I want to weigh in on this too, I personally have never taken NRS games "seriously" as fighting games, they're gimmicky and obscenely unbalanced, but they're fun as hell to play. In casual play (which is where I consider myself to be) the game is a blast to pick up with a friend and mash out simple chains at each other, with canceling into special moves adding some easy meat to the experience. Where these games fall apart is on the competitive level, where a few characters have easily exploitable moves that are spammed for the win (like Erron's shot in MKX). That being said, as unbalanced as the games are, strong fighting fundamentals will still get you through a large chunk of your matches.
I went into MK9 after being dedicated to Street Fighter IV, and my fundamentals there were a huge help in MK, even if the fighting system was completely different. There were still footsies, there was still zoning, you still had to play the same mind games of attempting to read and bait your opponent.
Every game has 50/50s, but one thing MK isn't is a button masher. If your wife beat someone while mashing with Baraka, then I believe that she must have been playing someone as new to the game as she was.
