, take MKX and add in the best of MK11, refine that, and just spend a billion dollars on animations.

 

[LEGEND]

I don't think I'll touch MK, this one or another title, until it has industry standard modes, features and online play. The built-in frame delay online and general current online environment are inexcusably outdated, and there is nothing else to do but play online.

They've been making progress, but I don't have any hope that the game will be up to par before support is dropped completely.

I have my share of problems with SF6 and Tekken 8 but at least they function most of the time and don't have game breaking bugs or infinites every patch.

 

[Jynks]

I think the only way I'll get back into MK, if they release a game that's as good as SF6

MK has always been better than street fighter. I'll take any mk9-mk1 gameplay over any version of SF.

 

[SaltShaker]

Tbh I think the MK image is pretty damaged right now. We all love MK, that's why we are here, but I think across the fanbase as a whole and other FGC communities, it is pretty damaged. I definitely believe the leaks that support is ending after KP2, which leaves a bad spot after. Nothing will "save" MK1 at this stage. The diehards will diehard, but the damage is done at this point.

I have a lot of thoughts on this, and feel anything that turns the image around will have to be MK2, so I'll try to space them into these:

1) MK2 MUST release with modern-day features expected from a FG. I don't care what anyone says, this was the most unacceptable part of it all and one of the main reasons why the ball dropped so fast. There was/is NO LOBBY. Casuals at some low rank are not going to mash "ranked" or "QM" every game from a menu. Hell I don't even do it myself. Modern FGs have these "avatars" you create and walk around the lobby, chat with people, play/challenge games, spectate, etc. This is what everyone wants. I often have random people spectating my matches in Tekken and doing the "cheers", end up chatting with them or them with me. I can't believe some people defended not having something like this in the early months of the game. No practice-while-waiting for match queues. Minimal modes overall and garbage "Invasion" mode. Minimal customs (casuals LOVE customizing). Etc. This was just a bad "game" in that sense, and once a lot of people bought it and were like "wth is this", it was never going to have momentum in the modern market of FGs. This is #1, it has to change next game.

2) The structure the gameplay is built on needs an overhaul, big time. The CURRENT version of the game is much closer to what the launch version should have been like. However, next game needs to have no variations, no kameos, just standard 1 vs 1, with the depth of what MK1 has now being within the INDIVIDUAL character amongst even more depth and creative options. Not much else to add here. What is used to plan how the game will play needs changes, which leads me to #3, another gameplay update needed.

3) Playstyle diversity needs to go back to what it used to be. This is what some high tiers looked like in some older NRS games.
MK9:
Kabal: Jack of all trades | Cyrax: Resets and mix | Kenshi: Zoning | Johnny: Pressure + frames | Freddy: Zoning | Sonya: Pressure + frames and mix | Smoke: Anti-zoning criminal | Etc

Inj1:
MMH: Jack of all trades | Batgirl: Resets and mix | Zod: Zoning and space control | Flash: Ultimate pressure | Aquaman: Neutral control and defense (and trident rush lolz) | Sinestro: Zoning and setplay | Bane: Grappler that deletes you | Wonder Woman: Plus frame pressure | Etc

And there's more like Lao or Superman for those games, etc, but you get the idea. There was a lot of viable variety in a wide range of playstyles that if we had nowadays levels of balance and patching it would be legit 10/10. This level of diversity should return in full swing. Gameplay diversity was MASSIVELY streamlined in MKX and MK11, and to a certain extent MK1.

4) The multiverse nonsense needs to end, like yesterday. No one likes it anymore in their games, movies, tv shows for what feels like years now, but somehow it keeps coming. Just give a straightforward story everyone can follow simply and enjoy. Weirdest part about this is that it's the biggest complaint I have seen casuals have online, but they double downed on it again.

5) DLC is crucial in modern gaming, but this DLC was all wrong. The story and the characters. Both of these are critical because the casuals will abandon a game for the rest of the time if the story DLC is bad and/or if the guests are bad, but MK1 it was both. The guests are 20 years too late and no need to add more fire to what has already been said about the story. Some real evaluation needs to go into why the DLC story was so, not-good, and why characters like T-1000 (who I love but is a terrible choice) and Conan the Barbarian (lolz) are guests when half the audience with the game hasn't even heard of them. If money is not made on DLC, business decisions can be made about stopping support, which is what I believe happened and I wouldn't want to happen again.

Gonna stop at five so I don't write a master thesis, but I'd argue all five of these need at minimum a hard look going into planning the next game. A level of trust has been broken now with this game largely in part to things like this combined with going from "yes yearsss of support" to "well actually nah", and with support ending there won't be a Cyberpunk-style comeback arc so they really need to enter MK2 hitting homeruns Day 1 of the announcement.

