i really appreciate you being a huge MK fan but I feel like there were multiple points in the story you criticized that felt like you were just overlooking the story all together. The Cyber Lin Kuei didn't come out of nowhere they were talked about in the MK 1 arc, Raiden having the time amulet, easily explainable considering Shinnok was able to make his own god artifact. So the elder gods have their own special weapons and artifacts. Shao Kahn leaving the throne room to hear about what Kitanna had to say? I think a domestic dispute between a warlords daughter and one of his top generals isn't something Shao Kahn would want on full display, especially not knowing why the dispute was happening. Idk man its things like that in the review that have me like:"...eh." otherwise you solid.
@@JakeTylenol I don't recall saying the cyberisation came out of nowhere. The point is that Raiden never had the amulet before, but we're now being old he did. He doesn't want it on display, so he takes her to the crowded arena to have her killed there, instead of in private?
The4thSnake you say it at 43:23. You make it sound like you didn’t understand where those cyborgs came from at all. And...ok yeah I guess yeah now that I think about it the raiden point is correct. As for Kitanna? Yes. As I said before Shao Kahn had no idea what Kitanna was going to him for. He had no idea if Shang Tsugn had uncovered some shit he wasn’t supposed to know or Kitanna was going to expose something he didn’t want public yet. He’s a political leader as much as a warlord man. Once he learned it was only about Milenna , and that she was ready, then yeah:”Hey, this woman wasn’t my daughter, BUT THIS WOMAN RIGHT HERE, she’s the outworld princess you deserve!”
3 Months Later; The NRS Devs found a excuse to throwing Shang Tsung under the bus for Quan Chi. Sindel is still ruined. Fujin is back. Sheeva is Playable. Oh yeah.... F*ckin RoboCop.
ALSO, Kitanna somehow beat Shao Kahn. SHAO KAHN. The dude who got killed, came back, got killed, came back, got killed came back, got carried away by Onaga and According to MK9 Shao Kahn Killed Onaga (No poison this time), Ran all the way up the tower, killed Blaze, Killed nearly everyone in the battle of armageddon after killing Blaze, Got killed by Liu Kang, Survived, and If it wasnt for the Elder Gods... Shao Kahn would've won. Kitanna was kidnapped, Died after sindel took her voice. (in mk9) So Kitanna Defeats Shao Kahn. How the f-
I guess if Raiden had said “Shao Khan must win!” instead of “He Must Win,” it would have made the Younger Raiden think Khan has to win during the MK2 portion of the game and they would have been hella screwed 😂
Why couldn’t he have sent the message to his MK3 self though? That way, the events of the first two games would’ve just happened like they were supposed to.
@@Kade_KapesMaybe he left the amulet in his other hat in MK3 so he just told his MK1 self, but I guess it’s because in MK3 he’s weakened due to the merging of outworld and Earthrealm so he couldn’t do much
Imagine how cool it would have been if it was actually Shang Tsung who created Noob Saibot instead of Quan Chi. Since they're both "parallels" they could both have the resurrected soul of an earthrealm warrior as their trump card. That would not only explain why the resurrection method and habilities are different as you point out but it also make sense for Scorpion and Noob saibot to be rivals or atleast want eachother dead since they (literally) killed eachother (or atleast in the old cannon). It would atleast try to do something with the rivalry between the sorcerers and the ninjas.
Their personalities would fit their creators since Noob is more obedient and calmed while scorpion is aggressive and disobedient, which makes sense since Shang Tsung is implied to be a superior necromancer by Quan Chi's need of his assistance during Deadly Alliance. The revenants could be Shao Kahn's reward to Quan Chi, since he is a sorcerer himself he teaches Quan Chi his perfected technique for resurrection (It can be intended to be used on the undead army of the dragon king if he ever found it or some bullshit like that to explain why Shao Kahn can make revenants but just refused to do it, I dunno).
I can't tell if it upsets or impresses me that the comments section of a YT video can provide better writing and narrative reasoning for Characters than the people actually paid to write them
I whole-heartedly respect your opinion, but I also whole heartedly disagree with much of what you say. You obviously put a lot of time and effort into this video and are obviously a true fan by anyone’s standards, and I can appreciate that you genuinely tried to give this game a second chance for yourself. I honestly love this game, story and all, but I respect that you don’t, well played my friend, well played.
Thank you. It's rare to find someone who disagrees and doesn't try to discredit me as a "3D era fanboy" or some other crap. I appreciate that you at least tried to understand my opinion instead of writing it off like a child.
The4thSnake I truly respect your opinion, but do you believe, with the success of competitive 2D fighting games at the time and with Tekken and Soul Calibur literally shitting on every single 3D fighting game since the 2000s and even still today, that MK would’ve been better suited as a 3D franchise?
@@The4thSnake actually it's not rare at all. I haven't found any comments of someone calling you a 3d era fanboy. They're just debunking your argument and bringing up their own points to support their argument. Don't try to pass it off as "they're just calling me 3d era fanboys".
I always figured that Taven killed Blaze, and because his doing so strengthened everyone, Shao Kahn then killed Taven (as he was now strong enough to make it back from wherever Onaga took him; it's not like he can't move fast.) Then the devs said "no he didn't. Kahn just won."
Apparently Onaga killed Shao Kahn's clone while the real Kahn casually walked up the pyramid from the back and kills Blaze by surprise. Just imagine him calmly walking up while everyone kills each other on the other side! WTF
This game deserves credit for how well they did the altered voices. Cyber sub zero and noob for example sound super cool. And not by doing the stupid generic making their voice super deep or edgy like noob in mk11. They did more like mr freeze in Arkham city
Playing as the villain is so important to give the player an idea of how powerful they are. One of the BEST examples I've ever witnessed is from the game Hyrule Warriors, the Legend of Zelda Dynasty Warriors clone. After playing the main story and curbstomping the new OC: Donut steel villains, it fakes you out into thinking the story is over, only to revive Ganondorf. They then have you play as him. He promptly revives two powerful generals, curbstomps all dissenters, recruits entire maps worth of monsters, and beats the shit out of all the heroes, putting them in dire straights which leads to the end game. At this point, you have personally kicked the shit in of the heroes and effortlessly wrangled all opposing forces to defeat them, so you KNOW what sort of a monster you're up against. Why they haven't had chapters of the villains, even the normally unplayable bosses, curbstomping the heroes as they set about their goals is beyond me, especially in MK2011 because GORO IS PLAYABLE FOR CHALLENGE 150.
Now that I think of it, yeah, Kahn is out of character here. I remember in Armageddon where he was actually very willing to team up with Quan-Chi, Shang-Tsung and Onaga, three people who he clearly knows want to kill him, because he realizes he alone can't stop all the heroes so he makes a temporary alliance, only breaking rank when everyone pretty much breaks rank when the Pyramid of Argus was summoned. He was a merciless, heartless monster but not a whiny idiot who murdered minions over the slightest failure. Hell, in his Deception ending he teams up with Goro, who he recruited through manipulation, to once again poison Onaga, a meat head brute he is not. Also yeah, the way they do the story mode is very idiotic because now, no character has a power level, anyone can beat anyone and while yeah, the writers truly dictate who would win and could easily let anyone win, typically good writers have consistency to their world, they don't just let Superman get his ass kicked without someone having kryptonite to weaken him because otherwise most characters couldn't do shit. With the way the story in MK goes however, the lead character of the chapter is god until his chapter ends, then he is a meaningless jobber. With this kind of story mechanic, Dan Hibiki could beat Oni as long as its his chapter, doesn't matter that Oni is Akuma at full power and Akuma himself is nigh unbeatable with only one loss to his name before becoming the monster he is, it'd be Dan's chapter so Dan is stronger. Honestly one way they could circumvent this is do the Injustice approach, add little minigames and plot point to make the fights seem more fleshed out. Like in Johnny's first fight with Reptile, you could have it start with a little minigame where you have to track Reptile as he is going invisible and hit him with force balls, somewhat similar to Batman keeping Lex at bay in Injustice, this would make the fight seem more impressive as both characters are using their powers and being smart with them but Reptile is shown to be a challenge and Johnny has to fight smart at the start of the fight before the actual round 1 occurs. They could also implement the modifiers into the story as well, have the current chapter character get poisoned during the story, have two characters team up for a tag team, make it to where the player can't block when fighting a boss character to show how strong they are. They very easily could have gotten creative with the story mode with shit they either had or were capable of making and yet instead we just got a story where everyone is either a god or a jobber and it sucks. On a final note, you bringing up how Raiden wasn't acting like Dark Raiden at the start made me think of a very good idea. At the start of the game, have Raiden actually acting monsterous and extreme, have him try to make deals with Shao-Kahn to prevent Armageddon including offering the souls and realms of the other deceased characters so he leaves Earthrealm alone and once you show this, once he sends the message back to his past self we can then explore how different regular Raiden is to his future Dark self to really show case why its not a good thing for him to be in that form, and you can also add interesting conflict and character development by having normal Raiden slowly start acting like Dark Raiden as shit gets worse which would show that Dark Raiden isn't merely due to corruption, this is something Raiden could be capable of but in this new timeline, Raiden fights this extremist, evil urge and manages to do the right thing at the end. That would be so much better than just having Dark Raiden purely be an aesthetic for future Raiden and Dark Raiden only happening once again due to evil corruption as opposed to actually just getting fed up with failure and constant threats.
Johnny Cage and his personality alone is the reason I play NetherRealm’s MK games. The other characters are okay, but Johnny definitely stands out to me the most and that what makes him my favorite character. Props to both Jeff Pilson (MK9) and Andrew Bowen (MKX/MK11) for bringing such life to this character! 🙌👏
the “Sindel kills everyone” might be the worst moment in the entire series for me. There are so many things wrong with it but the main thing that burns my braincells is that in game where fighting, death, resurrection and varying levels of strength are prominent elements with themes and even entire story threads centered around just ONE death occurring, someone wrote a scene that basically reads “Sindel slaughters basically half the cast in a 1 to 2 minute scene with absolutely zero fanfare as everyone she murders are treated like jobbers who have only ever fought a wooden post” and somehow that got from the writing room into this game as a canon event and not some stupid “What-if?” Scenario in an arcade ending? Are you fucking kidding me? Side note: And of the survivors you pick Johnny cage and Sonya blade? The two who’ve actually been jobbers the whole time? Fucks sake
Yeah i know right? I wouldn't mind Sindel killing a few characters to establish her newly acquired powers from Shang Tsung but it doesn't help that a) Shang Tsung should have never been wasted like that and b) even accepting that scenario of Shang dying doesn't mean she should be goddamn OP like that, not to mention is how just like what Battle of the Realms did they decided to have the fights follow Dragon Ball logic of her just overpowering and killing the cast with pure power which not only makes little sense in the MK Universe but also doesn't make sense how being given Shang Tsung's soul and all the others inside him would make her physically stronger when it would have made more logical sense for her to use Shang Tsung's fire moves alongside her own abilities to kill a couple fighters before being broken free from Shao Khan's control by say Nightwolf. It shows that even before MK11 the writing could be appallingly bad and highly nonsensical, it just became much more obvious in that game.
@@the_lonely_winner2956 For me that was the least offensive thing since I could see some interesting thing going on with say Kabal and him given kabals reponce and aid when he saw Smoke talk of subs state.
Chapters are dumb in fighting games They have to include useless fights just to fill the quota, this means a bunch of clunky filler fights that happen for no reason
The best example is when Jade beats Mileena and Smoke appears with Raiden This is that scenes dialouge Smoke: *”Kitana turns on Shao Kahn so you attack her rather than join her?!”* Raiden: *”Smoke, STOP! That is NOT Kitana!”* But he for some reason fights Jade anyway...
Then go for the arcade ladder. Multiple endings of a “what if” scenario in killing Shao Khan, boom, fairly simple. Chapters are meant for the player to get a chance at each character (in the good side), but has enough variety to consider it a challenge when it comes to: “oh, next character, better check the move list.” Like a buffet full of food, waiting for people to have a go at what’s available now and later. (But without the freedom of choice.) Not too much to ask for, to me really. Jax vs Johnny Cage and Jade vs Smoke, total filler , yet I found it hilarious to be honest.
Answering as a person, shit writing. Answering as a fan, new timeline means new things can happen. We can tell as much when sub 0 becomes a robot and raiden kills liu kang.
Richard Epcar is one of the best and most underrated voice actors working today. You have your Hales and your Blums, but Epcar is easily on their level and doesn’t get the recognition of them. My favorite role for him was Shingen Takeda in the first Samurai Warriors game, and it annoyed me to no end that he wasn’t brought back for the sequel.
