Was there less guessing involved in MK9?

[CircleOf14]

Played a ton of mk9 online back during its prime (2011-2013). Absolutely loved that game. Couldn't get into mkx because they replaced dash block with run. But I have played a lot of mk11.

I don't know if perhaps I'm looking back at mk9 with rose tinted glasses but I swear that mk9 didn't require as much guessing as mk11 does. It seems that every single character in mk11 has some pressure string that could end with a low or overhead. After guessing wrong 100 times in a row, sometimes I just scream "What the hell am I supposed to do!?!?"

I don't remember feeling that way ever during mk9. Once I started blocking a string I don't remember feeling constant anxiety that I'm going to get blown up at the end like I do with mk11.

Do any of you mk9 veterans agree with me? Or am I just remembering it wrong?

And if I am remembering it correctly, just to put it out there, I really think this is the direction all future MK games should go. MK9 managed to be unbelievably fun WITHOUT the need for a thousand layers of guessing. There were still a ton of high level players that destroyed you based on their reads, skill, match up knowledge and execution. NOT on hoping that you guess wrong. Find a way to make that happen again NetherRealm, please.

 

[CrimsonShadow]

Just a different type of guessing, against most of the viable characters. Less oh/low mixup in the pre-MKX era.. But it was impossible not have to guess when to hit a button against most of the popular characters like Cage, Kabal, Cyrax, Kenshi, etc.

Some of this had to do with armor (mmm cartwheel into EX cartwheel, flash parry etc), some of it had to do with insane frame data (like the variable advantage on Cage’s f3), some of it had to do with characters just having a million options (Cyrax, Sonya with MS, Kabal NDC shenanigans, or Kenshi’s midrange laundry list).

 

[CircleOf14]

Just a different type of guessing, against most of the viable characters. Less oh/low mixup in the pre-MKX era..

Cool thanks. Yeah that's what I thought. I guess I just prefer any other type of guessing instead of oh/low. I think any other guessing is still easier to manage especially for older players like me who's reaction time is not what it used to be.

 

[Marlow]

I wouldn't really categorize MK11 as being too OH/Low heavy, at least compared to MKX or to other fighting games. Not sure how MK9 was. In general the frame advantage is toned down, and most characters don't seem to have as many OH/Low options, at least not in terms of being able to launch from both a low or an overhead.

 

[Deleted member 5032]

MK9 had a lot of safe armored moves that characters could cancel into, so it was always kind of a guess whether or not you could take your turn. MKX was a 50/50-fest, with tons of high-damage 50/50 launchers. There's still a lot of guessing on MK11, especially against the top tier like Sub-Zero, but the reward for landing 50/50's is a bit more toned down than in previous games.

 

[trufenix]

in MK9 the guesses were made on the character select screen. If you chose wrong, you didn't get to play most matchups.

 

[trufenix]

Seriously though, anyone who thinks MK9 had less guessing than any game released after save maybe MKX, most certainly did not play MK9. The main difference is in MK9 you got one, maybe two guesses until you died, unless you had breaker.

MKX was actually far worse, since most 50/50s were loopable and armor was everywhere, but you at least got to watch a 30 second combo video in between failed guesses.

MK11 FEELS worse because you have to guess wrong about 5 times to lose, but that's still 3 more chances then you would have had in MK9. In MK9 every top tier character was Geras or Spawn or Kotal with a bunch of KBs loaded, ready to do 50-60%+ and put you in a loopable vortex with a single bar of meter.