Bro this is THE worst MK they have ever made as a complete package.. Boring poke poke poke throw poke stagger poke stagger throw gameplay, unbalanced Kameo system that no one asked for, boring character designs, hardly any real skins as rewards just color palettes of the same skins we’ve had since day one, boring character move sets, only 1 customization option per character, only 2 online modes, invasions is THE WORST online gaming mode I’ve ever played and no I’m not exaggerating, and on top of all that they had the nerve to charge $10 for fatalities and $8 for special moves labeled as “kameos”.. The dlc characters are the only thing keeping this game afloat, and I’m to the point now where I don’t even get excited for them anymore. THIS GAME F’in SUCKS.
You've been watching too much MK Tom Brady. Your/his assessment of MK1 is not only a gross oversimplification, but it applies to just about every other FG, including all the other MKs and SF. Listen, it's okay to dislike features of a game. But your complaints are hyperbolic. Invasions isn't great, but you make it sound like its WWE 2K20 or something when it isn't. And as far as color palettes are concerned, have you played MK11????? Everything else you're talking about is wild. You seem to share Tom's special talent for exaggeration. We don't do that here.
@@mrAPchemWtf are you even talking about?? Everything i said is absolutely MY opinion and I base my opinions off of MY thoughts alone, BUT the fact that even high ranking pro players are quitting this terrible game speaks volumes. Foxy Grandpa, Scar, LostyGirl.. Hell even NinjaKilla said he wasn’t feeling this game that much. It’s a watered down, lackluster, unfinished, unbalanced product that should have still been in development. I’d rather play MK11 over this game any day and I HATED MK11 but atleast it had things to do other than Kombat League and a 🚮 monopoly board game as an online mode. Mkx is LIGHTYEARS better than this game, yeah it had its balance issues and other small things but gameplay and fun factor wise it blows this 🚮 completely out the water.
@@mrAPchemDis time you are wrong this game f'in garbage and the kameo bull crap makes it borderline unplayable at times.Mkx was peak mortal kombat I don't know what you were smoking but this game doesn't holda. candle to mkx.Invasions is just as bad as he say it is I rather watch individual blades of grass grow than play that unnecessarily demonic form of torture.🤷🏼♂️
It should be like MKX where there’s an option to not have a kameo, like how you could choose to not have a variation. Could make for new content of people climbing without kameos, and when rooms hopefully get added, there could be rooms with people not wanting kameos.
They'd have to remake the game from the ground up. Intros, outros, breakers, characters having gaps in their strings that Kameos have to cover, story mode having moments tied to fighting with Kameos. Everything is tied to Kameos. I do think buffing characters and Kameos substantially is the move tho
@@cv442again that's remaking the game. That defeats the entire purpose of the game. When Kameos are tied to breakers, that's not something you just patch out.
Honestly patching the breakers is one thing that will take a while but I can see it being patched as long as it’s been done as of right now or months ago and will give us that 1v1 mode down the line in the future how long in the future idk. But I wouldn’t be surprised if we don’t get it period either.
@@WalkBesideMe Adding new animations for Breakers and throws does not constitute remaking the entire game. Not to mention, characters that already needed buffs would get ones that would make them function independently of Kameos.
My problem is how unbalanced the kameo system is. Top tier characters like johnny don't even need the system to be good the kameos enhance his already perfect kit. While characters like sub are forced to run very specific kameos to even be a viable low tier. Top tiers are enhanced by the kameos like the system was designed to do but low tiers are so flawed kameos just even them out and don't get to engage with the kit enhancements.
@@damionbaxter4912 Well, even JC's kit is enhanced greatly because of Kameos. Khameleon gives him a fullscreen presence that he's missing, along with real mixups, and safety on his armor. Without Kameos, he can still play the game, but he'll have holes that can be exploited. But overall, you're correct to say that some characters need Kameos more than others and that it has to change.
Thinking about it now there’s really no content for casuals/single players. Only thing that’s good is the story mode (debatable). Invasions still suck, Ai is still dumb, and the gear system is really low quality. For those players there’s not much to do in this game beside grind in invasions. I think just doing like you said which is buffing the lower 15 characters pretty much gets rid of most the problems that come with getting rid of kameos. They would have to make new animations for a few things like breaker. That said I don’t think that will completely revive the casual audience. They need some single player content too. I think the hardest part is reworking invasions mode. I feel like a lot of effort is put into this mode just for no one to give a damn about it. They should put that effort into reworking it instead because it’s just wasting resources to be creating all these big maps. To rework it they need to give higher quality skins as reward instead of the glowing recolors. Klassic skins from early mk games would be a good swap for the recolors. There should be more story cutscenes. Not making invasions seasonal would also be nice. Then they should rework the gear system to have function in single player modes. I think something similar to mk11 would work great. They should get rid of the temporary consumables because it just makes the game mode very boring and cheesy. Basically they’ve abandoned a pretty big chunk of their fan base by focusing on the competitive side of their games. Mortal kombat isn’t a party game but it has always had very party like side modes. Tag team in mk9, motor kombat, chess kombat, or kreate a fighter. Overall I just accepted that invasions likely won’t ever get the rework it needs. And that we will have to wait til next game. Hopefully the kameos will still exist in that game.
I think this is spot-on. Invasions would have been really cool if instead of a board-game format, it was a 2D platformer like MK Mythologies. They could have kept damn-near everything else about Invasions and adapted it to a platformer and it would have been amazing. I'm not sure that they focused on competitive players and abandoned the casuals - it looks as though the game just wasn't near-finished when WB wanted it to come out. This explains all the bugs and missing content.
The problem predates 2011. Just looking at the Midway era if Virtual Fighter had half the budget MK got then they’d probably still be around. This is a dev team that’s been making fighting games for 30 years and the animations are still janky fence punching.
I don't give a damn about MK's animations. That's not what this video was about. Also, NRS has not made a recent habit of releasing games that were both incomplete and not well-received by casual players. Neither did Midway.
@@mrAPchem we are 12 games into a AAA franchise and we have 3-5 games worth of growth(if you count the injustice games) I feel like we should of been here gameplay wise from 95-2000’s. They always pushed style over substance.
@@aricvinyard Now you're downplaying. This game was an arcade classic that got turned into a console staple. It was never intended to be a mainstay of tournaments; it was made to take people's quarters. Over time, with the advent of online and more games having a dedicated tournament scene, Mortal Kombat got adapted into a competitive title without losing its roots. Perhaps the franchise could have gotten to this destination sooner, but that's neither here nor there. Street Fighter is just now getting good online and simplified controls after 30-plus years of games, but nobody is complaining that it took them so long to get there - the point is that they got there. Mortal Kombat has always had style and substance - it's just that the substance was not made for competitive ends until 2011. And none of that has anything to do with the contents of my video.
A 1V1 mode would have only been doable if breakers weren't attached to Kameos but they are. Also add in the fact that base characters intentionally have gaps in their moves Kameos are supposed to enhance and I don't see what a 1v1 mode would be. At that point, they'd be better off making MK13 (or MK2).
Breakers can be re-animated and characters can have their moves buffed so that they can be independent. Sub-Zero, for instance, can have his Ice Ball sped up so that he can combo into it again and his Deadly Vapors can be buffed to be cancellable into strings. Those 2 changes would make Sub-Zero a fully-independent character like Johnny and Kitana.
NRS has been consistently making changes to fix this game. They've addressed most of the major bugs and issues and are still at work on the rest of them based on their pattern, so I see no reason to stop supporting the game. But I certainly will wait before pre-ordering the next one.
I'm sorry I have to disagree on the gameplay part this doesn't come anywhere near close to MKX in terms of gameplay cause that game was Peak MK Crazy fast gameplay and amazing combos
MKX wasn't peak MK by any stretch - that title belongs to MK9. Certainly, MKX was fast and had lots of cool combos. But it was laden with excessive 50/50s, horrible AAs, launching armor moves (until the end of the game's life), and lots of other scrubby nonsense that didn't make anyone better at FGs. That game held peoples' hands too much because instead of having to win neutral and open your opponent up with whiff punishes and good spacing, the game gave every character either an overhead, low or both. MKX was fun, but it was horribly scrubby.
You're asking them to completely remake the game. What you're asking for is not something that can be patched or hot fix. The entire core of the game is built on Kameos
This would not require a remake. They'd certainly need to add new animations for Breakers and Forward Throws (or perhaps not). But as far as the characters, there are already characters in the game that function quite well by themselves. Johnny Cage, Kitana, Mileena, Liu Kang, Sindel, etc... all play MK1 quite well without a Kameo. NRS would simply need to buff the rest of the cast so that they can function independently also.
Clearly from the evo numbers and online active player numbers, A LOT of people don’t like the Kameo system. It doesn’t work and if they wanted kameos so bad they could’ve just made a simple tag game 2v2 like MVCI
If they're going to do a 1v1 then they're going to need to buff every character's base kit cause right now it really feels like each and every character in this game heavily depend on cameos and without a cameo if they feel bare bones like even with the cameos themselves, The game still feels bare bones, so there's a lot of things they'll need to work pretty much they're going to rework the entire thing from the ground up
The kameo system sucks for the simple fact they have summon moves and most characters only use one of their kameo moves anyways. You don’t see Lao spin like ever or sareenas fly in up kick. Goro is used to stay plus or safe while there’s nothing better to use but the dlc kameos. Mk1 will never sell as much as mk1. In fact the month before mk1 came out mk11 was top 10 on sales charts 4 years in. This game will never reach the sales heights of mk11.