Jax's metal arms was just an upgrade in the original timeline which made sense when a fatality is done to him (arm ripped, etc there was flesh) But now in the new timeline it makes no sense because they made his arms completely cybernetic.
I love how casually 4th snake says Scorpion’s design is objectively perfect. I definitely agree, mk9 Scorpion has always been the coolest design for him in my opinion.
Motaro. Shao Khan's general in Earth's invasion. Why? Because the Shokan failed *TWICE* and so their race completely fell out of favour to their bitter rivals, the Centaurs. Hence why Sheeva was a mere bodyguard during said invasion. That's the key reason why it never made sense for Goro and Kintaro to still be present in the storyline, post-MK 2. So Motaro did have importance to the original story of MK 3, but not to most of the people in _that_ room. Plus when you mention costumes, I was annoyed that Shang Tsung received neither his MK 2 or MK 3 looks in-game. Instead a weird Deadly Alliance hybrid design.
Don’t you mean Kritique Edit: OK WTF I don’t even remember this guys UA-cam channel and video, I comeback 10 months later I’m scrolling through comments and find our apparently I know him, I’ve seen this video and my comment has blown up lol
If there was anything to learn here, story matters in all mediums no matter what it is, if it has a story, the story needs to be good and well thought out.
My friend (a prequel defender and Snyderverse shill no less) is super dismissive of stuff like Bayonetta, MGS and DMC and it gets under my skin sometimes. I should clip out that part and send it to him
@@Akechifan Well, the reply said that their *friend* is “dismissive” of those games, I don’t think they meant that *they* themselves don’t like the games.
As a casual fighting game fan, I simply don't notice the touches and differences in combo's and special moves. Though I'm not a total simpleton, I know the difference between 2D fighters and 3D fighters. It was nice being able to dodge annoying spammed projectiles. They did have stage transitions in MK3, which I think was the first for the series...or perhaps Ultimate MK3? (I was quite surprised to accidentally uppercut my opponent while in the subway, through the ceiling and continue the fight on the streets.) They brought them back in Deception, I think? But haven't had them since. The stage Fatalities of Deception were different to the classics too, and I didn't mind that. Being able to kill your opponent in the first round, yet still continue to round 2 was something that amused me. Being able to do that to big bad Onaga was incredible satisfying too. Sure, it was cheap, but he's the boss and they're always a pain to beat. On the other hand, it's equally hilarious when it goes wrong and the CPU wins due to karma. I'm pretty sure I had a fight with Onaga when I was luring him over to the edge of the stage, only to be knocked into the spikes below, instead. lol Nostalgia aside, plot holes and retcons have always bugged me and I couldn't accept that "It's a fighting game and story doesn't matter." either. But it's incredible how much you can miss when you don't know as much as you thought you did. This referring to me. The over the top violence had never appealed to me and as a kid, I disliked the franchise. But I was pulled back in by the characters. Scorpion, the vengeful Ninja Spectre with a heart. Sub-Zero, a cold man with a cool head. Liu Kang, the humble champion. And so on... They are some retcons I am happy to accept. Hell, with the series still trying to find it's identity, I'd give them a pass on Raiden being promoted to protector instead of arrogant douche. Having seen him like that for so long, it's hard to see him as anything else. Except for possibly an idiot, as portrayed here. Other retcons are not welcome, such as Quan Chi stealing Shang Tsungs many roles. Moving onto one point regarding Jax. In the original timeline, I recall his arms being described as "biometric implants" or something like it. Though I have no idea what that means, I'm pretty sure that info came from his MK3 Bio at least. Having not read any of the comics, I can't really be sure of this but nobody else was ever mentioned in regards to his enhancements. That made me assume that he created and installed them himself, plus some endings have shown him at a computer. I bring this up as I'm thinking their might be an extra layer to his character, not only being a loyal friend and brave soldier but also a great mechanic and tech genius. Can't really think on what else I could say. It does seem like this story structure that NRS has constructed for themselves, is just too impractical and restrictive in execution. They could delve deeper into the characters if they changed how they tell the story. Like...I dunno. Super Smash Brothers Brawl. In that games story mode, you are following the events that play out and when a fight starts, the game freezes the scene and lets you select one of the fighters that is present at that time. That way, other characters don't spend half the story being bitch slapped because they aren't playable. Or split the story into halves in a way like Sonic Adventure 2 or Transformers: War of Cybertron. But instead of having one story follow the good and another follow the bad, let them follow factions instead or events in a specific realm. That way, more villains get to shine and the player could prepare by practising with the relevant characters in advance. I mean, I don't mind the story mode, but the stories they've gone with so far are pretty....shit. It makes me wish the arcade endings were relevant again.
Got nostalgic for the old timeline and accidentally stumbled upon your channel, and you definitely earned a sub. It's sooo hard to find other people who not only care about but prefer the story and characters from before the reboot, so your videos on MK were a breath of fresh air and reassured me that I'm not entirely alone in preferring the 3D era over 9 and X :)
Most of the fans prefer the older characters and have been asking them to return while hating on tbe characters introduced in the reboot so you're eithet lying or just haven't looking at any mk related things
@ermac was here most fans are very nostalgic. And don’t seem to realize that those stories were...not that good. Seriously. Mk9 and MKX are Mortal Kombat 1-4 but with voice acting that is actually competent and the production value to actually tell the story. And while they are not perfect, I blame it on the chapter gameplay, which I was always annoyed with. MK 11...I’m tired of time travel being in media and the chapters make Shao Khan weak. Otherwise I enjoy the story. Also, what good characters haven’t been brought back? Seriously I find a lot of the ones the haven’t been brought back to be boring. Motaro and Blaze maybe, but I personally would be content if the others faded from existence. Since I know Onaga is gonna be brought up I’m gonna say this. Onaga was just kinda there. Except he was pretending to be a ball of light. He’s not in any way interesting and for a guy who’s supposed to be Shao Khan’s superior, he really fails to make me believe it.
@@Riskofrain527 I guess I've been in the wrong parts of the communities then 😂, on a lot of social media platforms the consensus seems to be "the Midway timeline did some characters/plots better but the new era is fine and it's what we have now so it's what we should focus on"
One of the things that bother me about this game is how Shao Kahn killed Kung Lao, and somehow, no one seemed to see Shao coming up from behind him! Not everyone could have been that focused on Kung Lao's victory bows not to notice... I'm sorry, it's just strange and bothersome every time I think about it.
@@557deadpool It's always easy, especially since they were caught off-guard by the blast. As for Kano, he probably thought it was a malfunction hence not dodging directly after the Shokan are frozen. But again, the strongest ones break out almost immediately.
>Don’t be cinema sins lol This is a stupid take, considering that CinemaSins makes better takes than his/their critics, such as Th3Birdman, who tends not to pay attention to some of his/their stated sins. Not too mention, they, as in Goro, Kintaro, and Kano, were incapacitated for long enough so that the chains were broken by Cyber Sub-Zero.
"Story doesn't matter in a fighting game" Yeah then why is it called the "Story mode?" Just give any stupid questions some stupid answers and they'll either shut up or they're hopless.
Disagree 100% with you on the gameplay, this game's gameplay got me back into playing mortal kombat. Online play and versus was crazy fun once you became advanced at the game (just watch the professional tournaments to see what I mean). If you played the game strictly for the single player or story mode you missed a great deal of the substance of the game.
Gameplay is amazing. It saved the whole mk series, and is the first MK game other than UMK3 that can actually be played competitively. NRS has made competitive fighters since.
Completely agree, the return to 2d and the tightening up of the fighting mechanics saved the franchise. I enjoyed the 1.75 hours used to completely disect the story and MK canon, but it does not clearly critique the actual game, just the lore.
This was the best review of MK9's story i've ever seen. I think the reason why people like it so much is because before this story modes in fighting games were either nonexistent or barely there at all. So when MK9 comes out with fully voice cut scene based story mode people thought it was amazing. I agree with you about Quan Chi being given other characters old plotlines. The whole reason the Deadly Alliance was so deadly is because it was the two most powerful sorcerers in the universe teaming up. By making Quan so powerful in the new timeline it makes Shang useless but it doesn't have to be this way you can give both unique sorcery powers to each. I don't mind your bashing of him even though he's my favorite character, it makes me laugh. The only thing i disagree with you on is the gameplay. I've been a fan since the early 90's and i love both the 2D & 3D era's but i think MK fits better as a 2D game. With MK9 they combined the two into a great system. They returned to a 2D plane but integrated the 3D based string combos into it that felt really good, yes its a little stiff but thats been a problem with every game in the series.
Taven was just the devs attempt to cash in on God of War. Why do you need him when you have the actual Kratos in? But seriously, though I could get wanting to reboot things so new people can get into it but... doing a tine travel story doesn't seem the right way to do that. Suppose this is your first entry. You watch the intro. Everyone died, and you don't know why. Skull face and Straw hat are fighting. Now straw hat sent a message to past straw hat. You're still basically starting in media res, while also showing people a lot of changes that new people aren't invested in.
While I really appreciate your scenario, as somebody who never played an MK game before 2011, I thought that kicking the door off its hinges with an apocalyptic time travel fiasco, gave the story’s conflict a grander sense of scale that, by the end of the game, felt fully deserved. Beginning: I wonder who all them dead people are. Skull face’s gotta be the bad guy, right? How are they gonna kill him? Middle: Burning bug man just killed the ice cube! Darth Flash is my new main! Robot ninjas; Why aren’t there more robot ninjas? End: Bruce Lee’s dead?! Straw Hat’s about a sell his soul to the Satanic Witchdoctor?! I AM A MOTHER FUCKING GOOOOOOD!!!
The first time I ever watched mk 9, I was aware that there were previous games, but I though this was the 1at one with a story and simply a retelling of said story. When the Armageddon intro appeared, I though that Armageddon was the event at the end of mk3 and that that's what would happened if Shao Kahn won the mk3 portion.
MK9 was my introduction to the series and I enjoyed its story quite a bit (I felt it had the best story out of the Netherralm MK games). I assumed the earlier games had bad stories because of notoriously bad characters like Hsu Hao, but your video has shown me that there were great story bits and a lot of thought put into the characterisation of the characters even back then. I can see how this new timeline could feel like a spit in the face for hardcore MK fans. This is a very thought provoking video.
MK9 is seriously one of the best fighters out there, not many people I know who don’t like the game. But to each their own, it was a well thought out kritique and I subscribed.
Mk9 is fantastic imo. The designs still hold up, the graphics still don’t look half bad, the fatalities were good also. Honestly the game is great. But hey if you’re not a fan of it, I won’t judge you
I like how the story analysis is in-depth while the gameplay critique is unsubstantiated. You *do* know you can duck the projectiles that aren't explicitly low to the ground right. You *do* know the teleports are highly telegraphed compared to the original trilogy right. You *do* know the Kombos flow naturally because they're "dialed-in" instead of timed right. You've also got the strawman backwards for the Resident Evil comparison; the fixed camera is for the game designed around it, not the other way around. Soul Calibur doesn't bother with projectiles *because* it's a 3D fighter, and movesets designed for a 2D plane or even with a 2D mentality are trivialized in 3D. Final cherry on top, using Liu Kang v Shao Kahn footage while complaining about boss difficulty (not that they aren't) when Liu Kang has literally the easiest time against bosses because of how braindead his rushdown is, on top of these bosses having highly telegraphed moves compared to the original trilogy...well I'm not making any claims and I'll leave it up to for whoever scrolls down to decide what it is I'm getting at The gameplay analysis is more like a gameplay analyshit
Sluggish combos no shit you were supposed to link combos together by looking at the different characters special moves and different combos so at the end you have a giant badass combo. But wanna know what this game sucks yeah . Also x rays are too inaccurate because you'll die immediately but strikers handgun ex is total accurate aka getting shot ten times and getting back up
Imagine if styrker came back in MK 11. Maybe its just me, but I really like stryker. Probably because he's just a cop...well, he's more a SWAT agent, but still. I'd love for him to get expanded on, and learn that he had a wife and child, I'll go with daughter, and now that he's been dead for 20 or so odd years, his wife's moved on, and his daughter grew up without him. Could have the daughter be a playable character who joined up with special forces, to honor her father, and maybe get some revenge. I may have just made another OC for mortal kombat, but that tends to happen when you write about older characters that have a 20 year time skip.
no that wouldn’t work because the daughter will literally be cassie cage but minus her personality because cassies personality is very influenced by johnny being her father. in all honestly she would probably be like sonya
I don't know who you are and I know this video is like 2 years old. But after watching this in full I really must say I admire your dedication to a series you love.
