Wait really? You found the end boss hard? It was basically just a straight up fight with no bullshit like most fighting game bosses. Also, there totally is a chapter select for story mode at least on the PS3/360 versions. I did hear WiiU version got some stuff cut out of it.

Edit: Wait... nevermind.... I mis-read everything in that first few sentences...

I'm talking about MK9 not having chapter select and a stupid hard end boss, you fool! :P

So PSN went down for me for like an hour earlier and I wound up playing some single player, and this game is fucking awesome. Went and did all of Lex's challenges; the most fearsome of which is 93; a pong match with Cyborg. Every time he wins a round he says BOOYAH! and it took me like 35 minutes to 3 star it; bastard is super sly with his paddle. Even if you beat him he still says BOOYAH!

Later on Lex has to invade Aquaman's undersea fortress and after clearing out some mines he jumps straight into the ocean; Lex being the smartest man alive of course knows that he doesn't need a helmet and instead collects air bubbles like it was Sonic; and while that challenge is completely random as to whether you can finish it (say roughly 8-12% chance of being able to perfect it) it's still so hilarious and silly.

I'm guessing Jeff only did a handful of challenges prior to reviewing it, the ridiculousness of the later ones is a thing of beauty and even if you don't connect with the characters it's impossible not to appreciate pure abject stupidity.

I never understood the complaint about Shao Kahn. Raiden has a teleport that bails him out of every attack Kahn can throw at him.

But you aren't the only one to make the observation, so there's got to be something to it.

Otherwise, that's good to hear about Injustice. Not sure how often I'll head back to the Story Mode, but it sounds like Netherrealm was mindful of MK9's more underlined complaints while they developed this. Can't wait to dig in to it.

I thought it was great. I finished 82 percent of it in one sitting. awesome best story mode in a fighting game ever.

I wouldn't go that far. The presentation was nice, but the story itself could have been far better. It's not particularly novel for a comic book story to boil down everything to "Shit happens because Superman is crazy and evil."

The story mode in this game is super dumb!

But then Superman punches a crab in the nose so I dunno it's kinda good dumb!

Well to be fair the bar isn't very high for stories in fighting games.

It's certainly higher than what Injustice presents. I'm not saying it's not entertaining, but it certainly could have been better.

@hailinel: What would you even consider "good" as far as a fighting game story then?

Lack of chapter selection and a horrendous final boss aside, MK9 had a great story mode that rewrote the mess of canon into something entertaining and surprising. Persona 4 Arena is also incredibly strong with the way it manages to continue the story, though its presentation is structured in a vastly different manner. BlazBlue, despite its crazier writing, also pulls off some great things with its branching story paths.

Injustice doesn't really bring anything truly new to the table (its structure and presentation are entirely based on the dev team's experience with Mortal Kombat), and its story is largely by the numbers with no sense of real drama.

@hailinel: I loved me some MK9 but outside actually doing something interesting with the structure of the story mode I don't think they did anything and more/less impressive than Injustice. Can't speak to Persona though as that universe does absolutely nothing for me. Yeah the Blazblue presentation with the multiple paths is cool but the actual writing and lore is utter anime nonsense and not the fun kind either.

When you use anime as an adjective in this context, your criticism feels lazy and meaningless.

As for MK9, it was impressive because the writers went back and rewrote the entire canon into a cohesive narrative. Mortal Kombat was a series that was plagued with bizarre continuity issues, large numbers of characters shifting in and out of rosters, and toward the end, some genuinely lazy writing. Particularly with the way that Deadly Alliance set up the story to go in one direction, and then the writers threw all of that away to go with the story path that was only suggested in Shang Tsung and Quan Chi's endings. Deception just made things even more convoluted with the introduction of Onaga and the nonsensical baggage that came with him, and by the time Armageddon came about, it seemed like the writers had thrown in the towel.

So Netherrealm found an opening to rewrite the timeline into something that both makes sense and has a natural point of progression into an eventual sequel. The story also leaves the characters and world(s) in such a state that whatever comes next can't be easily predicted. All we can really know for sure is that it will in some way involve the villains of MK4.

I really enjoyed the Blazblue Story modes. I even got 100% in CS. That means finishing all alternate paths for all characters for those who don't know. I've seen a fair amount of good and bad anime in my past. I think his assessment of the Blazblue's story as "utter anime nonsense" is spot on. It's definitely a thing that's not for everyone.

No, it still doesn't work. Anime is a medium; it comprises any genre put to into animation and could be literally anything from quiet, down to earth dramas to the most bombastic super robot show one could conceive. When you say something is "anime nonsense," your comment itself is nonsense because you don't appear to understand what the word means.

Its used in a slang context to infer specific qualities that are often associated with anime.

It's not a particularly useful or clear bit of slang, then.

The Superman pills were a pretty lame excuse, though.

Finished the story in one sitting. I was quite pleased that it didn't last six hours or something absurdly long. While I enjoyed the story for the most part, I will admit the whole "take this pill to be near invincible" part seemed like a far fetched way to justify how someone like Joker could take out Green Lantern or some other "meta-human". Much like the "Rage" concept in MK vs. DC, it works for what it needs to do.

I'm not an avid reader of comic books, but talking with a few of my friends who are, the story line sounds something very close to a comic book type story.

I found the the story mode to be way easier than the one in MK, which I gladly welcome. I always found it a pain when you had to fight two or three fighters without reseting your health bar in the MK story mode. Especially with the major difficulty ramp up near the end and that bullshit Shao Kahn fight that you had to cheese to get by.

Overall, I enjoyed the story for what it was and was glad it didn't get absurdly difficult near the end to the point that it made me want to throw the controller across the room.

I don't know why, but ''TEH FIGHT'' got a hearty laugh outta me.

I didn't read all of the posts (for fear of spoilers) but keep going back and forth on picking this up. I can't decide whether or not there's enough there for somebody who isn't that great online and may focus more on just STAR Labs and the Story mode. I'm not a huge comic book guy, but I do enjoy Batman. I was also a huge fan of MK9.

I really would've liked to see Barry Allen, Nightwing, Lex Luthor, Harley Quinn, and Catwoman go to the Regime Universe in the story mode.

ESPECIALLY Barry Allen. I mean, according to this game, Superman's closest allies are Batman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Hal Jordan, and...Green Arrow? Regime or Main, Barry should be one of Supes' closest allies, not Green Arrow. So HE should've been summoned to the Regime universe instead of Arrow. And it would've been nice if Main Barry was the one to get Regime Barry to grow a backbone and join the Insurgency.