The "low kick" duet at the end killed me.

id like to add my own criticism or pet peeve The color palette is so awful, i though the point of MK characters having bright colors was to stand out and be memorable but in MKX they are so desaturated to the point where they get lost in the background and it gets really annoying when playing and especially since a lot of the cast have dark and black clothing. it's kind of like the movie adaptations of Xmen, all of their memorable costumes that give them all the personality are being replaced by the same, uninspired, boring black uniforms.

For the record: DOA's stance does actually affect gameplay, but only really at a high level. If both characters's bodies are facing separate background/foreground, it's considered a "closed stance". If the same, it's an "open stance". Certain moves will affect the opponent differently depending on the stance. Virtua Fighter has this same open/closed stance concept, but it's much more prevalent as its tracking moves are affected.

I've always felt that something felt off about MK's animations that turned me away from the game. That "trying to throw a punch over a waist-high fence" bit summed it up to me better than I could have.

i always thought of mk games as stiff but never understood why. thanks for the breakdown

Read the title. Always thought that myself. As a martial artist I always cringed at characters in the 3D games because they don’t keep their core still. You have to keep your core solid as you move, throwing fast snapping punches and kicks. In a real fight you would lose your balance and fall over doing fast moves. Not only is keeping balance crucial, it looks cool and stylish. (Edit) I commented before even watching the video and you hit all my points and more. 🤘🤘

That kicking animation while the characters are crouching gives me anxiety.

I teach game animation and I actually use this video quite a bit in class because so many of my students try to argue that MK has great animation (they tend to laud its realism...lol); and specifically much better animation than a series like Street Fighter. I'll argue them down for a bit, but then decide it's much easier to just show them this video haha. I also enjoy that you go through some basic fundamentals to reinforce some of the things I teach in class and show what looks good and what doesn't. Great stuff.

Lets start the movement to raise awareness for good animation. I firmly believe in this cause.

Want some eye candy? Check out Tekken 7. Their Slow Mo shots during fights are practically there to just show off their glorious animation.

Personally, I think Jason's idol animation is quite good. I think the way he tilts his head while studying his victim fits his "personality" quite well, in my option of course

I never understood why people harped on MK's animation, but I get it now. To be honest, I still don't really care. But this video was great in helping me to understand. Great insight from an animator.

I agree 100%. I'm surprised you didn't talk about how characters lay down horizontally when getting juggled. It looks disgusting

At the beginning of the video: another whiny criticizing a game he doesn't like. 5 minutes in: damn he's right lol

It always amazed me how people could say that the animations in MK are good.

Whenever a new Mortal Kombat game is out I always come to your videos. MK1 still has the same issues with some animations and it's really sad.

I liked Liu kang animations in 9, he looked so footsie, very in tune with a character which most signature moves involved his legs. Also im glad im not the only one to notice the lack of charisma from 70% of the MK cast, aside from my man Johnny Cage, the mascots of the franchise sub zero/scorpion and Raiden with the main duo Liu Kang and Kung Lao, everyone else is just meh in both personality and design.

As a black belt in kempo, you're correct about posture. Being hunched over like scorpion is not a good stance, and moving like that in the idle animations will tire you out, when you couldve saved that energy for a punch or kick. The letting loose stance is a big no no as it REALLY tires you out, but people do it to cope with the fight to show "Yea! Lets do this!". The calm and collected posture is smart as it gives you the ability to keep your cool and fight more fluidly, but it leaves you wide open for an attack if you're not careful. The beastly posture shows the fighter is animalistic, unpredictable, crazy or a very dirty fighter, which actually has a lot of advantages as it strikes fear into an opponent. The posture sub zero uses is VERY effective as it is a defensive stance, one hand is in front so he can block, grab, or reach with ease, and his other arm is there to pull a punch or collect more power for a strike. The feet also being flat shows balance, their feet are glued to the floor to prevent ease of being knocked down. But you are right, mortal kombats fighting stances are not good as it can hinder fighting ability and stamina due to poor posture or excessive movement

In Liu Kangs defense... he is dead.

I'm actually amazed you STOPPED where you did. There's this sort of fluidity to TAKING hits that MK is really bad about, especially in terms of momentum, and it's one of my biggest problems with the series. It's something that Soul Calibur does well and it's one of DOA's major strengths, but MK's failure at it is part of why it feels so stiff.

I totally agree about everything you said here. I used to be a professional character animator and it pains me to see that both MK and Injustice, both made big-budget by an awesome studio with highest-quality character models, has animations below the level of an amateur indie project.

