What does Mortal Kombat do well that other fighting games do not?

[Cicada 5]

As an Mk fan, what do you think the games do well that other fighting games don't or don't do as well?

 

[CrimsonShadow]

There's something about MK games that gives them some kind of weight and grit that most other games don't have.. When something lands, you really feel it, and it's been that way since the very first MK (which anybody who ever walked into an arcade to hear an MK cabinet will attest to!)

That visceral nature is what keeps a lot of people coming back over the cartoony/floaty-style games, and it feels distinctly American and that's cool.

 

[ticklebandit!]

Character design and lore aside, I really like the visual uniqueness of strings/combos. When I watch other fighters like street fighter/killer instinct it just looks like get the opening, jab, kick, jab, super colorful special attack cutscene thing. Not trying to hate on them at all and I know how hypocritical i sound here cause you can totally dumb down MK games the same way (since essentially that is whats happening). But MK just has a more realistic look/feel to special moves, strings and hits landing and the opponents reaction to them.

And i hate using the word "realistic" since the games are four armed giants fighting lizard men and all, but I hope you guys get what I mean. The art styles of other fighting games look too cartoony and the actual fighting looks too simplistic to me, especially the anime ones.

 

[Law Hero]

The presentation, for sure, especially in the Pre-NRS games.

The 80's/90's Kung-Fu movie aesthetic mixed with a dark atmosphere and creative character designs has always been its biggest draw (for me). The over-the-top violence and the 90's edge layered over a mystical orient backdrop just makes for an amazing setting for a fighting game. Add in some si-fi elements in later games, and it's a perfect blend of everything cool. The neat story, character bios, and plethora of extra modes in the 3D era really expanded upon and solidified the fantasy world of Mortal Kombat too, acting as an adhesive holding everything else together.

I think MKX and MK11 have really dropped the ball in this regard as well with their focus on Special Forces characters.

 

[Juggs]

MK games typically do a better job of being accessible to newer players. Easy to get into hard to master type of vibes. I also had typed out a long thing about MK games typically having less stringent execution requirements than a lot of other FG’s, but it was getting to be too long of an explanation.

 

[Cicada 5]

The presentation, for sure, especially in the Pre-NRS games.

The 80's/90's Kung-Fu movie aesthetic mixed with a dark atmosphere and creative character designs has always been its biggest draw (for me). The over-the-top violence and the 90's edge layered over a mystical orient backdrop just makes for an amazing setting for a fighting game. Add in some si-fi elements in later games, and it's a perfect blend of everything cool. The neat story, character bios, and plethora of extra modes in the 3D era really expanded upon and solidified the fantasy world of Mortal Kombat too, acting as an adhesive holding everything else together.

I think MKX and MK11 have really dropped the ball in this regard as well with their focus on Special Forces characters.

I don't think 11 was any more focused on the Special Forces characters than any other game besides Special Forces and X. And even the latter gave focus to characters that weren't special forces.

 

[Dankster Morgan]

It feels like you're actually doing damage when you hit another character, from the animations, to the battle damage on character models, to the sounds. In most other fighting games it just feels like pixels slapping together, not two superpowered humanoids trying to kill each other.

The art / character designs are awesome as well. MK 11 Scorpion, MKX Sub, MKX Kitana, MKX D'Vorah, MKX Errmac, MKX Quan, and the cyborgs all are some of my favorite character models in any game. I would have never got into fighting games if 15 year old me didn't think that Sub-Zero looked like such a badass.

 

[Dankster Morgan]

MK games typically do a better job of being accessible to newer players. Easy to get into hard to master type of vibes. I also had typed out a long thing about MK games typically having less stringent execution requirements than a lot of other FG’s, but it was getting to be too long of an explanation.

Definitely more fun for the lowest level of casuals. MKX especially with the 14% uppercuts, 12% grabs, and a dedicated block button, as well as satisfying / intuitive strings and specials going together.

 

[Juggs]

Definitely more fun for the lowest level of casuals. MKX especially with the 14% uppercuts, 12% grabs, and a dedicated block button, as well as satisfying / intuitive strings and specials going together.

And I think fighting games desperately need that. Because one of the biggest issues fighting games have is the amount of players. As far as I remember, fighting games have some of the lowest numbers out of all the genres of video games, and that’s not even talking about the numbers competitively. I feel like we always get a decent amount of new competitive players with every MK game where they say that this new MK game was there 1st competitive fighting game, which is amazing and is exactly how you build a scene. And I actually think that the games NOT being super legacy driven like games like Injustice or Street Fighter also dramatically help that fact.

 

[Eji1700]

Intros. Every combination of matchups has unique voice acting. Most games don't even bother with unique text lines.

Block button. For what was just a decision forever ago, they've done a very good job fleshing out a different style of 2d fighter, and a lot of the interesting bullshit (when they're doing well), comes from that. Not to say there aren't good back to block fighters, but I like when MK can execute because it hits a good sweet spot.

