Will Mortal Kombat Make It To EVO?
Aris ON Monday, December 20, 2010 at 1:54PM 
With all the Mortal Kombat news these days, I can't help but wonder if it will actually be a good fighting game. Every legit fighting game player I have asked has said that there is no chance in hell it will be a tournament playable fighting game. And, trust me, I've asked many. Now I don't think this response is just empty hating. Obviously, there is a reason why everyone I've talked to has low expectations for the new MK. Lets look at the facts.
Reasons it could be a shitty game.
- There hasn't been a legit Mortal Kombat in over 15 years, and even UMK3 was never really accepted as a mainstream competitive fighting game.
- It's developed in America which is always a bad thing when it comes to fighting games.
- The game's mechanics are being described in a very vague way which makes many people skeptical.
- Console specific characters will hurt MK's potential as a competitive game because they will need to be banned to maintain fairness in tournaments.
Reasons it could be a good game.
- They have stated several times that they want the game to be played on a competitive level.
- Apparently, the development team is in contact with someone from the EVO staff. I don't know who this person is, but I trust anyone from the EVO staff to have knowledge of what a good fighting game needs.
- Apparently they are planning to patch the game multiple times by programming in the ability to make changes to moves and damage. It's not exactly clear what this means in terms of the need to actually release a patch through PSN and XBL, but it sounds promising.
- Most importantly, they seem to be emulating SF4. This is absolutely what every fighting game should be doing because SF4 is obviously doing something right.
My theory is that the MK development team has contracted someone from the EVO staff to help with the development of the game. If this is the case, we may have some hope of a legit game here. If not, the new MK will simply sell millions of copies but never be respected as a tournament ready fighting game.
I am very excited about the new MK, but I can't say I'm anything more than hopeful. I would love to see the new Mortal Kombat on the big screen at EVO next year, but honestly, would you bet on it?
Reader Comments (21)
"Console specific characters will hurt MK's potential as a competitive game because they will need to be banned to maintain fairness in tournaments. "
I don't think this is a factor at all. Just like with Soul Calibur 2 with Link, Spawn and Necrid. They're banned. As long as we still have the core characters then it'll be fine. I'm not too worried that the game won't make it to evo. All in positive spirits.
You say SC2 with Link, Necrid and Spawn being banned and I say SC4 where Yoda and Vader were allowed.
But I can guarantee that MK9 will be at EVO. It will just be in the byoc area with all the other dead games.
Console specific characters? Does that mean there will be an arcade release or something?
I'm talking about characters specific to PS3 vs Xbox. There is no way Kratos will ever be on Xbox and thats bad for Xbox tournament players if he is not banned.
But Yoda and Vader were both available on the PS3 and Xbobx360
It would b intersesting to see some high level play going on at evo for this game but.....like i said in another comment in regards to the mk franchise, How will this game b a major success in fighting game tournies when MK hasn't been in arcades since MK4 back in 97? True fans are going to love this game and support it no matter what but it seams that the franchise has turned into a console fighter now. Like aris said A fighting game in arcades is important bc it's like a worldwide beta test so that the game gets p[olished b4 hitting consoles.
I am hopeful for the sake of the Mortal Kombat fans. Even though, I know it will cause problems for me at tournaments, because the blood and stuff makes me sick. I will just have to bring a throw up bag with me.
It will make it in. All the money and press attached to MK (check out the GameInformer spread on it) is something Evo will not pass up (and I'm not trying to paint Evo as simply a cash grab of an event, but can anyone deny such publicity?).
As far as being a respected/competitive game? I highly doubt it. Ed Boon strikes me as someone who's rather clueless as to what makes games actually competitive. While he praises Tekken, for example, it also seems like he only checked the longest move in the move list and determined that that's what made Tekken great/competitive (check out any of the character tutorials in Deadly Alliance/Deception).
In the end though, what matters is that fighters are getting back into the mainstream, which can only help the genre in the long run. At this point, all I want from the new MK is to commit to something more serious, instead of the joke that Armageddon turned out to be.
Does MK have a chance at EVO in 2011? As long as it's not a hot bag of ass and releases to console on time, then maybe.