Not gonna lie, I went into this video expecting it to sound pissy and whiney. I am so happy I was proven wrong. Yeah, MK's animation DOES look watered down compared to LITERALLY ANY OTHER FIGHTING GAME. You have opened my eyes, good sir. Good job! 👏

This is why I haven't played Mortal Kombat since 3. Everything just looks "off". Even to a layperson. I play a ton of fighting games, but not MK. People would ask me why, and I would say it's too "floaty". Not the best description, but the video sums up a lot of my problems.

This one of the best videos I've ever seen. It's changed the way I think about animation. I've been playing fighting games competitively forever and it never hit me how much proper animation and characterization mattered. And just how the little details on character animation, overall color palette, etc are important for visual information. And how being a good animator requires you to think about adhering to real physics regardless of how fantasy the setting is. What adds to MK's disjointed animation is that the games feel rigid to play too. Playing MK felt more like controlling a mech than an actual character, like the delay between doing things and how they looked was jarring. I loved the perspective this vid took on MKX's animation.

It's like MK and Injustice characters are "uncomfortable while fighting, making me, the player, feel uncomfortable while playing and watching. "

I'm surprised you didn't mention that most of the attacks in both MKX and ow in Injustice 2 are based on spins. Everything is freakin spinning! None of the characters can do a combo without swinging their limbs or weapons like a maniac. I'm looking at combo videos in MKX and Injustice 2 and all I can see is Gun Jack from Tekken 3 doing the "Wild Swing".

9:36 you killed me man

For animations based upon actual fighting, as someone who actually likes martial arts and understands what stances do to express where power comes from, and how a certain art moves and receives, and how characters have personality in movement, I agree with all of your points. I am a fan of Mortal Kombat but I always knew that their actual poses and movement kinda sucked. There was a different time actually when in Deception and Armageddon they used some real stances from real martial arts, and they kinda worked like dead or alive as you mentioned in the video. I appreciated those stances that were accurate, but unfortunately they were mostly on side characters and still looked stilted and awkward. I'm still a fan of the games just because they're fun, but you're right.

For those complaining that "This is a video game with a crazy universe, why should we expect any rules to be followed?" Willing suspension of disbelief allows me, for the purposes of enjoying the work, accept the idea that people can create ice or generate fireballs with their hands, or enough strength to cut off human body parts "cleanly" is moderately common. What it doesn't allow for is people not behaving sensibly for the context they are in. Like for example the character, who is human in all other respects, and the "magic" of that universe" doesn't demand it, contorts their body inhumanly to make that fireball and only in that context. Yes, Mortal Kombat is a crazy universe, but nothing about it would give us the impression that the core fundamentals of balance and momentum would be different; gravity still works. There are just more tools to add confounding variables. Or more generally, that people presented as skilled fighters actually look like they understand the basics. If your character has something about them that justifies breaking rules, then yeah, ok. Like for stance and balance, if the character has a such a weird body shape that normal poses wouldn't make sense for them, or they have non-locomotive flight abilities so balance is a non-issue for them anyways. Then, OK, yeah I can buy it. But many of the characters in MK11 have no such justification, and yet break that rule anyways.

As someone who does boxing as has experience in martial arts, these animations are atrocious. My coach would slap the shit out of the MK fighters for how they throw a punch. All off balance and slap-like.

Coming back here to say they listened to almost nothing 😭

PREACH. I absolutely hate nrs animations. Although they have gotten better in mk11, I still think they could have done better with the budget they have to work with. Smh

Thanks for putting in words what always put me off NRS games.

honestly your idle animations part with the makoto sprite reminds me why I love makoto so goddamn much just the way her flesh and lims stay absolutely stiff as stone while her clothing flows gently, and then intensely, in the breeze really conveys how absolutely like, angry and concentrated she is genuinely my favorite SF character design by far

I think the problem with NRS/MK as a whole is that they're hamstrung by their origins. The original Mortal Kombat used live action rendering to give what was pretty unprecedented levels of detail in characters. Five games of the series rendered things this way, so the series had an iconic look to its characters. Only so much can be tweaked with photo rendered characters. "Live action" renderings have much less wiggle-room for distortion before they look offputting. But 16-bit video gaming was much more primitive than 32-bit (and beyond), so this limitation wasn't as noticeable. It wasn't until the 3D era that the series started to show its age. Now that we're in the modern era, characters have very little room to change. Characters aren't photo rendered now, but the series is arguably defined by its wooden character action. The same distortions, framing, and other animation features other 2D-to-3D franchises have been able to use are too foreign a concept for NRS to consider. The studio repeatedly fails to make bold design choices and instead is content to wallow in safe bets always

What is worse is that a big chunck of the MK fanbase isn't even aware or care for this problem. And are problably in a very defensive mode to protect anything related to MK/NRS. Im a long time fan but agree with all of your points. It's only for the better of the MK series.