Well, now you're reaching. Certainly, there are one-move Kameos like Lao and Goro. But to proclaim that most characters make use of only one Kameo move is objectively false. Sareena is my most-used Kameo and I use her single projectile more than even her double-boomerang. When using her with Johnny, I also use her meter-drain move quite a bit in the corner to bait people to poke it and get launched by Cage. And that's just me. If you watch any tournaments of MK1, you will constantly see players using multiple Kameo moves, no matter what character they are playing. That statement makes no sense and is objectively false. And as far as sales are concerned, comparing the total sales of a game 4 years after it was released to a 9-month-old game is dubious. It also is completely inconsequential - MK1 outsold both SF6 and Tekken 8; does that make it a better game than those two?? MK11 also outsold MK9, but MK9 shits all over MK11 in terms of gameplay and fun factor. Game sales mean nothing and do not determine how good a game is compared to another game.
@@mrAPchem sales will always tell them what people like. That’s why mk1 plays so much like mk1. When I play against sareenas it’s just the double disc she throws all the time or how scorpionusers never use his pull away move because there’s no real zoner in the game. A real zoner would be someone like jp from sf6. No one is mk1 comes close
@@Nonlifting_breezy Perhaps you aren't playing very good players then. Scorpion Kameo users alternate between his overhead and Air breath moves. That's 2/3 moves used right there. Not to mention all the rest of the Kameos that have several useful moves. Sales are an indicator of a game's success indeed. By that metric, since MK1 outsold every other FG that it was competing against, that makes it an objectively successful game. As to whether it will outsell MK11, we'd have to come back in 3.25 years to get a fair comparison. But it really doesn't matter. Drake outsold Kendrick in record sales several time over. Yet Kendrick has decimated Drake in their beef. Sales have never told the entire story of anything.
@@mrAPchem dude I don’t think that matters who I’m playing. I’ve played all through the ranks I’m an average player at best and have hit elder god when I strictly played kitana. What makes khameleon so great is the availability and usefulness of every thing that character does vs all the others. If you use Lao kameo it’s for throw loops with liu kang or hard to blockables with sindel. I’ve only used tremor with Nitara for monstrous damage but he’s not that useful either
@@Nonlifting_breezy It does matter who you play against. When you play lower-level players, not only can you get away with certain liberties, but you only see the most basic options that a character/Kameo can do. The moment you start playing more decent players, or better yet, good players, they use more of the tools that a character and Kameo provides. And they force you to not only play better but to also use more of your character's/Kameo's toolkit. This impacts what you observe in the game which thus impacts your perception of what Kameo moves people are using. I already stated that Kung Lao is a one-move Kameo. But the overwhelming majority of the rest of the Kameos are not like that and are not used for merely one move. When you play against decent/good players this becomes very apparent.
MK fans will never be satisfied with anything. Lots of 3D players hated the reverting back to 2D in MK9. Then they hated variations. Then they hated whatever MK11 was. Now they hate MK1 with the Kameos. I'm tired as I'm sure the devs are too trying to cater to a fanbase that doesn't give a shit about them
But that is why NRS should have sticked with something and stayed with it and just adding or modifying a few things here and there. Literally compare it to any other fighting game and its community it’s night and day to the consistency of the fan base as to MK.
Listen, I'm right there with you. I watched mfs complain to high hell about MKX and MK11 back in the day only to lionize them both today. But it's clear that NRS cannot ignore that which pushes casuals away - to do so would only serve to stagnate the community.
@@dragonmoon869 I agree with that 1 million percent. NRS should have take the Smash Bros model where characters have the same normals, strings and moves but their properties change based on the game and new modes are added to make each game bigger than the last.
@@obiomaanokwuru3573 If it were mere ranting, then that'd be one thing. But to not play the game at the biggest EVO for FGs, that's indicative of something else.
You mean the fighting game thats mainly geared toward a casual audience for the most part and isnt as big in asian countries where the majority of fighting game players are?
They can actually do it, but i dont see how big the issues are that are affecting this game. Sure it plays slower than 11 or MKX even, could i be overlooking the impact the tag system had on the players?
I'd be curious what the sales numbers are for MK1. Feels like that what NRS and WB care more about than anything else. For me I hate the fact that each MK game these days has to reinvent the wheel with each iteration, cameos being the most recent and probably largest example of this. Tekken and SF introduce new things but not as game changing as NRS ones.
It kills the idea of being able to meaty your opponent. When you get knocked down in an FG, that's supposed to be one of the most dangerous situation for your character to be in. Wakeup rolls flip this idea on its head and actually make it more dangerous for the aggressor to continue offense because they might get full-combo punished. That's bad religion right there.
I also enjoy Kameos, but in the future, they need to be kept as a side mode. A. Lots of people were turned off from a really fun game due to the existence of Kameos. B. Some characters became reliant on Kameos and aren't very fun on their own. (To be honest, I wish this game was a 2v2 game where the Kameo assist functions with your 2nd character not on screen. I really like the Kameos, but I feel this would land better with casual fans). I just hope we can a game like MK9 or MKX (with better balancing considerations) where most characters just have fun tools and spice on their own. MK1 has mostly given me that, but it still can be better. I think another important part of the discussion is the lack of fun content in this game compared to others. I think the removal of the Krypt was a big mistake, as well as proper online lobbies and options. Loading this game with content would help retain players. Personally, I'd like to see a KOF style team mode (similar to the 3 fights in a row in Invasions) would be fun online and local. I'd also love for the side modes from the 3D era to make a return. (Chess combat, puzzle kombat, and motor kombat) I think a proper Konquest mode would do the game justice as well. Obviously, that's too big and too late for this game, but it'd be awesome for the sequel.
@@Vivid114 Fully agree with this take here. Honestly, a future MK should have a Kameo mode and a Variations mode, along with Tag Kombat. And yes, the lack of compelling offline kontent was a death knell for so many people. Invasions should have been a 2D platformer like MK Mythologies, and we should have still had the Krypt, along with other Klassic modes like Chess Kombat.
1v1 wouldn’t work in this game because it’s designed around the Kameo system. A lot of characters would be garbage without Kameos. This game is an assist game, for better or worse. They might be able to turn it into a tag team game, but to make it 1v1 they’d have to make a whole new game.
They'd certainly need to add new animations for Breakers and Forward Throws (or perhaps not). But as far as the characters, there are already characters in the game that function quite well by themselves. Johnny Cage, Kitana, Mileena, Liu Kang, Sindel, etc... all play MK1 quite well without a Kameo. NRS would simply need to buff the rest of the cast so that they can function independently also.
@@mrAPchem Most of the characters you mentioned wouldn’t work as well as you think without Kameos. Try playing them without using your Kameo moves now and see how well you do.
@@mrplow8 I wouldn't have mentioned them if I hadn't. Johnny is perfectly fine without a Kameo. So is Kitana. All the characters I named plus many others function just fine as characters without a Kameo.
@@mrAPchem I’ll give you Johnny, Peacemaker, and maybe Raiden. I think you’re delusional if you think they’re going to take Kameos out of this game. It would’ve been more realistic for them to take variation out of MKX and MK11, and they never did that.
@@mrplow8 I don't recall making any predictions about what NRS was going to do one way or the other. I said that NRS should make a 1v1 mode; key word - should.
The whole game was built around double dipping on skins. Kameos almost doubles the size of the roster with little effort in making an actual rounded character. Its all about this least amount of effort and dev tine for maximum profit.
I respext all of what ur saying and i agree with most of ur point too but im sorry this games gameplay is just NOT better than mkx theres no way ur serious. It doesnt matter than mkx wasnt balanced that game was arguably the most fun mk. That and mk9
MKX's gameplay was infested with scrubby mechanics. Certainly, it was fast and had lots of cool combos. But it was laden with excessive 50/50s, horrible AAs, launching armor moves (until the end of the game's life), and lots of other scrubby nonsense that didn't make anyone better at FGs. That game held peoples' hands too much because instead of having to win neutral and open your opponent up with whiff punishes and good spacing, the game gave every character either an overhead, low or both. Combine that with horrible walk speeds and the game was a combo monkey's dream. Bojutsu Kung Jin is/was a prime example of this. MKX was fun, but it was horribly scrubby.