@@The4thSnake they r blind. Paralyzed and dumb struck. They don't know about mk history and they don't care. Those who don't know their history r doom to repeate it. They rather a god awful story than a story that makes sense because they prefer (literal) garbage over quality. Well some people anyways.
I don't mind some retcons, like Cyrax and Sektor accompanying Sub Zero to the first tournament, or introducing MK 3 characters like Nightwolf early. And Quan Chi makes sense to appear early if he's behind Scorpion and Sub Zero's story. That's the way I'd do it in say, a TV show. But damn I kinda wish they just did a retelling of the originals with those retcons instead of the alternate timeline.
While I disagree to some extent on the gameplay being a downgrade compared to previous iterations, the breakdown of the story and it's shortcomings was beautifully done. Great work! Also I'm all with you with the inconsistency of the violence on display. This really annoys me with MK11 so far, both in its trailer and in the gameplay. While Fatalities previously accentuated an already bloody fight and gave the games a unique flavor, the violence has now has become meaningless white noise. Every third move is something that stabs someone trough the skull and the X-Ray attacks are now even more brutal then some Fatalities. MK's violence has become something that happens without consequence. Something with no rhyme or rhythm to it.
Well said. Did you see that one stage interaction where you impale the oponent's head on a spike and they're fine? How can fatalities be special anymore after that?
@@The4thSnake Totally agree. If everything is turned up to 11 all of the time, there is no longer a peak to cheer for. The sad thing is I can imagine these over the top stage interactions actually work somewhat like the environmental fatalities in previous games. Either by requiring a more complex button input to pull off, giving the attack a longer windup or requiring a very specific positioning. This way trying to go for them would be a risk but could potentially end the round early with a chunky spear trough the head. Then, like the Brutalities in MKX, it would be something to finish the fight with a bang and actually would show some player skill involved.
@@The4thSnake This is less of a critique and more of a personal opinion. Anyways, to chime in with my own personal opinion, the joy in a fatality, brutality, or fatal blow comes in the cathartic rush of the cutscene. They are designed to be specifically creative, bombastic, and entertaining to watch, as opposed to a stage interaction. Stage interactions (and other non-super x-rays) are designed to give you that quick cathartic hit of adrenaline from impaling someone with a spike. A fatality or fatal blow is designed the opposite manner, to give you the cinematic sense of buildup into payoff in a much more long and expressive format only possible in a longer cutscene format. Fatalities and brutalities also offer that sense of finality that x-rays and fatals lack. In a fatality, you see sub-zero freeze your head and crush it, you know you are dead. There is no confusion. Compared to a fatal blow or x-ray attack, which, although gratuitously violent and surely deadly on a normal person, do not provide this sense of cinematic finality. You see sub-zero stab and drag you with an axe, but you never see him cut off your head, or rip through your spine, or any number of actions characters preform that provide the final cathartic killing blow. I feel like both of your distaste for unnecessary or unrealistic violence (and yes, a fatal blow is completely senseless, unnecessary, and unrealistic) clouds your judgement of this. This is of course not mentioning the completely necessary gameplay functions they preform, like a krushing blow preforming a previously impossible knock-up, or a fatal blow serving as a tense comeback mechanic that gives the losing player an exciting and deadly revenge attack.
cowboy TV yes, but there is no release of cinematic sense when you’ve seen stuff much more bloody and gory before the fatality, therefore, there is no buildup since you’ve seen it before.
44:01 Jax willingly had his arms replaced with cyber ones around the time of MK3 because he wanted to be absolutely sure he could help repel Shao Kahn's invasion in the first timeline.
You know when I played MK 2011 and found out that sindel came in like the Undertaker at WrestleMania and basically murdered everyone I was pissed. No video game franchise I had liked for so long did that to me. If I was raiden walking in to see most of my team dead, the killer and one of my teammates currently dying, I'd be heated.
Here's the thing though.....it's a video game. What's the difference between this and Thanos killing off a good chunk of the Avengers? It is a film after all and you know they're coming back.....just like Mortal Kombat but where Avengers Infinity War is a film Mortal Kombat is a game.
Your argument is really weak. Thanos killed everyone using the combination of powerfull stones in a special gauntlet. These were things hard to get. This is not compared with what happened with Sindel and her scene killing everyone in the most pathetic way.
@@Blannibal311 What the other two said plus Sindel was never shown to be especially powerful. She was never even a boss. She was a playable character since MK3 now all of a sudden she single-handedly plows through damn near the entire roster? Especially when one of those guys was Sub Zero who we just saw beat Goro and Kintaro at the same time earlier in the game.
One other point, how can people like scorpion freely travel between earth realm and outworld if sindel has a protective barrier that EVEN THE ELDER GODS CAN'T BREAK
This game was my first exposure to Mortal Kombat when I was a little kid (look, the internet wasn't as strict and I was web surfing. Honestly don't know why people would want age restrictions gone when little kids could find something like Mortal Kombat). The first ever time I saw it was a video showcasing the fatalities. But when I saw the story, something didn't feel right back then, and this was coming from a little kid who didn't know the original timeline. Now I think I know what that bad feeling was. God, what did the internet see in this game's story? At least it could've been worse (*Cough* MK11)
“But it New and pweyy and have weal gore so mush be good” 😒. Biggest red flag that someone isn’t actually a fan of MK and is just a fan of the Gordy violences in video games.
MK11 somewhat rebooted the reboot. For example, Skarlet's backstory. In MK9 She was more or less a female alternate of Ermac. (If you don't understand what I mean Ermac is a creation of Shao Kahn using the souls of warriors. Skarlet is also made by Shao Kahn but instead of the Souls of Warriors he used The blood of warriors.) In MK11 Netherrealm Studios changed her backstory to an Orphan that Shao Kahn taught Blood Magic to.
@@duckgoquacc also mk9 stated that skarlet's blood magic was something she inherited naturally because of her origins, but then the mkx comics stated that she wanted to learn it from reiko and then in mk11 they said that she learned it from shao kahn. it changes in each game lmao
Mk9 its the best one of the reboots and also the best Mortal Kombat in my opinion. (Mk 2, Mortal Kombat Deception, Mortal Kombat Shaolin Monks are top Mk games for me too)
I didn't grow up with Mortal Kombat, by the time I was actually really aware of the series MK9 was already out. I haven't played the games, but I did look up the story and I can safely say that anything past UMK3 I pretty much ditched, it got a bit too convoluted for me. But through this video I can definitely see why someone who enjoyed what the 3D era had to offer would be extremely upset, I would be too, and I think it's actually great that you went and gave the game another chance even though you disliked it. The way I see it, MK9 (and honestly most of modern MK) was essentially nostalgia bait for people who remember MK1 through 3, this is why a lot of elements from the 3D era are ignored or completely changed. What people remember is the first 3, WB and NRS probably know this and unfortunately that's led to modern MK. Anyway, great video, your points were explained extremely well!
Ironically, in MK Armageddon, Mokap's ending is the only one that achieves the intended result of stopping Armageddon that Argus was hoping one of his sons would achieve.
I finally gave myself the time to sit down and watch this. I have to say, you basically summed up every thought I had with this game, from the great voice cast to the atrocious story, but with a dedication to the source material I never had before. My first MK game was Trilogy on the PS1. At the time, I was a kid and didn't do much study into the story, and the only ending I knew of at the time was Liu Kang, because he was the only one we knew how to cheese Shao Kahn with. Once I got a PS2 years later, one of the first games I got was Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance. In between, I had been exposed to the movies that had come out and very brief glimpses of a Saturday morning cartoon show that I barely remembered outside of Stryker sounding cool and wondering why Sub-Zero sounded like he was whisper speaking all the time. But Deadly Alliance wowed me with the intro from the get-go, and I was so engaged with the gameplay and the story endings (starting with Scorpion) that I looked up a website dedicated to the game and discovered there was a website for the whole series in general. While I couldn't play any of the games due to a very limited allowance, I was glad for the tidbits I could look up. Eventually, time passed on, one thing led to another, and I got a chance to play Mortal Kombat 2011. By that point, I was seeing things with a more critical eye, and that didn't help me being a little cynical with the transition to 2D fighting, but since I found myself liking 2D and 3D fighting games pretty equally and since it was more Mortal Kombat that everyone around me insisted was great, I gave it a fair shake. Suffice it to say, I didn't trust the writing when the reboot scene started, and hated it before I was done. I hated how much worse it felt than Deadly Alliance, how it seemed to barely be an upgrade from Trilogy at the time in terms of 2D gameplay and Shao Kahn's overall cheese factor, and how it treated the characters I knew and grew to love. While I appreciated very specific story beats similar to ones you enjoyed, like Johnny Cage being himself and Kitana's potential development, I just felt the overall management of everyone felt very poor and contrived and valued shock value over actual development. The straw that broke the camel's back for me was that Sindel scene. Not only for how idiotic it was that all of these characters were getting beaten without even attempting to use their abilities, but for how much I couldn't care in the context for enough of them. Kabal has his moments, then dies. Stryker has his moments, then dies. Nightwing has an important scene, then is the one to kill both him and Sindel. Which also made Sindel feel wasted in the process? At that point, I was so tuned out that when Liu Kang dies, all I could think of was "Oh look, the writers are trying to make something ironic. Wasn't this better in Deadly Alliance?" and then rushed to the end as quick as I could. With all this, I honestly can't wait to hear your summed up thoughts about MK11 as a whole once NRS & WB stop milking it for all they think it's worth and we can finally have a completed copy for good. Looking forward to it, and thank you for the commitment you put in your content!
I will legitimately pay money to see 4th have a genuine series front to back over him as Shao Kahn. Where he explains his thoughts and becomes the true ruler of Outworld. That short bit of the Kitana moment was just so tactically smart, I'd like to see how he would deal with something like betraying Onaga.
I think you will like Shang Tsung's storyline in MK11 Aftermath DLC Story mode. He is depicted as a better, and smarter character who is even almost wins depending on your ending, This i\helps strengthen him as a character, and showing he is not just a weak minion of shao kahn
I love how your haters say that you don't say anything nice about the Netherrealm era of Mortal Kombat when you LITERALLY point out redeeming qualities of Netherrealm's writing and casting in this review.
I know this video is old by now, but watching it again made me think of something...Why didn't Dark Raiden send his message to himself during MK3 rather than MK1? As we see in this game, the vague wording of his message sent his MK1 self through loops trying to figure out who "He" is and what he must "win," since it's very easy to look at the first two tournaments and think those are the things you must win. Had Dark Raiden left MK1 and 2 alone and sent the message to MK3, however, it would be easier to contextualize the message; still a bit of a hurtle to figure out, but much less treacherous than starting all the way back on Shang Tsung's island, I'd imagine. I can forgive Dark Raiden (ironically) not having enough time to word his message better (even though "Kahn must win" probably would have saved himself some grief), but if he knew MK3 was the crux of Kahn's threat (at least the way MK9 frames it), then why not just talk to MK3, where the message is actually relevant? I know the story needed to go back to MK1 and they wanted to do drama with Raiden making things worse by trying to make them better, but they were too reserved with the time alterations and a non-canon reboot could have gotten newcomers back to MK1 without totally botching the plot to boot. Then again, I actually liked MK9 back when it came out and I only thought of this revision 11 years later, so I probably would have dropped the ball just as badly if I was tasked with writing this back then...
I have to say, even with its flaws (like some of the handicap matches in the story mode being utter BS, and the challenge tower prize being bugger all) I still love this game even to this day, even going so far as being one of my top 3 favorite fighting games. That being said, Snake I really apperciate these Kritiques and I can tell how much effort you put into these videos because it helped me open my eyes.
Story is not important because the plot is not realistic? Ever hear of Watchmen? Lord of the Rings? MCU? Game of Thrones? Batman? The Odyssey? You can make a fun story with a deep mythology and well thought out characters out of anything if you put enough thought and care into it. Mortal Kombat has done that before through character bios, intros, and conquest modes. The way they chose to portray their stories in the modern games heavily limits them though.
Hey, I know that this is an old video but l agree with your video. You really opened my eyes about this game. I really don't understand why people hate your videos. I still love Mortal kombat but I do feel betrayed by the game. You're not the only person who feels the same way about this game. Good luck to with your videos.