You've put into words what I've been too indifferent to bother expressing whenever I'm asked why I don't play NRS games much. I'm no animator but I understand balance, center-of-gravity, and proper form; enough to tell when something looks off, or absolutely hideous. The things you highlighted have always been eyesores to me, and makes the game a chore for me to play for any extended period of time.

Virtua Fighter has stance switching, and it affects combos quite a bit as well as what side your half circular moves will cover. It also has great animations, probably the best.

Sadly they never learned ☹️

There is something about MK9 that makes the animation look more natural than the latest MK games, even MK1. I can't figure it out but the engine of MK9 is amazing and made me wish NRS utilized this engine more.

Every time a new nrs game comes around this video gets shared a ton

It always felt slow and controlled to me like everyone's fighting underwater with weighted clothing. Overall I like how in depth this video is it's such an interesting watch.

Why does mk have so many blind fanboys?

No people. He’s not whining about something he doesn’t like. He’s criticizing something bad.

I never noticed any of this...to be honest I don't really care about it, but yeah! it definitely makes sense, I hope they see this so they take note and make their games even better :)

Hmm, no mention to Tekken in regards to changing stances, or even how to animate 3d fighter right? That game does it the best of all. Check out Howarang's move list.

Cant believe Ive found a video talking about something I thought about for so long. Oh boy I’ll enjoy every second of it

Ever see nerds fighting each other?.. Just watch MK animation...

After I watch Peacemaker's trailer, nothings new still the same stiff animation.

Goddamnit you had to go and convince me of all this and now I'm never going to be able to not see it. And I LIKE playing MKX! DAMN YOU SUGARPUNCH! (No but seriously, this was great. I love having stuff I never would have consciously noticed spelled out for me by an expert, and realizing it was subtly impacting my enjoyment without me realizing it.)

Revisiting this video after MK1 came out. I hope you do the same breakdown for that game. I think NRS games are getting worse animation-wise.

Although I enjoy MKX I will say your points are very valid. Here's to hoping with the new engine they did a better job with animations!

Please do one for Mortal Kombat 1

this video was a TREAT omg I'm subbing immediately.I have been on the MK animation hate train since 9 and I love how much more you pointed out that I wasnt even always able to see. 8 out of 8 would r8

Great video. As someone who studied character animation, and who's been a martial arts instructor for 20 years, I just have to give this a thumbs up :)

Street Fighter: Hey, watch this guys.... Yo, MKX! Act like you're going to fight someone! MKX: Oh- okay, you mean like this? (starts swaying) I'm-a gonna kick someone's ass! C'mon, I'm so ready to hit something! Tekken: Poor guy's been spending too many nights at the bar recently....

I agree, you have a point. Still love the game, it's really fun to play, but it can be better.

Such great games with great atmospheres and characters but unplayable due to the stiff comical animations.

Netherrealm should get some actual martial arts experts, or maybe a second team in Japan to design their animations.

15:07 Ironically enough even though DOA5 doesn't have a button for stance switching, there is actually a minor gameplay element tied to the stances since it affects how close both players can get to one another (thus closed and open stanced combos.)

Two years later aaand... Yeah...it's still the same.

The fatalities are so overdone they're bad. You don't need 10 different killing blows, it redundant.

Beyond two souls better than heavy rain, now that's a good one haha

8:50-8:53 It's probably hard to make a standing overhead punch look cool, but Jax looks freaking stupid.

I have never once complained about the animation. This video was great you got my sub. I think the animation works for this specific IP but they def can be hella better and I’m with it this movement 100%

Oh wow now that I look at it some of mk9s idle stance are better. Lui kang looks like he’s lazy compared to mk9

>Johnny cage >only MK character with personality This is the only thing I disagree with you on

I always called MK and Injustice as clay fighters. As juggling always felt like hitting a clay ball in the air multiple times. Now I understand why I felt that way.

5:36 - WTF IS THAT? That animation is just amazing! Im sold on that character even tho i dont know ANYTHING about him. It feels scary, dangerous and mad.

Am no expert on animation or games design but I always hated this game for the animation . Now finally I realized am not alone yet an expert pointing this out clearly just feel great

Cant believe that this is the only video on KZfaq that talks about how bad the animations are in MK. I have always felt that something was off in their animations and this was the only video that I found that explains it. I only played until MK3. When Tekken 3 came out I was so impressed with the animations and played the Tekken series ever since.