@@mrAPchem nah man i wouldnt call that scrubby. Did it rely on 50/50s? yes but u cant tell me it was ez and hand holdy because none of these mk1/11 players can do the execution and run cancels we were doing back then (not that they were really hard, im just saying it wasnt hand holdy). Armor launchers? They took them out. Horrible AA? I agree it was bad mk1 is better than in that category. I understand why u dont like how rushdown heavy that game was but u cant call it handholy jus because that game was less focused on neutral. Sf6 and strive are very rushdown heavy and u dont play neutral as much as older games but u still see some wiff punishes and movement and neutral in those games. Just not as much and wouldnt u believe it, people love those games. Sf6 and strive are killing it. I understand u like more of this slower more neutral focused style of game, nothing wrong with that. But u cant call it scruby when its more rushdown and pressure heavy because im telling u right now, minus the kameos, this game and especially mk11 are way more hand holdy. Are u kidding me johnny is the most handholdy of them all. U cant AA him most of the times, he has ez execution with fast forward advancing buttons that always clip u when u dash or jump. He doesnt have to time his buttons on normal or delay wakeup he can just do it cuz his follow ups will catch me on delay wakeup. He also can just throw those buttons in neutral and if i see he wiffed and jump over his follow ups will clip me and give hom ez comboes. And its the same with raiden and many others in this game. U compare most of the characters in mk1 to their mkx versions they look way easier, more hand holdy to play. Dont get me started on 11 either. I get that these games are more neutral focused but i disagree that they are doing that better. Still respect ur opinion tho
@@manizmohaghegh6003 If you can perform a dash block in MK11 or MK1, then MKX Run Cancels are not an issue. But the cancels themselves aren't what makes MKX hand-holdy. I'll make an exhaustive list: a.) Terrible walk speeds (especially backwards) - makes it very difficult to whiff punish anything because you'll always get hit b.) The worst AA options in any NRS title - MK1 has UpBlock and stronger AA buttons in general to stop people from jumping their way to victory, even JC. By contrast, how often did anyone ever AA Sonya, Quan Chi, Kung Lao, Sub-Zero, Shinnok or about 13 other characters in MKX? c.) Longer-range strings - when placed in conjunction with bad movement means that instead of making people whiff, you either have to block or armor. Smoke, Tremor and Jason even have strings/normals that literally can be started on one end of the screen and they will hit the opponent on the opposite side d.) Excessive 50/50s - I don't even need to explain this one. Literally every character in the game has some kind of safe 50/50 option that leads to combos. This game was so focused on these 50/50s that characters barely even had archetypes in that game. Virtually every character was a rushdown mixup character, even the zoners. There was little to no risk in mixing people to death in this game. e.) Super-scrubby jump-in attacks - the characters I mentioned before have jump arcs or jump in hitboxes that do the work of starting offense for players f.) Neutral Jump Punches - especially the ones that hit sweep distance and were plus-on-block launching overhead attacks. Ferra-Torr, Kung Jin, Takeda, Triborg, Predator and several other characters got free plus-on-block offense that had virtually zero counter-play I will indeed call MKX scrubby for these reasons. Players didn't have to learn the nuances of FG fundamentals to beat people - all they had to do was pick a character with an overhead and low starter, perfect their combos and learn their character's armor move so they can steal turns when negative on block. They could then hop online and beat lots of people without having a shred of FG know-how. I don't know anything about Guilty Gear, but though SF6 does indeed have more rushdown than prior games, it also has effective defensive mechanics that help nullify the effects of such rushdown. That game has parries, super-strong AAs, very risky jump-in attacks. Not to mention, there is infinitely more footsies being played in a typical SF6 match than anything in MKX. MKX does indeed have higher execution than MK1 does, I'll give it that. But high execution for a select few characters has nothing to do with the game's meta being hyper-focused on 50/50 rushdown. You claim that MK1 holds players hands more than MKX did, using Johnny as an example. Let's talk about Johnny: a.) UpBlock kills all jump-ins, even Johnny's. b.) Johnny can whiff some buttons and then blow you up with B3 - but B3 is a full combo punish on block c.) Again, easy execution has nothing to do with anything - Johnny has historically been an easy character to play as, except in MKX d.) He does have forward advancing buttons that clip people, but what are you doing jumping at or away from Johnny Cage for when you can walk or backdash? Must be the MKX programming... e.) Johnny gives up his turn after any permutation of his mid F3, so any time a Johnny uses those on block, any player can merely poke him back to begin their offense f.) You can always block him on wakeup. Especially if he's using his mid, which point e.) already covers The fact of the matter is, MK1 got rid of the vast majority of the scrubby mechanics from both MKX and MK11 - this is also a reason why many casuals aren't sticking with the game because they actually have to know things about FGs to consistently get wins. Combo mastery and 50/50s aren't enough. There are no objective criteria for what is considered 'fun' to various people. Thus, if MKX is considered by many to be the most fun MK, that's merely people's opinion. But objectively speaking, MKX and MK11 each have far more mechanics that help lesser players get victories where they normally would struggle in other games. This is especially true of MKX. That game favored a 50/50 rushdown playstyle without having potent defensive options to oppose it. MK1 by comparison, not only has far fewer 50/50s, but they are often either low-risk-low-reward or the exact opposite, meaning if the opponent guesses right, you die. It also allows players to keep mixup players at bay better by having much stronger movement and AA options, along with larger stages so that the defender isn't instantly cornered from a single combo. To argue otherwise is to deny objective reality. I'll end my comment with this; it is perfectly fine to prefer the gameplay of MKX to MK1. But it isn't fine to ignore MKX's meta and pretend as though it wasn't as highly favorable to lesser players as it actually was and then concurrently deflect to MK1 and say that it was worse when numerous counter-examples demonstrate otherwise.
@@mrAPchem i see what ur saying and u present valid points honestly i dotn want to write anothwr essay here and neither think u want to either. I agree with some of the improvements mk1 made and i see and acknowledge those improvements. But overall i dont agree with some others either and it takes too long to nit pick each poibt we discussed like for example AAs. Yes theres upblock in this game but i dont have to lyk about dangers of always upblocking especially vs johnny who can get grab komboes with certain kameos and for example i disagree with mkx the having worst AAs i give that to mk11. But i do hear u and im not here to shit on mk1 either but im only here to compare this game to current mkx not what mkx was. Theres no point bringing past mkx versions up because nrs already learned what to no do in that game. All im here to say is i dont hate mk1 and want it to succeed but no matter how both u and me feel about mk1 or mkx, u cannot argue that there are some major problems with mk1 rn that are affecting player numbers viwere numbers casual and competitive numbers negatively compared to mkx where that game in most of these categories was doing better and had a better word of mouth over mk1. And those major issues cant just be with offline content and microtransactions and WB corporate bs or competitive support for the game. It has to be gameplay and fighting game aspect as well. Overall appreciated this discussion here good talk
@@manizmohaghegh6003 To your point about AAs in this game vs MKX, certainly there is risk in always UpBlocking. But that's why you don't always UpBlock. The idea is to mix-up your AAs - you have the alternate options of walking back and using S1, you can trip guard them so that they miss their jump-in altogether. And if worse comes to worse, you can always uppercut them. One other thing that I haven't seen nearly enough people doing is using Air Kombat strings to counter jump-in-kicks - that is yet one other option that MK1 provides players. Of course, this begs the question of what it is players are doing in the match to begin with that allows opponents to constantly jump at them, but that's something else entirely. Even MK11's AAs are more prominent and more consistent than MKX. For one, every character could FB~U2 and blow people up for jumping. But additionally, some characters had extremely strong AA jabs/normals, like JC, Jax, Shao Kahn, Robocop, Noob, Sub-Zero, Scorpion, Liu Kang and about a dozen other characters. Plus, who could forget Jade's uppercut and how good that was at popping people out the sky? By comparison, in MKX not only was there no UpBlock or Flawless Block to stop jumpers, the number of characters that could consistently stop people from jumping was lower. Triborg, Kitana, Mileena and Ermac had strong AAs, as well as about a half-dozen others. The bigger issue with AAs in MKX were that they could very seldom be done on reaction - you had to read that your opponent was going to jump and then have your AA ready. In MK11 and MK1, that's much less of an issue. But you are correct - this is not about running either game down. This is about giving MK1 the best chance of being enjoyed by the greater audience. MK1 suffered for many reasons, most of which I noted in the video. But one of the primary reasons was that its primary gameplay additions - the Kameo System and Invasions - were all but shunned by most causals. That would be like people rejecting MKX's Variation System. The game is also devoid of offline kontent. MK1's gameplay is the one aspect that stops the game from being a massive failure. The game is fun, there are lots of combos and literally hundreds of teams for players to explore. People will always have concerns about balance and matchups and the meta overall, but those things by themselves haven't been the thing that drove people away. But unlike MKX, which had a Fatal 8 that showcased high-level gameplay before release and ESL that really helped explode MKX's competitive numbers, MK1 didn't have any kind of support from WB in terms of helping MK1 be more visible at the tournament level. Everything MK1 has, the community has had to scratch and crawl with little to zero support from WB. MK1's pot bonuses demonstrate this. Overall, MK1's numbers are suffering primarily due to WB releasing the game well before it was ready. It is very much unlike NRS to release a Mortal Kombat game that is missing content, especially offline. Virtually every other issue with the game can be retraced back to that. Additionally, WB isn't supporting it nearly as much as it did MKX 9 years ago - likely because it doesn't have the same personnel it had 9 years ago. But finally, MK1's primary gameplay additions have been roundly rejected by its casual fanbase. Those are the issues at hand. NRS is clearly doing what it can to address them - this video is hopefully helping to give them the impetus to address one of the biggest ones.
I don't even need to watch a second of your video to tell all of you that there is a 1v1 mode in MK1, it's called not pressing the kameo button. Have y'all ever thought of that, don't press the kameo button and the game becomes 1v1. The only two thing that are universally tied to kameos are breakers and throws, other than that y'all can play 1v1 just don't press the kameo button.
What kind of imbecilic reply is this??? If a player decides to not use their Kameo button, they are all but begging to lose the match - their opponent will not play by that same rule.
@@Twisted_Ozzy And this is why people with even a modicum of intelligence actually watch videos before making presumptuous comments about the author's perspective...
All franchise fans will complain about something with the newest release. Yes this is the game we got. If someone doesn't like it, they don't have to play it. However, I want people to play MK1. MK has been my life since the MK2 arcade game was released. I don't care how a new game will play because this is the game, the story, and the characters I have grown to have an affinity towards since i was 7. And if anyone believes that Sareena allowing you to win a match by negating your opponents breaker is basic....well, come for this 640 damage combo with Sareena and Mileena.
Oh trust me, I agree with you. But the issue is these people that are complaining about the game are also not playing the game, which is bad for us. It's especially bad if we want the competitive scene for our game to grow.
@mrAPchem I'll never be truly competitive and I get that. A competitive player would consider me a casual. I fight like hell, but my brain is so freaking old school MK. I get casual become competitive and vice versa, but I feel like the best thing is for those who love this game (and franchise) is to post positive content. Everyone remembers the bad stuff and rarely speak of the good stuff (in most any case). I try to pump out a kombat league video every other day. I wear an afro wig and rock out while looking foolish to be amusing while I play.
@@joey.renaud You make a very compelling point. This game does indeed have lots of great qualities that people will only seem to recognize once MK13 is out and they're upset about it. You should check out my other videos - I have lots of love for this game. As a matter of fact, I'm thinking about doing a comparison of MK1 and MKX just to show why this game is so special.
When did eSports, Twitch & Steam numbers become the barometer of the success of a game? I’m sure every company that has big entrants numbers at Evo would trade their entrants numbers for MK’s sales and raw ROI in a heartbeat. If you think otherwise…you’re funny
@@mrAPchemI get that but why doesn’t continued sales of a game also reflect satisfaction with the current game. Mk1 has been in the top 20 best selling games on npd’s chart for seven consecutive months after its release in sept 2023. I would bet its total online player base is bigger than all the games with higher entrants at evo. I just don’t understand the over arching narrative that this game is a failure/ dead.