I wouldnt say people hate his videos, the like to dislike rate shows this but the only thing I disagree with is the change back to 2D which is much better with consistency, combos and etc. The story points are on point though.
I really have to commend Johnny’s arc in this game alone. Dude goes from completely full of himself at the start to running straight into Shao Kahn to try and defend his realm by the end.
I love this video 4thsnake, Even though i don't know any lore or played any originals, Your points make alot of sense, At least the ones i can understand, And your replies to other comments are the best.
8:21 THANK YOU 🙏🙏🤝I know I’m a few years late but after having played each title less and less since MK 9 in 2011 I couldn’t help but pinpoint what I started to like less and less about these games. These games aren’t objectively bad, they just keep going back to these archaic fighting systems that don’t push boundaries and experiment on different combat mechanics. That’s why I still go back and play Deception and Armageddon since getting spammed by projectiles becomes a sport in itself with the 2D fighting planes.
@@paulvercetti4489 liu kang's death mk9 was really his own fault,he should have just agreed with raiden instead of allowing the death of kitana(understandable but still),drive him insane
Man watching this post mk11 critique is strange. I said something like that in the first review of this game 9 months ago and I wont repeat my words as its pointless to say whats already been said. That being said I think you're reviews on these games are well done. I am genuinely amazed you haven't done anything similar to this for other forms of media not just mk and injustice. And not the whole "do a critique on the midway games" but more of a long form game analysis. Just talking about something you love and why you like it in great detail or see the problems that were in it. I remember you said you wouldn't do critiques on midway because the point of the critiques were meant to show the problems NR games have to fix the problems or at least make people more aware of them. But honestly I and I bet many others learned a lot of mk lore from these videos and again it doesn't have to be just those why not do a critique/analysis on persona 5 since we won't be getting another one for the next 100 years and it kinda fits the criteria. I am not saying you have to make long form analysis. I doubt I have been the first to say this and it's your channel not mine and apologies if you have talked about this before and I probably don't remember. But still no matter the content I will still watch. Just more something I wanted to say.
I should mention this. Ed Boon always planned on rebooting Mortal Kombat into a much darker game that moved away from the 3D era, like what MK9 ended up doing. Hence why every character who was in Mortal Kombat was included in Armageddon. He ended up doing MK vs DCU instead, but MK9 was basically what he wanted to do from the start.
There's 2 things that while it doesn't make it any better, does explain a lot of the changes. The first thing is that John Tobias and the majority of the actual creative minds behind what made MK's plot so great left after MK4. What came next where either remnants of what he already had lined up next, or them purely getting lucky as they made it up along the way. Ed Boon in a certain respect is the Bob Kane of Mortal Kombat being the face that everyone knows associated to the franchise. But ultimately, he's the additional corporate guy that was added while everyone else in the original MK1 dev team all grew up together as either friends or blood relatives. What I'm about to say isn't to invalidate your love of the PS2 era MK games, but I will say that your perspective is a bit skewed by nostalgia because those were your jump on point to the franchise. I'll even say that mine is too because MK3 was mine, which is where arguably a lot of the MK discourse within the fan base originally started to crop up while I was blissfully unaware and disagree with much of it to this day. Especially since the story had to basically be made up on the spot due to missing cast members that couldn't be replaced on short notice during development. Many would argue that it's really just been a downward slope in regards to the plot and game quality from there as they kept experimenting with jarring changes and ideas to both from that point. The comics have also never been cannon. The other thing to keep in mind is that this games plot minus the time travel is basically the result of the first film adaptation. You mentioned it loosely with the Lin Que and Kano's retcons. But the movie and tv show's lore basically planted the seeds of all the changes that would get made gradually in past games, and finally cemented in this game. More or less, even though you know the lore of the games, it's technically been completely unreliable. You've more or less finally started to experience and feel the same way that a lot of MK fans have since at least 1995. So when people try to ride your dick about "nOot kNUwUinG dEh lOrREd," yeah, they're being dicks. But they're also technically right because this is a franchise that doesn't really allow you to know the lore. Especially now that the people who made it what it originally was haven't been present for almost 30 years now. The franchise is running on the vapors of MK2.... As an MK fan, you either accept that it's glory days story wise are dead, and just play the games for the gameplay only, or just get more frustrated by each new release. Welcome to the Star Wars of fighting games. lol
I know I’m late but tbh the gameplay to the last 3 games gets real boring, and they can only go so far with the brutalities and gore of fatalities/x-rays to where people will desensitized and bored. I feel as if the 3D era of games were the only natural progression of the series, especially given the amount of immersion in the realms games like Deadly Alliance through Armageddon gave. The games might’ve been divisive to the series, but they definitely had a charm and depth that would’ve cemented it as more of a serious fighting game, rather than just a media staple of “ooh blood and gore 🤯😱.” Because I do agree with you that this franchise feels like the “Star Wars of fighting games.”
i may be biased towards nostalgia, but man i miss the old 3D MK days. idk how to describe it, but the games back then just had that visceral and dark theme/tone throughout. it felt as if any and everything in the world was dangerous and out to get you, and no mercy was shown ever
I love that Liu Kang spends most of this story pissed with basically everything that's going on. He's ROBBED of the chance to win tournaments and wars, that Raiden probably knows he should win, and he eventually gets killed like that!
The live action skit is Mortal Komedy by Phelan Porteous.
The4thSnake thanks
SIRO THE GREATEST MORTAL KOMBAT KHARACTER!!!!!
i really appreciate you being a huge MK fan but I feel like there were multiple points in the story you criticized that felt like you were just overlooking the story all together. The Cyber Lin Kuei didn't come out of nowhere they were talked about in the MK 1 arc, Raiden having the time amulet, easily explainable considering Shinnok was able to make his own god artifact. So the elder gods have their own special weapons and artifacts. Shao Kahn leaving the throne room to hear about what Kitanna had to say? I think a domestic dispute between a warlords daughter and one of his top generals isn't something Shao Kahn would want on full display, especially not knowing why the dispute was happening.
Idk man its things like that in the review that have me like:"...eh." otherwise you solid.
@@JakeTylenol I don't recall saying the cyberisation came out of nowhere.
The point is that Raiden never had the amulet before, but we're now being old he did.
He doesn't want it on display, so he takes her to the crowded arena to have her killed there, instead of in private?
The4thSnake you say it at 43:23.
You make it sound like you didn’t understand where those cyborgs came from at all.
And...ok yeah I guess yeah now that I think about it the raiden point is correct.
As for Kitanna? Yes. As I said before Shao Kahn had no idea what Kitanna was going to him for. He had no idea if Shang Tsugn had uncovered some shit he wasn’t supposed to know or Kitanna was going to expose something he didn’t want public yet. He’s a political leader as much as a warlord man. Once he learned it was only about Milenna , and that she was ready, then yeah:”Hey, this woman wasn’t my daughter, BUT THIS WOMAN RIGHT HERE, she’s the outworld princess you deserve!”
Its kinda funny how Liu Kang dies in this game because of his fire and Raiden's lightning but then in MK11 he basically becomes a fire lightning god
Brandon Linder and i thought raiden’s power was useless in the netherrealm also
I just thought of that too
In a better trilogy that would've been cool as shit. But given what we got is fucking awful...
See the story is explained amazing well! It just makes sense and just shows you how insanely powerful a mixture of fire and lightning truly is :O
Justin Farley There is literally no explanation for why Raiden can give anyone let alone a revenant Liu Kang lightning powers, you absolute goober
"By making her suicide a selfless act, they are weakening Syndel's character" Oh boy, now that MK11's Syndel rewrite is out, this pales in comparison.
Sindel pal... Sindel...
3 Months Later; The NRS Devs found a excuse to throwing Shang Tsung under the bus for Quan Chi.
Sindel is still ruined.
Fujin is back.
Sheeva is Playable.
Oh yeah.... F*ckin RoboCop.
RandomFella don’t forget continuing to ruin Kotal
@@papag1137 oh ye...
ALSO,
Kitanna somehow beat Shao Kahn.
SHAO KAHN.
The dude who got killed, came back, got killed, came back, got killed came back, got carried away by Onaga and According to MK9 Shao Kahn Killed Onaga (No poison this time),
Ran all the way up the tower, killed Blaze, Killed nearly everyone in the battle of armageddon after killing Blaze, Got killed by Liu Kang, Survived, and If it wasnt for the Elder Gods... Shao Kahn would've won.
Kitanna was kidnapped, Died after sindel took her voice. (in mk9)
So Kitanna Defeats Shao Kahn. How the f-
When The4thSnake dies his gravestone needs to say "I'm coming for you Quan-Chi"
No reply’s but 75 likes
@@TON_or_something 307 likes but yet you the only one that responded
@@thenewmissinglink8501 lol
I'm black, so I can say it.
Here Lies 4th Snake
"QUAN CHI, WE COMIN' 4 U, NIGGA!"
@@donadonis7779 there are like kids here
the thought of Kano going everywhere like a cannon ball is just freaking hilarious
It's the only way to travel
"Rolling around at the speed of sound."
Hey sonic can do it why not kano
@@maleexile9053 I need a Kano mod for Sonic Frontiers now
Kanonball
Shao Kahn could drop his fork and shout "You have failed me for the last time, Shang Tsung!"
Someone needs to animate this, this is way too funny to imagine
It's like Megatron dealing with Starscream.
I need to see this animated
This is hilarious! 🤣🤣🤣🤣
Shao Kahn: *dies in lava with Diamonds in Minecraft* DAMN YOU SHANG TSUNG!
"Touch me, and earthrealm forfeits."
A surprisingly badass line.
I really like Scorpion and Raiden’s exchange about his clan. It’s one of the only genuine interactions I enjoy.
Honestly Scorpion had every right to be pissed with what the Elder Gods in reviving his clan as undead.
Oh, absolutely. He took it a bit too far, though.
While he did take it a bit far, the Elder Gods should've known better. I mean why on earth would Scorpion want his clan as undead?
That I can't deny
@Alex Rymanowski But he's fucking them over by trying to end all reality.
@Suvraj Grewal You first.
I guess if Raiden had said “Shao Khan must win!” instead of “He Must Win,” it would have made the Younger Raiden think Khan has to win during the MK2 portion of the game and they would have been hella screwed 😂
Actually that’s a good way of explaining it I won’t even lie
Why couldn’t he have sent the message to his MK3 self though? That way, the events of the first two games would’ve just happened like they were supposed to.
@@Kade_KapesMaybe he left the amulet in his other hat in MK3 so he just told his MK1 self, but I guess it’s because in MK3 he’s weakened due to the merging of outworld and Earthrealm so he couldn’t do much
lmfao couldn't he have just said
"Shao must pass/invade" or say something about the elder gods maybe?
GOOD THEORY
Stryker dies from a punch to the face, worst case sinario he has a broken nose, but nope he's dead,
Or kabal just getting stomped on, or worst of all Smoke somehow gets his beck snapped
At least he didn’t get punch three times and kicked away
@@dankboi_ even worse Smokes death
And cyber subzero got killed by a uppercut a cyborg manm a freaking cyborg
I thought Sindel put her fingers through Strykers eyes?
"It didn't give players a chance to learn that Sindel isn't actually evil"
Boy did that age like fine wine.
Imagine how cool it would have been if it was actually Shang Tsung who created Noob Saibot instead of Quan Chi. Since they're both "parallels" they could both have the resurrected soul of an earthrealm warrior as their trump card. That would not only explain why the resurrection method and habilities are different as you point out but it also make sense for Scorpion and Noob saibot to be rivals or atleast want eachother dead since they (literally) killed eachother (or atleast in the old cannon). It would atleast try to do something with the rivalry between the sorcerers and the ninjas.
Their personalities would fit their creators since Noob is more obedient and calmed while scorpion is aggressive and disobedient, which makes sense since Shang Tsung is implied to be a superior necromancer by Quan Chi's need of his assistance during Deadly Alliance. The revenants could be Shao Kahn's reward to Quan Chi, since he is a sorcerer himself he teaches Quan Chi his perfected technique for resurrection (It can be intended to be used on the undead army of the dragon king if he ever found it or some bullshit like that to explain why Shao Kahn can make revenants but just refused to do it, I dunno).
Interesting idea.
You, my friend, are a genius
I can't tell if it upsets or impresses me that the comments section of a YT video can provide better writing and narrative reasoning for Characters than the people actually paid to write them
@@Randerson2409 Kinda sad, isn't it?