This game in a nutshell: WHAT WILL YOU DO WITH A DRUNKEN SAILOR!!!

Yup...and Mortal Kombat 11 has come out and aghhhh same mistakes. You are so right. And the one that stand out the most for me is the poor payout in those fatalities 😔

Hahaha holy shit those fucking crouch kick animations... I have a friend who does Animations for and mo-cap clean up... he'll have a heart attack over this. Especially as NRS has such a huge budget.

I am now haunted by that crouching low kick. Oh. My, Gawd.

Glad I'm not the only one who felt MK animation was shit. Now I know how/why.

Very well said. Each time I said mkx animations are very bad, they think am crazy. Still mad about how fucked up Lui kang looks.

1:20 Naw. I'm a welder and even I noticed how bad MK's animation is. It aint just you.

What was the name of that music track in the beginning with the piano? It sounds like a training stage of a fighting game I just can't put my hand on it.

THANK YOU for making this video and breaking down what many have been saying for years! It actually turned me off from the franchise even though I have been big a MK fan since 1992. When Deadly Alliance was first showed before it's release, I said "it looks like claymation". It's cartoony and I never could get into it. Mortal Kombat characters' stances look really uncomfortable and the graphics are sub-par. They're wasting so much potential. They should take pointers from Tekken 7 which has amazing graffics and animation, as well as the ones you showed here. I'm loyal but I didn't buy/play Armageddon, DC, the Injustice games, or MK:X. I gave up. Really hope they fix this problem because it does make a significant difference. Animation is everything in a fighting game with human characters. Yiu have it down to a science and I really hope the Mortal Kombat developers take this for what it is--constructive criticism and a genuine admiration for the franchise, and really use it to improve such a great product.

I just discovered your channel. Way to go! I'm not as a game nerd as you but I'm a player, and I spent time trying to be an animator. I did not understand the praises on mortal kombat new games, I found the animation flaws so obvious!! Thanks, I'm going to loose few hours of my life on your channel now.

13:38 "What happened to the intestines?!" That disappointment in your voice made me laugh

What song is playing in the back

3:35 to be fair, Bo Rai Cho is a drunk martial artist, so it would make sense for him to be hunched back and looking like a drunk person

Man look at all these people defending NRS's shotty animation standards. Is this what I sounded like when I defended Suicide Squad as a great movie? Of course the answer is no. Suicide Squad was an epic movie with no narrative flaws what so ever.

1:15 "Looking too far into it because you're an animation major"... Just like how that one guy is looking too far into my constant vomiting just because he's my doctor! Or the other guy is looking too far into my divorce just because he's my lawyer!

A wonderful piece of work, and I eagerly await your video on Erron Black. A small note: there is a small mechanical reason for the stance switch command, as the hitboxes and hurtboxes are slightly shifted based on the stance side you're in, which slightly affects range and such of moves. They're rare, but there at stance-specific combos.

I am taking animation and design classes, thanks to these classes, I look at the fighting games I always play differently, now thanks to your channel pointing out even the slightest details that I never noticed before, I am analysing the design of the gamed I play even further, thank you. These videos are great. I subbed.

You know, I'd love to see A.B.I. do a Design Shop on Killer Instinct

Even though MKX is my favorite fighting game, and the one I have the most hours put into, there is no denying you're absolutely freaking right lol

What you saud about the fatalities!!! I have been thinking that for a long time but didn't know how to put it into words! Thank U!!

Wow... I never realized how much this stuff bothered me but I couldn't put the words to it. You hit the nail on the head. There was something that was just "Wrong" looking about the games, the idea of taking it seriously went out of the window.

I love going back to this video to have a good laugh at Kotal and Kitana Kahn doing those low kicks. And I'm dead at Mileena wading in water.

i cant pinpoint the problem on mortal kombat animation before and ready to disagree with your argument, but after finish your video i can understand and my view just become like you on mortal kombat animation. good video dude.

Why song is playing in this video Please help

9:38 Why can't I ever make it past this point in the video? 😂

You also forgot to note the Virtua Fighter series. Game regularly has characters switching how they stand depending on when they used certain spinning attacks. Heck, Jacky has a simple move that purposely switched how he stood so that he could mix-up which way his own spin attacks would go (in case the opponent side-stepped the wrong way). But Virtua Fighter does it really well because everything flowed together naturally... that and it is a full 3D arena fighter. This video is good. Should do a follow-up on exceptional fighting animations.

the animations are the single reason i havent bought the game

Whats the background music?

What's the name of the song in the background?