@@mp4c12winning I don't recall ever having said anything of the sort. Not to mention I haven't seen any current sales figures for MK1. The latest numbers I've seen are from September.
@@mrAPchemyour right you didn’t mention those things. That is the over all narrative of some in the mk community right now. You said NRS needs to abandon a core aspect and vision of their game, because of evo numbers.
@@mp4c12winning Adding a 1v1 mode doesn't constitute abandoning anything. If I had stated that Kameos should be removed, then your statement makes sense.
Main reason I gave up on this game Since they started doing this support shit in fighting games I never really liked it Always seemed like a cheap ass way to make your roster look bigger. You basically have the characters finished but we can't play them. And I really just don't like the way it makes every fight so repetitive Amd every time they do this there are always only 1 or 2 supports that will be used So no matter what you are gonna see the same shit over and over again ESP with these xray moves where we have to watch both kameo and Character do a long ass non skippable cut scene over and over again every match It ruins the flow If we had the option to take out Kameos and these cutscene moves I'd be playing this shit waaaaaay more
@mrAPchem well that's good for u, I have been playing mortal kombat since the first one came out am not a casual player but a real fan of the franchise, the thing is if it's not broken don't fix it. They literally forced the kameo system on everyone instead of making it part of the game modes wich the game bearly has few no one asked for the kameo system where 4 characters are jumping on screen, I mean that will definitely be confusing at some point. With this kameo system this game will never be balanced and the fix patches will keep coming out till the next mortal kombat this game is dead already.
I am also a real fan of MK - been playing Mortal Kombat since the very first one. I have the arcade MK games on my computer, my phone and several gaming devices. I even have videos of me running through the ladder(s) of the OG MK1. Having said that, if you're a real fan of Mortal Kombat, then you know that the franchise is constantly changing and overhauling itself. The rosters change, the gameplay changes, it went from 2D to a 3D fighter, back to 2D. It had just normals and specials, but then went to a dial-a-combo system, then when to a style-branching combos system and then to its current 3D-fighter-based string system. This franchise is ever-evolving, so the idea that it could transform into an assist-based fighter shouldn't even be shocking, especially considering that MK has been toying with the idea in both MK9 and MK11. The problem is that this particular change rubbed players the wrong way for whatever reason. Hence why I made this video. The Kameo System is fun and is quite good and not really all that confusing. And it is the reason why this game is the most competitively balanced MK game ever made. But it should have always been optional so as to not alienate longtime players.
yes it need 1v1 , i am a casual player but a fan since mk3, i also played on arcades, but i haate mk1 because of the lack of content and stupid ass kameo shiz what is this marvel ffs ?
Idk why so many people cry about kameos and wanting a “1v1” mode just admit you’re horrible and can’t adapt properly cause I love this game sure some stuff can be fixed but crying about kameos and other stuff just go play older titles stop bitching about a game function lol
You clearly didn't watch the video. I love the Kameo mode and talked about how it's a better version of the Variation system. However, hordes and hordes of would-be new players stopped playing this game due in large part to the Kameo system. To your point, some of them aren't very good at MK and are simply using Kameos as an excuse to leave. But many of them were former MKX/MK11 players that don't like being forced to play MK in a non 1v1 format.
@@mrAPchem sorry I must of worded it weirdly it wasn’t intended for you lol just talking about those people who constantly cry about it great example is mk tom Brady and some other content creators aswell
@@Judem74737 Ahhhh, I see. My apologies. I agree with you - people have been crying about this game since its very first trailer, making horrible disingenuous arguments about it. I only made this video because I want the game to be more widely celebrated for the good that it has; but so many people can't see past the shadow of Kameos.
I can see certain gameplay aspects being better in MK1 compared to MKX but I’m going to have to respectfully disagree with the Kameo system being a better variant or solution over the MKX variation system… All in all, we really just want 1v1 fighting back with complete characters with a Tag Team mode. We haven’t had it since MK9. - The variation system worked for MKX because all the characters were solid in at least 2 out of their 3 variations. - In MK11 they gave us incomplete characters because we could make custom variations and many of those moves weren’t useful. Not only that but, it was a POINT variation system meaning that some moves cost more slots than others 🚮💩 So a character like Raiden had to use 2 slots to use his teleport and burn meter for it while Cetrion had her teleport by default. I think even Kollector’s teleport was better than Raiden’s 😂 - Also to further prove how barebones and terrible MK11 was, Shang Tsung’s transformations took all 3 slots to use. So he lost access to his fire ball tools (ground fire ball if I’m not mistaken). In MK1 he keeps all his fire ball tools and can freely transform at will. They gave us incomplete characters in MK11 on purpose. Now in MK1 I guess they figured “well we’ll give every character access to all variations”… Here’s the problem. - It gives every character access to the same special moves. Which wouldn’t be a problem it felt like an option across the board for everyone, and not “well if this character uses this Kameo, they go up a tier, they’re good now”. That character HAS to use that Kameo to perform optimally, it’s not an option. What if I don’t like that Kameo? I lose out on valuable tools and damage when that character should’ve been design with those tools. - 2nd, I’m surprised no one has mentioned this… This Kameo system is similar to injustice’s trait system. Imagine if every character had access to Superman’s trait, or Super Girls lasers, or Star Fire’s or Captain Cold’s Ice armor and freezing ability… That’s essentially what we have in MK1. These Kameos feel like extended moves or character traits.
Your assessments of the variation systems and Kameo system isn't wrong. However, the entire reason that the Variation system was made in the first place according to Ed Boon himself, was to curb players' need to counter-pick. Basically, NRS wanted players to be able to use a single character and switch between variations to cover bad matchups. Did that ever happen in MKX? Absolutely not. In MKX, the overwhelming majority of the cast had a best variation and then a second best and then the third one was chopped liver. So, if a character's best variation lost a matchup, chances are that character's lesser variations lost that same matchup but worse. For instance, every variation of Kotal Kahn lost to GM Sub-Zero - choosing between Kotal's variations merely determined how badly he lost that match. On the flipside, every variation of Sub-Zero lost to Ermac - choosing between variants merely decided whether you were going to lose in the corner or midscreen. This happened because though the variations did make characters play differently from each other, very rarely, if ever, did they change a character's archetype enough to effectively counter opponents. Every version of Shinnok had the same archetype - they just had different tools to play that way. MKX's Variation System failed to achieve its goal. I don't even need to talk about MK11's version because you covered it well enough. With MK1's Kameo system, the worst characters in the game can at least compete against everyone else, including the top tiers. There isn't a character in the game that can only mesh well with a single Kameo, not even characters like Li Mei and Sub-Zero. She can use Scorpion or Janet and he can use Sareena or Khameleon. Not to mention, because of this system, characters are often 1 Kameo away from being top-tier. One example of this was Sindel - when the game first came out, she was considered mid or even low - until she was paired with Kung Lao. Even after Lao got nerfed, she still pairs well with Sub-Zero and likely works well with either Khameleon, Janet or Mavado. This system isn't perfect either, but it accomplishes the aforementioned goal of reducing the need to switch characters far better than Variations ever did. I would still prefer the MK9 style of character where archetypes ruled the game. But in the absence of that, this is the next best thing.
Unfortunately you are not right about this I've been playing Mortal Kombat since the very first one when I was five back in 92 and literally every single Mortal Kombat game had a gimmick and unfortunately Mortal Kombat 1 this is their gimmick and there will never be a one-on-one in Mortal Kombat 1 I'm sorry
@@danielcorey-wc5ct I've been playing MK games just as long, including the past 5 NRS games. NRS could add anything that they wish. I didn't say that they need to remove their gimmick - I said that they need to add their long-time persistent gimmick of 1v1 back in the game.
You might want to read the comment above - or the numerous other comments not just here, but all over the internet where MK1 casual players are lamenting having to use Kameos.
Your comment is a low-brain take. There are plenty of complete characters that function just fine without a Kameo. The rest of the cast can be buffed to match them.
![KSI - Thick Of It (feat. Trippie Redd) [Official Music Video]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/At8v_Yc044Y/mqdefault.jpg)
Bro this is THE worst MK they have ever made as a complete package.. Boring poke poke poke throw poke stagger poke stagger throw gameplay, unbalanced Kameo system that no one asked for, boring character designs, hardly any real skins as rewards just color palettes of the same skins we’ve had since day one, boring character move sets, only 1 customization option per character, only 2 online modes, invasions is THE WORST online gaming mode I’ve ever played and no I’m not exaggerating, and on top of all that they had the nerve to charge $10 for fatalities and $8 for special moves labeled as “kameos”.. The dlc characters are the only thing keeping this game afloat, and I’m to the point now where I don’t even get excited for them anymore. THIS GAME F’in SUCKS.
Id rather play this than mk11
You've been watching too much MK Tom Brady.
Your/his assessment of MK1 is not only a gross oversimplification, but it applies to just about every other FG, including all the other MKs and SF.
Listen, it's okay to dislike features of a game. But your complaints are hyperbolic. Invasions isn't great, but you make it sound like its WWE 2K20 or something when it isn't. And as far as color palettes are concerned, have you played MK11????? Everything else you're talking about is wild.
You seem to share Tom's special talent for exaggeration. We don't do that here.
@@Molymongo Amen to that. This game shits all over MK11's gameplay. And it's more balanced and fundamentally sound than MKX.