Unique bullshit- I think MK is usually at it's best when it's like MK9. Lots of crazy shit going on, but it somehow still (mostly) works. I wouldn't mind something pushing back to the mk2 days, but 11 is a pretty heavily missed mark in my eyes. Just feels to standardized.

 

[Marlow]

I don’t know about “better “, I just think MK (and nrs in general) makes some really interesting games. MK is a unique mix of 3D concepts like block button, string based combos, in a 2D fighter. It’s fun because it’s different.

 

[Juxtapose]

I've been playing the franchise since it launched in arcades back in '92, and what drew me to it was the motion capture actors and the blood and gore. The graphics were fantastic and "realistic" for their day, something Street Fighter II lacked. Scorpion looked badass and had a cool storyline, and the game actually had secrets (Reptile!).

The Mortal Kombat franchise overall has the right tone and feel with excellent character design, fun and interesting lore, and it was always a more "mature: fighting game to young me.

I got out of the franchise with Mortal Kombat 4, the shift to 3D (both graphically and in terms of the fighting plain) did not do it for me, and the 3D-era proper (Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance through Mortal Kombat: Armageddon) were, in my opinion, not good games that really distanced me from the franchise.

Mortal Kombat (2011) though, embracing that classic feel back on a 2D plain with then-really great graphics (I still remember firing up the game for the first time on my Xbox 360 and marvelling at how gorgeous the game was; the most visually appealing game I'd seen at that time), designed for competitive play, and tickling all the right nostalgia places sucked me back in.

 

[superbn0va]

The presentation, for sure, especially in the Pre-NRS games.

The 80's/90's Kung-Fu movie aesthetic mixed with a dark atmosphere and creative character designs has always been its biggest draw (for me). The over-the-top violence and the 90's edge layered over a mystical orient backdrop just makes for an amazing setting for a fighting game. Add in some si-fi elements in later games, and it's a perfect blend of everything cool. The neat story, character bios, and plethora of extra modes in the 3D era really expanded upon and solidified the fantasy world of Mortal Kombat too, acting as an adhesive holding everything else together.

I think MKX and MK11 have really dropped the ball in this regard as well with their focus on Special Forces characters.

This 100%. For me exactly the same.
Also secrets and unlockables. But those seem to be replaced with grinding or dlc

 

[Barakall]

Basically the lore and everything that comes with it, story, bios, etc. NRS messed up a lot, but cannot deny that MK11 story looks fantastic, is actually a proper story and it somehow makes sense. No other game can even come close to MK!

The aesthetic is also unique, though that is changing. Battle damage & gore it used to do well, but that has gotten worse, though no other game does it better. Finishers obviously is unique. Intros and outros are best in the business.

 

[Tony at Home]

Single player and good netcode

The latter is thankfully becoming less exclusive to NRS and by 2023 we may actually have most popular fighting games on rollback.

But NRS is still the only FG with great SP content outside of Soul Calibur

 

[xWildx]

MK is the only game I know of where I can play as a pink (favorite color), sai wielding (one of my favorite weapons), femme fatale (favorite character archetype).

Basically, it’s the character design for me. That, and the gameplay doesn’t delve into an absurd amount of depth. Just frames, 1-2 frame link combos, etc. just don’t appeal to me.

I really like the animations and style of 3D fighters, and MK/INJ are basically 3D fighters on a 2D plane, so….

 

[trufenix]

sell.

 

[Marinjuana]

"I want to play as that cool ass character" is the number 1 draw of any fighting game and MK does the best job of having characters with cool designs and depth to their backstory.

Cool special moves that are mechanically unique(Scorp's teleport, Ice Ball, Kotal's Sun Ray), iconic or brutal

It's consistently been one of the best fighters to deliver content for two decades. 60$ towards an MK game goes much farther then for the average fighting game.

>>>>

Honorable mention: Projectile trades are cool, helps MK to stand out

 

[Barakall]

"I want to play as that cool ass character" is the number 1 draw of any fighting game and MK does the best job of having characters with cool designs and depth to their backstory.

Cool special moves that are mechanically unique(Scorp's teleport, Ice Ball, Kotal's Sun Ray), iconic or brutal

It's consistently been one of the best fighters to deliver content for two decades. 60$ towards an MK game goes much farther then for the average fighting game.

>>>>

Honorable mention: Projectile trades are cool, helps MK to stand out

Have to partially disagree, MK has been consistently underwhelming in amount of characters and having character diversity in terms of physical stature in particular and depth.

A character like Goro or Shao Kahn are just slightly bigger, for example. Point is, there’s 30-35 characters each game and w/ the lack of variety in combos and moves - variation issue - makes very few stand out.

This has gone so far south that I don’t even care about my favourite characters being in, since e.g. Shang Tsung & Baraka were very underwhelming and downright bland. It’s all rather flat, exacerbated by boring gameplay.

Street Fighter 5 and DB Fighterz were very simple games, but they each had something that made them way more enjoyable. I only stuck around MK11 for DLC and story. Couldn’t even bother getting skins, intros etc.

So could not even enjoy what made each character unique w/ the forced grinding tactics. Character towers were tedious and repetitive. NRS has taken the fun out of MK since X.