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How would you change MK9 in a potential remaster?

IlluvialCE

Ruler of the Skies
I'd rather see NRS put their time and energy into either making MK11 better, making a new title, or reMAKING an old title like Shaolin Monks that never got as much love as it should have.
I agree wholeheartedly, but if we are gonna get a remaster regardless its at least fun to talk about. Besides, I'm sure any remaster would be handled by an entirely separate team. I can't think of a single instance of a remastered version of a fighting game being handled by the original devs. The notion that getting an MK9 remaster somehow steals time and effort from NRS that could be put elsewhere is almost certainly incorrect from the jump.
 

Wrenchfarm

Lexcorp Proprietary Technologies
The notion that getting an MK9 remaster somehow steals time and effort from NRS that could be put elsewhere is almost certainly incorrect from the jump.
That's a good point, these are usually licensed out! So at least it wouldn't be a distraction for NRS.
 

Arqwart

D'Vorah for KP2 copium
I really hope NRS does this, because y’all gonna realize how rosy them glasses are
The people who unironically are like "It would be the best thing ever!" would have a very rude awakening. See: REO's post on what would realistically happen.

EDIT: imagine the people receiving Kenshi or Kabal zoning, trying to play as Sheeva or Kano, getting insta-gibbed by a Cyrax combo, or never getting to press buttons against a Sonya or Johnny in online play.
 
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IlluvialCE

Ruler of the Skies
I really hope NRS does this, because y’all gonna realize how rosy them glasses are
As a newcomer I can genuinely say that MK9 is incredibly fun on a casual level. I will NEVER be able to understand how anyone who was in the comp scene can talk up MK9 the way some do. Most figureheads who were actually in those trenches have been saying for years that the game was broken beyond belief so I don't know how it still has the reputation it has as a hardcore competitive game.

I feel like even by classic game standards MK9 was a fucking dumpster fire. Maybe not along the lines of 3D MK, but those games alone are in a world of their own in terms of failing as a competitive game so that really isn't saying much.

The only people who can straightfaced say the game was amazing competitively are people who only played casually online or people who were almost entirely spectators at the time and just have that nostalgia built in from watching and didn't feel the sting of actually competing. The fact that MK9 would get fewer entrants in tournaments compared to most other fighters while drawing in huge viewercounts that eclipsed some of those other games says an awful lot.

Regardless of anything I've said here though I really would adore a solid official update of the game that adjusts the bullshit just a little bit while fixing the universal bugs. It will never be perfect or even passable by the standards of today but it doesn't necessarily have to. It just has to be (mostly) functional and balanced enough that half of the roster doesn't exist in the realm of 7-3 or worse against the top 5 characters.
 
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IlluvialCE

Ruler of the Skies
The people who unironically are like "It would be the best thing ever!" would have a very rude awakening. See: REO's post on what would realistically happen.

EDIT: imagine the people receiving Kenshi or Kabal zoning, trying to play as Sheeva or Kano, getting insta-gibbed by a Cyrax combo, or never getting to press buttons against a Sonya or Johnny in online play.
Do you have a link to Reo's post?
 

Shania Twain

That Don't Impress Me Much
I think the best case scenario would be a version playable online on the newer consoles possibly remastered in 4k. It would also depend on how much this would cost. etc. I would also want the alt costumes that were on the psp version for Rain and Skarlet. and didn't it have another tower too? that would be a nice addition.
 

Art Lean

Noob
I only play online to get free KL fashion items, I don't have any interest in competitive play beyond the reward of free clothes in MK11 to play dress up with my digital dollies, so I'd happily have a HD remaster with no real changes...

I think the best case scenario would be a version playable online on the newer consoles possibly remastered in 4k. It would also depend on how much this would cost. etc. I would also want the alt costumes that were on the psp version for Rain and Skarlet. and didn't it have another tower too? that would be a nice addition.
... Except those :)
 

Shania Twain

That Don't Impress Me Much
I only play online to get free KL fashion items, I don't have any interest in competitive play beyond the reward of free clothes in MK11 to play dress up with my digital dollies, so I'd happily have a HD remaster with no real changes...



... Except those :)
I only play online to get free KL fashion items, I don't have any interest in competitive play beyond the reward of free clothes in MK11 to play dress up with my digital dollies, so I'd happily have a HD remaster with no real changes...



... Except those :)

They would probably have to do a full on remake then, which I would be onboard with. But, I think that would unfortunately take a ton of time. I also really liked some of the codes in the game like Rainbow Kombat and adding the classic music. I wish they would allow us that feature in MK11. It was cool seeing the blood look like paint. Plus. I do remember enjoying the tag team matches. But I dunno...now that i'm older a match like that would feel super long.
 

IlluvialCE

Ruler of the Skies
I think the best case scenario would be a version playable online on the newer consoles possibly remastered in 4k. It would also depend on how much this would cost. etc. I would also want the alt costumes that were on the psp version for Rain and Skarlet. and didn't it have another tower too? that would be a nice addition.
Yea on Vita it has a dozen or so brand new costumes, a couple new "Test Your" minigames and a 150 level bonus tower. The bonus tower is almost entirely based around the Vita's gimmicks such as a touchpad, AR camera and gyroscope controls so it wouldn't really be possible to port that on anything other than the Switch.

The Vita version is actually what I've been playing these past couple weeks for the most part. Just got it on PC for discord netplay purposes but it really is crazy how well they handled the Vita version
 

Shania Twain

That Don't Impress Me Much
I would double the roster and throw balance out the window. Oh, was Motaro in a cutscene for 3 seconds? He's playable now.
so they call the game Mortal Kombat 9: The Armageddon Edition? cuz that more less is what it would be if they did that. and they would then have to do a story mode expansion. Then they would have to make it clear it is non-cannon as MKX would make no sense lol. Also, I think many of us still want the Freddy Vs. Jason and the Kratos character and stage on XBOX. Something tells me Sony will say NO or demand tons of money. Although, I think I did read somewhere that Microsoft did want their Gamepass on the PS5. That may have been a rumor. Who knows? Crazier things have happened in the world.
 