@@mrAPchemWtf are you even talking about?? Everything i said is absolutely MY opinion and I base my opinions off of MY thoughts alone, BUT the fact that even high ranking pro players are quitting this terrible game speaks volumes. Foxy Grandpa, Scar, LostyGirl.. Hell even NinjaKilla said he wasn’t feeling this game that much. It’s a watered down, lackluster, unfinished, unbalanced product that should have still been in development. I’d rather play MK11 over this game any day and I HATED MK11 but atleast it had things to do other than Kombat League and a 🚮 monopoly board game as an online mode. Mkx is LIGHTYEARS better than this game, yeah it had its balance issues and other small things but gameplay and fun factor wise it blows this 🚮 completely out the water.
@@mrAPchemDis time you are wrong this game f'in garbage and the kameo bull crap makes it borderline unplayable at times.Mkx was peak mortal kombat I don't know what you were smoking but this game doesn't holda. candle to mkx.Invasions is just as bad as he say it is I rather watch individual blades of grass grow than play that unnecessarily demonic form of torture.🤷🏼♂️
1v1 needs to come back to MK and there needs to be a 2v2 tag mode
That'd be very interesting right there!
MK9 was the blueprint..
It should be like MKX where there’s an option to not have a kameo, like how you could choose to not have a variation. Could make for new content of people climbing without kameos, and when rooms hopefully get added, there could be rooms with people not wanting kameos.
@@ascendedoreo1435 That's a great idea right there.
I had forgotten that MKX let you play variationless!!!!
They'd have to remake the game from the ground up. Intros, outros, breakers, characters having gaps in their strings that Kameos have to cover, story mode having moments tied to fighting with Kameos. Everything is tied to Kameos.
I do think buffing characters and Kameos substantially is the move tho
I don't think they'd need to start over from scratch. Make all the kameo stuff story mode only and rebalance the characters.
@@cv442again that's remaking the game. That defeats the entire purpose of the game. When Kameos are tied to breakers, that's not something you just patch out.
Honestly patching the breakers is one thing that will take a while but I can see it being patched as long as it’s been done as of right now or months ago and will give us that 1v1 mode down the line in the future how long in the future idk. But I wouldn’t be surprised if we don’t get it period either.
@@WalkBesideMe Adding new animations for Breakers and throws does not constitute remaking the entire game. Not to mention, characters that already needed buffs would get ones that would make them function independently of Kameos.
My problem is how unbalanced the kameo system is. Top tier characters like johnny don't even need the system to be good the kameos enhance his already perfect kit. While characters like sub are forced to run very specific kameos to even be a viable low tier. Top tiers are enhanced by the kameos like the system was designed to do but low tiers are so flawed kameos just even them out and don't get to engage with the kit enhancements.
@@damionbaxter4912 Well, even JC's kit is enhanced greatly because of Kameos. Khameleon gives him a fullscreen presence that he's missing, along with real mixups, and safety on his armor. Without Kameos, he can still play the game, but he'll have holes that can be exploited.
But overall, you're correct to say that some characters need Kameos more than others and that it has to change.
Thinking about it now there’s really no content for casuals/single players. Only thing that’s good is the story mode (debatable). Invasions still suck, Ai is still dumb, and the gear system is really low quality. For those players there’s not much to do in this game beside grind in invasions.
I think just doing like you said which is buffing the lower 15 characters pretty much gets rid of most the problems that come with getting rid of kameos. They would have to make new animations for a few things like breaker. That said I don’t think that will completely revive the casual audience. They need some single player content too.
I think the hardest part is reworking invasions mode. I feel like a lot of effort is put into this mode just for no one to give a damn about it. They should put that effort into reworking it instead because it’s just wasting resources to be creating all these big maps.
To rework it they need to give higher quality skins as reward instead of the glowing recolors. Klassic skins from early mk games would be a good swap for the recolors. There should be more story cutscenes. Not making invasions seasonal would also be nice. Then they should rework the gear system to have function in single player modes. I think something similar to mk11 would work great. They should get rid of the temporary consumables because it just makes the game mode very boring and cheesy.
Basically they’ve abandoned a pretty big chunk of their fan base by focusing on the competitive side of their games. Mortal kombat isn’t a party game but it has always had very party like side modes. Tag team in mk9, motor kombat, chess kombat, or kreate a fighter. Overall I just accepted that invasions likely won’t ever get the rework it needs. And that we will have to wait til next game. Hopefully the kameos will still exist in that game.
I think this is spot-on. Invasions would have been really cool if instead of a board-game format, it was a 2D platformer like MK Mythologies. They could have kept damn-near everything else about Invasions and adapted it to a platformer and it would have been amazing.
I'm not sure that they focused on competitive players and abandoned the casuals - it looks as though the game just wasn't near-finished when WB wanted it to come out. This explains all the bugs and missing content.
The problem predates 2011. Just looking at the Midway era if Virtual Fighter had half the budget MK got then they’d probably still be around. This is a dev team that’s been making fighting games for 30 years and the animations are still janky fence punching.
I don't give a damn about MK's animations. That's not what this video was about.
Also, NRS has not made a recent habit of releasing games that were both incomplete and not well-received by casual players. Neither did Midway.
@@mrAPchem we are 12 games into a AAA franchise and we have 3-5 games worth of growth(if you count the injustice games) I feel like we should of been here gameplay wise from 95-2000’s. They always pushed style over substance.
@@aricvinyard Now you're downplaying.
This game was an arcade classic that got turned into a console staple. It was never intended to be a mainstay of tournaments; it was made to take people's quarters.
Over time, with the advent of online and more games having a dedicated tournament scene, Mortal Kombat got adapted into a competitive title without losing its roots.
Perhaps the franchise could have gotten to this destination sooner, but that's neither here nor there.
Street Fighter is just now getting good online and simplified controls after 30-plus years of games, but nobody is complaining that it took them so long to get there - the point is that they got there.
Mortal Kombat has always had style and substance - it's just that the substance was not made for competitive ends until 2011.
And none of that has anything to do with the contents of my video.
A 1V1 mode would have only been doable if breakers weren't attached to Kameos but they are. Also add in the fact that base characters intentionally have gaps in their moves Kameos are supposed to enhance and I don't see what a 1v1 mode would be. At that point, they'd be better off making MK13 (or MK2).
Breakers can be re-animated and characters can have their moves buffed so that they can be independent. Sub-Zero, for instance, can have his Ice Ball sped up so that he can combo into it again and his Deadly Vapors can be buffed to be cancellable into strings. Those 2 changes would make Sub-Zero a fully-independent character like Johnny and Kitana.
I got kinda bummed near the end but we need more stances like yours. Stop supporting it until they fix this game.
NRS has been consistently making changes to fix this game. They've addressed most of the major bugs and issues and are still at work on the rest of them based on their pattern, so I see no reason to stop supporting the game.
But I certainly will wait before pre-ordering the next one.
I'm sorry I have to disagree on the gameplay part this doesn't come anywhere near close to MKX in terms of gameplay cause that game was Peak MK Crazy fast gameplay and amazing combos
MKX wasn't peak MK by any stretch - that title belongs to MK9.
Certainly, MKX was fast and had lots of cool combos. But it was laden with excessive 50/50s, horrible AAs, launching armor moves (until the end of the game's life), and lots of other scrubby nonsense that didn't make anyone better at FGs.
That game held peoples' hands too much because instead of having to win neutral and open your opponent up with whiff punishes and good spacing, the game gave every character either an overhead, low or both.
MKX was fun, but it was horribly scrubby.
Was saying this the first day I heard about kameos. Right then and there I knew it was gg for the player retention.
@@YMan-zo5kg It didn't have to be - as long as players weren't forced to play this way.
NRS putting Kameos in a MK game proves this mK1 was injustice 3 until WB told them to scrap that shit & rush development on a new MK game.
You're asking them to completely remake the game. What you're asking for is not something that can be patched or hot fix. The entire core of the game is built on Kameos
Yeah and that's suck. Not all people enjoy the Kameo System
This would not require a remake. They'd certainly need to add new animations for Breakers and Forward Throws (or perhaps not). But as far as the characters, there are already characters in the game that function quite well by themselves. Johnny Cage, Kitana, Mileena, Liu Kang, Sindel, etc... all play MK1 quite well without a Kameo. NRS would simply need to buff the rest of the cast so that they can function independently also.
@@jovif.spemudaindonesia1841 I do enjoy the system, but you're right - not everyone does.
Clearly from the evo numbers and online active player numbers, A LOT of people don’t like the Kameo system. It doesn’t work and if they wanted kameos so bad they could’ve just made a simple tag game 2v2 like MVCI
If they're going to do a 1v1 then they're going to need to buff every character's base kit cause right now it really feels like each and every character in this game heavily depend on cameos and without a cameo if they feel bare bones like even with the cameos themselves, The game still feels bare bones, so there's a lot of things they'll need to work pretty much they're going to rework the entire thing from the ground up
The kameo system sucks for the simple fact they have summon moves and most characters only use one of their kameo moves anyways. You don’t see Lao spin like ever or sareenas fly in up kick. Goro is used to stay plus or safe while there’s nothing better to use but the dlc kameos. Mk1 will never sell as much as mk1. In fact the month before mk1 came out mk11 was top 10 on sales charts 4 years in. This game will never reach the sales heights of mk11.
Well, now you're reaching.
Certainly, there are one-move Kameos like Lao and Goro. But to proclaim that most characters make use of only one Kameo move is objectively false.
Sareena is my most-used Kameo and I use her single projectile more than even her double-boomerang. When using her with Johnny, I also use her meter-drain move quite a bit in the corner to bait people to poke it and get launched by Cage. And that's just me.
If you watch any tournaments of MK1, you will constantly see players using multiple Kameo moves, no matter what character they are playing. That statement makes no sense and is objectively false.
And as far as sales are concerned, comparing the total sales of a game 4 years after it was released to a 9-month-old game is dubious. It also is completely inconsequential - MK1 outsold both SF6 and Tekken 8; does that make it a better game than those two??
MK11 also outsold MK9, but MK9 shits all over MK11 in terms of gameplay and fun factor.
