Oh, this is gonna piss some people off. I'm honestly shocked that my spheel on SF3 didn't get me hate mail, but whatever. Even will admit that SF3 had a solid fighting engine. Heck besides the original game and the movie games, all Street Fighter games are good. Even EX. I would gladly play any of them, along with any Tekken, Soul Calibur, Virtua Fighter, and KOF game. And especially Smash Bros. However, one franchise of fighters that i simply do not like is Mortal Kombat. Now before I rant, I'm gonna go into what I actually like about MK.

1. Characters/Narrative- I like that MK games are usually very story driven, as thicker than paper narratives are definitely untapped potential for fighters and something that I believe should be mandatory really. Especially KOF with its graphics as well as Street Fighter could use thought out anime cut-scened story modes. Also, I happen to like some of the characters and designs. Johnny Cage is just funny, Liu Kang is cool, Sonya is hot, and Nightwolf is Native American, so he's automatically cool.

And that's about it really. I feel like that games mythos and characters are really wasted by being a part of that franchise. Killing off the characters just seemed either harsh or just flat out over-the-top and dumb. The gore will never appeal to me, and is just an idiotic gimmick used to cover up the games bad engine. The gameplay always felt stiff and just never appealed to me. I also even felt like, "You know, I could just be playing another fighter." I didn't wanna...I guess betray those other games, even though it made since to stay with them, as they were much better. Also, Mortal Kombat will always be a noobs fighters, and will never be truly hardcore. Don't let EVO fool you, that new game's tournament scene has come and gone. It ain't gettin' no bigger. I don't care if Justin Wong is wasting his time with it, I know I won't. I don't care if you hate MVC3, I would take that game light years over MK9. That gameplay appeals to me more, as well as those characters from both Marvel and Capcom. And I'm a DC fan for crying out loud! Of course they would dump Wonder Woman, Batman, and Supes with MK.....ugh. You may call Capcom greedy, but remember that they're a business, not a charity organization. Also, as greedy as Capcom may oor may not be, it's the product that counts. And their fighting product, as well as that of Namco, Sega, SNK, and even now Team Ninja are far more satisfying to me. Product is what counts. You could be the nicest person at your craft, but if what you make sucks, I don't want a part of it. That reminds me of Rob Liefeld: he's a nice guy, but his comic book art is outright GARBAGE. Liefeld is a lot like Mortal Kombat. He was popular in his day for his characters being violent and having big muscles, but eventually people came to their senses realized that his work sucked and thus dropped it like a bad habit. Fortunately, unlike MK, Liefeld hasn't had a comeback. MK9 is only praised because of how bad the series had gotten, though quite frankly it was never great to begin with and never will be.

Now I know many will call me Capcom fanboy and whatever else. Fine, cuz I really don't care. In fact, it's a badge I wear with pride and honor.

And honestly, I don't mean to really offend MK fans or whatever. I've been told I'm a sweet and nice person, but when I get into my fanboy or pure anger modes, I go all out. But I would never try to hurt someone else' feelings, I'd rather hug them. Heck, I'll probably cry if I found out I hurt someone lol. But, I just wanted to say this cuz.....I don't, I'm an immature fanboy I guess.

Good read! I'm glad that you often said about it being all your opinion and things so i think your pretty safe on the fanboy rant :). I agree and disagree. MK was the first fighter i ever picked up and played, infact i was roughly 5 years old when a school mate of mine was telling me about this "yellow guy with a rope that yells Get Over Here!". I loved it, but obviously my mind as a child and what i thought was a decent game may not necessarily have been. I grew up on the MK franchise and never really got into the SF or other Capcom fighters... maybe a rental here or there but i guess the characters and OTT plot lines just stuck with me from that early influence.

I agree that the engine is flawed... it is clunky and from time to time... ok quite alot of the time.. can feel unfair with the amount of spam people have to endure, but i feel in that, is what makes MK, MK. People don't always want the next big thing for top-notch competitive play. Some people want to see stupid crap happening on screen and the gore factor will always appeal to some. Your definetly right about its comeback praise. MK vs DC was an absolute ballache of a game... i stuck with it but only because i hadn't had a decent MK in such a long time (MK: deception imo was the best of the 3d gen versions).

What are your thoughts if they made the game a little more fluid like SF4?

@minotaka: I don't think that would ever happen