OutWorldAleMerchant

Hotaru's Number One Fan
so they call the game Mortal Kombat 9: The Armageddon Edition? cuz that more less is what it would be if they did that.
Yes! And add create a character again as well. Why not? I enjoyed that stuff lol.

In all seriousness, if balance is already out the window, maybe you should just add a few fun characters that fit the story but weren't playable before. Better a fun casual game than an eternally flawed competitive one imo
 
MK9 will get absolutely torn to shreds and obliterated by the modern and new FGC culture / NRS community. I don't see the game surviving for more than a month if NRS releases a remaster of MK9 without everyone demanding immediate and major patch changes to the game. Reddit, Twitter, Discord, and all other major outlets will have a field day trashing this game and picking apart it's flaws.


  • People are going to cry non stop about 90% of the roster being unviable and not having what it takes to win major tournaments
  • The game at the highest level boils down to about five viable characters, give or take a couple
  • Counterpicking was way too easy to enforce
  • Hitbox issues, bizarre glitches, and poorly implemented system bugs are in abundance
  • Absolutely irritating play styles are present and in full force. I'm talking about the play styles that the majority do not get down with, ie. (Insane silly zoning, extremely braindead offense, characters that live in the air 24/7 and jump that cannot be touched by many characters in match ups, wake-ups that have almost zero counterplay, 1 Bar Hyper-Armor attacks that take 40% of your life that are readily available at almost all times, etc. etc.)
  • Risk reward is completely screwed and makes no sense for some characters
  • Random frame advantage on attacks like Cage's F+3
  • Some moves are minus on hit for absolutely no reason
  • Mass low profiling seeps through the game
  • Lots of 2-8 and 1-9 match-ups
  • Invincible wake-ups being available 24/7 which means some characters can never be properly oki'd
  • Combo inconsistencies on some characters
  • Lots of Mids that aren't actual mids and whiff on half of the cast
  • Etc. etc. etc.
I can go on and on about the games issues but I'll leave it there. I'm not sure why Ed Boon is entertaining the idea of an MK9 remaster. While I would appreciate it because MK9 is my favorite NRS game, this is not going to "save" the community and bring everybody together as one happy group where everything all of a sudden becomes fine just because we all moved on from MK11. People think the outcry is bad now with MK11 balance, but I promise it will be worse when a lot of people feel they are forced to play a modernized version of MK9 that all of their friends are on, and now they have to deal with all of the BS that plagued the game. You want to play Jade? Sorry, that isn't possible in this game. You want to play your favorite character Liu Kang? Sorry he gets easily counterpicked in 2-8 match ups against characters like Kenshi that require no effort to do so in the match up. You're tired of losing to Kabal and want to counterpick him? Too bad. That doesn't exist. Etc.

I think the only way for NRS to save face from all of the harsh critique on this MK9 remaster is they would have to essentially "remake" the game from the ground up and change all of the balance, most of the game mechanics, fix the countless bugs, introduce GGPO, a fleshed out Ranked system, rebuild the entire training mode, etc. etc. Basically they would have to almost make a brand new game. And at that point, it will be so much different from the original MK9, why not just focus on making MK12 that "perfect" fighting game that so many players want?I'll definitely buy the MK9 remaster if it's true. But I'm for sure going to be bracing myself for the shit storm that is going to come if the game resembles anything close to the original MK9 product.
this is all wannabe YouTube clickbait horseshit. No one expects mk9 to be tourney viable without any significant game changes. BUT it was a fun game, which mk11 is not. Does fun trump balance?? Or the other way around?? That’s the question.

but any die hard NRS fan in 2021: why not both????
 

Shania Twain

That Don't Impress Me Much
Yea on Vita it has a dozen or so brand new costumes, a couple new "Test Your" minigames and a 150 level bonus tower. The bonus tower is almost entirely based around the Vita's gimmicks such as a touchpad, AR camera and gyroscope controls so it wouldn't really be possible to port that on anything other than the Switch.

The Vita version is actually what I've been playing these past couple weeks for the most part. Just got it on PC for discord netplay purposes but it really is crazy how well they handled the Vita version
I may have to check into this! I don't play PC gaming though these days and would have to dig out a controller. ugh. I just use a laptop for CPU stuff. well at one point when I was working from home they sent us this PC that was the size of a cable box but we still had to hook it up to monitors with HDMI ports. I don't know of those are powerful enough for gaming, but they were definitely cool.
 

Saltea Moonspell

"Mind Over Matter" I dont mind, and X dont matter
To meet today expectations, the game would have to be worked from ground up - imagine that re-mastered MK9, would turn out better then MK11 lol
 

Gooberking

FGC Cannon Fodder
I don't know anything at all about MK9, but every time someone brings up the MK9 remaster idea I have to wonder how you deal with all the Flesh Pits Mileena type situations. Everyone got along so well in the MK11 costume conversations.
 

NoCharge

Noob
Nah, MK11 was/is the biggest shit storm.

People know what they're getting with an MK9 remaster. Everyone can shit on the balance all they want, but the game is still fun to this day. Updated graphics with good netcode and some bug fixes would be more than enough for me, personally. People can call it a cash grab if they want, but I'd be happy for NRS to grab my cash when it comes to this.
Maybe fun for a couple characters. The rest 90% of the cast is useless. To each his own though, but I'm pretty sure a lot of people who played it at launch would't buy an unbalanced remaster. And I don't see many new buyers also.