Game sales mean nothing and do not determine how good a game is compared to another game.
@@mrAPchem sales will always tell them what people like. That’s why mk1 plays so much like mk1. When I play against sareenas it’s just the double disc she throws all the time or how scorpionusers never use his pull away move because there’s no real zoner in the game. A real zoner would be someone like jp from sf6. No one is mk1 comes close
@@Nonlifting_breezy Perhaps you aren't playing very good players then.
Scorpion Kameo users alternate between his overhead and Air breath moves. That's 2/3 moves used right there.
Not to mention all the rest of the Kameos that have several useful moves.
Sales are an indicator of a game's success indeed. By that metric, since MK1 outsold every other FG that it was competing against, that makes it an objectively successful game.
As to whether it will outsell MK11, we'd have to come back in 3.25 years to get a fair comparison. But it really doesn't matter.
Drake outsold Kendrick in record sales several time over. Yet Kendrick has decimated Drake in their beef.
Sales have never told the entire story of anything.
@@mrAPchem dude I don’t think that matters who I’m playing. I’ve played all through the ranks I’m an average player at best and have hit elder god when I strictly played kitana. What makes khameleon so great is the availability and usefulness of every thing that character does vs all the others. If you use Lao kameo it’s for throw loops with liu kang or hard to blockables with sindel. I’ve only used tremor with Nitara for monstrous damage but he’s not that useful either
@@Nonlifting_breezy It does matter who you play against.
When you play lower-level players, not only can you get away with certain liberties, but you only see the most basic options that a character/Kameo can do.
The moment you start playing more decent players, or better yet, good players, they use more of the tools that a character and Kameo provides. And they force you to not only play better but to also use more of your character's/Kameo's toolkit.
This impacts what you observe in the game which thus impacts your perception of what Kameo moves people are using.
I already stated that Kung Lao is a one-move Kameo. But the overwhelming majority of the rest of the Kameos are not like that and are not used for merely one move. When you play against decent/good players this becomes very apparent.
MK fans will never be satisfied with anything. Lots of 3D players hated the reverting back to 2D in MK9. Then they hated variations. Then they hated whatever MK11 was. Now they hate MK1 with the Kameos. I'm tired as I'm sure the devs are too trying to cater to a fanbase that doesn't give a shit about them
But that is why NRS should have sticked with something and stayed with it and just adding or modifying a few things here and there. Literally compare it to any other fighting game and its community it’s night and day to the consistency of the fan base as to MK.
Listen, I'm right there with you. I watched mfs complain to high hell about MKX and MK11 back in the day only to lionize them both today.
But it's clear that NRS cannot ignore that which pushes casuals away - to do so would only serve to stagnate the community.
@@dragonmoon869 I agree with that 1 million percent. NRS should have take the Smash Bros model where characters have the same normals, strings and moves but their properties change based on the game and new modes are added to make each game bigger than the last.
Don’t bother yourself, nrs fanbase always do this, they just like to rant online. It’s a standard for them
@@obiomaanokwuru3573 If it were mere ranting, then that'd be one thing. But to not play the game at the biggest EVO for FGs, that's indicative of something else.
You mean the fighting game thats mainly geared toward a casual audience for the most part and isnt as big in asian countries where the majority of fighting game players are?
@@beniciovillarreal9345 Yes indeed.
"yoo MK sell morbiiliion copy bro"
but somehow nobody watch or play it
@@masasuzuki1762 People do both - it just isn't as hot competitively as it could be.
They can actually do it, but i dont see how big the issues are that are affecting this game. Sure it plays slower than 11 or MKX even, could i be overlooking the impact the tag system had on the players?
I think you might be. Plus, there's missing content that has long irritated people.
I'd be curious what the sales numbers are for MK1. Feels like that what NRS and WB care more about than anything else.
For me I hate the fact that each MK game these days has to reinvent the wheel with each iteration, cameos being the most recent and probably largest example of this. Tekken and SF introduce new things but not as game changing as NRS ones.
It's a current gen only game so I'd say they're close to 10 million units.
This is exactly what I mean. MK keeps some kind of legacy but then removes large portions of it by reinventing the wheel as you said.
Gimmick Kombat
😂😂😂😂
What does that even mean???
I don’t see what’s wrong with being able to roll when you aren’t knocked down hard. Street fighter and tekken let you roll
It kills the idea of being able to meaty your opponent. When you get knocked down in an FG, that's supposed to be one of the most dangerous situation for your character to be in.
Wakeup rolls flip this idea on its head and actually make it more dangerous for the aggressor to continue offense because they might get full-combo punished.
That's bad religion right there.
I also enjoy Kameos, but in the future, they need to be kept as a side mode. A. Lots of people were turned off from a really fun game due to the existence of Kameos. B. Some characters became reliant on Kameos and aren't very fun on their own. (To be honest, I wish this game was a 2v2 game where the Kameo assist functions with your 2nd character not on screen. I really like the Kameos, but I feel this would land better with casual fans). I just hope we can a game like MK9 or MKX (with better balancing considerations) where most characters just have fun tools and spice on their own. MK1 has mostly given me that, but it still can be better.
I think another important part of the discussion is the lack of fun content in this game compared to others. I think the removal of the Krypt was a big mistake, as well as proper online lobbies and options. Loading this game with content would help retain players. Personally, I'd like to see a KOF style team mode (similar to the 3 fights in a row in Invasions) would be fun online and local. I'd also love for the side modes from the 3D era to make a return. (Chess combat, puzzle kombat, and motor kombat) I think a proper Konquest mode would do the game justice as well. Obviously, that's too big and too late for this game, but it'd be awesome for the sequel.
@@Vivid114 Fully agree with this take here.
Honestly, a future MK should have a Kameo mode and a Variations mode, along with Tag Kombat.
And yes, the lack of compelling offline kontent was a death knell for so many people. Invasions should have been a 2D platformer like MK Mythologies, and we should have still had the Krypt, along with other Klassic modes like Chess Kombat.
1v1 wouldn’t work in this game because it’s designed around the Kameo system. A lot of characters would be garbage without Kameos. This game is an assist game, for better or worse. They might be able to turn it into a tag team game, but to make it 1v1 they’d have to make a whole new game.
They'd certainly need to add new animations for Breakers and Forward Throws (or perhaps not). But as far as the characters, there are already characters in the game that function quite well by themselves. Johnny Cage, Kitana, Mileena, Liu Kang, Sindel, etc... all play MK1 quite well without a Kameo. NRS would simply need to buff the rest of the cast so that they can function independently also.
@@mrAPchem Most of the characters you mentioned wouldn’t work as well as you think without Kameos. Try playing them without using your Kameo moves now and see how well you do.
@@mrplow8 I wouldn't have mentioned them if I hadn't. Johnny is perfectly fine without a Kameo. So is Kitana. All the characters I named plus many others function just fine as characters without a Kameo.
@@mrAPchem I’ll give you Johnny, Peacemaker, and maybe Raiden. I think you’re delusional if you think they’re going to take Kameos out of this game. It would’ve been more realistic for them to take variation out of MKX and MK11, and they never did that.
@@mrplow8 I don't recall making any predictions about what NRS was going to do one way or the other.
I said that NRS should make a 1v1 mode; key word - should.
The whole game was built around double dipping on skins. Kameos almost doubles the size of the roster with little effort in making an actual rounded character. Its all about this least amount of effort and dev tine for maximum profit.
Umm....no.
MK1 has a lot of issues. But lack of effort isn't one of them.
I respext all of what ur saying and i agree with most of ur point too but im sorry this games gameplay is just NOT better than mkx theres no way ur serious. It doesnt matter than mkx wasnt balanced that game was arguably the most fun mk. That and mk9
MKX's gameplay was infested with scrubby mechanics.
Certainly, it was fast and had lots of cool combos. But it was laden with excessive 50/50s, horrible AAs, launching armor moves (until the end of the game's life), and lots of other scrubby nonsense that didn't make anyone better at FGs.
That game held peoples' hands too much because instead of having to win neutral and open your opponent up with whiff punishes and good spacing, the game gave every character either an overhead, low or both. Combine that with horrible walk speeds and the game was a combo monkey's dream. Bojutsu Kung Jin is/was a prime example of this.
MKX was fun, but it was horribly scrubby.
@@mrAPchem nah man i wouldnt call that scrubby. Did it rely on 50/50s? yes but u cant tell me it was ez and hand holdy because none of these mk1/11 players can do the execution and run cancels we were doing back then (not that they were really hard, im just saying it wasnt hand holdy). Armor launchers? They took them out. Horrible AA? I agree it was bad mk1 is better than in that category. I understand why u dont like how rushdown heavy that game was but u cant call it handholy jus because that game was less focused on neutral. Sf6 and strive are very rushdown heavy and u dont play neutral as much as older games but u still see some wiff punishes and movement and neutral in those games. Just not as much and wouldnt u believe it, people love those games. Sf6 and strive are killing it. I understand u like more of this slower more neutral focused style of game, nothing wrong with that. But u cant call it scruby when its more rushdown and pressure heavy because im telling u right now, minus the kameos, this game and especially mk11 are way more hand holdy. Are u kidding me johnny is the most handholdy of them all. U cant AA him most of the times, he has ez execution with fast forward advancing buttons that always clip u when u dash or jump. He doesnt have to time his buttons on normal or delay wakeup he can just do it cuz his follow ups will catch me on delay wakeup. He also can just throw those buttons in neutral and if i see he wiffed and jump over his follow ups will clip me and give hom ez comboes. And its the same with raiden and many others in this game. U compare most of the characters in mk1 to their mkx versions they look way easier, more hand holdy to play. Dont get me started on 11 either. I get that these games are more neutral focused but i disagree that they are doing that better. Still respect ur opinion tho
@@manizmohaghegh6003 If you can perform a dash block in MK11 or MK1, then MKX Run Cancels are not an issue. But the cancels themselves aren't what makes MKX hand-holdy. I'll make an exhaustive list:
a.) Terrible walk speeds (especially backwards) - makes it very difficult to whiff punish anything because you'll always get hit
b.) The worst AA options in any NRS title - MK1 has UpBlock and stronger AA buttons in general to stop people from jumping their way to victory, even JC. By contrast, how often did anyone ever AA Sonya, Quan Chi, Kung Lao, Sub-Zero, Shinnok or about 13 other characters in MKX?
