I, for one, loved the 3D era. But if I were to say that the new characters in that era were great, then I'd be lying to myself. If you want the audience to embrace a character, you need a good concept and a great execution. If you cannot pull these 2 crucial requirements off, then the character falls flat with the audience. With this slew of characters Midway established, there were good concepts with bad execution, bad concepts with awful executions, and the occasional good concept with great execution. Kenshi is the prime example of a good concept executed great. At the time of his creation, the idea of a blind swordsman was an intriguing thought to many; and midway pulled him off with a decent design visually and gameplay wise. Li Mei was the example of a decent concept pulled off in a bland way. Li Mei was created because they wanted her to represent what they felt MK lacked, a selfless young woman. Them making her a tragic hero was also a great idea, because it made the audience feel sympathy for her even if you didn't like her. Execution of her appearance and gameplay was ok, not great. To this day, Li Mei has enough of a fanbase that she doesn't fall completely to the wayside. But not nearly the fanbase Kenshi has. Other characters like Drahmin, Hsu Hao, and Mavado, Darrius, Hotaru, Nitara, exc. They all dwindled away. They had bad concepts (or unoriginal ones) and the fans could never really latch on. But that didn't stop Midway from trying; they kept putting out new characters, hoping they would strike a hit. I don't think Mortal Kombat found their footing in designing new characters until recently, actually.
