Raidenwins
Raiden Practitioner
So my first my impressions are that this game is an improvement over MK9, in several aspects. First, the most important one, gameplay. I think the addition of the Character Variation feature is a great one. It reminds me of the days of MK Deadly Alliance and Deception when we had three fighting styles per character, with the major difference being that you can’t switch Variation during the match. I think that’s actually a good thing because it forces you to think before the match starts which style fits you best, and also which counters your opponent's best. I mean, with every character having three variations, the possibilities are mind boggling. For example, the mental game before a match starts it’s no longer “Well he picked character A, I’ll just pick B”. Now it’s more like, “Holy crap, he picked Character A, Variation 2. What should I do?” The whole thing gives the battle mechanics more depth and makes them more strategic.
Another thing is that characters have more moves now. I actually counted Raiden’s moves yesterday in his Thunder God variation and I came up with 85. Couple that with the three variations feature and you now suddenly have much more options and you can play the same character in several different ways. In MK9, by contrast, there was pretty much only one way to play a character, if you wanted to win matches, that is.
Characters are better animated now. Animations seem more fluid and not as stiff, plus they look more elegant and cooler now. Also, the female models are a definite improvement over MK9. Gone are the manly looking, big jawed “women” of the previous game.
One of my favorite things is how much cooler moves look now. I mean, I was in Training mode with Raiden yesterday and was amazed at how spectacular most of his moves look. I kept doing many of them over and over (for example, the 1, 1, 2, 2, Hold 2 combo or the B+1, 1, 1+2 one; Holy crap, those are beautiful, especially those lightning finishes when you hold 2!) just to enjoy the sight. I don’t really remember doing that with any other MK games since Armageddon. And on that note, holy crap Raiden is so awesome now! He’s got those lightnings flowing all over him during a match, during victory pose, etc. He really looks like a god of thunder now! And his X-Ray is mega epic. I love watching it! I am gonna be practicing my X-Ray finisher combos now, I don’t care about damage, I just want to see that stylish move come out at the end.
Another improvement that comes to mind is the inputs. It’s only day 2 and I may be off on this, but the inputs seem more responsive and fluid to me. That was one of my biggest gripes with MK9, i.e. clunky, stiff, unresponsive inputs. I have a feeling combos will be easier to perform, which is great because we can now focus more on strategy and battle tactics instead of ridiculous, finger-busting 2 frame inputs (*cough* MK9 Raiden’s DF+2 *cough*).
The characters and story are about as awesome as in MK9, even the new characters fit well in the MK universe and look sufficiently cool and badass. What’s with Johny Cage though?! He looks totally different from MK9. Some character consistency there would’ve been nice.
The Factions feature looks cool, but it’s too early to tell how it’ll play out. It may be just a gimmick, but then again, it may turn out to be lots of fun. I guess time will tell.
One thing I am not sure about yet is how powerful (or over powered) jump-in and cross-over jumps are. I know that was my biggest problem with MK9. Hope it’s not as bad here, but it’s too early to tell.
Don’t get me wrong, I loved MK9. It’s one of the best game in the series, for sure, but it did have a few problems. It seems like MKX has addressed most of those though, which is awesome.
That’s all I got right now. Oh wait, how could I forget, WE HAVE A BLOCK BUTTON again! I was seriously worried about that, after the silliness that was cross-over jumps + back to block in Injustice. Not to mention pre-patch Scorpion + back to block. That was a nightmare. When I went into Training mode yesterday and pressed R2 and Raiden blocked, I seriously had a gamegasm lol
All in all, I am loving Mortal Kombat X so far! Great job, NRS.
Another thing is that characters have more moves now. I actually counted Raiden’s moves yesterday in his Thunder God variation and I came up with 85. Couple that with the three variations feature and you now suddenly have much more options and you can play the same character in several different ways. In MK9, by contrast, there was pretty much only one way to play a character, if you wanted to win matches, that is.
Characters are better animated now. Animations seem more fluid and not as stiff, plus they look more elegant and cooler now. Also, the female models are a definite improvement over MK9. Gone are the manly looking, big jawed “women” of the previous game.
One of my favorite things is how much cooler moves look now. I mean, I was in Training mode with Raiden yesterday and was amazed at how spectacular most of his moves look. I kept doing many of them over and over (for example, the 1, 1, 2, 2, Hold 2 combo or the B+1, 1, 1+2 one; Holy crap, those are beautiful, especially those lightning finishes when you hold 2!) just to enjoy the sight. I don’t really remember doing that with any other MK games since Armageddon. And on that note, holy crap Raiden is so awesome now! He’s got those lightnings flowing all over him during a match, during victory pose, etc. He really looks like a god of thunder now! And his X-Ray is mega epic. I love watching it! I am gonna be practicing my X-Ray finisher combos now, I don’t care about damage, I just want to see that stylish move come out at the end.
Another improvement that comes to mind is the inputs. It’s only day 2 and I may be off on this, but the inputs seem more responsive and fluid to me. That was one of my biggest gripes with MK9, i.e. clunky, stiff, unresponsive inputs. I have a feeling combos will be easier to perform, which is great because we can now focus more on strategy and battle tactics instead of ridiculous, finger-busting 2 frame inputs (*cough* MK9 Raiden’s DF+2 *cough*).
The characters and story are about as awesome as in MK9, even the new characters fit well in the MK universe and look sufficiently cool and badass. What’s with Johny Cage though?! He looks totally different from MK9. Some character consistency there would’ve been nice.
The Factions feature looks cool, but it’s too early to tell how it’ll play out. It may be just a gimmick, but then again, it may turn out to be lots of fun. I guess time will tell.
One thing I am not sure about yet is how powerful (or over powered) jump-in and cross-over jumps are. I know that was my biggest problem with MK9. Hope it’s not as bad here, but it’s too early to tell.
Don’t get me wrong, I loved MK9. It’s one of the best game in the series, for sure, but it did have a few problems. It seems like MKX has addressed most of those though, which is awesome.
That’s all I got right now. Oh wait, how could I forget, WE HAVE A BLOCK BUTTON again! I was seriously worried about that, after the silliness that was cross-over jumps + back to block in Injustice. Not to mention pre-patch Scorpion + back to block. That was a nightmare. When I went into Training mode yesterday and pressed R2 and Raiden blocked, I seriously had a gamegasm lol
All in all, I am loving Mortal Kombat X so far! Great job, NRS.