New 2D Mortal Kombat Announced!

[jfrost]

I never bought into the argument "MK isn't as smooth of fighting system as Street Fighter" or substitute "smooth" with something else. If you don't like the original MK games it's most likely because you're use to Street Fighter (or something else) games. Likewise, I'll kick your ass in MKII but I completely suck at Street Fighter II. Holding back to block? Yeah, that's less complicated than a dedicated block button (sarcasm).

To be fair, how many other 2D fighters have a dedicated block button?

most of the 3D ones

[jfrost]

I was actually pretty addicted to MKII and UMK3 when they were at the top. But I never got the hang of blocking. At the time I thought it was no biggie, I just adapted my fighting style to accomodate my difficulty in blocking (using characters with teleporting moves and so on). I guess I'm just not willing to bother with that anymore.

[MrPopo]

I was actually pretty addicted to MKII and UMK3 when they were at the top. But I never got the hang of blocking. At the time I thought it was no biggie, I just adapted my fighting style to accomodate my difficulty in blocking (using characters with teleporting moves and so on). I guess I'm just not willing to bother with that anymore.

My stance is that if you're blocking then you're not attacking. And if you don't attack you don't win. Ergo, blocking is useless.

[Ivo]

My stance is that if you're blocking then you're not attacking. And if you don't attack you don't win. Ergo, blocking is useless.

That is a pretty limited viewpoint and a major tactical flaw - I guess you are aware of that and are just joking though.

I mean, you can certainly win in a match where you have blocked, and you can certainly win a match because you blocked something at the right time. Blocking ALL the time is useless, you certainly won't win that way (depending on the game mechanics you may be able to draw, though).

Ivo.

[MrPopo]

My stance is that if you're blocking then you're not attacking. And if you don't attack you don't win. Ergo, blocking is useless.

That is a pretty limited viewpoint and a major tactical flaw - I guess you are aware of that and are just joking though.

I mean, you can certainly win in a match where you have blocked, and you can certainly win a match because you blocked something at the right time. Blocking ALL the time is useless, you certainly won't win that way (depending on the game mechanics you may be able to draw, though).

Ivo.

Yes, it's partially a joke. But I'm notorious for always being on the attack. Sure, I'll block when I see a fuck you move coming, but I can't play a turtling keep away game; it goes against my nature.

[Ivo]

Yes, it's partially a joke. But I'm notorious for always being on the attack. Sure, I'll block when I see a fuck you move coming, but I can't play a turtling keep away game; it goes against my nature.

Fair enough, but that can be exploited against you. I remember David Sirlin writing about an example just like that with SF2 (people tend to have a problem with letting matches go to time, even if they will win that way, and he actively exploited that some times).

Ivo.

[MrPopo]

Yes, it's partially a joke. But I'm notorious for always being on the attack. Sure, I'll block when I see a fuck you move coming, but I can't play a turtling keep away game; it goes against my nature.

Fair enough, but that can be exploited against you. I remember David Sirlin writing about an example just like that with SF2 (people tend to have a problem with letting matches go to time, even if they will win that way, and he actively exploited that some times).

Ivo.

Yeah, I've read that article. I don't play fighting games to win, though. I'm pretty bad at them and have no plan to improve; I just like them. I don't care if a match goes to time or not, I just dislike how two people will be facing each other and won't commit to an attack, or one guys is attacking while the other guy is constantly retreating.

[Kevman]

MK is considered clunky because it doesn't work well on arcade sticks. I'm sure with gamepads it works fine.

Think of it this way: for the people that use arcade sticks, do you ever take your hand off the stick? Answer is most likely no. Now, do you sometimes have your fingers on certain buttons and off the rest? Probably answered yes. So would you rather just push your stick to the left or right or block or fumble around to find the right button to block. Using back to block is just better on sticks which is why MK gets a bad rap, but shoulder buttons and gamepads fixed that in MK (on consoles at least).

[SplashChick]

MK is considered clunky because it doesn't work well on arcade sticks. I'm sure with gamepads it works fine.

Think of it this way: for the people that use arcade sticks, do you ever take your hand off the stick? Answer is most likely no. Now, do you sometimes have your fingers on certain buttons and off the rest? Probably answered yes. So would you rather just push your stick to the left or right or block or fumble around to find the right button to block. Using back to block is just better on sticks which is why MK gets a bad rap, but shoulder buttons and gamepads fixed that in MK (on consoles at least).

Not true at all, every competitive MK player prefers a stick. It's just another control style, it doesn't have any inherent advantages or disadvantages just because blocking uses a button. Besides, back is used to stop throws in UMK3.

And honestly, fumbling around to find a button? I'd have to ask if you even PLAY video games if that's your problem.

[SplashChick]

Alright, taking what we've heard from Ed Boon about the game, what we've seen in the videos, and what we know about the storyline, I've compiled a complete roster of what I think the 26 characters in the game will be:

Sub-Zero
Scorpion
Reptile
Sonya
Kano
Mileena
Baraka
Jax
Kitana
Kung Lao
Liu Kang
Johnny Cage
Raiden
Shang Tsung
Cyrax(possibly human instead of robot)
Sektor
Smoke(likely human instead of robot)
Kabal
Nightwolf
Sindel
Ermac
Quan Chi
Robot Sub-Zero
New Character
New Character
New Character