I whole-heartedly respect your opinion, but I also whole heartedly disagree with much of what you say. You obviously put a lot of time and effort into this video and are obviously a true fan by anyone’s standards, and I can appreciate that you genuinely tried to give this game a second chance for yourself. I honestly love this game, story and all, but I respect that you don’t, well played my friend, well played.
Thank you. It's rare to find someone who disagrees and doesn't try to discredit me as a "3D era fanboy" or some other crap. I appreciate that you at least tried to understand my opinion instead of writing it off like a child.
The4thSnake I truly respect your opinion, but do you believe, with the success of competitive 2D fighting games at the time and with Tekken and Soul Calibur literally shitting on every single 3D fighting game since the 2000s and even still today, that MK would’ve been better suited as a 3D franchise?
@@The4thSnake actually it's not rare at all. I haven't found any comments of someone calling you a 3d era fanboy. They're just debunking your argument and bringing up their own points to support their argument. Don't try to pass it off as "they're just calling me 3d era fanboys".
@@Riskofrain527 "Don't try to pass it off". Nice. A strawman. Everyone's favourite way to half-assedly "win" an argument.
I feel the exact same way but I learn a lot from his perspective and he’s hilarious af
I always figured that Taven killed Blaze, and because his doing so strengthened everyone, Shao Kahn then killed Taven (as he was now strong enough to make it back from wherever Onaga took him; it's not like he can't move fast.)
Then the devs said "no he didn't. Kahn just won."
Even when they have a clear opportunity, they fail to capitalise.
Real shit?!
Apparently Onaga killed Shao Kahn's clone while the real Kahn casually walked up the pyramid from the back and kills Blaze by surprise. Just imagine him calmly walking up while everyone kills each other on the other side! WTF
That doesn’t make sense, because when Taven is powered up by Blaze, it strips everyone of their powers
@@PatheticApathetic or kills them all, but I personally dont believe either outcome happened
This game deserves credit for how well they did the altered voices. Cyber sub zero and noob for example sound super cool. And not by doing the stupid generic making their voice super deep or edgy like noob in mk11. They did more like mr freeze in Arkham city
Agreed if I wanted to hear a edgy Noob, I would rather hear Frank Welker do it
"He must win" was referring to Siro, the greatest mortal kombat character ever.
He's also THE GREATEST MORTAL KOMBAT DETECTIVE!
@@The4thSnake #SiroForDLC
Obviously Raiden was referring to Mokap, the greatest warrior in all the realms.
Carlos D Rodriguez Wrong! He was obviously referring to Jarek.
Meat is clearly the GOAT Mokap is just a close second
50:22 *"Noob goes down easy due to his name"*
John Roe Cayunda he said “true to his name.”
Ed boon
Boon Tobias
And his name is Bi Han
Playing as the villain is so important to give the player an idea of how powerful they are. One of the BEST examples I've ever witnessed is from the game Hyrule Warriors, the Legend of Zelda Dynasty Warriors clone. After playing the main story and curbstomping the new OC: Donut steel villains, it fakes you out into thinking the story is over, only to revive Ganondorf. They then have you play as him. He promptly revives two powerful generals, curbstomps all dissenters, recruits entire maps worth of monsters, and beats the shit out of all the heroes, putting them in dire straights which leads to the end game. At this point, you have personally kicked the shit in of the heroes and effortlessly wrangled all opposing forces to defeat them, so you KNOW what sort of a monster you're up against. Why they haven't had chapters of the villains, even the normally unplayable bosses, curbstomping the heroes as they set about their goals is beyond me, especially in MK2011 because GORO IS PLAYABLE FOR CHALLENGE 150.
Now that I think of it, yeah, Kahn is out of character here. I remember in Armageddon where he was actually very willing to team up with Quan-Chi, Shang-Tsung and Onaga, three people who he clearly knows want to kill him, because he realizes he alone can't stop all the heroes so he makes a temporary alliance, only breaking rank when everyone pretty much breaks rank when the Pyramid of Argus was summoned. He was a merciless, heartless monster but not a whiny idiot who murdered minions over the slightest failure. Hell, in his Deception ending he teams up with Goro, who he recruited through manipulation, to once again poison Onaga, a meat head brute he is not.
Also yeah, the way they do the story mode is very idiotic because now, no character has a power level, anyone can beat anyone and while yeah, the writers truly dictate who would win and could easily let anyone win, typically good writers have consistency to their world, they don't just let Superman get his ass kicked without someone having kryptonite to weaken him because otherwise most characters couldn't do shit. With the way the story in MK goes however, the lead character of the chapter is god until his chapter ends, then he is a meaningless jobber. With this kind of story mechanic, Dan Hibiki could beat Oni as long as its his chapter, doesn't matter that Oni is Akuma at full power and Akuma himself is nigh unbeatable with only one loss to his name before becoming the monster he is, it'd be Dan's chapter so Dan is stronger. Honestly one way they could circumvent this is do the Injustice approach, add little minigames and plot point to make the fights seem more fleshed out. Like in Johnny's first fight with Reptile, you could have it start with a little minigame where you have to track Reptile as he is going invisible and hit him with force balls, somewhat similar to Batman keeping Lex at bay in Injustice, this would make the fight seem more impressive as both characters are using their powers and being smart with them but Reptile is shown to be a challenge and Johnny has to fight smart at the start of the fight before the actual round 1 occurs. They could also implement the modifiers into the story as well, have the current chapter character get poisoned during the story, have two characters team up for a tag team, make it to where the player can't block when fighting a boss character to show how strong they are. They very easily could have gotten creative with the story mode with shit they either had or were capable of making and yet instead we just got a story where everyone is either a god or a jobber and it sucks.
On a final note, you bringing up how Raiden wasn't acting like Dark Raiden at the start made me think of a very good idea. At the start of the game, have Raiden actually acting monsterous and extreme, have him try to make deals with Shao-Kahn to prevent Armageddon including offering the souls and realms of the other deceased characters so he leaves Earthrealm alone and once you show this, once he sends the message back to his past self we can then explore how different regular Raiden is to his future Dark self to really show case why its not a good thing for him to be in that form, and you can also add interesting conflict and character development by having normal Raiden slowly start acting like Dark Raiden as shit gets worse which would show that Dark Raiden isn't merely due to corruption, this is something Raiden could be capable of but in this new timeline, Raiden fights this extremist, evil urge and manages to do the right thing at the end. That would be so much better than just having Dark Raiden purely be an aesthetic for future Raiden and Dark Raiden only happening once again due to evil corruption as opposed to actually just getting fed up with failure and constant threats.
That's a way better take than NRS'.
Your last idea was awesome. Some on should rewrite the complete game in devianart or amino just to see how it goes
Johnny Cage’s one-liners and dialogue in the beginning is the best writing the campaign has to offer.
The truth is...
I *am* the special effects
@@UnchainedEruption I love his lines.
Mr. JustAGuyWithALightsaber “I’m taking you out, I’m taking you out, I’m taking you out, and I’m taking you out....... for dinner heheh”
Johnny Cage and his personality alone is the reason I play NetherRealm’s MK games. The other characters are okay, but Johnny definitely stands out to me the most and that what makes him my favorite character. Props to both Jeff Pilson (MK9) and Andrew Bowen (MKX/MK11) for bringing such life to this character! 🙌👏
@@dawsoncarpenter1650 Props to *Linden Ashby* for ESTABLISHING Johnny Cage as we know him.
the “Sindel kills everyone” might be the worst moment in the entire series for me.
There are so many things wrong with it but the main thing that burns my braincells is that in game where fighting, death, resurrection and varying levels of strength are prominent elements with themes and even entire story threads centered around just ONE death occurring, someone wrote a scene that basically reads “Sindel slaughters basically half the cast in a 1 to 2 minute scene with absolutely zero fanfare as everyone she murders are treated like jobbers who have only ever fought a wooden post” and somehow that got from the writing room into this game as a canon event and not some stupid “What-if?” Scenario in an arcade ending?
Are you fucking kidding me?
Side note: And of the survivors you pick Johnny cage and Sonya blade? The two who’ve actually been jobbers the whole time? Fucks sake
Yeah i know right?
I wouldn't mind Sindel killing a few characters to establish her newly acquired powers from Shang Tsung but it doesn't help that a) Shang Tsung should have never been wasted like that and b) even accepting that scenario of Shang dying doesn't mean she should be goddamn OP like that, not to mention is how just like what Battle of the Realms did they decided to have the fights follow Dragon Ball logic of her just overpowering and killing the cast with pure power which not only makes little sense in the MK Universe but also doesn't make sense how being given Shang Tsung's soul and all the others inside him would make her physically stronger when it would have made more logical sense for her to use Shang Tsung's fire moves alongside her own abilities to kill a couple fighters before being broken free from Shao Khan's control by say Nightwolf.
It shows that even before MK11 the writing could be appallingly bad and highly nonsensical, it just became much more obvious in that game.
Dominic Cianciolo is a dumbass for sure
Yeah this and the cyber sub zero scene killed it for me
@@the_lonely_winner2956 For me that was the least offensive thing since I could see some interesting thing going on with say Kabal and him given kabals reponce and aid when he saw Smoke talk of subs state.
That last scene made me mad because they all had special abilities and they never used him
Chapters are dumb in fighting games
They have to include useless fights just to fill the quota, this means a bunch of clunky filler fights that happen for no reason
Careful not to forget about this commet xD
The best example is when Jade beats Mileena and Smoke appears with Raiden
This is that scenes dialouge
Smoke: *”Kitana turns on Shao Kahn so you attack her rather than join her?!”*
Raiden: *”Smoke, STOP! That is NOT Kitana!”*
But he for some reason fights Jade anyway...
@@darksydexv2637 Yeah that fight confused me....
Then go for the arcade ladder.
Multiple endings of a “what if” scenario in killing Shao Khan, boom, fairly simple.
Chapters are meant for the player to get a chance at each character (in the good side), but has enough variety to consider it a challenge when it comes to: “oh, next character, better check the move list.”
Like a buffet full of food, waiting for people to have a go at what’s available now and later. (But without the freedom of choice.) Not too much to ask for, to me really.
Jax vs Johnny Cage and Jade vs Smoke, total filler , yet I found it hilarious to be honest.
Darkzeroprojects we care cause they giving you the low quality shit that we don’t want
"This game erases the history and makes my loyalty to the series mean nothing" welcome to being a fan of ANYTHING profitable
How come Kung Lou can beat the deadly alliance but Raiden can’t.
Inconsistent writing. Or because Shang can take souls from the soulnado?
@Connor Hetherington-lipari There's also the fact Raiden is weaker when he's in Outworld.
@@The4thSnake actually it’s because
Hats are stronger than lightning
In MK.
Answering as a person, shit writing.
Answering as a fan, new timeline means new things can happen. We can tell as much when sub 0 becomes a robot and raiden kills liu kang.
Being fair, Kung Lao was really weak in MKDA since he stopped fighting after MK3
Richard Epcar is one of the best and most underrated voice actors working today. You have your Hales and your Blums, but Epcar is easily on their level and doesn’t get the recognition of them.
My favorite role for him was Shingen Takeda in the first Samurai Warriors game, and it annoyed me to no end that he wasn’t brought back for the sequel.
I love him as the replacement for for Ansem SoD in KH.
Snake is right about how good his Joker is. He needs to be cast more outside of the games.
I always call him Batou because of Stand Alone Complex
He was the best Dong Zhou. Really captured that evil personality
Jax's metal arms was just an upgrade in the original timeline which made sense when a fatality is done to him (arm ripped, etc there was flesh) But now in the new timeline it makes no sense because they made his arms completely cybernetic.
Different timeline, different details. Not a big deal to me.
@@pnut3844able Until you see fatalities where blood and guts come from his supposedly fully cybernetic arms.
@@mr.awesome6011 Guts?
I love how casually 4th snake says Scorpion’s design is objectively perfect. I definitely agree, mk9 Scorpion has always been the coolest design for him in my opinion.
Motaro. Shao Khan's general in Earth's invasion. Why? Because the Shokan failed *TWICE* and so their race completely fell out of favour to their bitter rivals, the Centaurs. Hence why Sheeva was a mere bodyguard during said invasion.
That's the key reason why it never made sense for Goro and Kintaro to still be present in the storyline, post-MK 2. So Motaro did have importance to the original story of MK 3, but not to most of the people in _that_ room.
Plus when you mention costumes, I was annoyed that Shang Tsung received neither his MK 2 or MK 3 looks in-game. Instead a weird Deadly Alliance hybrid design.