 

[Kal]

MK has always been better than street fighter. I'll take any mk9-mk1 gameplay over any version of SF.

Whatever you're smoking I want some.
The majority of the MK fanbase has no standards when it comes to gameplay so that doesn't surprise me. It's one the main reasons these games came out shitty more often than not.

As much as I used to love MK, at no point ever did it have better gameplay than any other big fighting game out there, especially SF.

 

[CrimsonShadow]

We have the formula for this already from SF5.

Keep improving the game, making adjustments, and support the pro tour. The better the game gets, eventually the narrative will turn around.

Add lobbies, practicing while waiting for a match, etc. Keep balancing and adding interesting kameos, etc. to the game.

The main question though, is whether WB would allow this to happen. Capcom is their own publisher, so they don't have to worry about some higher up putting handcuffs on them. They can take the profit from Monster Hunter/Resident Evil, and use that to improve SF if they want. NRS is not and cannot.

 

[SaltShaker]

We have the formula for this already from SF5.

Keep improving the game, making adjustments, and support the pro tour. The better the game gets, eventually the narrative will turn around.

Add lobbies, practicing while waiting for a match, etc. Keep balancing and adding interesting kameos, etc. to the game.

The main question though, is whether WB would allow this to happen. Capcom is their own publisher, so they don't have to worry about some higher up putting handcuffs on them. They can take the profit from Monster Hunter/Resident Evil, and use that to improve SF if they want. NRS is not and cannot.

Underrated comment about Capcom being their own publisher with the SFV-SF6 situation. I can only imagine the wild nonsense WB pulls when they're over your shoulder. Hopefully the execs that know nothing about how video games operate are more open to doing things another way than what they think some deadline should be.

 

[chud_munson]

Really simple, down to earth story. Stop with all the galactic scale bullshit with time nonsense. It's stale and played out and feels like a Marvel movie a decade after the fact. Do a tournament, maybe some political drama, a teeny tiny touch of magic stuff. Like, everything I thought I was getting at the beginning of MK1.

No gimmicks. Gimme a roster of like 15 characters and make them all have well defined and different feeling play styles. It was fun having every MK character I mildly care about in one game, but that excess is out of my system at this point.

Way the fuck more dress up. The level of customization in MK1 while also trying to be a live service game was embarrassing. I don't understand how MK gets this so wrong when Injustice 2 got it so right.

All the online features every MK fan has been clamoring for.

If there's a big single player thing or casual focused multiplayer thing, it needs to be cool as fuck and enjoyable to play, or don't bother spending time developing it. Like, don't have a big boring grind fest with items that make numbers move but at the end of the day is just a way to give me 300 dummies to do combos on, occasionally frustrating me by hitting me with rockets or fucking up my inputs, just so you can say that there's a thing that exists in the game.

Finally, fuck all the way off with this Fortnite lookin mobile ass character model approach they've got goin on in MK1. I get it was a deliberate art direction or whatever, but I hate it. Make MK Yucky Again.

 

[Plop]

Give us back the original characters with their original origins

 

[Jynks]

Give us back the original characters with their original origins

you know, if they want to kindle massive interest, it might better to go another way. Maybe it is time for a new MK vs ? game. Team up with some other big FGC and bring in a initial burst of players from that franchise... or go with DC again, or something like that.

 

[Wigy]

Been playing since mk9 but i have been disappointed since mkx. Think its been downhill since. Extremely lacking on release, horrible side content, absolute nothing patches that take 6 months, then just as they start fixing stuff abandon ship.

 

[Krasiox]

They can't.
Watching the Virtua Fighter Direct made me realize how that was everything i was hoping for MK1 and everything around it to be it also made me realize we will probably never get this.

 

[Jynks]

All I saw was a cg trailer... No game no hype dems the rules.... Was there more video released?

 

[Krasiox]

All I saw was a cg trailer... No game no hype dems the rules.... Was there more video released?

If a MK event like that celebrating the 30th anniversay, releasing a FREE update to a old game like MK9 or MKX with updated rollback whilst showing a new game trailer, behind the scenes, emphasis and expansion of the competitive scene as a whole, dedicated 30th anniversary website with new dedicated socials that actually function, sick merch, celebratory collectors edition comprising of: original soundtracks; sick dual figurine; re-released old games on new gen platforms with the promise of "more to come" won't get you hype what would ?

 

[Krasiox]

And they did show gameplay.

 

[Jynks]

All I saw was a cgi trailer.. No game play