Assuming that EVO goes with 6 games again, you can pretty much assume that SSF4 and Marvel are in. Tekken 6 would be in for the 3D crowd and BlazBlue would be in for the GG crowd now that the game is actually playable. So with 2 spots left, MK would be up against Arcana Heart 3, KOF 13, TVC, and HD Remix. Do any of those games excite you? Not really. So as long as MK is good and can actually be played on a competitive level, then I like its chances unless EVO decides to either go with an old game or use a fan vote.
But what hurts is having the console specific characters. I was hoping to use Kratos but that ain't happening, nor do I expect that the MK community would make the PS3 the standard console for tournaments. Plus who knows how many people are going to play competitively. Has any MK done well competitively?
And what if Capcom decides to release an update to SSF4 around the time MK comes out? That could really keep people from playing MK seriously. So we'll see.
@MikeBreezy Yoda and Darth aren't owned by Sony or Microsoft though. GOW is a SONY exclusive, so Kratos being on the 360 version would be almost impossible.
I think it will be at next year's EVO....
the game though will probably be appreciated only by the MK fans...during the 1st year or so..
or maybe forever...because people usually bash other games they don't understand....
like some SF players saying Tekken is crap, because they think juggles are too strong.
I also think it will be a game, that is 'accidentally' good...Since I have a feeling many stuff like glitches, and 'cheap tactics' will appear, and make the game look silly. However some will ppl tolerate it after a while, and take the game as it is..
The reason I say ppl tolerate it, because.. look at MvC2..and look at what players like Clockw0rk think about MvC2.
Five Questions with Daniel “Clockw0rk” Maniago
http://combovid.com/?p=3502
I think the patching system through DLC sounds like an excellent idea; I hope they would have this in other mainstream fighting games including Tekken, but they don't do that because it can't be done with arcade machines simulataneously. But I was reading somewhere about future arcade machine tech which introduced the system of plugging generic machines to an internet network which would allow any game to be downloaded at will, then such frequent patching could be possible.
As for MK9 I feel it's just getting way more coverage than it deserves. The only reason it's being heavily discussed is because it is "Mortal Kombat". I'll say that it has a high chance of making it to EVO, simply because it is being so hyped and would attract alot of potential new players to the event and tournament scene as a whole, but I just can't help feel thinking that the game will turn out extremely unbalanced game.
I'm really stoked for this game, especially after hearing about the Evo staff contact!! That will mean only good things for this game, also post-release patching rocks me hard! I'm gonna keep a positive outlook for now.
aris i hope mk will be a great game, but one issue i have with this game is that just like last game you are able to counter the juggle while you are in the air if your meter is full or half full you can use it to to counter juggle, just think how ridiculous it would be if you can do this in tekken or street fighter .... other than that i am cheering for all fighting games even mk.
I'm not in love with the idea of combo breakers either but i'll wait to know more before i jump to conclusions.
Just because it is being made in America doesn't mean it'll turn up bad. Western developed fighitng games don't have a great track record but that doesn't mean they're incapable. I like the direction they're going in and based off what they've shown so far I'm hopeful for the best. It's kinda like RPG's, a genre once dominated by Japan, now is flourishing with western developers with titles like Mass Effect, Fallout, and such. Anything can happen.
There are some graphical gripes. One thing I don't like is that the hair animates like crap. Also some of the normals look really rough especially the air kicks.
For example as seen in this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJlru3PoEEE
And lastly, Blazblue had the BEST system for fatalities (Or Astral Finishes). It seems like a legitimate way for getting the eye candy and you feel like you deserve it. I REALLY REALLY wish MK9 used this. It's just something that adds skill to executing the fatalities which is what the series is known for.
This is a great idea. Hopefully, it'll download the latest "patches" instead of request them each time the game is turned on. The latter would be really annoying to deal with in a tournament setting.
Do western developed fighting games even have a track record? Killer instinct?
I do think combo breaks are kind of whack in any game, but at least they use meter which I believe helps balance them a lot better. It seems like they are not so much different than a parry in most game, but I just think "comb breakers" are kind of cheesy in any game.
That being said, watching the UMK3 finals got me FUCKING STOKED for this shit even more, so it better be good!
I also definitely think it will make it's way to Evolution.
@coilover I was responding to the comment that said Vader and Yoda were playable during tournament so Kratos would be.