Don’t you mean Kritique
Edit: OK WTF I don’t even remember this guys UA-cam channel and video, I comeback 10 months later I’m scrolling through comments and find our apparently I know him, I’ve seen this video and my comment has blown up lol
Lmao this comments so underrated
Well forty people think so 2
@@spydyeguymy flawless victory
that is epik
CyberTiger 45 yep
If there was anything to learn here, story matters in all mediums no matter what it is, if it has a story, the story needs to be good and well thought out.
This is true, and when it comes down to gameplay only stuff, look no further than board games.
My friend (a prequel defender and Snyderverse shill no less) is super dismissive of stuff like Bayonetta, MGS and DMC and it gets under my skin sometimes. I should clip out that part and send it to him
@@makeitthrough_ all the games you mentioned are great though. Although, I love the prequels they are objectively not that great.
@@Akechifan Well, the reply said that their *friend* is “dismissive” of those games, I don’t think they meant that *they* themselves don’t like the games.
This, I'm tired of seeing comments like "who plays x game for the story? 😂😂😂".
As a casual fighting game fan, I simply don't notice the touches and differences in combo's and special moves. Though I'm not a total simpleton, I know the difference between 2D fighters and 3D fighters. It was nice being able to dodge annoying spammed projectiles. They did have stage transitions in MK3, which I think was the first for the series...or perhaps Ultimate MK3? (I was quite surprised to accidentally uppercut my opponent while in the subway, through the ceiling and continue the fight on the streets.) They brought them back in Deception, I think? But haven't had them since. The stage Fatalities of Deception were different to the classics too, and I didn't mind that. Being able to kill your opponent in the first round, yet still continue to round 2 was something that amused me. Being able to do that to big bad Onaga was incredible satisfying too. Sure, it was cheap, but he's the boss and they're always a pain to beat. On the other hand, it's equally hilarious when it goes wrong and the CPU wins due to karma. I'm pretty sure I had a fight with Onaga when I was luring him over to the edge of the stage, only to be knocked into the spikes below, instead. lol
Nostalgia aside, plot holes and retcons have always bugged me and I couldn't accept that "It's a fighting game and story doesn't matter." either. But it's incredible how much you can miss when you don't know as much as you thought you did. This referring to me. The over the top violence had never appealed to me and as a kid, I disliked the franchise. But I was pulled back in by the characters. Scorpion, the vengeful Ninja Spectre with a heart. Sub-Zero, a cold man with a cool head. Liu Kang, the humble champion. And so on...
They are some retcons I am happy to accept. Hell, with the series still trying to find it's identity, I'd give them a pass on Raiden being promoted to protector instead of arrogant douche. Having seen him like that for so long, it's hard to see him as anything else. Except for possibly an idiot, as portrayed here. Other retcons are not welcome, such as Quan Chi stealing Shang Tsungs many roles.
Moving onto one point regarding Jax. In the original timeline, I recall his arms being described as "biometric implants" or something like it. Though I have no idea what that means, I'm pretty sure that info came from his MK3 Bio at least. Having not read any of the comics, I can't really be sure of this but nobody else was ever mentioned in regards to his enhancements. That made me assume that he created and installed them himself, plus some endings have shown him at a computer. I bring this up as I'm thinking their might be an extra layer to his character, not only being a loyal friend and brave soldier but also a great mechanic and tech genius.
Can't really think on what else I could say. It does seem like this story structure that NRS has constructed for themselves, is just too impractical and restrictive in execution. They could delve deeper into the characters if they changed how they tell the story. Like...I dunno. Super Smash Brothers Brawl. In that games story mode, you are following the events that play out and when a fight starts, the game freezes the scene and lets you select one of the fighters that is present at that time. That way, other characters don't spend half the story being bitch slapped because they aren't playable. Or split the story into halves in a way like Sonic Adventure 2 or Transformers: War of Cybertron. But instead of having one story follow the good and another follow the bad, let them follow factions instead or events in a specific realm. That way, more villains get to shine and the player could prepare by practising with the relevant characters in advance. I mean, I don't mind the story mode, but the stories they've gone with so far are pretty....shit. It makes me wish the arcade endings were relevant again.
This.
A good idea especially for the villains since almost all of them are jobbers.
Anyone who says simpleton should be fixed
Got nostalgic for the old timeline and accidentally stumbled upon your channel, and you definitely earned a sub. It's sooo hard to find other people who not only care about but prefer the story and characters from before the reboot, so your videos on MK were a breath of fresh air and reassured me that I'm not entirely alone in preferring the 3D era over 9 and X :)
You have great taste, my friend. I've got plenty more MK on the way.
Most of the fans prefer the older characters and have been asking them to return while hating on tbe characters introduced in the reboot so you're eithet lying or just haven't looking at any mk related things
@ermac was here most fans are very nostalgic. And don’t seem to realize that those stories were...not that good. Seriously. Mk9 and MKX are Mortal Kombat 1-4 but with voice acting that is actually competent and the production value to actually tell the story. And while they are not perfect, I blame it on the chapter gameplay, which I was always annoyed with. MK 11...I’m tired of time travel being in media and the chapters make Shao Khan weak. Otherwise I enjoy the story. Also, what good characters haven’t been brought back? Seriously I find a lot of the ones the haven’t been brought back to be boring. Motaro and Blaze maybe, but I personally would be content if the others faded from existence. Since I know Onaga is gonna be brought up I’m gonna say this. Onaga was just kinda there. Except he was pretending to be a ball of light. He’s not in any way interesting and for a guy who’s supposed to be Shao Khan’s superior, he really fails to make me believe it.
@@Riskofrain527 I guess I've been in the wrong parts of the communities then 😂, on a lot of social media platforms the consensus seems to be "the Midway timeline did some characters/plots better but the new era is fine and it's what we have now so it's what we should focus on"
Actually mk9 is better I say mka might br for having almost every character in the game from the orginal timeline
From what I heard, in the original timeline, Jax gets metal arms because he thought he wasn't strong enough to compete in the tournament
I think it's true, though there was another comic in which he got the metal arms because Baraka tear them badly.
According to his bio, he got them in the lead-in to MK3 to make sure he was fully capable of fighting the Outworld invasion.
“it’s official I suck”😭😂😂😂😭
I must say youtube’s algorithm did something right for once.
It's rare, but every so often...
One of the things that bother me about this game is how Shao Kahn killed Kung Lao, and somehow, no one seemed to see Shao coming up from behind him! Not everyone could have been that focused on Kung Lao's victory bows not to notice... I'm sorry, it's just strange and bothersome every time I think about it.
Kung Lao mentioned that mk11 I believe, I remember he brought that up
That 2d Kano transition was hilarious
“Sub zero incapacitates Goro, Kano and Kintaro with no problem”
*shows them breaking out 5 seconds later*
Don’t be cinema sins lol
@@557deadpool It's always easy, especially since they were caught off-guard by the blast. As for Kano, he probably thought it was a malfunction hence not dodging directly after the Shokan are frozen. But again, the strongest ones break out almost immediately.
>Don’t be cinema sins lol
This is a stupid take, considering that CinemaSins makes better takes than his/their critics, such as Th3Birdman, who tends not to pay attention to some of his/their stated sins.
Not too mention, they, as in Goro, Kintaro, and Kano, were incapacitated for long enough so that the chains were broken by Cyber Sub-Zero.
@@danialtarki572 Uh, no he doesn't
@@SR.PlayAlot64 Sorry, minor spelling mistakes. I meant “makes” and “his/their”.
"Story doesn't matter in a fighting game"
Yeah then why is it called the "Story mode?"
Just give any stupid questions some stupid answers and they'll either shut up or they're hopless.
Story doesn't matter because once you beat it, then you just move on to mulitplayer.
@georgeliquor1236 honestly, idk why they keep making new characters or a story just make a fighting game with differently colored morph suit mfs
Disagree 100% with you on the gameplay, this game's gameplay got me back into playing mortal kombat. Online play and versus was crazy fun once you became advanced at the game (just watch the professional tournaments to see what I mean). If you played the game strictly for the single player or story mode you missed a great deal of the substance of the game.
I dunno, I don't think the gameplay is good enough to sustain any amount of modes. Feels way too stiff.
Gameplay is amazing. It saved the whole mk series, and is the first MK game other than UMK3 that can actually be played competitively. NRS has made competitive fighters since.
Completely agree, the return to 2d and the tightening up of the fighting mechanics saved the franchise. I enjoyed the 1.75 hours used to completely disect the story and MK canon, but it does not clearly critique the actual game, just the lore.
Disagree completly the gameplay is just fine. I really enjoyed it. The only thing that really killed this game was the frequent updates.
This is one of the best Mortal Kombat games to date and also one of the best fighting games ever made I agree
This was the best review of MK9's story i've ever seen. I think the reason why people like it so much is because before this story modes in fighting games were either nonexistent or barely there at all. So when MK9 comes out with fully voice cut scene based story mode people thought it was amazing. I agree with you about Quan Chi being given other characters old plotlines. The whole reason the Deadly Alliance was so deadly is because it was the two most powerful sorcerers in the universe teaming up. By making Quan so powerful in the new timeline it makes Shang useless but it doesn't have to be this way you can give both unique sorcery powers to each. I don't mind your bashing of him even though he's my favorite character, it makes me laugh.
The only thing i disagree with you on is the gameplay. I've been a fan since the early 90's and i love both the 2D & 3D era's but i think MK fits better as a 2D game. With MK9 they combined the two into a great system. They returned to a 2D plane but integrated the 3D based string combos into it that felt really good, yes its a little stiff but thats been a problem with every game in the series.
Don't know who said it but will always stick with me and shows that story matters alot in Mortal Kombat
"Come for the gore, stay for the lore"
Good
Taven was just the devs attempt to cash in on God of War. Why do you need him when you have the actual Kratos in?
But seriously, though I could get wanting to reboot things so new people can get into it but... doing a tine travel story doesn't seem the right way to do that.
Suppose this is your first entry. You watch the intro. Everyone died, and you don't know why. Skull face and Straw hat are fighting. Now straw hat sent a message to past straw hat.
You're still basically starting in media res, while also showing people a lot of changes that new people aren't invested in.
While I really appreciate your scenario, as somebody who never played an MK game before 2011, I thought that kicking the door off its hinges with an apocalyptic time travel fiasco, gave the story’s conflict a grander sense of scale that, by the end of the game, felt fully deserved.
Beginning:
I wonder who all them dead people are.
Skull face’s gotta be the bad guy, right?
How are they gonna kill him?
Middle:
Burning bug man just killed the ice cube!
Darth Flash is my new main!
Robot ninjas; Why aren’t there more robot ninjas?
End:
Bruce Lee’s dead?!
Straw Hat’s about a sell his soul to the Satanic Witchdoctor?!
I AM A MOTHER FUCKING GOOOOOOD!!!
Jalen Rodriguez yeah that
The first time I ever watched mk 9, I was aware that there were previous games, but I though this was the 1at one with a story and simply a retelling of said story. When the Armageddon intro appeared, I though that Armageddon was the event at the end of mk3 and that that's what would happened if Shao Kahn won the mk3 portion.
There were a lot of missed opportunities for Stryker, but he will secretly be my favorite MK character of all time.
Why secretly?
A normal guy in mortal Kombat is as cool as it gets
MK9 was my introduction to the series and I enjoyed its story quite a bit (I felt it had the best story out of the Netherralm MK games). I assumed the earlier games had bad stories because of notoriously bad characters like Hsu Hao, but your video has shown me that there were great story bits and a lot of thought put into the characterisation of the characters even back then. I can see how this new timeline could feel like a spit in the face for hardcore MK fans. This is a very thought provoking video.
MK9 is seriously one of the best fighters out there, not many people I know who don’t like the game.
But to each their own, it was a well thought out kritique and I subscribed.
Thank you.
@Couch Mob Ent. TM MK9 has the best roster and 2nd best gameplay (next to MKX), but the story is bad.
