Overheads are one thing and I agree it should have some. But some of the 3D MK games had some wierd looking moves, like kicks that come out really fast that you think would be low but are really mids. I see overheads and mids as something different in a 2D game. In a 3D game I understand mids and there need because side stepping is a big issue. In a 2D game fast starting mids like that just make blocking a total guessing game. You cant side step so you just have to guess right. In Street Fighter alot of overheads have at least a little more startup than normal pokes giving you at least some time to react to it.
I agree wholeheartedly about there being some way to deal with crouch blocking. If crouch blocking becomes a magic shield where nothing can hurt you then you get exactly what you typed above. There can be lots of different ways to deal with it I suppose. SF uses overheads and throws to break a crouch block. UMK3 uses chip damage, because even though a crouch block will defend against all attacks in UMK3, runjabs allow you to pour on the chip damage.
In MK9 I think overheads are the best way to go, I just dont want to see to many fast mids that will make blocking a total guessing game.
I agree with all of that, but the problem is not with mid-attacks, it's with the risk/reward and speed of the mid-hitting attacks. To fix this problem, NRS needs to make mids that are either slow and safe, or moderately fast, but only lead to frame advantage instead of big combos. IMO, anything that leads to big damage should be either unsafe or slow enough that you can block it on reaction (offline).
From the GDC vids, it already looks like sweeps may be too fast to block on reaction, but it doesn't look like they lead to big damage, so I'm okay with that. I've mentioned this in previous threads, but I really like how Soul Calibur IV handles a lot of normal low attacks. If it's a fast low attack, you're at disadvantage even if it hits, but the attack is still safe. If it's blocked, you can be punished, but only by small damage.
There are some new vids from GDC up(I will post them later), there seems to be a few places where the block stun is a little too long to react to something that should be punishable. I hope this is fixed...
That worried me a bit too, but animation can look odd sometimes so I'll wait and see what's really punishable and what's safe.
On a side note, does the game look incredibly stiff to anyone else? The animation seems fairly lackluster. I don't know how many non-MK fans will enjoy watching high-level matches of MK with the game looking like it currently does. It's a minor issue, but could lead to problems down the line (from a competitive standpoint).