c.) Longer-range strings - when placed in conjunction with bad movement means that instead of making people whiff, you either have to block or armor. Smoke, Tremor and Jason even have strings/normals that literally can be started on one end of the screen and they will hit the opponent on the opposite side
d.) Excessive 50/50s - I don't even need to explain this one. Literally every character in the game has some kind of safe 50/50 option that leads to combos. This game was so focused on these 50/50s that characters barely even had archetypes in that game. Virtually every character was a rushdown mixup character, even the zoners. There was little to no risk in mixing people to death in this game.
e.) Super-scrubby jump-in attacks - the characters I mentioned before have jump arcs or jump in hitboxes that do the work of starting offense for players
f.) Neutral Jump Punches - especially the ones that hit sweep distance and were plus-on-block launching overhead attacks. Ferra-Torr, Kung Jin, Takeda, Triborg, Predator and several other characters got free plus-on-block offense that had virtually zero counter-play
I will indeed call MKX scrubby for these reasons. Players didn't have to learn the nuances of FG fundamentals to beat people - all they had to do was pick a character with an overhead and low starter, perfect their combos and learn their character's armor move so they can steal turns when negative on block. They could then hop online and beat lots of people without having a shred of FG know-how.
I don't know anything about Guilty Gear, but though SF6 does indeed have more rushdown than prior games, it also has effective defensive mechanics that help nullify the effects of such rushdown. That game has parries, super-strong AAs, very risky jump-in attacks. Not to mention, there is infinitely more footsies being played in a typical SF6 match than anything in MKX.
MKX does indeed have higher execution than MK1 does, I'll give it that. But high execution for a select few characters has nothing to do with the game's meta being hyper-focused on 50/50 rushdown.
You claim that MK1 holds players hands more than MKX did, using Johnny as an example. Let's talk about Johnny:
a.) UpBlock kills all jump-ins, even Johnny's.
b.) Johnny can whiff some buttons and then blow you up with B3 - but B3 is a full combo punish on block
c.) Again, easy execution has nothing to do with anything - Johnny has historically been an easy character to play as, except in MKX
d.) He does have forward advancing buttons that clip people, but what are you doing jumping at or away from Johnny Cage for when you can walk or backdash? Must be the MKX programming...
e.) Johnny gives up his turn after any permutation of his mid F3, so any time a Johnny uses those on block, any player can merely poke him back to begin their offense
f.) You can always block him on wakeup. Especially if he's using his mid, which point e.) already covers
The fact of the matter is, MK1 got rid of the vast majority of the scrubby mechanics from both MKX and MK11 - this is also a reason why many casuals aren't sticking with the game because they actually have to know things about FGs to consistently get wins. Combo mastery and 50/50s aren't enough.
There are no objective criteria for what is considered 'fun' to various people. Thus, if MKX is considered by many to be the most fun MK, that's merely people's opinion.
But objectively speaking, MKX and MK11 each have far more mechanics that help lesser players get victories where they normally would struggle in other games. This is especially true of MKX. That game favored a 50/50 rushdown playstyle without having potent defensive options to oppose it.
MK1 by comparison, not only has far fewer 50/50s, but they are often either low-risk-low-reward or the exact opposite, meaning if the opponent guesses right, you die. It also allows players to keep mixup players at bay better by having much stronger movement and AA options, along with larger stages so that the defender isn't instantly cornered from a single combo.
To argue otherwise is to deny objective reality.
I'll end my comment with this; it is perfectly fine to prefer the gameplay of MKX to MK1. But it isn't fine to ignore MKX's meta and pretend as though it wasn't as highly favorable to lesser players as it actually was and then concurrently deflect to MK1 and say that it was worse when numerous counter-examples demonstrate otherwise.
@@mrAPchem i see what ur saying and u present valid points honestly i dotn want to write anothwr essay here and neither think u want to either. I agree with some of the improvements mk1 made and i see and acknowledge those improvements. But overall i dont agree with some others either and it takes too long to nit pick each poibt we discussed like for example AAs. Yes theres upblock in this game but i dont have to lyk about dangers of always upblocking especially vs johnny who can get grab komboes with certain kameos and for example i disagree with mkx the having worst AAs i give that to mk11. But i do hear u and im not here to shit on mk1 either but im only here to compare this game to current mkx not what mkx was. Theres no point bringing past mkx versions up because nrs already learned what to no do in that game. All im here to say is i dont hate mk1 and want it to succeed but no matter how both u and me feel about mk1 or mkx, u cannot argue that there are some major problems with mk1 rn that are affecting player numbers viwere numbers casual and competitive numbers negatively compared to mkx where that game in most of these categories was doing better and had a better word of mouth over mk1. And those major issues cant just be with offline content and microtransactions and WB corporate bs or competitive support for the game. It has to be gameplay and fighting game aspect as well. Overall appreciated this discussion here good talk
@@manizmohaghegh6003 To your point about AAs in this game vs MKX, certainly there is risk in always UpBlocking. But that's why you don't always UpBlock. The idea is to mix-up your AAs - you have the alternate options of walking back and using S1, you can trip guard them so that they miss their jump-in altogether. And if worse comes to worse, you can always uppercut them. One other thing that I haven't seen nearly enough people doing is using Air Kombat strings to counter jump-in-kicks - that is yet one other option that MK1 provides players.
Of course, this begs the question of what it is players are doing in the match to begin with that allows opponents to constantly jump at them, but that's something else entirely.
Even MK11's AAs are more prominent and more consistent than MKX. For one, every character could FB~U2 and blow people up for jumping. But additionally, some characters had extremely strong AA jabs/normals, like JC, Jax, Shao Kahn, Robocop, Noob, Sub-Zero, Scorpion, Liu Kang and about a dozen other characters. Plus, who could forget Jade's uppercut and how good that was at popping people out the sky?
By comparison, in MKX not only was there no UpBlock or Flawless Block to stop jumpers, the number of characters that could consistently stop people from jumping was lower. Triborg, Kitana, Mileena and Ermac had strong AAs, as well as about a half-dozen others.
The bigger issue with AAs in MKX were that they could very seldom be done on reaction - you had to read that your opponent was going to jump and then have your AA ready. In MK11 and MK1, that's much less of an issue.
But you are correct - this is not about running either game down. This is about giving MK1 the best chance of being enjoyed by the greater audience. MK1 suffered for many reasons, most of which I noted in the video. But one of the primary reasons was that its primary gameplay additions - the Kameo System and Invasions - were all but shunned by most causals. That would be like people rejecting MKX's Variation System. The game is also devoid of offline kontent.
MK1's gameplay is the one aspect that stops the game from being a massive failure. The game is fun, there are lots of combos and literally hundreds of teams for players to explore. People will always have concerns about balance and matchups and the meta overall, but those things by themselves haven't been the thing that drove people away.
But unlike MKX, which had a Fatal 8 that showcased high-level gameplay before release and ESL that really helped explode MKX's competitive numbers, MK1 didn't have any kind of support from WB in terms of helping MK1 be more visible at the tournament level. Everything MK1 has, the community has had to scratch and crawl with little to zero support from WB. MK1's pot bonuses demonstrate this.
Overall, MK1's numbers are suffering primarily due to WB releasing the game well before it was ready. It is very much unlike NRS to release a Mortal Kombat game that is missing content, especially offline. Virtually every other issue with the game can be retraced back to that. Additionally, WB isn't supporting it nearly as much as it did MKX 9 years ago - likely because it doesn't have the same personnel it had 9 years ago. But finally, MK1's primary gameplay additions have been roundly rejected by its casual fanbase.
Those are the issues at hand. NRS is clearly doing what it can to address them - this video is hopefully helping to give them the impetus to address one of the biggest ones.
I don't even need to watch a second of your video to tell all of you that there is a 1v1 mode in MK1, it's called not pressing the kameo button. Have y'all ever thought of that, don't press the kameo button and the game becomes 1v1. The only two thing that are universally tied to kameos are breakers and throws, other than that y'all can play 1v1 just don't press the kameo button.
What kind of imbecilic reply is this??? If a player decides to not use their Kameo button, they are all but begging to lose the match - their opponent will not play by that same rule.
@@mrAPchem y'all hate kameos so much so don't use them, but then don't complain about your opponent using their kameo.
@@Twisted_Ozzy And this is why people with even a modicum of intelligence actually watch videos before making presumptuous comments about the author's perspective...
All franchise fans will complain about something with the newest release.
Yes this is the game we got. If someone doesn't like it, they don't have to play it.
However, I want people to play MK1. MK has been my life since the MK2 arcade game was released. I don't care how a new game will play because this is the game, the story, and the characters I have grown to have an affinity towards since i was 7.
And if anyone believes that Sareena allowing you to win a match by negating your opponents breaker is basic....well, come for this 640 damage combo with Sareena and Mileena.
Oh trust me, I agree with you. But the issue is these people that are complaining about the game are also not playing the game, which is bad for us. It's especially bad if we want the competitive scene for our game to grow.
@mrAPchem I'll never be truly competitive and I get that. A competitive player would consider me a casual. I fight like hell, but my brain is so freaking old school MK. I get casual become competitive and vice versa, but I feel like the best thing is for those who love this game (and franchise) is to post positive content.
Everyone remembers the bad stuff and rarely speak of the good stuff (in most any case). I try to pump out a kombat league video every other day. I wear an afro wig and rock out while looking foolish to be amusing while I play.