I think the story is good. Not great, but its good. I do have some problems with the story
luke jones personally it only got better so mk11 for me butt to each there own
Mk9 is fantastic imo. The designs still hold up, the graphics still don’t look half bad, the fatalities were good also. Honestly the game is great. But hey if you’re not a fan of it, I won’t judge you
Noob MK9 voice >>>>> Noob MK11 voice
Yeah noobs mk11 voice sounds like he smokes 12 packs a day
"We share blood, we are not brothers" was so cool
I will never get bored of watching this Critique
I like how the story analysis is in-depth while the gameplay critique is unsubstantiated. You *do* know you can duck the projectiles that aren't explicitly low to the ground right. You *do* know the teleports are highly telegraphed compared to the original trilogy right. You *do* know the Kombos flow naturally because they're "dialed-in" instead of timed right. You've also got the strawman backwards for the Resident Evil comparison; the fixed camera is for the game designed around it, not the other way around. Soul Calibur doesn't bother with projectiles *because* it's a 3D fighter, and movesets designed for a 2D plane or even with a 2D mentality are trivialized in 3D. Final cherry on top, using Liu Kang v Shao Kahn footage while complaining about boss difficulty (not that they aren't) when Liu Kang has literally the easiest time against bosses because of how braindead his rushdown is, on top of these bosses having highly telegraphed moves compared to the original trilogy...well I'm not making any claims and I'll leave it up to for whoever scrolls down to decide what it is I'm getting at
The gameplay analysis is more like a gameplay analyshit
Blackest Yang amen
Sluggish combos no shit you were supposed to link combos together by looking at the different characters special moves and different combos so at the end you have a giant badass combo. But wanna know what this game sucks yeah . Also x rays are too inaccurate because you'll die immediately but strikers handgun ex is total accurate aka getting shot ten times and getting back up
@@sadness276 they are literal super humans. Wdym 'take 10 bullets and survive'
I was apprehensive about reading this entire comment, but that final sentence made it so fucking worth it.
Preach
Imagine if styrker came back in MK 11.
Maybe its just me, but I really like stryker. Probably because he's just a cop...well, he's more a SWAT agent, but still.
I'd love for him to get expanded on, and learn that he had a wife and child, I'll go with daughter, and now that he's been dead for 20 or so odd years, his wife's moved on, and his daughter grew up without him. Could have the daughter be a playable character who joined up with special forces, to honor her father, and maybe get some revenge.
I may have just made another OC for mortal kombat, but that tends to happen when you write about older characters that have a 20 year time skip.
Same, but they wont since that would be too much work
@@MilestheDirtyMindedGoblin2099 because nrs is lazy.
If they brought back Matt Mercer as the voice of Stryker, I'd buy the game. #criticalrole
no that wouldn’t work because the daughter will literally be cassie cage but minus her personality because cassies personality is very influenced by johnny being her father. in all honestly she would probably be like sonya
because NRS hates stryker. He doesn't even appear as a revenant in Mk11
He thought this was bad oh that mk11 critique going to be something
Twindel
waited for years and it still hasn't come out
@@hatpal2287 I just found this channel and I'm surprised mk11 critique still isn't here yet
@@curtisjackson4090 he said he want to wait for all the content to be out first
@@hatpal2287 Smart... thx for the reply
"A nice shot of a dead Quan Chi."
Bruh.
I don't know who you are and I know this video is like 2 years old. But after watching this in full I really must say I admire your dedication to a series you love.
Thanks. I've got plenty more videos on MK done since and yet, people still think I hate the franchise.
@@The4thSnake they r blind. Paralyzed and dumb struck. They don't know about mk history and they don't care. Those who don't know their history r doom to repeate it. They rather a god awful story than a story that makes sense because they prefer (literal) garbage over quality. Well some people anyways.
I don't mind some retcons, like Cyrax and Sektor accompanying Sub Zero to the first tournament, or introducing MK 3 characters like Nightwolf early. And Quan Chi makes sense to appear early if he's behind Scorpion and Sub Zero's story. That's the way I'd do it in say, a TV show. But damn I kinda wish they just did a retelling of the originals with those retcons instead of the alternate timeline.
While I disagree to some extent on the gameplay being a downgrade compared to previous iterations, the breakdown of the story and it's shortcomings was beautifully done.
Great work!
Also I'm all with you with the inconsistency of the violence on display.
This really annoys me with MK11 so far, both in its trailer and in the gameplay.
While Fatalities previously accentuated an already bloody fight and gave the games a unique flavor, the violence has now has become meaningless white noise.
Every third move is something that stabs someone trough the skull and the X-Ray attacks are now even more brutal then some Fatalities.
MK's violence has become something that happens without consequence. Something with no rhyme or rhythm to it.
Well said. Did you see that one stage interaction where you impale the oponent's head on a spike and they're fine? How can fatalities be special anymore after that?
@@The4thSnake Totally agree. If everything is turned up to 11 all of the time, there is no longer a peak to cheer for.
The sad thing is I can imagine these over the top stage interactions actually work somewhat like the environmental fatalities in previous games.
Either by requiring a more complex button input to pull off, giving the attack a longer windup or requiring a very specific positioning.
This way trying to go for them would be a risk but could potentially end the round early with a chunky spear trough the head.
Then, like the Brutalities in MKX, it would be something to finish the fight with a bang and actually would show some player skill involved.
@@theharlequin7280 If Fatalities functioned like Brutalities and these moves had longer versions when used to win the match, that might be fine.
@@The4thSnake This is less of a critique and more of a personal opinion.
Anyways, to chime in with my own personal opinion, the joy in a fatality, brutality, or fatal blow comes in the cathartic rush of the cutscene. They are designed to be specifically creative, bombastic, and entertaining to watch, as opposed to a stage interaction. Stage interactions (and other non-super x-rays) are designed to give you that quick cathartic hit of adrenaline from impaling someone with a spike. A fatality or fatal blow is designed the opposite manner, to give you the cinematic sense of buildup into payoff in a much more long and expressive format only possible in a longer cutscene format. Fatalities and brutalities also offer that sense of finality that x-rays and fatals lack. In a fatality, you see sub-zero freeze your head and crush it, you know you are dead. There is no confusion. Compared to a fatal blow or x-ray attack, which, although gratuitously violent and surely deadly on a normal person, do not provide this sense of cinematic finality. You see sub-zero stab and drag you with an axe, but you never see him cut off your head, or rip through your spine, or any number of actions characters preform that provide the final cathartic killing blow. I feel like both of your distaste for unnecessary or unrealistic violence (and yes, a fatal blow is completely senseless, unnecessary, and unrealistic) clouds your judgement of this. This is of course not mentioning the completely necessary gameplay functions they preform, like a krushing blow preforming a previously impossible knock-up, or a fatal blow serving as a tense comeback mechanic that gives the losing player an exciting and deadly revenge attack.
cowboy TV yes, but there is no release of cinematic sense when you’ve seen stuff much more bloody and gory before the fatality, therefore, there is no buildup since you’ve seen it before.
Lol watching this again has renewed my hatred for Quan Chi on a scale I didn't know imaginable
While I don’t agree with your viewpoints on MK9 (or some of the mechanics from the 3-D era games) I do kinda like how you present your opinions here.
44:01 Jax willingly had his arms replaced with cyber ones around the time of MK3 because he wanted to be absolutely sure he could help repel Shao Kahn's invasion in the first timeline.
Nope, it was enhancements around his real arms. He only replaced them by Armageddon's time.
I like to think that shao kahn shoulder charged all the way to the top
Yeah that move was bullshit in MKII
I got a good laugh out of this.
i am watching this video for the sixth time now and i’ve gotta say this video is a youtube masterpiece, a timeless classic
All of his Kritiques are great to go back to. Even in parts for the longer videos.
You know when I played MK 2011 and found out that sindel came in like the Undertaker at WrestleMania and basically murdered everyone I was pissed. No video game franchise I had liked for so long did that to me. If I was raiden walking in to see most of my team dead, the killer and one of my teammates currently dying, I'd be heated.
I'm astounded that actually stayed in past the first draft.
Here's the thing though.....it's a video game. What's the difference between this and Thanos killing off a good chunk of the Avengers? It is a film after all and you know they're coming back.....just like Mortal Kombat but where Avengers Infinity War is a film Mortal Kombat is a game.
@@Blannibal311 bitch you're comparing freaking Sindel to Thanos?
If you wanna compare somebody to Thanos,try Shao Kahn or something
Your argument is really weak. Thanos killed everyone using the combination of powerfull stones in a special gauntlet. These were things hard to get. This is not compared with what happened with Sindel and her scene killing everyone in the most pathetic way.
@@Blannibal311 What the other two said plus Sindel was never shown to be especially powerful. She was never even a boss. She was a playable character since MK3 now all of a sudden she single-handedly plows through damn near the entire roster? Especially when one of those guys was Sub Zero who we just saw beat Goro and Kintaro at the same time earlier in the game.
One other point, how can people like scorpion freely travel between earth realm and outworld if sindel has a protective barrier that EVEN THE ELDER GODS CAN'T BREAK
Because he's really really cool.
and he does it really really fast.
He's a cringe Mary Sue character.
One thing I am so excited for? You picking the flaws of 11 apart.
Fully agree
This game was my first exposure to Mortal Kombat when I was a little kid (look, the internet wasn't as strict and I was web surfing. Honestly don't know why people would want age restrictions gone when little kids could find something like Mortal Kombat). The first ever time I saw it was a video showcasing the fatalities. But when I saw the story, something didn't feel right back then, and this was coming from a little kid who didn't know the original timeline. Now I think I know what that bad feeling was. God, what did the internet see in this game's story? At least it could've been worse (*Cough* MK11)
“But it New and pweyy and have weal gore so mush be good” 😒. Biggest red flag that someone isn’t actually a fan of MK and is just a fan of the Gordy violences in video games.
Wow, a person that Mortal Kombat 2011 is their first exposure to MK, this is very original.
"I'm just asking for a little consistency here.Is that too much?"
NRS: What's consistency?
I had fell asleep and every word you said turned into the weirdest ducking dream
Good vid bro would sleep to gain🙏🏾
The worst part about all of this is that THIS is the best one of the reboots
I liked X the most Gameplay wise,9 content and story wise,and 11 everything elae
MK11 somewhat rebooted the reboot. For example, Skarlet's backstory. In MK9 She was more or less a female alternate of Ermac. (If you don't understand what I mean Ermac is a creation of Shao Kahn using the souls of warriors. Skarlet is also made by Shao Kahn but instead of the Souls of Warriors he used The blood of warriors.) In MK11 Netherrealm Studios changed her backstory to an Orphan that Shao Kahn taught Blood Magic to.
@@duckgoquacc also mk9 stated that skarlet's blood magic was something she inherited naturally because of her origins, but then the mkx comics stated that she wanted to learn it from reiko and then in mk11 they said that she learned it from shao kahn. it changes in each game lmao
Man I hate mk 11 just for another reboot already
Mk9 its the best one of the reboots and also the best Mortal Kombat in my opinion. (Mk 2, Mortal Kombat Deception, Mortal Kombat Shaolin Monks are top Mk games for me too)
I didn't grow up with Mortal Kombat, by the time I was actually really aware of the series MK9 was already out. I haven't played the games, but I did look up the story and I can safely say that anything past UMK3 I pretty much ditched, it got a bit too convoluted for me.
But through this video I can definitely see why someone who enjoyed what the 3D era had to offer would be extremely upset, I would be too, and I think it's actually great that you went and gave the game another chance even though you disliked it. The way I see it, MK9 (and honestly most of modern MK) was essentially nostalgia bait for people who remember MK1 through 3, this is why a lot of elements from the 3D era are ignored or completely changed. What people remember is the first 3, WB and NRS probably know this and unfortunately that's led to modern MK.
Anyway, great video, your points were explained extremely well!
Completely disagree with most of this but still watched because I can handle other people's opinions even if they go against my own
Um...ok? Thanks for that information?
@@guilhermedalmolinpereira7812 ?
@@guilhermedalmolinpereira7812what is your point?
No no no, we don't do that here. Get the pitchfork and start a riot, we can't destroy the internets balance.
Humble brag in a nutshell
"He must win" refers to Mokap. No question about it. Fight me.
Ironically, in MK Armageddon, Mokap's ending is the only one that achieves the intended result of stopping Armageddon that Argus was hoping one of his sons would achieve.
I finally gave myself the time to sit down and watch this. I have to say, you basically summed up every thought I had with this game, from the great voice cast to the atrocious story, but with a dedication to the source material I never had before.
My first MK game was Trilogy on the PS1. At the time, I was a kid and didn't do much study into the story, and the only ending I knew of at the time was Liu Kang, because he was the only one we knew how to cheese Shao Kahn with. Once I got a PS2 years later, one of the first games I got was Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance. In between, I had been exposed to the movies that had come out and very brief glimpses of a Saturday morning cartoon show that I barely remembered outside of Stryker sounding cool and wondering why Sub-Zero sounded like he was whisper speaking all the time. But Deadly Alliance wowed me with the intro from the get-go, and I was so engaged with the gameplay and the story endings (starting with Scorpion) that I looked up a website dedicated to the game and discovered there was a website for the whole series in general. While I couldn't play any of the games due to a very limited allowance, I was glad for the tidbits I could look up.
Eventually, time passed on, one thing led to another, and I got a chance to play Mortal Kombat 2011. By that point, I was seeing things with a more critical eye, and that didn't help me being a little cynical with the transition to 2D fighting, but since I found myself liking 2D and 3D fighting games pretty equally and since it was more Mortal Kombat that everyone around me insisted was great, I gave it a fair shake. Suffice it to say, I didn't trust the writing when the reboot scene started, and hated it before I was done. I hated how much worse it felt than Deadly Alliance, how it seemed to barely be an upgrade from Trilogy at the time in terms of 2D gameplay and Shao Kahn's overall cheese factor, and how it treated the characters I knew and grew to love. While I appreciated very specific story beats similar to ones you enjoyed, like Johnny Cage being himself and Kitana's potential development, I just felt the overall management of everyone felt very poor and contrived and valued shock value over actual development. The straw that broke the camel's back for me was that Sindel scene. Not only for how idiotic it was that all of these characters were getting beaten without even attempting to use their abilities, but for how much I couldn't care in the context for enough of them. Kabal has his moments, then dies. Stryker has his moments, then dies. Nightwing has an important scene, then is the one to kill both him and Sindel. Which also made Sindel feel wasted in the process? At that point, I was so tuned out that when Liu Kang dies, all I could think of was "Oh look, the writers are trying to make something ironic. Wasn't this better in Deadly Alliance?" and then rushed to the end as quick as I could.
With all this, I honestly can't wait to hear your summed up thoughts about MK11 as a whole once NRS & WB stop milking it for all they think it's worth and we can finally have a completed copy for good. Looking forward to it, and thank you for the commitment you put in your content!
I will legitimately pay money to see 4th have a genuine series front to back over him as Shao Kahn. Where he explains his thoughts and becomes the true ruler of Outworld. That short bit of the Kitana moment was just so tactically smart, I'd like to see how he would deal with something like betraying Onaga.
If Nether Realm really wanted to make some microtransaction money, they'd release a MK9 costume pack for MK11.
oof
This aged like milk
I think you will like Shang Tsung's storyline in MK11 Aftermath DLC Story mode. He is depicted as a better, and smarter character who is even almost wins depending on your ending, This i\helps strengthen him as a character, and showing he is not just a weak minion of shao kahn
I love how your haters say that you don't say anything nice about the Netherrealm era of Mortal Kombat when you LITERALLY point out redeeming qualities of Netherrealm's writing and casting in this review.
Because hyperbole and generalisation are easier to mentally process, as opposed to a reasoned and sensible response, and so is quicker and less effort
And he even made 11 good things about mk11 which is from netherrealm era which makes them sound stupid.
@@cactusmalone
I love this quote because it's fucking absolutist (?) itself lmao the jedi are infamous for viewing stuff as either dark or light side
@@calamorta exactly why I despise the jedi during the old republic era.
I know this video is old by now, but watching it again made me think of something...Why didn't Dark Raiden send his message to himself during MK3 rather than MK1?
As we see in this game, the vague wording of his message sent his MK1 self through loops trying to figure out who "He" is and what he must "win," since it's very easy to look at the first two tournaments and think those are the things you must win. Had Dark Raiden left MK1 and 2 alone and sent the message to MK3, however, it would be easier to contextualize the message; still a bit of a hurtle to figure out, but much less treacherous than starting all the way back on Shang Tsung's island, I'd imagine. I can forgive Dark Raiden (ironically) not having enough time to word his message better (even though "Kahn must win" probably would have saved himself some grief), but if he knew MK3 was the crux of Kahn's threat (at least the way MK9 frames it), then why not just talk to MK3, where the message is actually relevant?
I know the story needed to go back to MK1 and they wanted to do drama with Raiden making things worse by trying to make them better, but they were too reserved with the time alterations and a non-canon reboot could have gotten newcomers back to MK1 without totally botching the plot to boot. Then again, I actually liked MK9 back when it came out and I only thought of this revision 11 years later, so I probably would have dropped the ball just as badly if I was tasked with writing this back then...
I have to say, even with its flaws (like some of the handicap matches in the story mode being utter BS, and the challenge tower prize being bugger all) I still love this game even to this day, even going so far as being one of my top 3 favorite fighting games.
That being said, Snake I really apperciate these Kritiques and I can tell how much effort you put into these videos because it helped me open my eyes.
Story is not important because the plot is not realistic? Ever hear of Watchmen? Lord of the Rings? MCU? Game of Thrones? Batman? The Odyssey? You can make a fun story with a deep mythology and well thought out characters out of anything if you put enough thought and care into it. Mortal Kombat has done that before through character bios, intros, and conquest modes. The way they chose to portray their stories in the modern games heavily limits them though.
@@newmovietrailers4001 you missed the point.
@@newmovietrailers4001 lol you need to watch that video again
@@newmovietrailers4001 mk11 is terrible. The story had a lot of plotholes and ending is stupid liu kang fanfiction
@Fwuffycodbunny but it does make a bad story mode
Hey, I know that this is an old video but l agree with your video. You really opened my eyes about this game. I really don't understand why people hate your videos. I still love Mortal kombat but I do feel betrayed by the game. You're not the only person who feels the same way about this game. Good luck to with your videos.
Thank you.
@@The4thSnake Your welcome! Keep up the good work!
I wouldnt say people hate his videos, the like to dislike rate shows this but the only thing I disagree with is the change back to 2D which is much better with consistency, combos and etc. The story points are on point though.
I really have to commend Johnny’s arc in this game alone. Dude goes from completely full of himself at the start to running straight into Shao Kahn to try and defend his realm by the end.
This is one of my favourite videos on youtube period.
I love this video 4thsnake, Even though i don't know any lore or played any originals, Your points make alot of sense, At least the ones i can understand, And your replies to other comments are the best.
8:21 THANK YOU 🙏🙏🤝I know I’m a few years late but after having played each title less and less since MK 9 in 2011 I couldn’t help but pinpoint what I started to like less and less about these games. These games aren’t objectively bad, they just keep going back to these archaic fighting systems that don’t push boundaries and experiment on different combat mechanics. That’s why I still go back and play Deception and Armageddon since getting spammed by projectiles becomes a sport in itself with the 2D fighting planes.
I would really like you to do a story breakdown of Deception and Deadly Alliance. Also Armageddon.
Maybe some day. Got MKX to break down first. Then Injustice 2 next year and then MK11 will be out by then...
One a year sucks! We're on the hype train baby! 10k! 2 Reviews a year!
I've been trying to get the MKX one done since late December. I've got other stuff I want to do.
Too late! Liu Kang is already dead and wasn't supposed to die until the events of Deadly Alliance
@@paulvercetti4489 liu kang's death mk9 was really his own fault,he should have just agreed with raiden instead of allowing the death of kitana(understandable but still),drive him insane
1:21:53 it’s been 9 years and they still haven’t explained why Kano’s robo-eye is blinking
Man watching this post mk11 critique is strange. I said something like that in the first review of this game 9 months ago and I wont repeat my words as its pointless to say whats already been said.
That being said I think you're reviews on these games are well done. I am genuinely amazed you haven't done anything similar to this for other forms of media not just mk and injustice.
And not the whole "do a critique on the midway games" but more of a long form game analysis. Just talking about something you love and why you like it in great detail or see the problems that were in it.
I remember you said you wouldn't do critiques on midway because the point of the critiques were meant to show the problems NR games have to fix the problems or at least make people more aware of them. But honestly I and I bet many others learned a lot of mk lore from these videos and again it doesn't have to be just those why not do a critique/analysis on persona 5 since we won't be getting another one for the next 100 years and it kinda fits the criteria.
I am not saying you have to make long form analysis. I doubt I have been the first to say this and it's your channel not mine and apologies if you have talked about this before and I probably don't remember.
But still no matter the content I will still watch. Just more something I wanted to say.
Granted, Kung Lao's death was a very strong and sudden twist......of the neck.
I should mention this. Ed Boon always planned on rebooting Mortal Kombat into a much darker game that moved away from the 3D era, like what MK9 ended up doing. Hence why every character who was in Mortal Kombat was included in Armageddon. He ended up doing MK vs DCU instead, but MK9 was basically what he wanted to do from the start.
I love that you explained all your gripes or opinions of x-rays/fatalities all on Quan-Chi lmao
Your critique on the story is great!
In my book, Mr. Snake is my hero for giving us all 2 hour long and interesting reviews
There's 2 things that while it doesn't make it any better, does explain a lot of the changes.
The first thing is that John Tobias and the majority of the actual creative minds behind what made MK's plot so great left after MK4. What came next where either remnants of what he already had lined up next, or them purely getting lucky as they made it up along the way. Ed Boon in a certain respect is the Bob Kane of Mortal Kombat being the face that everyone knows associated to the franchise. But ultimately, he's the additional corporate guy that was added while everyone else in the original MK1 dev team all grew up together as either friends or blood relatives. What I'm about to say isn't to invalidate your love of the PS2 era MK games, but I will say that your perspective is a bit skewed by nostalgia because those were your jump on point to the franchise. I'll even say that mine is too because MK3 was mine, which is where arguably a lot of the MK discourse within the fan base originally started to crop up while I was blissfully unaware and disagree with much of it to this day. Especially since the story had to basically be made up on the spot due to missing cast members that couldn't be replaced on short notice during development. Many would argue that it's really just been a downward slope in regards to the plot and game quality from there as they kept experimenting with jarring changes and ideas to both from that point. The comics have also never been cannon.
The other thing to keep in mind is that this games plot minus the time travel is basically the result of the first film adaptation. You mentioned it loosely with the Lin Que and Kano's retcons. But the movie and tv show's lore basically planted the seeds of all the changes that would get made gradually in past games, and finally cemented in this game. More or less, even though you know the lore of the games, it's technically been completely unreliable. You've more or less finally started to experience and feel the same way that a lot of MK fans have since at least 1995. So when people try to ride your dick about "nOot kNUwUinG dEh lOrREd," yeah, they're being dicks. But they're also technically right because this is a franchise that doesn't really allow you to know the lore. Especially now that the people who made it what it originally was haven't been present for almost 30 years now. The franchise is running on the vapors of MK2.... As an MK fan, you either accept that it's glory days story wise are dead, and just play the games for the gameplay only, or just get more frustrated by each new release. Welcome to the Star Wars of fighting games. lol
^👍🏾 Great Perspective
I know I’m late but tbh the gameplay to the last 3 games gets real boring, and they can only go so far with the brutalities and gore of fatalities/x-rays to where people will desensitized and bored. I feel as if the 3D era of games were the only natural progression of the series, especially given the amount of immersion in the realms games like Deadly Alliance through Armageddon gave. The games might’ve been divisive to the series, but they definitely had a charm and depth that would’ve cemented it as more of a serious fighting game, rather than just a media staple of “ooh blood and gore 🤯😱.” Because I do agree with you that this franchise feels like the “Star Wars of fighting games.”
When I come here for a rewatch I like to look through the newest first comments. It's always great fun.
same lol
i may be biased towards nostalgia, but man i miss the old 3D MK days. idk how to describe it, but the games back then just had that visceral and dark theme/tone throughout. it felt as if any and everything in the world was dangerous and out to get you, and no mercy was shown ever
i could listen to you talk about mortal kombat for hours omg i agree with almost every point in this and the mkX can’t wait for you to talk about mk11
I love that Liu Kang spends most of this story pissed with basically everything that's going on. He's ROBBED of the chance to win tournaments and wars, that Raiden probably knows he should win, and he eventually gets killed like that!
No wonder he stayed a revenant in mkx, he’s just done with Raidens shit
After about five watches of this video, I finally caught the amazing "Smoke is inspired by Alessa Gillespie" joke. Bravo Mister Fourth Snake!
I think the problem with this game is trying to cram 3 games of lore into one with a new team and also trying to be different from the OT
Oooooooh you are gonna HATE MK11's story. It's a retcon of a retcon within a retcon.
RETCONS WITHIN RETCONS AWAIT YOU, SNAKE!!!
@@legendarymarston9174 Ok time out. Who the hell wrote this script? I mean really... Retcon within a Retcon, Retcon within freaking Retcon!?
@@alexandrapagan3222 Just read the script.
@@legendarymarston9174 I don't get paid enough for this crap.