@@joey.renaud You make a very compelling point. This game does indeed have lots of great qualities that people will only seem to recognize once MK13 is out and they're upset about it.
You should check out my other videos - I have lots of love for this game.
As a matter of fact, I'm thinking about doing a comparison of MK1 and MKX just to show why this game is so special.
When did eSports, Twitch & Steam numbers become the barometer of the success of a game? I’m sure every company that has big entrants numbers at Evo would trade their entrants numbers for MK’s sales and raw ROI in a heartbeat. If you think otherwise…you’re funny
They never were. But they can indicate the level of satisfaction that players have with a game.
@@mrAPchemI get that but why doesn’t continued sales of a game also reflect satisfaction with the current game. Mk1 has been in the top 20 best selling games on npd’s chart for seven consecutive months after its release in sept 2023. I would bet its total online player base is bigger than all the games with higher entrants at evo. I just don’t understand the over arching narrative that this game is a failure/ dead.
@@mp4c12winning I don't recall ever having said anything of the sort.
Not to mention I haven't seen any current sales figures for MK1. The latest numbers I've seen are from September.
@@mrAPchemyour right you didn’t mention those things. That is the over all narrative of some in the mk community right now. You said NRS needs to abandon a core aspect and vision of their game, because of evo numbers.
@@mp4c12winning Adding a 1v1 mode doesn't constitute abandoning anything. If I had stated that Kameos should be removed, then your statement makes sense.
Will you be at EVO for MK1?
@@nicklopez5313 I'll be watching, but not present there.
Main reason I gave up on this game
Since they started doing this support shit in fighting games I never really liked it
Always seemed like a cheap ass way to make your roster look bigger. You basically have the characters finished but we can't play them.
And I really just don't like the way it makes every fight so repetitive
Amd every time they do this there are always only 1 or 2 supports that will be used
So no matter what you are gonna see the same shit over and over again
ESP with these xray moves where we have to watch both kameo and Character do a long ass non skippable cut scene over and over again every match
It ruins the flow
If we had the option to take out Kameos and these cutscene moves I'd be playing this shit waaaaaay more
Appreciate your honest input.
All this rant about casuals I don't understand I mean literally everyone with a common sense hate the cameo system..
I don't hate the Kameo System. And I graduated cum laude with a Mathematics degree.
@mrAPchem well that's good for u, I have been playing mortal kombat since the first one came out am not a casual player but a real fan of the franchise, the thing is if it's not broken don't fix it. They literally forced the kameo system on everyone instead of making it part of the game modes wich the game bearly has few no one asked for the kameo system where 4 characters are jumping on screen, I mean that will definitely be confusing at some point. With this kameo system this game will never be balanced and the fix patches will keep coming out till the next mortal kombat this game is dead already.
I am also a real fan of MK - been playing Mortal Kombat since the very first one. I have the arcade MK games on my computer, my phone and several gaming devices. I even have videos of me running through the ladder(s) of the OG MK1.
Having said that, if you're a real fan of Mortal Kombat, then you know that the franchise is constantly changing and overhauling itself. The rosters change, the gameplay changes, it went from 2D to a 3D fighter, back to 2D. It had just normals and specials, but then went to a dial-a-combo system, then when to a style-branching combos system and then to its current 3D-fighter-based string system.
This franchise is ever-evolving, so the idea that it could transform into an assist-based fighter shouldn't even be shocking, especially considering that MK has been toying with the idea in both MK9 and MK11.
The problem is that this particular change rubbed players the wrong way for whatever reason. Hence why I made this video.
The Kameo System is fun and is quite good and not really all that confusing. And it is the reason why this game is the most competitively balanced MK game ever made. But it should have always been optional so as to not alienate longtime players.
@@mrAPchem understandable and ur last sentence 👍..
yes it need 1v1 , i am a casual player but a fan since mk3, i also played on arcades, but i haate mk1 because of the lack of content and stupid ass kameo shiz what is this marvel ffs ?
I appreciate your feedback.
Idk why so many people cry about kameos and wanting a “1v1” mode just admit you’re horrible and can’t adapt properly cause I love this game sure some stuff can be fixed but crying about kameos and other stuff just go play older titles stop bitching about a game function lol
You clearly didn't watch the video.
I love the Kameo mode and talked about how it's a better version of the Variation system.
However, hordes and hordes of would-be new players stopped playing this game due in large part to the Kameo system.
To your point, some of them aren't very good at MK and are simply using Kameos as an excuse to leave. But many of them were former MKX/MK11 players that don't like being forced to play MK in a non 1v1 format.
@@mrAPchem sorry I must of worded it weirdly it wasn’t intended for you lol just talking about those people who constantly cry about it great example is mk tom Brady and some other content creators aswell
@@Judem74737 Ahhhh, I see. My apologies.
I agree with you - people have been crying about this game since its very first trailer, making horrible disingenuous arguments about it.
I only made this video because I want the game to be more widely celebrated for the good that it has; but so many people can't see past the shadow of Kameos.
@@mrAPchem same bro honestly
It amazes me people are still apologists for this garbage game
It's even more amazing that people watch videos of and make comments about games that are allegedly garbage...
I can see certain gameplay aspects being better in MK1 compared to MKX but I’m going to have to respectfully disagree with the Kameo system being a better variant or solution over the MKX variation system… All in all, we really just want 1v1 fighting back with complete characters with a Tag Team mode. We haven’t had it since MK9.
- The variation system worked for MKX because all the characters were solid in at least 2 out of their 3 variations.
- In MK11 they gave us incomplete characters because we could make custom variations and many of those moves weren’t useful. Not only that but, it was a POINT variation system meaning that some moves cost more slots than others 🚮💩 So a character like Raiden had to use 2 slots to use his teleport and burn meter for it while Cetrion had her teleport by default. I think even Kollector’s teleport was better than Raiden’s 😂
- Also to further prove how barebones and terrible MK11 was, Shang Tsung’s transformations took all 3 slots to use. So he lost access to his fire ball tools (ground fire ball if I’m not mistaken). In MK1 he keeps all his fire ball tools and can freely transform at will. They gave us incomplete characters in MK11 on purpose.
Now in MK1 I guess they figured “well we’ll give every character access to all variations”… Here’s the problem.
- It gives every character access to the same special moves. Which wouldn’t be a problem it felt like an option across the board for everyone, and not “well if this character uses this Kameo, they go up a tier, they’re good now”. That character HAS to use that Kameo to perform optimally, it’s not an option. What if I don’t like that Kameo? I lose out on valuable tools and damage when that character should’ve been design with those tools.
- 2nd, I’m surprised no one has mentioned this… This Kameo system is similar to injustice’s trait system. Imagine if every character had access to Superman’s trait, or Super Girls lasers, or Star Fire’s or Captain Cold’s Ice armor and freezing ability… That’s essentially what we have in MK1. These Kameos feel like extended moves or character traits.
Your assessments of the variation systems and Kameo system isn't wrong. However, the entire reason that the Variation system was made in the first place according to Ed Boon himself, was to curb players' need to counter-pick.
Basically, NRS wanted players to be able to use a single character and switch between variations to cover bad matchups.
Did that ever happen in MKX? Absolutely not.
In MKX, the overwhelming majority of the cast had a best variation and then a second best and then the third one was chopped liver. So, if a character's best variation lost a matchup, chances are that character's lesser variations lost that same matchup but worse.
For instance, every variation of Kotal Kahn lost to GM Sub-Zero - choosing between Kotal's variations merely determined how badly he lost that match.
On the flipside, every variation of Sub-Zero lost to Ermac - choosing between variants merely decided whether you were going to lose in the corner or midscreen.
This happened because though the variations did make characters play differently from each other, very rarely, if ever, did they change a character's archetype enough to effectively counter opponents. Every version of Shinnok had the same archetype - they just had different tools to play that way.
MKX's Variation System failed to achieve its goal.
I don't even need to talk about MK11's version because you covered it well enough.
With MK1's Kameo system, the worst characters in the game can at least compete against everyone else, including the top tiers.
There isn't a character in the game that can only mesh well with a single Kameo, not even characters like Li Mei and Sub-Zero. She can use Scorpion or Janet and he can use Sareena or Khameleon.
Not to mention, because of this system, characters are often 1 Kameo away from being top-tier. One example of this was Sindel - when the game first came out, she was considered mid or even low - until she was paired with Kung Lao. Even after Lao got nerfed, she still pairs well with Sub-Zero and likely works well with either Khameleon, Janet or Mavado.
This system isn't perfect either, but it accomplishes the aforementioned goal of reducing the need to switch characters far better than Variations ever did.
I would still prefer the MK9 style of character where archetypes ruled the game. But in the absence of that, this is the next best thing.
The characters are too bland for 1v1
Not with buffs, they won't be.
Unfortunately you are not right about this I've been playing Mortal Kombat since the very first one when I was five back in 92 and literally every single Mortal Kombat game had a gimmick and unfortunately Mortal Kombat 1 this is their gimmick and there will never be a one-on-one in Mortal Kombat 1 I'm sorry
@@danielcorey-wc5ct I've been playing MK games just as long, including the past 5 NRS games.
NRS could add anything that they wish. I didn't say that they need to remove their gimmick - I said that they need to add their long-time persistent gimmick of 1v1 back in the game.
It just sucks seeing someone like mk tom brady leave mk you know.
Well, honestly it was a long time coming. He's hated every MK game after MK9 and hasn't contributed barely one good thing to this game.
no it doesn't
You might want to read the comment above - or the numerous other comments not just here, but all over the internet where MK1 casual players are lamenting having to use Kameos.
Low brain take. The characters are not complete
Your comment is a low-brain take. There are plenty of complete characters that function just fine without a Kameo. The rest of the cast can be buffed to match them.
@@mrAPchem well, then maybe you should have said “mk1 needs character buffs and a a 1v1 mode.”
@@saeed7099 I already did. In this video.